User:Evande22/sandbox

Born Salvatore Riviera, December 30, 1887, Syd Rivers came to Canada almost a century ago from Calabria, Italy. Even today his name is well known to historians, police and organized crime—but not very well known to the people of the city he called home—Wallaceburg, Ontario.

A poor immigrant, Rivers along with his wife, Carlotta built an unequalled crime empire for the time. During the Prohibition years, Syd Rivers provided alcohol to a thirsty clientele in Canada and the United States—a business that was very illegal and highly lucrative. Al Capone and Joseph Kennedy were among Rivers’ customers.

Syd Rivers was called “Canada’s King of the Bootleggers” and “Canada’s Al Capone.” He was also one of the most fascinating characters in the colourful history of North American organized crime.

Rivers started out in the mob neighborhoods of Chatham, Wallaceburg and Windsor, Ontario and created a booze empire that stretched in the United States. While other mobsters shipped booze south by boat along the coast, Syd laundered his liquor as turnips and sent boxcar loads south to New York and west to Chicago. He made deals with the pillars of the Canadian establishment. Strangely although it was legal to manufacture and export the stuff, it was illegal to sell it in Ontario, so Syd doubled his profits by “reimporting” some of it back into Ontario.

Regular church-goers, Syd and Carlotta also understood the importance of civic duty. Syd anonymously opened soup kitchens and quietly funded projects in the area to support his neighborhood. Carlotta worked tirelessly with the women’s group at a local Catholic church, raising money for the underprivileged and homeless.

Tragically, in 1930, after attending a church meeting, Carlotta was ambushed by two hit men in the garage of their Wallaceburg home and killed with two shotgun blasts.

Syd kept up the rackets and in the mid-1930s he was on top of the game again. With Prohibition over in the United States, and government controlled liquor stores in Ontario, Syd used his old Chicago connections to create a Prohibition-in reverse racket, smuggling booze into Canada from the windy city. Throughout his career, he was dogged and tracked by the RCMP’s Operative No. 1Frank Zaneth. Zaneth finally got Syd, at the beginning of the Second World War, under the War Measures Act.

Syd Rivers disappeared soon after he was released at the end of the war, and it is believed that he’s in a barrel of cement at the bottom of the Sydenham River.