The Hit that never was

It's a fascinating tale that seems one part Sopranos, one part Le Carre and a smidgen of the Godfather.

A self confessed associate of American gangsters of the sixties and seventies has related a job he was sent on in Canada, that would have sent shock waves across the nation.

Mike Craft, tells the Toronto Star that in the summer of 1974 he was days away from killing Former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau. Craft, a hanger on who was tasked with stealing goods from warehouses and smuggling them into Canada was apparently chosen to make the hit on Trudeau because he grew up in the Eastern Townships of Quebec and had a solid knowledge of the back roads of Quebec and Ontario, he apparently also had a fairly reliable way with a rifle.

Craft claims that Trudeau was targeted because of his close friendship with Fidel Castro, something that annoyed the major mobsters of the day due to the financial hit they took when Castro took over the nation and chased the mobsters away.

Besides an the apparent chumminess that raised their ire, the more rational of the mobster class figured that by killing Trudeau they would then get a chance to kill off Castro as well when he attended the State Funeral for the assassinated Prime Minister.

It's all very bizarre and a few organized crime experts can pick a few holes into the whole plan, but still when something sounds crazy there probably is something that adds some interest to the story.

As history has shown us, Craft never had to take the shot that would shock the nation, the purported hit was called off in mid-September and he returned to upstate New York to carry on with his normal activities, which mainly seemed to involve losing much of his personal wealth through gambling and drink.

His health is failing now, so many will suspect that he's seeking out a book deal or maybe one of those movie of the week contracts and even if the story is true or not, it does make for an interesting plot. One which will surprise many Canadians who probably never thought that the major mobsters of America gave much thought to anything above the border, let alone who was voted in as Prime Minister or who he was friends with.