Sunday May 4, 1997
Accused mob killer arrested

Informer wants public to help free her dad

Bob Stall
Province Columnist

They got Vincent. The mob killer who forced Tami to marry him while she secretly wore an RCMP bug was taken into custody Friday, two days after the story about him broke in The Province. "I'll circle that day on my calendar," Tami said happily yesterday. She was talking about the day of the arrest, not her wedding day. The multiple killer had told Tami he would murder her if she ever left him. The 34-year old Coquitlam man was arrested Friday morning as he left his lawyer's office in Surrey. By press time last night, he had not been charged.

In The Province story, the hit man was code-named "Vincent" after the contract killer in his favourite movie, Pulp Fiction.

Tami, 26, is in the seventh year of a tireless campaign to get her father, Sid Morrisroe, out of prison.

In the process, she became involved with Vincent, who told her about several killings he had committed.

She and prison officials - who moved her dad to an undisclosed jail after my story was published last week - believe her father is in danger because of her undercover work.

Tami said Vincent told her that if she ever informs, he will first order her father killed in jail, then her children, and then she will be tortured and killed.

She filed an application to Justice Minister Allan Rock on April 14 seeking "mercy of the Crown" on behalf of Sid Morrisroe.

She wanted him to review it in the hope he would order a new trial for her 63-year-old father, who is serving a life term for the 1983 killing of Joe Philliponi.

Michael Brown, a senior adviser in Rock's office, said the minister's staff was intensively reviewing Tami's application, the Ottawa Citizen reported yesterday.

"We're doing it as quickly as we can," he said.

Scores of readers have called the Province and this writer to inquire how to voice their support for Tami's campaign to get either a new trial for her dad or have him moved into the witness protection program.

Tami urged readers to write to Rock and Solicitor General Herb Gray.

On the internet, you may call up http://www.surf101.net/sid and then click at the first link to connect with the international online group that is fighting for his release. The site also records the continuing developments in the saga of Tami and the mob.

THE END

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