Raymond Patriarca
Born: March 17, 1908, Worcester, Massachusetts
Died: July 11, 1984, Providence, Rhode Island
Nicknames: None
Associations: Jerry Angiulo, Vincent Teresa, Joe “The Animal” Barboza, Phillip Buccola, Henry “The Referee” Tamaleo
For more than 30 years, Raymond Patriarca dominated the rackets in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Beginning his reign in 1952, Patriarca became a legend in East Coast Mob circles, with his extensive rap sheet spanning petty theft to homicide. The respect he earned from his fellow Mob bosses earned him a seat on the Mafia Commission.
Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, the well-dressed, perpetually snarling mobster got an early start on his criminal career. Before his 20th birthday, he had already built up a sizeable arrest record, ranging from bootlegging and hijacking to armed robbery and murder. Unlike his fellow Mafia associates, he often partnered with non-Italians in his illicit ventures.
Dubbed Providence’s “Public Enemy No. 1” in 1938, a larceny conviction landed him a five-year prison sentence, of which he served only five months due to his political connections. Over the following decade, Patriarca rose to the position of captain in the New England Mafia, which at that time was an organization split into two cooperating subgroups: the Providence Mob and the Boston Mob. When boss Phillip Buccola retired and left for Sicily, he personally chose Patriarca as his successor and threw him a lavish party at his oceanside Rhode Island mansion.
While Buccola didn’t leave for Sicily until 1954, Patriarca officially took the reins of day-to-day business in 1952. He set up shop at the National Cigarette Service, a tobacco vending machine company in Providence’s Federal Hill neighborhood — the city’s Little Italy section. For his underboss, who would watch over Boston, he selected Jerry Angiulo, a protégé of the crime family’s longtime consigliere, Joseph “J.L.” Lombardo.
Diversifying his business portfolio, Patriarca expanded into legitimate investments such as restaurants, bars and racetracks (partnering with Frank Sinatra in the Berkshires). He also had a piece of the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas. The man was so feared that he refused the luxury of a bodyguard or driver and freely walked the streets, unafraid of harm.
In the late 1960s, a deadly feud and a turncoat sent the New England don to prison. Patriarca had Willie Marfeo killed in 1966 for refusing to pay tribute from his bookmaking operation. Marfeo also assaulted his consigliere, Henry “The Referee” Tameleo. More blood was shed in 1968 when Patriarca allegedly ordered the killing of Marfeo’s younger brother, Rudy, and his partner in crime, Anthony Melei, for attempting to avenge Willie’s murder and shaking down bookies and loansharks who “belonged” to Patriarca. One of Patriarca’s top hitmen, Joe “The Animal” Barboza, became a government witness, and his testimony in both cases resulted in Patriarca going to prison for nearly seven years in Atlanta. Within months of Patriarca’s release in 1975, Barboza was killed while living in hiding in California, allegedly at the behest of Patriarca and Angiulo.
Patriarca’s final years were besieged with health problems and continued efforts by the federal government to get him off the streets. He was indicted for the 1965 murder of Raymond “Baby Ray” Curcio in 1981, although he wouldn’t live to see the case go to trial. Curcio, a reckless, drug-addicted Providence wiseguy, had robbed Patriarca’s brother’s house.
Patriarca died of cardiac arrest at his girlfriend’s house on July 11, 1984. Before his death, he badly miscalculated the future of his crime family by naming his son, Raymond Patriarca Jr., as his successor. The disliked and disrespected heir struggled to keep the family in line. Anguilo, imprisoned on racketeering charges, was also out of the picture. Replacing him as underboss was William “Billy the Wild Man” Grasso, Patriarca’s unhinged former cellmate.
By the end of the decade, the New England Mafia had erupted into a bloody conflict that lasted well into the 1990s. Patriarca Jr. was forced to resign his post under threats of assassination, and Grasso was killed by his own men in 1989. In the same year, the FBI recorded a conciliatory induction ceremony overseen by Patriarca Jr. and his main rival, consigliere Joe “J.R.” Russo. The latter was rumored to have gunned down Barboza in front of his apartment building in San Francisco more than a decade earlier.