Persons of Interest

Raymond L.S. Patriarca

Charges: Conspiracy to murder, armed robbery, racketeering.

Raymond L.S. Patriarca. Courtesy of Marc Smerling.

The undisputed don of the New England crime family, Patriarca’s reign of terror over the region lasted from the 1950s until his death in 1984. Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, and raised on Federal Hill, Patriarca presided over the neighborhood from his seat outside the Coin-O-Matic, his vending machine business front near the entrance to Atwells Avenue. In his three decades as head of the New England Mafia, he kept a tight hold on the city and faced several years behind bars, including a stint for ordering a hit
on a fellow mob insider in a Federal Hill restaurant. His death marked the end of an era in Rhode Island when La Cosa Nostra held sway from the West End streets to the highest levels of Smith Hill.

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Raymond Patriarca Jr.

Charges: Racketeering.

March 1990; Boston, MA, USA; March, 1990 — Raymond J. Patriarca of Lincoln, R.I., (center, wearing glasses and vest) is escorted to Federal District Court in Boston to face indictment on racketeering conspiracy charges. Mandatory Credit: Steve Szydlowski -USA TODAY NETWORK

Raymond Patriarca Jr. Photo courtesy of Steve Szydlowski-USA Today Network.

Though he shared his father’s name, “Junior” Patriarca never inspired the same fear as his famous father. His years at the head of the Mafia organization were marked by infighting and blunders, including a 1989 induction ceremony in Massachusetts that was secretly recorded by the FBI. With the evidence in hand, federal officials launched a sweeping crackdown on organized crime in New England, indicting twenty-one suspected mob members. Junior eventually pled guilty to racketeering charges and retired to the quiet life after serving prison time.

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Luigi “Baby Shacks” Manocchio

Charges: Conspiracy to murder, extortion, racketeering conspiracy.

Luigi “Baby Shacks” Manocchio. Courtesy of Marc Smerling.

Often described as a ladies’ man, Manocchio supposedly got his nickname — sometimes misspelled “Baby Shanks” — for his baby face and his habit of “shacking up” with women. He served as a don of the New England crime family beginning in the mid-1990s, but his reputation goes back several decades. In 1969, he went into hiding in Europe after he was accused of being involved in the murder of two bookmakers in Silver Lake. A decade later, he turned himself in to Providence police and served two years for the crimes before the conviction was overturned. He was known for his ties on Federal Hill, where he lived above the Euro Bistro on Atwells Avenue in later years. He died in December at the Rhode Island Veterans Home in Bristol.

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“Cadillac Frank” Salemme. Photo public domain.

“Cadillac Frank” Salemme

Charges: Murder, attempted murder, racketeering.

Though he operated primarily in the Boston area, Salemme — who led the Patriarca crime family in the early ’90s — returned to Rhode Island prominence in 2018 when he was convicted of murdering a Providence man more than two decades earlier. Steven DiSarro, who owned a nightclub in Boston, disappeared in 1993, his whereabouts unknown until his body was discovered near a Branch Avenue mill in 2016. Earlier in his career, Salemme also provided information about Whitey Bulger to federal officials and was part of the witness protection program. He died in federal custody in 2022.

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Joe “The Animal” Barboza

Charges: Murder.

Joe “The Animal” Barboza. Photo public domain.

The notorious mob enforcer from New Bedford, Massachusetts, got his start in Boston before he began working for the Patriarca crime family in the 1960s. Later, he was recruited as an informer by the FBI and gave testimony in the Willie Marfeo murder trial that earned Patriarca a six-year prison stint. As the case went to trial, Rhode Islander and U.S. Deputy Marshal John Partington was given the task of protecting Barboza, launching the start of the federal witness protection program. But Barboza’s violent past eventually caught up with him: He was gunned down in 1976 while living under an assumed name in San Francisco.

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Gerard “The Frenchman” Ouimette

Charges: Conspiracy to murder, armed robbery, extortion.

Gerard “The Frenchman” Ouimette. Photo courtesy of Rhode Island Department of Corrections.

Though not Italian, Ouimette enjoyed high status within the Patriarca crime family. He spent much of his life locked up in the Adult Correctional Institutions, where he allegedly ran a wing of the maximum-security prison. Stories abound about the lavish perks he enjoyed from inside his cell, including smuggled liquor and seafood dinners. In 1996, he was put away again for extortion under the federal “three strikes” policy, which allowed violent offenders to be sentenced to life in prison without parole. He died at a North Carolina prison in 2015.

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Willie Marfeo

Willie Marfeo’s 1966 murder in the phone booth of a Federal Hill restaurant was the shot heard round Providence. Marfeo ran a card game and allegedly refused to pay Patriarca his cut. Thanks to testimony from Joe “The Animal” Barboza, Patriarca was convicted of ordering the hit and sentenced to prison time. Before his sentence began, Marfeo’s brother, Rudolph, was found gunned down in a Silver Lake grocery story alongside Anthony Melei, a crime that would land Patriarca back in court with an accessory to murder charge. Patriarca was acquitted, but local politicos will remember it as the case where a young, up-and-coming prosecutor named Vincent Cianci Jr. got his start.

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Charles “The Ghost” Kennedy. Courtesy of Charles Kennedy

Charles “The Ghost” Kennedy

Charges: Narcotics trafficking.

A longtime mob associate, Kennedy was convicted in the ’90s of running an international drug trafficking ring out of his East Greenwich home. Among his more notable claims to fame were the pet wolves he kept on the property. Kennedy shared his story on the Crimetown podcast, where he discussed his friendship with Buddy Cianci when the two served time together in federal prison.

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Bobby DeLuca

Charges: Conspiracy to murder, obstruction of justice.

Bobby DeLuca. Courtesy of WPRI

The DeLuca brothers were made members of the New England crime family, with Bobby rising to the rank of capo. In 2018, their testimony over a twenty-five-year-old murder brought down “Cadillac Frank” Salemme and sent him away to federal prison. Some of those jurors may have recognized Bobby’s brother, Joe DeLuca, from a lighter appearance: Joe wrote the popular “Pizza Chip Song” for the Original Italian Bakery and was featured on WPRI’s “The Rhode Show.”