Raymond L.S. Patriarca

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Raymond Loreda Salvatore Patriarca, Sr. (March 18, 1908-July 7, 1984) was a Providence mobster and longtime head of the Patriarca crime family, whose control extended throughout New England for over three decades. One of the most powerful crime bosses in the United States, Patriarca retained exclusive control over criminal activity in New England and often served as a mediator between warring crime families outside the region.

Born to Italian immigrants in Worcester, Massachusetts, Patriarca would compile a list of criminal charges during his teenage years for hijacking, armed robbery, assault, safecracking, auto theft and accessory to murder before Prohibition's end in 1934.

Despite being named "Public Enemy No. 1" by the Providence Board of Public Safety during the 1930s, Patriarca served only several months on a five year prison sentence for robbery before being granted parole by state officials in 1938. An inquiry into the pardon revealed that Executive Councilor Daniel Coakley, a close associate of then Governor Charles F. Hurley, had drawn up a petition based of the appeals of a "Father Fagin". However, when Fagin was proved to be fabricated by Coakley, he was impeached and dismissed from the Governors office (despite the scandal, Patriarca's reputation in the underworld was enhanced due to his demonstration of political connections).

Patriarca continued to rise in power during the 1940s and, after Boston mobster Phillip Bruccola fled the country in the face of tax evasion charges in 1950, Patriacra was able to assume control of Bruccola's former criminal operations. Patriarca's reign as leader of the New England syndicate was reportedly a brutal and ruthless one as, in one incident; Patriarca was alleged to have ordered an elderly mafiosi to murder his own son who has cost Patriarca a substantial amount of money after a deal the son had negotiated fell through. When the elder man tried to plead with Patriarca to spare his son's life, Patriarca had him exiled from the crime family (he was later allowed to rejoin after Underboss Henry Tameleo persuaded Patriarca to relent).

In another incident, Patriarca demanded that several members of the crime family pay him $22,000 after federal authorities seized a hijacked shipment of cigarettes which Patriarca had financed. He was also said to have put out a murder contract on his own brother who failed to notice an electronic bug which had been placed by federal agents in Patriarca's office.

During the Irish Mob Wars between the Charlestown Mob and the Winter Hill Gang, Patriacra reportedly had members of the McLaughlin's killed after Bernard McLaughlin had begun interfering with Patriarca's loansharking operations in Boston.

Following his death in 1984, Patriarca was succeeded by his son Raymond Patriarca, Jr.

[edit] Further reading

Lehr, Dick and Gerard O'Neill. Black Mass: The Irish Mob, the Boston FBI and a Devil's Deal. New York: Public Affairs, 2000. ISBN 1-891620-40-1
Matera, Dary. FBI's Ten Most Wanted. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. ISBN 0-06-052435-9

[edit] References

English, T.J. Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 0-06-059002-5
Fox, Stephen. Blood and Power: Organized Crime in Twentieth-Century America. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1989. ISBN 0-688-04350-X
Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0-313-30653-2
Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3