Joseph Russo

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Joseph "J.R." Russo (d. 1998) was a mobster from East Boston, Massachusetts who belonged to the Patriarca crime family of New England. He was to become a caporegime and eventually a consigliere.

He was affiliated with the Lucchese crime family in the 1950's and 1960's, serving under the powerful capo Paul Vario. While affiliated with the Lucchese family in East New York, Russo was as employed as a taxi cab driver, and worked with the Taxi Cab Driver's Union in New York City, the Local 777 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. In 1976, Russo was sent to kill mob assassin turned informant Joe "The Animal" Barboza in San Francisco, California. He is the stepbrother of Robert Carrozza. By the mid 1980s Russo, now a capo, controlled most of the rackets in East Boston. With the imprisonment of Ilario Zannino in 1987, Russo was elevated to the post of consigliere for the Patriarca family.

[edit] Investigations

In November, 1989, Russo, his step-brother Robert Carrozza and other family members were accused of extortion, murder, robbery, and narcotics trafficking through a pattern of racketeering. In 1990, Russo was charged with racketeering, illegal gambling, extortion, drug trafficking, and murder.

On January 6, 1992 Russo was again indicted for drug trafficking, extortion and murder. Sixteen days later all defendants pleaded guilty. Russo, whose indictment also included the murder of Barboza, was fined $758,000 and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

[edit] Prison Time

After his 1992 conviction, Russo was sent to the Federal Correctional Institution in Lompoc, California. One of Russo's fellow inmates and future associates at Lompoc was the fierce Carmine "Junior" Persico, the head of the Colombo crime family in New York. At Lompoc, Russo participated in the prison rodeo competition and played guitar in a band, while Persico played the drums.

On June 1, 1998, Joseph Russo died of natural causes at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri.

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