Estes Kefauver, 1956 (CORBIS)

When the Kefauver hearings began in 1950, the old-time leadership in Boston feared the publicity might expose them and their operations. Lombardo ordered all bookmaking operations shut down, or to operate without a central layoff bank and without police protection. During the Kefauver “threat” the bookmakers lost Lombardo’s protection service, but gained more freedom to operate. This overreaction to the Kefauver Hearings, which never materialized in Boston, opened the door for Gennaro Angiulo to move in on the gambling operations of the city.

By the late 1950s, Angiulo was being shaken down regularly by mob heavies in Boston because he was not a made member of the Mafia. Angiulo solved this problem by taking $50,000 down to Patriarca in Providence and promising him an additional $100,000 a year. These payments led to Angiulo becoming a made member of the family without having to “make his bones” as other members were required. The Patriarca-Angiulo relationship was strictly financial. Angiulo was never well liked or respected, but as long as he kept the money flowing into Providence he had the backing and protection of Patriarca.

Ilario “Larry” Zannino & Gennaro Angiulo

This arrangement would hold up for more than two decades. On September 19, 1983, FBI agents arrested Angiulo, three of his brothers and two other associates in a Boston Restaurant. In the wake of Patriarca’s death in 1984, Angiulo, although still in jail awaiting trial, was hoping to succeed to the top spot. But it was not to be. Disliked in Providence, Angiulo was demoted to a mere soldier when top lieutenant Ilario “Larry” Zannino threw his support behind the late mob boss’s son, Raymond J. “Junior” Patriarca. One Providence police official stated. “If that job had gone to Angiulo, we would have bodies all over the place.”

On February 26, 1986, Gennaro Angiulo, two of his brothers and an associate were convicted on the 1983 racketeering charges. Angiulo, who had been in prison since the indictment, was sentenced to 45 years in prison and fined $120,000.

Junior Patriarca

Raymond J. “Junior” Patriarca leadership was approved by Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno the head of the Genovese family in New York. Patriarca quickly rewarded Zannino for his backing by appointing him consigliere. Zannino had been indicted on the same racketeering charges that had brought down the Angiulo family, but he was tried separately. In early May 1985, Zannino was ordered jailed by a U.S. magistrate. Over the next two years Zannino feigned health problems to keep from going to trial. When he was finally ordered to appear in 1987, he was found guilty. Sentenced to 30 years in prison, he died there on March 6, 1996.

In August 1985 another of the old-timers passed away. Henry Tameleo died in prison of respiratory failure. He had served 17 years of a life sentence for his role in the Deegan murder. At the time, Tameleo was looking forward to a December parole date. He died the oldest inmate in the Massachusetts prison system at age 84.

With Angiulo in prison, the role of underboss went to Francesco “Paul” Intiso. A contemporary and friend of the elder Patriarca, Intiso served as a kind of caretaker until his death in 1985. His role as underboss, according to authorities, was filled by William P. “The Wild Man” Grasso of New Haven, Connecticut. Grasso had a close working relationship with the crime families of New York. Some crime authorities believe the underboss position went to 70 year-old Charles Quintino of Revere, Massachusetts, because Junior needed someone closer to home to oversee the Boston operations. One of the capos in the new regime was Joseph “J. R.” Russo, the assassin of Joe Barboza. Russo had assumed control of the East Boston-Revere area.

Francis P. Salemme (AP)

Law enforcement experts questioned the leadership abilities of Junior Patriarca. Some believed that Grasso, with his New York City connections, was the real power in New England. If he was, his reign was short-lived. On June 16, 1989, the 62-year-old Grasso was found along the banks of the Connecticut River with a bullet in the back of his head. After the Grasso murder, Nicholas “Nicky” Bianco of Providence was considered by the FBI the “unofficial” head of the Providence operations with Junior serving as a titular head. Also continuing to rise in 1989 was J. R. Russo. The same day Grasso was found dead, Frances P. “Cadillac Frank” Salemme was shot and seriously wounded in Saugus, Massachusetts.

Biagio DiGiacomo

On March 26, 1990, Junior Patriarca and 20 reputed family members were indicted on charges that included racketeering, gambling, extortion, drug trafficking and murder. The RICO indictment named Bianco, as the underboss of the family, and J. R. Russo as the consigliere. In addition, five capos or lieutenants were also charged: Biagio DiGiacomo, Vincent M. “The Animal” Ferrara, Matthew L. Gugleilmetti, Dennis D. “Champagne” Lepore and the aforementioned Carrozza. The 21 arrested included family members in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The charges capped a five-year investigation and were described as the “most sweeping attack ever launched on a single organized crime family.”

Vincent “The Animal” Ferrara

The indictment contained charges against 17 family members who were present at a Mafia induction ceremony held for four men in Medford, Massachusetts, on October 29, 1989. It was the first time members of law enforcement were able to tape a family initiation ceremony, which crime family members had denied for years ever took place. The taping of the ceremony would create much embarrassment for the New England family and would be used during other mob trials for years to prove the existence of a secret criminal society.

In early February 1991 the Boston Globe reported that, because of the embarrassment caused by the tapes, Bianco replaced Junior Patriarca as head of the New England Family. Bianco was described as low key, secretive, private and “anything but flashy.” At the time a former Rhode Island State Police investigator stated that Junior Patriarca, “Didn’t have the brains or the power to lead the family. He couldn’t lead a Brownie troop.” The paper also reported that the recently wounded Frank Salemme of Sharon, Massachusetts, had become underboss.

Nicholas Bianco

Nicholas Bianco, who grew up on Atwells Avenue, was originally with the Colombo crime family in New York before relocating to New England to serve the elder Patriarca for thirty years. Described as a “strong player in the New England underworld for decades,” Bianco waited patiently to become boss. He helped run the family in the early 1970s during the critical period that the elder Patriarca was serving time. Bianco moved up the ranks quietly never attracting attention. His low-key image resulted in some members of the Boston mob to complain that they didn’t even know what he looked like. Law enforcement figures stated that because of his insulated lifestyle and practices they were never able to record him on tape.

During the 1960s, Bianco was the liaison between the New England family and the Colombo family. Bianco lived in Barrington, Rhode Island, a wealthy town southeast of Providence. His children attended private schools and one son went to law school. In 1984 Bianco was acquitted of murder conspiracy charges in the death of Anthony Mirabella. A year later, similar charges against him in the murder of Richard Callei were dismissed.

When the RICO trials from the March 1990 indictments finally got underway, John F. “Sonny” Castagna, a former associate of the Patriarca family, now turned government witness, revealed that Junior Patriarca would be killed by Boston mobsters if he did not step down. Castagna, testifying in May 1991, said the story was relayed to him by J. R. Russo.

“Raymond Junior had tears in his eyes and he was begging for his life,” Castagna quoted Russo as saying.

The testimony took place during the Hartford trial which included defendant Gaetano Milano, who Castagna, now in the Federal Witness Protection Program with his son Jack Johns, claimed murdered William Grasso.

The Hartford trial came to an end on August 8, 1991, when eight members of the Patriarca family were convicted of violating the RICO act. Bianco and Americo Petrillo were convicted on two counts of racketeering; Milano was found guilty of murdering Grasso; and Frank Colantoni Jr. and brothers Frank and Louis Pugliano were found guilty of conspiracy in the Grasso murder. The other two defendants, found guilty of racketeering, were Salvatore “Butch” D’Aquila Jr. and Louis Faillia.

On November 25 Bianco was sentenced to 11 years and five months in prison and fined $125,000. He was ordered to report on December 30. On November 14, 1994, Bianco, at the age of 62, died at the federal medical facility in Springfield, Missouri. He had been suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease.