Two or three of the men, as I recall, had ties to the Mafia, at least one did not, but none of them were kingpins.
Some background
In ?The Underboss,? Patriarca was said to be, ?a member of the ruling Mafia commission in New York, he also had some national investments, holding hidden interests in two Las Vegas casinos and pieces of deals in Florida and Philadelphia.?
In the wake of the Apalachin summit, the FBI began their pursuit of organized crime in earnest. When Robert Kennedy became Attorney General, he launched an aggressive program to place listening devices in as many mob-meeting places as possible. Agents also worked at developing informants within the ranks of organized crime.
One of the criminals they eventually turned was New England Family associate Joseph Barboza. Nicknamed ?The Animal,? Barboza was born to Portuguese parents in 1932 in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He became a cold-blooded killer who claimed to have murdered 26 men. Barboza would become known as the Joe Valachi of the New England Family. In trouble since the age of twelve, he was in and out of reformatories and prisons before hooking up with the mob in 1958. By 1966, Barboza had worn out his welcome with organized crime. In October, he was arrested in Boston?s infamous ?Combat Zone? on a concealed weapons charge and bond was set at $100,000. Barboza grew concerned when his bail wasn?t furnished by either Patriarca or Angiulo. Five weeks later, Barboza was still languishing in jail as two friends tried to scrape together money to get him released. Arthur ?Tash? Bratsos and Thomas J. DePrisco, Jr. had collected $59,000. In November they visited the ?Nite Lite Caf?,? managed by ?Ralphie Chang? Lamattina, to do a little fund raising. Both men were shot to death and dumped in South Boston to make it look like a rival Irish gang murdered them. Not only were Barboza?s two pals dead, but the $59,000 was missing too.
The FBI began diligent efforts to turn Barboza. In December, Joe Amico, another friend of Barboza?s was murdered. The following month, after a ten-day trial, Barboza was sentenced to a five-year term at Walpole on the weapons charges. In June 1967, Barboza started talking. On June 20, Patriarca and Tameleo were indicted for conspiracy to kill for the 1966 murder of Providence bookmaker Willie Marfeo. On August 9, Angiulo was accused of participating in the murder of Rocco DiSeglio. Finally in October, Tameleo and Peter Limone, an Angiulo bodyguard, were charged with the March 1965 murder of Edward ?Teddy? Deegan.
In the first trial, Angiulo was found not guilty after a jury deliberated for less than two hours. None of the jurors had found Barboza believable. The second trial, however, had a different outcome. Patriarca was found guilty of conspiracy to kill Willie Marfeo who was murdered by four shotgun blasts in a telephone booth at a Federal Hill restaurant. While the trials were going on, the mob tried to get at Barboza by planting a bomb in the car of his attorney, John Fitzgerald. The blast resulted in Fitzgerald losing his right leg below the knee. The FBI kept Barboza on the move to prevent the mob from finding him. One of the hiding places was an officer?s quarters located at Fort Knox. In May 1968, the Deegan trial began. After fifty days of testimony and deliberations, the jury returned a guilty verdict.
Barboza had done an impressive job. Of the three trials he testified at, two ended in guilty verdicts resulting in four gang members on death row, two in prison for life, and Patriarca on his way to the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. For his testimony, Barboza was given a one-year prison term, including time served. He was paroled in March 1969 and told to leave Massachusetts forever. In 1971, he pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder charge in California and sentenced to five years at Folsom Prison. Less than three months after his release he was murdered in San Francisco by Joseph ?J. R.? Russo on February 11, 1976.
http://www.americanmafia.com/Cities/New_England-Providence.html
