On June 1st, 1998, former Capo & Consigliere of the Providence based Patriarca crime family, Joseph "JR" Russo, died of cancer, while incarcerated in Springfield, Missouri.
- mobtalk247
- Jun 1
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 8
On June 1st, 1998, former Capo & Consigliere of the Providence based Patriarca crime family, Joseph "JR" Russo, died of cancer, while incarcerated in Springfield, Missouri. Russo was born in east Boston in 1931. He was known for his custom-made, wiseguy-style long collar shirts & hawk-like features. Russo was once wanted for robbery in Cleveland, Ohio & by this time was already an ex-convict out on parole. He made his bid for Mob immortality, when he gunned down hitman-turned-FBI-informant, Joseph “The Animal” Barboza, in San Francisco in 1976.
In 1968, Barboza agreed to become an FBI informant & provided information which, among other things, led to the murder conviction of Raymond L.S. Patriarca, the man who built the crime family. Barboza was considered to be such an important witness, that authorities created the federal witness protection program to keep him safe. Fellow New England Capo Ilario Zannino was once overheard, on an FBI wiretap, describing Russo as "a genius with a carbine". He was also a step-brother to Robert Carozza.
In the late 1980s, Russo led a renegade faction of the Patriarca crime family, in a bloody, but unsuccessful attempt to seize control of New England's dominant criminal organization. With the assistance of disaffected mobsters, in Hartford & Springfield, Russo's crew killed William "The Wild Guy" Grasso of New Haven, the family's underboss. They riddled Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme, Grasso's righthand man in Boston, with bullets, but Salemme miraculously survived. With the 1987 conviction of Ilario Zannino, Russo was elevated to family Consigliere by Raymond Patriarca, Jr., at the suggestion of Nicholas Bianco.
In the uneasy months following the June 13, 1989, shootings, then- family boss Raymond "Junior" Patriarca negotiated a truce with Russo. The truce led to the now infamous Mafia initiation ceremony, & the recording that has arguably become one of the FBI's most important evidentiary weapons, in the legal fight against organized crime. Patriarca agreed to promote Russo, to mob consigliere, or adviser, & allow him to swear in, or "make" new members, which would increase the numbers of Russo's Boston-based crew.
An informant tipped the authorities, that the Mafia would be making new members at a suburban Medford, Mass., home, & the FBI concealed a microphone in the house. In October 1989, a La Cosa Nostra induction ceremony was carried out, by Russo & other leaders of the Patriarca crime family. The initiating of the 4 new members into the family was audiotaped, where Russo's raspy, nasal voice dominated the recording, as he got the initiation ceremony under way, extracting a promise from a gangster, named Richie Floramo, that Floramo would unhesitatingly murder his son, if Mr. Russo was to deliver the news, that the boy was a police informer.
The 4 new gangsters took their oaths, drew blood from their trigger fingers, & cupped a burning image of the Patriarca mob's favorite saint, in their hands, as Russo welcomed them to the family. "This thing you're in, it's going to be a life of heaven," Russo said. As they left the home, he finished, "Better lock up," Russo told sidekick Vincent Ferrara. And then: "Only the fucking ghosts knows what really took place over here today, by God." It was the 1st ever mafia ceremony, to ever be fully recorded. At this same ceremony, Russo was made the boss of the Boston faction of the New England based Patriarca crime family, replacing the imprisoned Gennaro Angiulo.
By the end of 1989, Bianco & Russo were in charge of the Family, as Ray Jr. was considered a "weak leader". The power change was made official, after a visit Russo & Bianco made to New York, to meet with John Gotti, who approved it. Nicholas Bianco was now the Boss of the New England crime family, with Russo as his 2nd in command. In 1992, Russo, along with others, pled out to charges that included drug traffciking, extortion, gambling & murder, including the murder of Barboza. Russo acted as his own lawyer at his trial. He dressed like he got clothes from the wardrobe used in the "Godfather" movies. He wore dark suits & white shirts, with long, pointy collars.
U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf, who presided over Russo's trial, was impressed, "You speak beautifully, & I'm not sure any lawyer could have been more discriminating, in picking points to argue," Wolf told Russo, as he was sentenced to serve 16 years in Lompoc federal prison, where he became friends with fellow mobsters serving time there, including Colombo crime family Boss, Carmine “Junior” Persico, & Anthony Senter, of the infamous Roy Demeo Crew’s Gemini Twins. Persico formed the "Lompoc 4", a band in which Russo played guitar & Persico played drums. Persico also established an Italian Cultural Club for the inmates. Russo never made it home from this imprisonment, as he died of throat cancer while serving his sentence.
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