Ray Patriarca was the Mafia boss of New England from the late 1930’s until his death, while in the home of a woman who was not his wife, in 1984. He was based in Providence, at the Coin-o-Matic on Atwells Avenue on Federal Hill. These photos were taken outside the federal courthouse in Providence on Oct. 25, 1963, when he was at the height of his power.

The Man doesn’t look so tough in this photo, taken near the end of his life in 1983. But he killed – or had killed – plenty of guys over the years as boss of the Patriarca Crime Family. Here are a few of them.

 

Raymond L.S. Patriarca DOB 3-17-08
a/k/a “The Man,” 1908-1984

Raymond L.S. Patriarca, “The Man.” Bribed Governor’s Councilor Dan Coakley to get a pardon in 1938, returned to Rhode Island, murdered Carleton O’Brien and took over everything. Operated out of storefront on Atwells Avenue, all Boston mobsters had to answer to him. Died in the early 1980’s.

 

The Man scowls at a UPI photographer in this 1967 photo taken outside the federal courthouse in Boston. Note the white socks, which match the White Owl cigar. Patriarca was no stranger to Boston; although the local hoods, both Italian and Irish, had to travel to Providence to seek his approval on various scores and hits, he had served time in Massachusetts prisons. His pardon by Gov. Joseph “Chowderhead” Hurley in 1938 was a major scandal when it was discovered that the corrupt Governor’s Councilor Dan Coakley had forged documents, including a letter from a priest who did not exist, to win the mobster’s freedom. Coakley was impeached, convicted in a Senate trial and removed from office. Read an amusing account of the Patriarca-pardon scandal in “The Knave of Boston,” by Francis Russell.
 

Read Patriarca’s thumbnail biography in “The Encyclopedia of American Crime” by Carl Sifakis.

Read a 1967 FBI report on Stevie Flemmi’s first visit to The Man’s offices in Providence. Stevie is the “informant” and he was accompanied by Frank Salemme, who would later briefly succeed Raymond’s screw-up son Raymond, a/k/a “Rubber Lips,” a/k/a “Junior,” a/k/a “Abe,” as boss of the family. (See below.)

FBI Report dated 5/31/67
 

The Man lights up a better cigar after he leaves the federal courthouse after his arraignment on murder charges in 1969.
 

Junior under his arrest in 1990, shortly after the New England family became the first in American Mafia history to have an initiation ceremony taped by the FBI. He was a big talk-show fan, and when he went to prison in Rochester, MN, he was incarcerated with the Rev. Jim Bakker and perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche. Now 59, Rubber Lips was released from prison on Dec. 11, 1998, and is believed to have returned to Lincoln, RI (hence the nickname Abe, which was not nearly as widespread on the street as Rubber Lips.)