Raymond Patriarca

Raymond Patriarca the Early Years Raymond L.S. Patriarca started like every other major mafia figure of the 20th century. First, his parents were Sicilian. His father, Elatario Patriarca emigrated from Sicily in the early 1900s. He married a woman named Mary and they lived in Worster Massachusetts where Raymond was born. The Patriarca family moved to Federal Hill, an Italian neighborhood in Providence Rhode Island in 1908. Raymond’s father ran a bar and liquor store where young Raymond got his first exposure to criminals. When Raymond was 17, his father died leaving his widow and two daughters, and two sons. By that time, all the Patriarca kids were old enough to work and, like most immigrants, they all lived in the same Federal Hill house. Raymond will later tell a congressional committee that he “drifted a little” when his father died. As a teenager, Raymond Patriarca worked as a bellhop and supposedly shined shoes. He probably spent more time stealing, hijacking trucks and running from the police from his record of arrests. Like every other rising young criminal during prohibition, authorities arrested him for transporting illegal alcohol. By the 1930s, he gained a reputation as a professional criminal. He got involved in a plot to free two prison inmates where the participants killed a prison guard and trusty.  He was sentenced to a year and a day in the federal prison at Atlanta in 1931 for transportation of a female over a state line for the purposes of prostitution or the Mann act. In 1932, he is charged with committing an armed bank robbery down in Massachusetts but the witnesses refuse to ID him. He was becoming so well known that the Providence police list him as a public enemy and they arrest him on sight and bring him in for at least a few hours. The Development of Raymond Patriarca and the Providence Family During the turn of the century, many Sicilians immigrated to the Federal Hill area of Providence RH. They brought the Black Hand mafia with them. In 1917, a person named Frank “Buttsey” Morelli moved to Providence with his family. He and his brother Joseph formed a robbery gang.  Some claim they were the real robbers, not Sacco and Vanzetti, who killed the guard and pay clerk in that famous 1920 Braintree Massachusetts robbery. During those years, most people would consider Frank Morelli to be the face of the Mafia in Providence’s Federal Hill. Boston Family Gaspare Messina and Joseph Lombardo were the early bosses of the entire New England area based out of Boston. During the Castellammare War in New York, Other Mafia bosses appointed Gaspare Messina temporarily as the boss of bosses for a couple of years. Joseph Lombardo served as Messina’s underboss and he organized several Sicilian gangs and his most important accomplishment was that he helped eliminate the powerful Irish Gustin gang. As these men got older, Filippo Buccola arrived in Boston from Palermo Sicily. Joe Lombardo will never rise higher than Underboss and Buccola will become the Boss of Boston. At this time, I believe the Boston family was like the big brother over Providence and the rest of New England. Kind of like Chicago and Kansas City. According to the famous New England mob turncoat Vinnie Teresa, Boston’s underboss Joe Lombardo ordered Buttesy Morelli into retirement and Filippo Buccola became the boss of Boston and Providence in 1947. The Prime years By 1954, Filippo Buccola retired to Sicily. Raymond Patriarca was a Capo under Buccola and a well-known successful mobster. He had organized several small crews under his leadership. These men made big jewelry scores, bank, and armored car robberies and he opened several gambling establishments in Providence and the surrounding area. Patriarca allied with two different New York mob families. He had business interests with the Colombo family. During this time, Enrico “Henry” Tameleo transferred from the Bonanno family to be Patriarca’s underb...