Joseph Barboza Jr. 1932-1976
Joseph Barboza (1932-1976) was born and raised in New Bedford. He was the son of Joseph Barboza Sr. (x-1981) and Palmeda Camille (1907-1973). Barboza had two brothers: Donald (1929-2015) and Anthony Barboza (1945-2022) and a sister, Anne (Barboza) Houghton.
Criminal History
Barboza had minor scrapes with the law, but quickly escalated. By 1949, at age of 17, he led a gang that broke into homes and small businesses, stealing money, watches, liquor and guns. Sentenced to the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord State Prison for five (5) years in 1950. In 1953 Barboza led a wild jailbreak, he and six (6) other inmates overpowered four (4) guards and raced away in two (2) cars. They were later captured at a subway station in Revere less than 24 hours after the escape.
New England Mafia
The legendary encounter with a Patriarca crime family underboss at an East Boston bar in 1958, after Barboza was paroled from prison, really got him noticed. It also earned him the nickname “The Animal.”
Barboza was drinking at a Boston-area bar patronized by organized crime figures when an elderly patron, upset by his obnoxious behavior, berated him for his rudeness. Barboza approached the older man and slapped him hard across the face. Sitting nearby, underboss Enrico "Henry" Tameleo (1901-1985) angrily shouted to Barboza “I don’t want you to ever slap that man. I don’t want you to touch anybody with your hands again.” Suddenly, Barboza leaned over and bit the man’s ear. “I didn’t touch him with my hands,” snarled Barboza.
Barboza became connected with Vincent "The Bear" Flemmi and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi who were directly tied the Whitey Bulger. Within a few years, he had become one of the mob’s most prolific serial contract killers.
Barboza Becomes Liability to New England Mafia
In October 1966, his falling out with the organized crime organization was clear after he and two others were arrested on weapons charges in Boston. His accomplices were released on bail, but Joseph had bail set at $100,000 which he couldn't afford. Nobody from the Patriarca crime family came to post his bail and he heard that it was the Mafia family who tipped off the police. The other two associates went to raise Joseph's bail. Five weeks later, after raising $59,000 the pair were murdered by hit-man Larry Zannino (1920-1996). Joseph became aware of the murders and vowed revenge, the $59,000 went missing.
FBI involvement
FBI agents Dennis Condon and H. Paul Rico were searching and recruiting informants, Joseph, stood out as the perfect candidate. In June 1967 Joseph became an FBI informant. Joseph implicated Patriarca and Angiulo in separate murder conspiracies. In another case, Joseph covered for his friend, and Agent Rico’s snitch, James Flemmi implicating four innocent men (Peter Limone, Joe Salvati, Louis Greco and Emilio Tamileo) in the 1965 Edward Deegan murder. After providing all this information, Joseph became the first person to enter the Witness Protection Program.
Out of the six people convicted for the murder, only Ronald Cassesso and Wilfred Roy French were actually involved and present in the alley where the murder took place. FBI agent Paul Rico had offered French and Cassesso leniency if they would corroborate Barboza's false testimony. Both French and Cassesso refused the offer. Cassesso died in prison 30 years later. French was finally freed 34 years later.
Tameleo and Greco died in prison after serving almost 30 years, and Salvati and Limone were finally released in 1997 and 2001, respectively. The families of Greco, Tameleo, Salvati and Limone filed lawsuits totaling in excess of one billion dollars filed against the Federal government. In July 2007, U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner in Boston found the FBI helped convict the four men and the U.S. Government was ordered to pay $100 million in damages to the four defendants.
Witness Protection Program
While the trials were in session, later found out that Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi planted a bomb under the hood of Joseph’s black Oldsmobile, which he had given to his attorney, John Fitzgerald, as payment for legal fees. Attorney Fitzgerald survived the blast but lost his right leg.
The bombing prompted federal officials to begin moving Joseph, now known by the code name “Baron” to secret locations with a platoon of armed Federal Agents, in an effort to protect him from assassination by the Mafia.
The government wouldn't protect him and his family unless agreed to testify. The government would also provide him up with his own restaurant and plastic surgery to change his appearance which would further protect him and his family. Joseph went on the testify against Raymond Patriarca and many high-ranking members and associates of the New England family. His testimony resulted in indictments of several people in relation to murder cases.
For his testimony, Joseph was given a one-year prison term, including time served. He was paroled in March 1969 under the name "Joseph Bentley" and was relocated to Santa Rosa California where he enrolled in a culinary arts school. Joseph was forever barred from living in Boston.
Murder While in Witness Protection Program
In 1970, Joseph (known as Bentley) murdered Clay Wilson (27), a bulldozer operator, but moonlighted as a criminal. Following a dispute with Clay, Joseph shot him twice in the back of the head-around the 5th or 6th of July 1970 and buried him in a grave in a forest. He was also suspected in killing four others while he was on the federal witness protection program in California.
Joseph claimed to have murdered twenty-nine (29) people in New England and five (5) people in California while on the Federal Witness Protection Program.
The Miscarriage of Justice
In a separate murder case, Joseph lied under oath, at the request of FBI agents Condon and Rico, on the stand in state court against six defendants — all Mob associates — accused of the 1965 murder of Edward Teddy Deegan. State prosecutors, based almost solely on Barboza’s uncorroborated and perjured testimony, and unaware of the FBI’s actions, won convictions of the six men in Deegan’s murder, when none of the defendants in fact took part in the killing. The FBI and Barboza framed them. Two defendants received life sentences, the other four got the death penalty, although no one was executed.
In exchange, the FBI protected Joseph's close friend, the veteran hitman, Jimmy “The Bear” Flemmi, from state murder charges in Deegan’s homicide. The FBI used Flemmi’s brother, hitman Steve “The Rifleman” Flemmi, to convince Barboza to perjure himself. Barboza consented, saying he would not provide information.
In 2002, the House Committee on Government Reform looked into the FBI’s use of Joseph, Jimmy Flemmi and other murderers as federal informants. In a scathing 1,800-page report released in 2004, the committee stated that Joseph and Jimmy Flemmi actually killed Deegan, but Hoover and the FBI, seeking to preserve both men within the new informant program to gain intelligence on the Mob, allowed the innocent defendants to take the fall.
Barboza Murdered 1976
On February 11, 1976, Joseph was moved to Santa Rosa, California, under the name Joe Denati, scheduled a visit his old friend and Mob associate James Chalmas in San Francisco. James Chalmas had arraigned to have Joseph killed. James had notified the Patriarca family underboss Gennaro “Jerry” Angiulo (1919-2009) of Joseph's upcoming visit.
Jerry Angiulo sent Ilario M.A. Zannino (1920-1996) and Joseph Russo (1931-1998) to watch for Joseph when he left James's residence. As Joseph approached his parked car and pulled out his key, a van rolled up and Zannino and Russo fired four (4) shotgun blasts at him through an open door.
Joseph's murder remained unsolved from 1976 to 1981 until the FBI listened to secretly recorded conservations by Angiulo and Zannino in their social club.
Private Burial 1976
Perry Funeral handled the funeral for Joseph Barboza. His obituary at the time indicated the exact burial location in New Bedford would not be disclosed.
At the time of his death, his murder was unsolved. There was a concern of retaliation and in effort to protect his family, limited information was released.
Joseph Barboza wasn't buried in New Bedford but was buried in the So. Dartmouth Cemetery.