The Story of Joe "The Animal" Barboza

Joe “The Animal” Barboza was a terrorizing presence on the streets of Boston for two decades. He was the most feared man in the history of the New England underworld. Barboza would not hesitate to shoot, stab or even bite chunks out of a victim’s face, which he did many times. 

He was the mafia’s personal contract killer and a pivotal player in the deadly McLean/McLaughlin gang war of the 1960s. Then he decided to take out the entire New England mob’s hierarchy. 

Joe the Baron

Joe Barboza was born on September 20, 1932. He grew up in the town of New Bedford as the son of Portuguese immigrants. Young Joe got into lots of trouble from an early age. He had his own little gang of strong arm robbers who would steal from local businesses. At thirteen years old, Barboza was arrested for breaking and entering and found himself behind bars for the first of many times in his life.

He was sent off to Lyman State Reform School, the same school that suspected Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo attended. Lyman was a very strict and religious environment. Joe claimed to have received regular beatings during his time there.It was a terrible time but he did pick up a skill while there, boxing. He needed the skill, as he was the subject of taunting from older kids. 

After reform school, Barboza was in and out of prison for years in the 1950s. He became a local household name in 1953 after leading a prison break. Him and six other inmates broke loose and went on a 20 hour crime and bar hopping spree. He was caught in East Boston the next day and sent back to Walpole State Prison. 

During his time in Walpole, Joe developed some contacts with various organized crime members from the New England area. He could potentially be useful to any of these guys because Joe was a fierce fighter and fearless. He would go after anyone. At the time, New England had a mixture of Italian, Irish and even a few Jewish gangs. 

After completing his time, Joe concentrated on a boxing career. He knocked out his first opponent in the 3rd round and fought a total of 11 times. His nickname in the ring was “The Baron”. He finished his career with a record of 8 wins and 3 losses as a pro. He had five knockouts and was knocked out in his last fight. He fought in the Boston Garden 3 times. 

Being in the fight business did nothing to slow down Joe’s criminal behavior. Instead it validated his tough guy image and he was certainly ready to use his hands in the streets, which he did many times. Many of the local mob guys began taking notice of the Baron. They put him to work as a loan shark and the job came natural to Joe. He wasn’t just a fighter, he was a menace.

The McLean/McLaughlin War

It was during the infamous McLean/McLaughlin war that Joe Barboza gained a reputation as one of the mob’s deadliest killers. He’s suspected of killing up to 10 men during the conflict. Barboza was aligned with James “Buddy” McLean and the Winter Hill Gang of Somerville. On the other side were the dangerous McLaughlin brothers who ran the streets of Charlestown.

Both McLean and the McLaughlin brothers were powerful gangsters in their areas of Boston. The McLaughlins were enforcers who did contract killings for the local Italian mafia. The brothers all had reputations as street fighters, especially Ed “Punchy” McLaughlin a former boxer who’d been in some bloody wars over the years. Bernie McLaughlin was the leader of the brothers. 

The root cause of this deadly war was bizarre. A drunken George McLaughlin was partying with some Winter Hill guys and became belligerent with one of their girlfriends. They beat the hell out of George. Bernie was furious and went to Buddy who he knew. He wanted the two Winter Hill guys killed. Buddy refused and soon found a bomb strapped under his family’s car. The war was on!

Buddy McLean killed Bernie McLaughlin in 1961. Barboza and McLean killed Harold Hannon and Willie Delaney on August 4, 1964. Hannon was tortured, having had his testicles burned by a blowtorch. Hannon was a member of the McLaughlin gang. Willie Delaney just happened to be with him. They gave him a bottle of whiskey and 10 sleeping pills before choking him to death.  

On October 20, 1965, Barboza killed Punchy McLaughlin. Just 11 days later on Halloween 1966, Steve Hughes killed Buddy McLean. Steve and his brother Connie Hughes were the most dangerous members of what was left of the McLaughlin gang. By killing McLean, it looked like the McLaughlin gang was gaining the edge. That was until Joe Barboza decided to wipe out the entire hierarchy. 

First, he killed Connie Hughes and his partner Sam Lindenbaum on May 26, 1966. Then just four months later on September 23, 1966, Barboza killed Steve Hughes, getting revenge for his friend Buddy McLean. Barboza was on a roll having killed at least six men in the last two years alone. Joe “The Animal” Barboza was emerging as the most feared mob killer in the country at the time. 

Full Time Hitman

Barboza was all about hunting his enemies 24/7. He survived several attempts on his life over the years. Joe wasn’t one of those who hid his gangster image, all you had to do was look at him. He drove a 1965 Olds Cutlass that was rigged to spew thick black smoke from the tailpipe when triggered. Police referred to it as the James Bond car. 

While he was still killing men in relation to the gang war, Barboza became thirsty for even more action. He began to rent himself and his crew out locally as hitmen. They would kill anyone necessary if the price was right. They did many one off jobs, but their main employer was Raymond Patriarca and the Italian mafia based in Providence, Rhode Island. 

Barboza was brash and in many ways had an inflated opinion about his status in relation to the mafia. He fully intended to become the first non-Italian man to be officially made. Killing their enemies was the route he would take to get to the destination in his mind. He began to feel that Patriarca and company could not operate at full capacity without his protection. 

Patriarca used Joe for his killings and pure reputation on the streets. Very few men resisted making a payment when Joe showed up to collect. The ones who did would end up beaten severely, stabbed or even shot dead. As scary as he was, a lot of people did borrow money from him knowing the consequences. He got his loan shark money from the Italians at a low rate and put it back on the streets at a higher rate. 

Bulger & Flemmi Connections

Before Whitey Bulger became a household name, Joe Barboza was the biggest name associated with organized crime in Boston. Their paths never crossed directly as Whitey was younger at the time and operated mostly in South Boston, aka “Southie”. Joe Barboza operated out of East Boston. Joe was a much higher level gangster around Boston than Whitey in the 1960s. 

The 1960s were not easy for Bulger, he was in prison for the first half of it. He was a broke ex-con working as a janitor and sometimes in construction. Meanwhile, Barboza was running the show in his town and making lots of money. He had a pretty deep crew as well with a dozen or so enforcers on his team. There was Joey Amico, Arthur Bratsos, Tommy DePrisco, Nicky Femia and Ronald Dermody. 

While Whitey was part of Southie’s Killeen Gang, they weren’t even on the map as far as most powerful organized crime groups in the city. It wasn’t until the early 1970s that Bulger took over Southie. By the time that happened, Barboza was off the streets and testifying against the Italian mafia. For the time being, his Killeen Gang was getting dominated by a rival Southie crew known as the Mullen Gang. 

 Although Whitey and Barboza were not affiliated, they were both closely connected to the Flemmi brothers, Stephen and Jimmy the Bear. Vincent “Jimmy the Bear” Flemmi was one of the only men that Barboza had any fear and respect for. They were partners in crime for years and Jimmy the Bear was the only gangster in Boston who could match Joe’s level of violence and treachery. 

Mafia Double Cross

Barboza was arrested in 1966 on weapons charges and held on $100,000 bail. He expected his mafia friends to pitch in and bail him out. In his mind, it was time that they stepped up for the Animal like he’d done for them in the past. As it turns out, Raymond Patriarca and the family were ready to let Barboza rot. To them, he had served his purpose and was now a liability. 

A clear message was sent to Barboza when he sent his two henchmen Arthur Bratsos and Tommy DePrisco around to collect. In a desperate move, they were told to go to all the local mob hangouts and collect a contribution. It actually worked early as the two men collected sixty thousand dollars. A highly annoyed Patriarca ordered the two men killed when he learned of the move. 

They were lured to the Nite Lite Lounge, Larry Zannino’s place with promise of a significant cash tribute. When they showed up, they were robbed of the money already raised and then killed. Their bodies were thrown into the backseat of Arthur’s car and dropped off in Southie. The reason for the location was to throw a curve into the investigation and pin the murder on the Southie gangsters.  

Another Barboza crew member Joey “Chico” Amico was murdered the same year. Not long after that, Stephen Flemmi visited Joe in prison and delivered the news that Jerry Angiulo and Raymond Patriarca were planning on having him killed. Despite facing only five years, Barboza knew the game was up. His crew had been completely wiped out. Joe was about to surprise everyone.

A Dirty Deal From The Start

With very little prodding, Barboza decided that he would cooperate with the FBI and testify against the hierarchy of the New England mafia. The feds were well aware of the Animal that they were dealing with but they’d been given a specific initiative, get the Italian mafia. Although the Irish mob in New England was on par with the Italians, the FBI had zeroed in on the mafia.

These days you often hear about how the Boston FBI made a bad deal with Whitey Bulger, but the deal with Barboza was just as bad. Barboza was a man with several grudges in his life, several enemies that he wanted to kill or even frame for a crime. He was furious about the death of his friends Chico, Tommy and Tashi Bratsos and crazed with getting some kind of revenge.

Barboza tied six mobsters with the murder of Edward “Teddy” Deegan. The mafia was frantically trying to get at Barboza, even blowing up his attorney’s car. All six were convicted of the crime and two of them died in prison but none of them even had anything to do with Deegan’s murder. Barboza knew good and well that it was his close friend Jimmy Flemmi that killed Deegan. 

The Boston FBI was hit with a class action lawsuit after the truth came out years later. Raymond Patriarca was sent to prison for the rest of his life after Barboza testified to his involvement in the 1966 murder of Willie Marfeo. Barboza and his family disappeared into the witness protection program and were relocated to San Francisco where Joe continued his criminal activities. 

He kept killing people in San Francisco and in 1971 he was convicted of 2nd degree murder where his real identity was unmasked in court. When he was released in 1975, the east coast mafia got word of his location. Barboza was set up by an associate under the pretense of a meeting. As Joe left the house, New England mobster JR Russo emptied a shotgun into him four times putting an end to the Barboza era. 

The Animal In His Own Words

His warning to people who wanted to borrow money: 

“When we made the deal, I’d tell every person don’t take this money if you can’t pay it every week. I prefer you not take this money because it could lead you into trouble.”

What he did to debtors when they didn’t pay:

“I could not let myself accept that they were in trouble. I stabbed them in the face. I stabbed them in the legs. I stabbed them in the arms. I stabbed them in the chest. You understand.?”

Justification of punishing his loan shark victims:

“Maybe I was wrong in the way I did it as far as the excess violence that I did. But still they said that they deserved it, they didn’t relish it but they knew as far as the deal itself they were wrong.”

How the Italian mafia does introductions:

“They’ll say, Joe this is Jim, Jim is our friend. If it’s somebody that’s not connected, they never say our friend. I want you to meet so and so. You understand?”

On the betrayal from the Italians:

“The Office spread the rumor that they were mad at me for shaking certain people and nightclubs down, even though I never moved on any club or person until the Office gave me the ok.”

Whether it bothers him being a government witness:

“At first it used to reach me, the canary bit, it doesn’t reach me anymore. Because I have a purpose in life, I have only one purpose and that is to get a little piece of mind.”