Raymond Patriarca

On the record

• 11 February 1959 — The record of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee's hearing of October 15, 1963 states that he "appeared before the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor-Management Field on February 11, 1959"; a staff summary of that testimony was filed as Exhibit 55 and is not printed.
• 1961 — An FBI airtel of July 1961 under the Criminal Intelligence Program lists "Boston Raymond L. S. Patriarca" among ten additional "hoodlums" selected for "concentrated all-out investigative attention," as far as the OCR can be read.
• 1962 — Providence Journal Co. v. FBI, 602 F.2d 1010 (1st Cir. 1979): "Between March of 1962 and July of 1965 defendant-appellant, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), conducted electronic surveillance of Raymond Patriarca's business office," which the court says violated the Fourth Amendment.
• 6 March 1962 — Limone v. United States, 497 F. Supp. 2d 143 (D. Mass. 2007): "On March 6, 1962, the FBI installed electronic surveillance without a warrant at Patriarca's office in Providence, Rhode Island." House Report 108-414 (2004) quotes a 1967 Justice Department memorandum placing the device "at his place of business, 168 Atwells Avenue, Providence, Rhode Island, during the period March 6, 1962 to July 12, 1965."
• 2 October 1963 — Joseph Valachi told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that Patriarca was introduced to him as a member of the Cosa Nostra: "Yes, 100 percent." Testimony, not a finding.
• 8–9 October 1963 — Valachi testified that he met Patriarca "around 1939 or 1940," that he "heard about Raymond being the new boss in Boston. I heard that in prison," and that he met him "as a soldier." Hearsay testimony, not a finding.
• 15 October 1963 — Colonel Walter E. Stone of the Rhode Island State Police testified that "Raymond L. Patriarca was born on March 17, 1908, in Worcester, Mass.," and that "The FBI record ... shows five convictions." Boston Police testimony the same day called him "the so-called boss of the rackets in the Greater Boston area," while saying the police were "not cognizant" that the men discussed were members of the Mafia or Cosa Nostra. Police testimony, not findings.
• 14 October 1968 — Patriarca v. United States, 402 F.2d 314 (1st Cir. 1968), affirms convictions for conspiracy "to travel and use the telephone in interstate commerce with intent both to commit murder to further an unlawful gambling enterprise." The appellants' brief, quoted by the court, said the Senate's 1963 Valachi hearings "named the defendant Patriarca as 'Boss' of the New England 'Cosa Nostra' or 'Mafia.'"
• July 1984 — United States v. Patriarca, 948 F.2d 789 (1st Cir. 1991): the Government's position, as the court summarizes it, was that his son "assumed leadership of the Patriarca Family following the death of his father in July 1984."
• 1999 — United States v. Salemme, 91 F. Supp. 2d 141 (D. Mass. 1999): "Barboza's testimony led to the convictions of Patriarca and several of his associates."

This page is for Raymond L. S. Patriarca, the father, who died in July 1984 according to the Government’s account in a 1991 opinion about his son. The son, Raymond J. Patriarca, is the subject of that opinion. Neither is linked to Las Vegas in any record opened for this page. The word “Boss” appears only in the defendants’ own brief, as the First Circuit quotes it, and in the Government’s contentions about the son. No finding about the father’s rank is quoted here, so no family or rank is given.

Records