Patriarca crime family
Raymond Patriarca, who was the boss from 1954 to 1984. | |
| Founded | c. 1916 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Gaspare Messina |
| Named after | Raymond Patriarca |
| Founding location | Boston, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island, United States |
| Years active | c. 1910s–present |
| Territory | Primarily Greater Boston, Greater Providence and Greater New Haven, with additional territory throughout New England, as well as Las Vegas and South Florida |
| Ethnicity | Italians as "made men" and other ethnicities as associates |
| Membership (est.) | 30 made members (2024) |
| Activities | Racketeering, gambling, bookmaking, loansharking, extortion, labor racketeering, waste management, narcotics trafficking, smuggling, robbery, fencing, fraud, money laundering, prostitution, pornography, assault, and murder |
| Allies | |
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The Patriarca crime family (/ˌpætriˈɑːrkə/, Italian pronunciation: [patriˈarka]), also known as the New England Mafia, the Boston Mafia, the Providence Mafia, the Boston–Providence Mafia, or the Office, is an Italian American Mafia crime family operating in New England. The family consists of two distinct factions, one based in Providence, Rhode Island, and the other in Boston, Massachusetts. The Patriarca family is active in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine and Connecticut.
Raymond Patriarca became boss of the family in 1954 and led the organization from the Federal Hill neighborhood of Providence until his death in 1984. Under Patriarca's leadership, the family profited primarily from illegal gambling, loansharking, pornography and trafficking in stolen goods. Patriarca also held a stake in the Dunes hotel and casino in Las Vegas, from which he benefited from the "skimming" of the casino's revenue. At peak membership, the Patriarca family consisted of over 100 "made men".
Upon the death of Patriarca Sr., his son Raymond Patriarca Jr. succeeded him as boss of the family. Patriarca Jr. was an ineffective leader, and he was the target of an attempted coup led by East Boston-based caporegime Joseph "J. R." Russo during the late 1980s. Patriarca Jr., Russo and numerous others were imprisoned on RICO charges in 1992, and Boston mobster Frank Salemme subsequently emerged as boss of the family. Internal warfare in the Patriarca family continued in the 1990s as a renegade faction within the Boston underworld led by Robert Carrozza challenged Salemme loyalists for control of the family. Salemme and Carrozza were imprisoned during a string of convictions, and Luigi Manocchio took over as boss in 1996, returning the family's leadership to Providence.
It was estimated in 2012 that the Patriarca family consisted of approximately 30 "made" members. From the mid-2010s, the family was led by Carmen "The Cheese Man" Dinunzio, a member of the Boston faction, until his death on September 21, 2025.