Gennaro Joseph "Jerry" Angiulo Sr. (Italian pronunciation: [dʒenˈnaːro ˈandʒulo]; March 20, 1919 – August 29, 2009) was an American mobster who rose to the position of underboss in the Patriarca crime family of New England under Raymond L. S. Patriarca. He and his brothers oversaw the Boston, Massachusetts faction of the Patriarca family. Angiulo was convicted of racketeering in 1986 and was imprisoned until being released in 2007. According to Massachusetts State Police colonel Thomas J. Foley, Angiulo was "probably the last very significant Mafia boss in Boston’s history".
Early life
Gennaro J. Angiulo was born in 1919 to Italian immigrants Cesare and Giovannina "Jeannie" (née Fimiani) Angiulo, who owned a small grocery store. He grew up with his siblings Nicolo, Donato, Francesco, Antonio, Michele and James. Even though he was from the North End neighborhood, he graduated from Boston English High School in 1936, where his ambition was to attend Suffolk Law School and become a criminal lawyer. Instead, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the beginning of World War II and served four years in the Pacific theater, achieving the rank of Chief Boatswain's Mate. Upon completion of his service, he moved back to the North End of Boston.
Criminal career
Gennaro's brothers, who by now were all involved in Boston's criminal underworld, recruited him into their circle. Efforts by local authorities to arrest and prosecute operators of the "Italian lottery" created an opening for them; the Angiulo brothers found local businesses willing to serve as fronts for their bookies and gave them "discounts" on the bets in return, then reinvested their profits into legitimate enterprises such as nightclubs to launder them. The dominant Patriarca crime family co-opted the brothers, inducting them as members of the family and taking a cut of their action.
The Angiulo brothers, now armed with the protection of the Mafia, were publicly named as members of Cosa Nostra in 1963. Gennaro's reputation for being a shrewd businessman, along with his successful racketeering, led to Patriarca appointing him underboss of the Providence, Rhode Island–based Patriarca family. From this perch, Angiulo headed up Boston's underworld from the 1960s to the 1980s. He and his brothers ran the criminal organization out of their headquarters, located at 98 Prince Street in the North End, the neighborhood in which he grew up. Angiulo lived in a beachfront mansion in Nahant and drove a Jeep with "Italian Stallion" inscribed on the license plate. Angiulo's consigliere was Ilario "Larry" Zannino. Angiulo relied on Zannino to provide "muscle" to the Boston faction of the family.
Angiulo recruited the Irish-American Winter Hill Gang for assistance in a war against the Somerville-based Notarangeli crew, headed by Alfred "Indian Al" Notarangeli. Notarangeli's gang had begun extorting bookmakers who were under the protection of the Patriarca family, and while on furlough from prison in 1972, Notarangeli murdered one of Angiulo's bookies, Paulie Folino. Folino disappeared in September 1972 and his remains were discovered in a shallow grave in Boxford a month later.
In March and April 1973, the Winter Hill Gang carried out a series of hits, resulting in the deaths of mobsters Michael Milano, Al Plummer, William O'Brien, James Leary, and Joseph "Indian Joe" Notarangeli. After several failed attempts on his life, Al Notarangeli was shot in the head and left in the trunk of his car by the Winter Hill Gang on February 22, 1974 at the request of the Patriarca family.
Capture
Arrest
In 1981, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) placed wiretaps in the headquarters and at a nearby social club, located at 51 North Margin Street, for three months. It was later revealed in a federal court that rival gangsters Whitey Bulger and Stephen Flemmi drew a diagram for FBI agents telling them where to plant the bugs. During one incriminating conversation between Angiulo and his consigliere Larry Zannino, Angiulo told Zannino: "I wouldn't be in legitimate business for all the fucking money in the world. We're shylock. We're a fucking bookmaker. We're selling marijuana. We're illegal here, illegal there. Arsonists! We're every fucking thing".
On September 19, 1983, following a three-year federal investigation, Angiulo was arrested alongside his brothers Francesco and Michele at Francesco's Restaurant in the North End. Donato Angiulo was arrested nearby. As Angiulo was being taken in handcuffs from the restaurant, he yelled, "I'll be back before my pork chops get cold." The four, along with a fifth Angiulo brother, Vittore, as well as Ilario Zannino and Samuel Granito were indicted on racketeering charges involving murder, loan sharking, obstruction of justice, obstruction of law enforcement, interstate travel involving racketeering and illegal gambling. The indictment listed six murders, including that of Joseph Barboza. Angiulo and his associates allegedly made $250,000 per week from the rackets.
Trial
As Angiulo sat in jail without bail awaiting trial on federal racketeering charges, he was demoted from the mob.
At the highly publicized trial, jurors heard hours of taped conversations of Angiulo and his associates planning numerous illegal activities, including murder, gambling, loan sharking and extortion. In one conversation, Angiulo ordered the killing of a bartender after concluding that he was set to testify before a federal grand jury investigating gambling and loan-sharking. The FBI thwarted the plot by warning the witness.
At the eight-month-long trial, the mobster often sarcastically commented on the evidence presented and cracked jokes, prompting District Court Judge David Nelson to repeatedly reprimand him.
Sentence and later life
On February 27, 1986, Angiulo and his co-defendants were convicted of "an avalanche of charges". On April 3, 1986, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison on 12 counts of racketeering, gambling, loan sharking, and obstruction of justice. As his own lawyer, Angiulo argued numerous times, unsuccessfully, to have his conviction overturned. One argument claimed that he was framed by the FBI, Bulger, and Flemmi.
In an affidavit filed in federal court in 2004, he wrote that he was in poor health and his term was "tantamount to an illegal death sentence". Angiulo, who had been incarcerated at the federal prison hospital in Devens, was paroled on September 10, 2007. He had been undergoing dialysis treatment since his release while living at his waterfront home in Nahant. Prior to his death, he was spending time with his wife, Barbara, with whom he had three children.
Angiulo died on August 29, 2009, at the Massachusetts General Hospital of kidney failure from kidney disease.
In popular culture
In the Whitey Bulger biopic Black Mass (2015), Angiulo is portrayed by Bill Haims.
References
Sources
- Dick Lehr, Gerard O'Neill (2000). Black mass: the Irish mob, the FBI, and a devil's deal. PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-891620-40-9. Retrieved September 2, 2009.
Gennaro Angiulo racketeering.
- Reppetto, Thomas (2007). Bringing Down the Mob: The War Against the American Mafia (reprint ed.). Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-8050-8659-1. Retrieved September 2, 2009.
