Gennaro Joseph "Jerry" Angiulo Sr. (; March 20, 1919 – August 29, 2009) was an American

mobster A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...

who rose to the position of

underboss Underboss ( it, sottocapo) is a position within the leadership structure of certain organized crime groups, particularly in Sicilian, Greek, and Italian-American Mafia crime families. The underboss is second in command to the boss. The under ...

in the

Patriarca crime family The Patriarca crime family (, ), also known as the New England Mafia, the Boston Mafia, the Providence Mafia, or The Office is an Italian-American American Mafia, Mafia crime family, family in New England. It has two distinct factions, one based ...

of New England under

Raymond L. S. Patriarca Raymond Loreda Salvatore Patriarca (; March 17, 1908 – July 11, 1984) was an American mobster from Providence, Rhode Island, who became the long-time boss of the Patriarca crime family, whose control extended throughout New England for more t ...

. Angiulo was convicted of

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and ...

in 1986 and was imprisoned until being released in 2007. One of the Angiulo Brothers, he was "probably the last very significant Mafia boss in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

’s history".

Early life

Gennaro J. Angiulo was born in 1919 to Italian immigrants Cesare and Giovannina "Jeannie" (née Fimiani) Angiulo, who owned a mom-and-pop 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. Gennaro Angiulo enlisted in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

at the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and served 4 years in the Pacific theater; he achieved the rank of Chief Boatswain's Mate. Upon completion of his service, he moved back to the North End of Boston. He had a regular table in the back room of an Italian dinery called Francesca's Restaurant on North Washington Street in

North End, Boston The North End is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It has the distinction of being the city's oldest residential community, where Europeans have continuously inhabited since it was colonized in the 1630s. Though small, only ...

Mob career

The Angiulo brothers who had only minor previous involvement in crime realized that as a result of convictions of previous operators there was an opening for numbers game operation. They offered small business people such as barbers and convenience store owners the opportunity to get a wholesale discount on bets on individual numbers. The Angiulo brothers were able to build a network converting these businesses into points of sale and bookies. This succeeded attracting the interest of the Mafia and the Angiulo brothers offered the Patriarca family a cut rather than resist them. The Angiulo brothers, who owned nightclubs, were publicly named as members of Cosa Nostra, more commonly known as the

American Mafia The American Mafia, commonly referred to in North America as the Italian American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian American criminal society and organized crime group. The organization is often referred to by its memb ...

. 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 Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

-based

. Angiulo later headed up Boston's underworld from the 1960s to the 1980s. He and his brothers ran the criminal organization out of their headquarters at 98 Prince Street in the North End, the neighborhood in which he grew up.

Capture

Arrest

In 1981, the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice ...

(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. As Angiulo was being taken in handcuffs from the restaurant on September 19, 1983, he yelled, "I'll be back before my pork chops get cold."

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 A loan shark is a person who offers loans at extremely high interest rates, has strict terms of collection upon failure, and generally operates outside the law. Description Because loan sharks operate mostly illegally, they cannot reasonably ...

and

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of 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

In February 1986, Angiulo and his co-defendants were convicted of "an avalanche of charges". He was sentenced to 45 years in prison on 12 counts of racketeering, gambling, loan sharking, and

obstruction of justice Obstruction of justice, in United States jurisdictions, is an act that involves unduly influencing, impeding, or otherwise interfering with the justice system, especially the legal and procedural tasks of prosecutors, investigators, or other gov ...

. 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 An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or '' deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by law. Such a stateme ...

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, Jason Brion, Gennaro Jay Jr., and Barbara Jay Angiulo. Angiulo died on August 29, 2009, at the

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

kidney failure Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...

from kidney disease. His funeral was at the Joseph A. Langone Jr. Funeral Home in Boston's North End.

In popular culture

In the Whitey Bulger biopic '' Black Mass'' (2015), Angiulo is portrayed by Bill Haims.

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Angiulo, Gennaro 1919 births 2009 deaths 20th-century American criminals American male criminals American gangsters of Italian descent American prisoners and detainees Deaths from kidney failure Patriarca crime family Gangsters from Boston People from North End, Boston United States Navy chiefs United States Navy personnel of World War II