Joseph Russo (mobster)
American mobster (1931–1998)
Joseph Anthony Russo (May 5, 1931 – June 1, 1998), known as "J.R.", was an American mobster in the Patriarca crime family of New England. He gained infamy as the hit man who killed the informant Joseph Barboza, the first person to be murdered while in the Federal Witness Protection Program. As a caporegime in the Boston faction of the Patriarca family, Russo led a failed rebellion against the family boss, Raymond Patriarca Jr. of Providence, Rhode Island, during the late 1980s. As part of a truce, Patriarca promoted Russo to consigliere of the family. Russo was convicted of racketeering in 1992 and died in federal prison from cancer.
Criminal career
Russo grew up in East Boston and came to control organized crime in the neighborhood. He was the stepbrother of the mobster Robert "Bobby Russo" Carrozza. Russo had a reputation as a dapper, well-dressed mafioso. He formed a partnership with another East Boston hoodlum, Vincent DeSciscio, and the duo became known as "the Gold Dust Twins".
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