Animal

by Casey Sherman

  With a new name, Joe Bentley, the Animal was given a small place to live and worked with the FBI to choose a new occupation. Agents sat down with Joe and thumbed through the yellow pages of the local phone directory looking for a business that might trigger his interest. He had always prided himself on his cooking ability and had served up a number of tasty Portuguese dishes for his security detail over the past year. Barboza enrolled in cooking school, and the feds found him a job in the galley of the SS President Wilson, a merchant ship that made frequent voyages to China. The meager pay was a fraction of what he had made during his days as a gangster, and Joe complained about money constantly. Claire was also having a difficult time transitioning to her new life as Mrs. Joe Bentley. Neighbors had asked her questions about her thick Boston accent, and she and little Stacy had to be tutored regularly about their personal legends, which had been created by the Justice Department. Claire Cohen did not exist any longer. She had vanished into thin air. The Justice Department had told newspaper reporters that Barboza and his family had been flown to Europe courtesy of the U.S. government. The Animal thought he was safe, at least for now.

  The FBI received a scare shortly after the relocation when agents received an anonymous tip that the mob knew where Barboza was hiding. Agents kept a close eye on Santa Rosa, but no threat materialized. Soon Joe shipped out on his first and last voyage on the SS President Wilson. He did not take well to following orders and found assembly-line cooking tedious. Always looking at all available angles, Joe staged a slip and fall job onboard the ship and was awarded $18,500 as compensation for the work-related injury. He returned to California and his old ways. Through an intermediary, Barboza got word to the Office that he would be willing to recant his testimony in the cases of both Deegan and Patriarca for $500,000. The Mafia expressed interest, so Barboza began traveling back and forth to Massachusetts in an effort to secure a deal. What the FBI had failed to realize was that the allegiance of men like Joe Barboza could be rented but never bought. The Animal had asked the government to give his family more money but had been turned away by the feds. He now decided once again to offer his story to the highest bidder. Barboza kept H. Paul Rico and Dennis Condon in the dark about his bid for a double deal.

  The agents’ arrogance had grown since the Deegan verdict, and they were now casting a wide net for any disgruntled mobster looking to secure the “Barboza Treatment” in exchange for damaging information and testimony against LCN. Rico and Condon paid a visit to Stevie Flemmi shortly after the convictions of Peter Limone, Joe Salvati, and company. It was Flemmi who had convinced Barboza to flip and who later tried to kill attorney John Fitzgerald, presumably at Rico’s urging. They met at a Roxbury auto shop owned by Flemmi’s partner, Frank Salemme. “Cadillac Frank” was an old-school gangster who did not mind meeting with cops when it suited his interest. However, he could not fathom the possibility of forging a partnership with the FBI. Flemmi had kept his friend in the dark about his dealings with Rico and Condon, and Salemme had no idea that his partner had become a Top Echelon informant. Salemme attended the little get-together and offered the agents donuts and coffee as they recounted the Deegan case.

  “I wonder how Louis [Grieco] likes it on death row,” Condon said gleefully. “He went from Florida to death row and he wasn’t even there.”180

  Salemme did not know Grieco personally but took offense at the comment.

  “How can you talk about that?” he asked Condon. “You know they weren’t there.”

  Salemme’s father was a member of the Knights of Columbus, and he knew that Condon was also a member of the Catholic fraternal organization.

  “You’re a fourth-degree knight,” he reminded Condon. “One of the commandments is Thou Shall Not Bear False Witness. How do you expect to get through the pearly gates with Saint Peter, putting that slob [Barboza] up there to put four guys away on death row?”

  Condon, who was normally cool, exploded when Salemme had the gall to bring up his religion.

  “You’re so smart, why don’t you take the stand?” Condon shouted.

  “I will, let’s go up, you and I. We’ll take the stand and we’ll testify. Who’s gonna believe me?”

  As the cop and crook continued their argument, Rico shared a concerned look with Stevie Flemmi.

  A few months later, both Flemmi and Salemme were indicted for the bombing that almost killed attorney John Fitzgerald. H. Paul Rico tipped off Flemmi, who was already on the run in California for murdering Wimpy Bennett’s brother William, to the charges. Flemmi remained in hiding for nearly five years, first making his way to Manhattan and then to Montreal. “Cadillac Frank” went underground in New York City and stayed there until he was arrested in 1972 by a young FBI agent from South Boston named John Connolly. Connolly, a protege of Condon and Rico, had acted on information supplied by Salemme’s partner and friend, Stevie Flemmi.

  While Rico and Condon had their time tied up with Flemmi and Salemme, there was little supervision or interest in Joe Barboza. The Animal made several trips to Boston and Providence and always in disguise. If the feds got a whiff that he was back in town, they would lock him up for the seventy-plus years he had remaining on his suspended sentence for being a habitual criminal.

  If the Mafia found him, he was as good as dead. Barboza created elaborate disguises for himself, including a hippie disguise complete with long-haired wig, fake beard, and love beads. He would also pass himself off as a longshoreman in petticoat and cap. Barboza called for a private meeting with Frank Davis, a Patriarca emissary, in a wooded area in Freetown, just outside of New Bedford. Joe tapped a few childhood friends to provide security for the meeting and also asked newspaper reporter James Southwood to attend. Southwood had remained close to Barboza since the two had worked on a story for the Boston Herald together, outlining his reasons for testifying against the mob. Southwood was contemplating a book project with Joe to chronicle his life story. Barboza felt the reporter should get as close as he could to the action. Southwood grabbed an old army gas mask out of a trunk to shield his identity and accompanied Barboza to the meeting. Joe told the Patriarca emissary that he would refute his testimony against the imprisoned Mafia boss and others for half a million dollars plus $1,000 per month while the deal was getting finalized. Barboza said he could also get his hands on $300,000 in stolen securities that he would sell the Office for a commission. Patriarca’s man countered with a deal of $100,000 plus all the money still owed to Joe by his shylock customers. No decision was made that day in the woods. Instead, Joe returned to Santa Rosa in pursuit of the stolen stocks and bonds.

  He began frequenting the Mirror Man Lounge, a seedy bar in Santa Rosa where he befriended a small-time drug dealer and junkie named Ricky Clay Wilson, who was the current owner of the stolen securities. One night after a meeting with Wilson and others, Barboza mistakenly left his address book behind at the bar. The book was filled with contact numbers for the FBI, U.S. marshals, and the Justice Department. The address book was picked up by a friend of Wilson’s who demanded to know why their new associate from the East Coast was friendly with “the pigs.” Barboza concocted an elaborate story when he retrieved the address book the next day and hoped the discussion would end there. A few days later, Wilson asked Barboza if he would help retrieve some guns that he had buried outside of town. Joe agreed, as he was looking for a new weapon. Wilson’s wife and another female hippie accompanied them as they drove to a wooded area near Glen Ellen, California, just fifteen miles outside Santa Rosa. They pulled down a wagon path about fifty feet into the woods and got out of the car. The men walked ahead of the girls, and, at one point, Wilson turned around to confront Barboza.

  “Listen, you’re a fucking snitch,” Wilson said. “I heard about those guys you put on death row back East. You can get me for conspiracy because of those stocks.”181

  The Animal remained calm despite the fact that his cover had now been blown. “If you believe that, you deserve anything that happens to you.�
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  Wilson reached for a gun in his waistband. Barboza wrestled him to the ground as the gun went off, the shot echoing through the quiet California night. The Animal snatched the weapon out of Wilson’s hand and jammed it against his skull. Wilson then made another move for a smaller gun he had hidden in his boot. Seeing this, Barboza fired twice—one bullet tore through Wilson’s eye, the other traveled through his temple. Joe ran to the girls and told them to flee the scene. He dragged Wilson’s body deep into the bushes and left it there. He wiped the murder weapon clean and threw it as far as he could. When he rendezvoused later with Wilson’s wife and the other girl, they were high on drugs and nonchalantly offered to help bury Wilson’s body. The trio spent the rest of the evening moving the body from the murder scene to another wooded area where they had dug a shallow grave. Barboza dumped the body in and tried to forget about it. His killer instincts had served him well during his bloody confrontation with Wilson, but they had failed him now. It may have been a simple oversight, or it may have been the fact that he had never hurt a woman. Either way, Joe let the hippie girls live to tell their tale.

  21

  A Murder in the Woods

  I’m gonna give all my secrets away

  ONE REPUBLIC

  Joe Barboza left town shortly after the murder of Ricky Clay Wilson and traveled back East to continue his negotiations with the Mafia. He was broke now and was looking to make a quick score with the stolen securities, which were now in his sole position, and by recanting his testimony. He had given the government fair warning. Months before leaving California for Massachusetts, Barboza shared his financial frustration with Edward Harrington, a government prosecutor and member of the Justice Department’s Boston Strike Force. Harrington, who had become a confidant and friend of Barboza’s, drafted a memo to the U.S. Attorney General’s office in which he wrote:

  I think it is fair to state that it was agreed by all in the Department of Justice that at the time [Joe Barboza] was released from government protection, every effort would be made to provide him with a job and an unspecified sum of money… . [A] year has passed and we’ve been unable to provide Barboza with a job. At the time he was released from protective custody he was given only $1,000 in government funds. However he is now nearly penniless and has been given a fair chance to begin a new life. Barboza is now desperate. He states he is without any money and feels that the government has reneged on its promise to provide him with sufficient money. He has indicated that he will publicly retract his testimony given in the aforementioned cases and will make known to the press that the government did not give him a fair chance to go “straight.” In the opinion of the writers if either of the above should occur, the federal government will receive a severe setback as the [Raymond] Patriarca and [Henry] Tameleo cases might be overturned and plunge the Government into protracted and acrimonious litigation.182

  The attorney general’s office did not heed Harrington’s warning. The Animal was considered old news in the eyes of the government. Meanwhile, the FBI continued to reward Special Agent H. Paul Rico, who had recently procured the testimony of killer and Plymouth mail truck robber John J. “Red” Kelley in a second Raymond Patriarca trial for the murder of Willie Marfeo’s brother Rudolph, in which the New England mob boss was sentenced to an additional ten years in prison.

  For his development of Kelley as a Top Echelon informant and prosecution witness, Rico received a $300 bonus and congratulatory letter from J. Edgar Hoover.

  Barboza had seen and heard enough. If it had not been for him, gangsters like Red Kelley would not be so willing to turn against the Mafia. Feeling angry and manipulated, Barboza reached out to attorney F. Lee Bailey, and the two scheduled a meeting in Joe’s hometown of New Bedford. According to Barboza, Bailey slipped him an envelope stuffed with $800 and said, “Somebody left it in my office. I don’t know who left it for you.” Barboza then told Bailey that his testimony against Raymond Patriarca had been highly fabricated with the help of the FBI, and that most of the men convicted in the Deegan case were innocent. Bailey asked the Animal to take a polygraph test, and he agreed. The Animal’s volatile nature stopped negotiations from going any further, however. Just days after his meeting with Bailey, Barboza got into an argument with a group of black men near the Fairhaven Bridge. Racial tensions had been high in New Bedford after three white youths had been charged with murdering a black teenager. The incident had triggered rioting in the city and a call for peace by some prominent clergymen. Barboza pulled a .45 automatic on the group of black men and later tried to force their car off the road. A member of the group provided police with a description of Barboza’s car, and he was quickly arrested. Police were shocked to learn that the Animal, who had been ordered by the court never to return to Massachusetts, had violated the decree and had been cruising around his hometown. Barboza tried to talk his way out of the arrest, telling cops that he had returned to New Bedford as a federal emissary to help restore law and order following the riots. Police did not buy the explanation, and Barboza was booked on weapons charges and for possession of marijuana. The charges were later dropped because Barboza had not been represented by a defense attorney during his arraignment. The judge ordered his parole revoked, however, for not sticking to the agreement to stay out of Massachusetts. During his arraignment, Barboza pleaded for low bail. “I can’t say I’m going to wind up dead on the streets, but I promise I’ll come back,” he told the judge.183

  “If you’re going to be running around loose, you won’t be running around long,” Judge Frank E. Smith replied, before setting Barboza’s bail at a steep $100,000.

  In late July 1970, he was transferred from the Barnstable House of Corrections to the state prison in Walpole, where the men he had helped convict in the Deegan case were either on death row or serving life behind bars. Barboza was housed in 10 Block, a segregated unit in the prison, for fear that the men he had wronged would exact some level of revenge. The Animal quickly tried to mitigate the situation by signing an affidavit for attorney Joe Balliro stating that he would recant his testimony against Henry Tameleo, Louis Grieco, Peter Limone, and Joe Salvati. Balliro immediately filed a motion for a new trial. Lawyers representing Raymond Patriarca and others also filed motions for a new trial based on the new information Barboza now appeared willing and able to offer about how he was coerced by the FBI to testify falsely against the New England power structure of LCN. Upon hearing the news, Edward Harrington and his colleague Walter Barnes rushed to Walpole to confer with Barboza, who told them that he was still on the side of the government and just wanted the Office to think he was working for them.

  “My testimony in the Deegan trial was the truth and a lie detector test will prove this,” Barboza told Harrington.184

  The secret meeting with Harrington did not sit well with F. Lee Bailey, who immediately withdrew as Barboza’s counsel. Bailey had also been troubled by the fact that Barboza had now refused to take a polygraph after initially agreeing to the test. The Animal was once again playing both sides against the middle, but this time his allies were few and far between. He wrote a letter to Harrington, stating:

  Ted, when you and [Walter Barnes] came down to see me, you [and] Walter asked me not to do something [and] I didn’t. How long can the little money I bled out of those creeps last, what’ll happen to my wife [and] babies then? Bailey said I’ll come running to him in the end, I never will!! … That’s all I want is that job, to be moved to a new location [and] new I.D. [and] I’ll be out of your hair [and] Walter’s completely! I’ll never complain again.185

  Barboza also shared his feelings with Billy Geraway, a convicted killer, counterfeiter, and thief who occupied the next cell and whom Barboza had known since his days at the Concord Reformatory. The two men would spend as much as fifteen hours a day talking to each other between their cells. Geraway taught Barboza how to play chess, a game he had learned from self-confessed Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo, who admitted to Geraway that he used chess as
a means to gain sexual contact with other inmates. DeSalvo also hinted to Geraway on several occasions that he was not responsible for the eleven Boston Strangler murders. DeSalvo trusted that Geraway would keep his secret, and so did Barboza. Joe regaled Geraway with grisly details about the murders he had committed, including the recent slaying of Ricky Clay Wilson in California. Their relationship began to sour after a heated argument over chess. Geraway had insisted that he had checkmated Barboza, who claimed that Geraway’s queen was not where he said it was. Since both men were playing virtual matches against each other in separate cells, neither could see the other man’s board. The Animal began to threaten Geraway with information he had gathered about his family. One night, Barboza slipped Geraway a piece of paper in his cell.