Cheat Sheet 1 The Patriarca Papers – FBI Files Unveils GOP Advisor, Las Vegas, and Criminal Record

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Tuesday, August 04, 2015

GoLocal News Team

Each week accompanying the segments of the FBI files on Raymond Patriarca and expert analysis on the documents released, GoLocal will provide a “cheat sheet” of some of the key elements from the documents.

Make no mistake about it, the files are layered with information about a time where the scope and reach of the Patriarca crime family permeated nearly every aspect of life in New England - from shop owners to judges.

Key Things to Look For

1) Thomas Paolino, prior to serving on the Rhode Island Supreme Court - the Republican was close to the Eisenhower Administration and was a candidate for a Federal judgeship, but FBI files show his legal work for Patriarca raised red flags with the feds. The New York Times wrote in Paolino’s obituary, “In 1952, he was chosen as a Republican National committeeman from Rhode Island and was an assistant floor manager and strategist for Dwight Eisenhower.”

Paolino is the great uncle to former Providence Mayor and mega-developer Joe Paolino.

(Slide 4)

2) Patriarca’s brother Joseph was tied to illegal activities by the FBI documents as early as 1954 reports by the Boston office.

3) As early 1955, it is clear that Providence Police Commander Walter E. Stone, Head of the Detectives Bureau, had the best direct knowledge of the Patriarca organization of anyone in law enforcement at the time.

(Slide 14)

4) For the first time, and not the last, Patriarca is tied to Bronzo’s Night Club in Shrewsbury, MA.

(Slide 15)

5) An informant tells that Patriarca has a one-quarter interest in a million dollar gambling house in Las Vegas.

(Slides 15, 16)

6)  Patriarca took an ownership interest in his brother-in-laws’ business, Sharwood manufacturing and pulled off one of the great frauds playing off the greed of consumers.  

(Slide 18)

6) As early as 1950, Patriarca was identified as one of the most influential forces in organized crime. Virgin W. Peterson, Director of the Chicago Crime Commission, told the famous Kefauver Crime Committee in 1950 that Patriarca was “King of the Rackets” in Providence, and connected him to Worcester’s Frank Iacone.

(Slide 24)

7) Patriarca’s arrests started in 1928. Take a look at the first compilation of arrests by the FBI in this Memorandum from the Boston FBI Office.

By the early 1950’s Patriarca had a long list of arrests ranging “vagrancy” to conspiracy to violate White Slave Act.

(Slide 31)

EDITOR'S NOTE: GoLocal worked on securing these documents for nearly a year via a federal Freedom of Information Act request. The FBI released to GoLocal nearly 8,000 pages of one of the most powerful men in organized crime in America and was a force for forty years.

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Related Slideshow: Patriarca Papers - Entry 1

Related Articles

• FBI File: The Patriarca Papers - Entry 1
• GoLocalTV: Previewing Section 1 of the Patriarca Papers

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