Sunday Times Profiles Patriarca Mobster in Special Section
REVISED WITH NEW PHOTOS In May, the Sunday New York Times ran a special section profile about a largely unknown Boston gangster with ties to a legendary Cosa Nostra boss. For those of us interested in the mob, this is a good thing.... A young tough guy.... Reporter Dan Barry's lengthy piece detailed the story of Ralph DeMasi, an aging New England mobster who specialized in robbing armored trucks. DeMasi was known as a dedicated family man for whom crime was a 9-to-5 job, with the odd late night occasionally thrown in. Like Gambino capo Joe Piney Armone, in his later years... Both DeMasi and Armone reportedly NEVER stepped out on their wives. .... "The police routinely watched him drive off in the morning to lay the groundwork for a planned robbery, then return home in the evening, leaving the carousing to others." “That was not like the other wiseguys I knew,” a former Rhode Island law enforcement official told Barry. “Ralph was all about work....
