Robert F. Carrozza also known as "Bobby Russo", (born February 9, 1940, East Boston, Massachusetts) is an Italian-American mobster from East Boston, Massachusetts, who led a bloody internal rebellion against the leadership of the Providence-based Patriarca crime family.
Biography
Robert Carrozza was born January 9, 1940, in Winthrop, Massachusetts, to Mario Carrozza and Marie Mosca. After Robert’s mother died in 1944, his father remarried Angelina Abbatessa Russo, who had also been previously married. Angelina was the mother of Patriarca crime family capo Joseph (JR) Russo born May 5, 1931, in East Boston, Massachusetts. JR Russo was most well known for his role in murdering mob contractor killer Joseph Barboza in San Francisco, California, in 1976. Russo was later convicted under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and sent to prison where he died of natural causes in 1998 in Springfield, Missouri. But he never admitted to Barboza’s killing.
Robert Carrozza would later use his stepbrother's last name 'Russo' as an alias when involved in organized crime.
Internal conflict
In 1989, a violent internal conflict fractured the Patriarca family. A "renegade faction" led by Carrozza, his stepbrother and family consiglieri Joseph Russo, and mobster Vincent Ferrarra challenged the leadership of boss Raymond Patriarca and family associate Frank Salemme. By seizing family leadership, Carrozza and the other renegades sought to control illegal gambling and the extortion of bookmakers, drug dealers and restaurant owners in Massachusetts. This takeover attempt provoked a gang civil war that lasted until 1996 and claimed over a dozen lives.
On June 16, 1989, Patriarca underboss William P. Grasso's body was found with a bullet wound to the head along the banks of the Connecticut River in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Five hours after the discovery of Grasso's body, gunmen shot and seriously wounded Salemme at a restaurant in Saugus, Massachusetts. On June 27, 1989, informant and former Patriarca family member, Angelo Mercurio told Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent John Connolly that Russo, Ferrara and Carrozza had planned and executed both shootings. Much of the Patriarca family's legal troubles resulted from this relationship between Whitey Bulger, leader of Boston's Winter Hill Gang, and Connolly. In exchange for Bulger providing Connolly with incriminating information on the Patriarca family, Connolly protected Bulger and his criminal operations from law enforcement.
On March 26, 1990, Carrozza and twenty other family members were indicted on racketeering, extortion, narcotics, illegal gambling, and murder charges. The Patriarca arrests were described as "the most sweeping attack ever launched on a single organized crime family." One of the most damaging pieces of evidence was a tape recording of a Cosa Nostra induction ceremony attended by 13 Patriarca family members. On January 6, 1992, Carrozza's attorney, Henry D. Katz, offered Carrozza a plea bargain in which the government promised not to prosecute him for the Grasso murder, an offense that could carry a life sentence, and for the attempted murder of Salemme. Carrozza accepted the plea bargain and was sentenced to 19 years in prison. In 1993, 26 others were indicted and convicted for running a bookmaking operation.
Carrozza's activities from prison
In 1991, Salemme became boss of the Patriarca Family and the family conflict escalated. Both factions wanted to collect the family's extortion payments and control its other business. Anthony Ciampi, a key Carrozza faction member, owned a club on Bennington Street in East Boston, the site of gambling and illegal card games, that was frequented by Carrozza faction members.
Following Carrozza's sentencing in April 1992, it took nearly two years for the "renegade faction" to plan its revenge. Ciampi and Michael P. Romano, Sr. visited Carrozza several times in prison in Pennsylvania. The FBI contended that the two men sought Carrozza's permission to continue the war against Salemme. Assistant United States Attorney Jeffrey Auerhahn claimed, "Robert Carrozza supplied legitimacy. You can’t take on a Mafia member unless you have one with you." Using Ciampi's social club as the group's headquarters, the "renegade faction" in 1994 retaliated against Salemme by killing several of his supporters.