Joe Barboza (The Baron) boxer

Joseph Barboza Jr. (/bɑːrˈboʊzə/; September 20, 1932 – February 11, 1976), nicknamed "the Animal", was an American mobster and notorious mob hitman for the Patriarca crime family during the 1960s.Barboza was born on September 20, 1932 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Portuguese emigrants from Valpaços, Portugal Joseph Barboza Sr. (born José Barbosa), a middle-weight boxer and Palmeda Camille, who was a seamstress. His father was from Los Angeles, California and fought in only two professional boxing matches; his debut professional boxing match was against Pete Frisco on January 27, 1933, and the second match was against Carlos Chipres on April 27, 1933. Barboza had two brothers; Donald and Anthony Barboza and a sister, Anne Houghton.Barboza was fluent in Portuguese, Italian and Spanish. He was married to a Jewish woman and fathered a daughter in 1965 and also a son and lived in Chelsea, Massachusetts while employed by the Patriarca crime family.Barboza would pursue a career as a professional light heavyweight boxer and member of the United States Boxing Association, using the name of "the Baron". His first boxing match on April 18, 1949 against Rocky Lucero in El Paso, Texas and his last fight on September 23, 1961 against Don Bale in Boston, Massachusetts. He fought with an orthodox stance. His boxing record shows Joseph as winning eight out of the eleven matches, with five of them ending in knock outs. He was classified as an out-fighter who was known for having very powerful punches. He was a sparring partner of Patriarca crime family associate, Americo Sacramone, future Massachusetts Auditor Joe DeNucci, Edward G. Connors and Anthony Veranis. He later worked as a longshoreman and as a clerk in a fruit store but always returned to crime.He was first sent to prison in 1950 to the Massachusetts Correctional Institution - Concord for five years. Barboza would later lead a wild prison break in the summer of 1953, which would become the largest in the prison's seventy-five-year history. Joe and six other fellow inmates had guzzled contraband whiskey and pilfered amphetamine tablets, overpowered four prison guards and raced away in two separate cars. During their furlough of freedom they beat random people in the street, cruised the bars in Boston's Scollay Square, wandered to the neighborhoods of Lynn and Revere, and were finally apprehended at a subway station in East Boston. The escape party had barely lasted twenty-four hours. That November, while awaiting trial for his prison break, Barboza slugged a prison guard in the cafeteria for no reason. Three months later, he tossed a table at a guard's chest when he entered his cell.Barboza may have first been exposed to figures of Boston organized crime while incarcerated at Walpole. Paroled in 1958, he became a recognized figure in East Boston's organized crime circles and was a regular at a bar on the corner of Bennington Street and Brook Street, which became known among local criminals as "Barboza's Corner". His crew of small-time burglars and thieves consisted of Joseph W. Amico, Patrick Fabiano, James Kearns, Arthur Bratsos, Thomas DePrisco, father and son team Joseph and Ronald Dermody, Carlton Eaton, Edward Goss and Nicholas Femia.citation needed The crew was officially supervised for the Patriarca crime family by Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi. He was never officially inducted into the Patriarca crime family because of his Portuguese heritage but within eight years during the escalation of gangland warfare he earned a reputation as one of Boston's most prolific contract killers and sidewalk soldiers.