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Animal: The Bloody Rise and Fall of the Mob’s Most Feared Assassin
From the author of Boston A City’s Triumph Over Tragedy.“Joseph Barboza is the most dangerous individual known.”—FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, 1965Joe Barboza knew that there were two requirements for getting inducted into the Mafia. You had to be Sicilian. And you had to commit a contract killing. The New Bedford–born mobster was a proud Portuguese, not Sicilian, but his dream to be part of La Cosa Nostra proved so strong that he thought he could create a loophole. If he killed enough men, if he did enough of the Mafia’s dirtiest biddings, then they would have no choice but to make him a Made Man.Barboza’s brutal rise during one of the deadliest mob wars in U.S. history became the stuff of legend, both on the bloodied streets of Boston and in the offices of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney General. He took sick joy in his crimes, and it became increasingly difficult for the mob to keep the Animal on his leash. But soon the hunter became the hunted. Betrayed by the mob and now on the run, Boston’s most notorious contract killer forged a Faustian bargain with two unscrupulous FBI agents—a pact that would transform the U.S. criminal justice system. From false testimony and manipulated evidence that sent mob leaders to death row, to the creation of the Witness Protection Program so the feds could protect their prized, cold-blooded witness, this was the horrific, dramatic first act in a story of murder and FBI corruption still being played out today in the news and the courtroom with the capture and trial of Whitey Bulger. Barboza’s legacy, buried for years thanks to the murders or deaths of its participants, is finally coming to light and being told in its unvarnished brutality by one of America’s most respected true crime writers.
280 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
32 people are currently reading
586 people want to read
About the author
Casey Sherman
25 books228 followersCasey Sherman is a New York Times Bestselling Author of 13 books including The Finest Hours (now a major motion picture starring Casey Affleck & Chris Pine), Boston Strong (the basis for the film Patriots Day starring Mark Wahlberg), Animal & Hunting Whitey.
Sherman is also the author of 12, Search for the Strangler, Animal, Bad Blood, Black Irish, Black Dragon, Above & Beyond and The Ice Bucket Challenge.
Sherman is a contributing writer for TIME, Esquire, Washington Post, Boston Herald and Boston Magazine and has appeared as a guest an analyst on more than 100 television news programs.
Sherman is a graduate of Barnstable High School (Cape Cod), Fryeburg Academy (Fryeburg, Me.) and Boston University.
Sherman is also the author of 12, Search for the Strangler, Animal, Bad Blood, Black Irish, Black Dragon, Above & Beyond and The Ice Bucket Challenge.
Sherman is a contributing writer for TIME, Esquire, Washington Post, Boston Herald and Boston Magazine and has appeared as a guest an analyst on more than 100 television news programs.
Sherman is a graduate of Barnstable High School (Cape Cod), Fryeburg Academy (Fryeburg, Me.) and Boston University.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 26, 2016
I started reading a book that opened with the story of Joe Salvati. I stopped reading that book because I needed to know more about how Barboza had help from surprising allies to frame an innocent man (Salvati) for a murder he didn't commit.
The book started with Joe "Animal" Barboza and his home life. I kept waiting for it to get interesting. Then it moved into his killings and I was hooked. This guys is crazy and doesn't think twice about killing people or injuring them with anything he can (including his teeth). But then the book moved into the entire mob war around Massachusetts. It got boring. It didn't always seem to be related to Barboza. And there were so many names thrown around, it was confusing at times (especially with brothers or people with the same last names). I just wanted more about the Animal. The book really could have been half as long and still told the same story of Barboza. And I didn't learn much more about how Barboza and Salvati.
The book started with Joe "Animal" Barboza and his home life. I kept waiting for it to get interesting. Then it moved into his killings and I was hooked. This guys is crazy and doesn't think twice about killing people or injuring them with anything he can (including his teeth). But then the book moved into the entire mob war around Massachusetts. It got boring. It didn't always seem to be related to Barboza. And there were so many names thrown around, it was confusing at times (especially with brothers or people with the same last names). I just wanted more about the Animal. The book really could have been half as long and still told the same story of Barboza. And I didn't learn much more about how Barboza and Salvati.
November 27, 2020
An eye opening account of the Boston area Mafia in the 1950s and 60s. Never a dull moment and increasingly shocking as the FBI, whose agents are driven by recognition and promotions, become just as corrupt and unethical as the Mob they are looking to defeat. Barboza, the titular "Animal", was crazier than a fictional character could be, as allies became enemies and rivals became partners and everyone was on a hit list in some way. Very interesting read on organized crime.
March 17, 2022
Espectacular!
January 17, 2015
I normally do not read non-fiction often, and within that, even more rarely ever go for lurid "true crime" tales, but I found this book a page-turner - one I would never have picked up had it not been for a curious, personal turn of events.
It was 2 days after New Years', 2015, and my husband of just over two months hung up the phone. "Aunt Isabel called," he said. "Uncle John died on Tuesday." This was the fifth death in our families - the prior four had all been my relatives - since we had gotten married.
I pulled up the obituary for John, a former New Bedford police officer. I have been trying to put together a genealogy for my husband's family, the descendants of Portuguese immigrants who arrived in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1920, and thought there might be some helpful information in the obituary, since my husband's father was pretty reticent or forgetful about his childhood, and I didn't like to push. Sure enough, there was a list of John's siblings; one, Herbert, was predeceased.
"I told you about him," my husband reminded me, "He was the one in the Mafia. He killed himself."
"Wait. What?" I answered. "I don't remember this!"
"Stuck a gun in his mouth and blew out the back of his head. My dad has stories of being a kid that Herbert was always mean as hell, and always in trouble. John arrested him once."
"Really!"
"Yeah, his own brother. He was up on the Fairhaven Bridge, causing trouble - shooting up the bridge or taking potshots at passing cars or something, the story goes, and none of the other cops wanted to deal with him. They told John he had to go collect his brother, so John arrested him."
I promptly went to Google, and shortly found a 17 July 1970 newspaper article with the headline, "Man in traffic arrest identified as Barboza," in which Barboza and Herbert were arrested on illegal weapons and marijuana charges. Herbert was little more than a footnote in the article; clearly the focus was Barboza. Who was Barboza, and why was he so important? Growing up in upstate New York in the late 80s and 90s, I was removed, both by location and by time, from the Boston mob wars of the 1960s and 1970s. My knowledge of the New England Mafia pretty much began and ended with Whitey Bulger having recently been captured. I dug deeper. "Barboza was a hitman whose testimony sent Raymond Patriarca to prison."
"Patriarca!" exclaimed my husband, "He's a huge Mob boss!"
"And your uncle was basically BFFs with Joe "The Animal" Barboza who sent him to prison? Damn."
That pretty much clinched it: we were up all night reading articles, pulling up Wikipedia entries, and skimming through a 500+ page Congressional report titled, "Everything Secret Degenerates: The FBI's Use of Murderers as Informants." We also found a similarly long "Investigative Chronology" of the FBI's surveillance of the New England Mafia, detailing dates and contents of memos sent back and forth between field agents in Boston and J. Edgar Hoover, and tried to guess at what might be under the parts that were marked as "redacted." It was an overwhelming amount of information, and surely, I thought, someone has to have written a book on this already!
...which is a long digression regarding how I came to find this one. Much of my excitement for reading the book came, I admit, from this vaguely personal connection to the story and from so much of it taking place in the areas I am now so familiar with: Boston and the surrounding cities of Somerville and Revere; New Bedford, where I now live and where my husband grew up; the Lyman School - it still exists; I have driven through the campus on occasion while taking side-roads to avoid traffic on Rte 9 in Framingham, and had always assumed it was just another New England prep school. At the end of Chapter 20, Barboza has a secret meeting with a Patriarca representative in Freetown, just north of New Bedford, and brought along some trusted friends as backup - according to the "Investigative Chronology" we found, my husband's uncle was one of those trusted friends - a couple of Portuguese kids from the poorest side of New Bedford.
And in Chapter 21 came the part I was most eager to read: the description of Barboza's arrest on the Fairhaven Bridge. The fact that Barboza was not alone during his arrest here is a very minor omission regarding a very minor incident in Barboza's life (albeit the one that really re-embroiled him in the legal system, so, to him, perhaps not THAT minor), though I admit I was a trifle disappointed at not getting every detail, and it did make me wonder what other details might have been glossed over in descriptions of other events described.
I would call this book a very good primer on the New England mob scene from the mid 1950's through 1970's. It highlights major events and the contributing factors and players, but, naturally, a certain level of detail has been omitted, probably on the grounds of it not being truly necessary for the purposes of the focus of the book, which is, after all, Joe Barboza. The language and style are very accessible (notwithstanding that I smirked a bit when the author referred to women once or twice as the "softer sex" - people really still use that term these days?), and the book overall is very readable. While some reviewers have felt that the author has lengthy digressions on irrelevant material, I don't particularly agree - none of the digressions were particularly lengthy (a page or two at the most - this isn't Victor Hugo here), and serve to illustrate either other major events of the time period or the general environment surrounding the individuals involved.
Overall, I very much enjoyed the book, and appreciated having an encompassing view of the Boston Mafia wars and Joe Barboza's involvement - it gave me a much better understanding of the events, people, and time period mentioned in the Investigative Chronology and Congressional Report that we found. I sped through it in a matter of days, just reading while on my lunch break at work. The book provided me with a decent understanding of the events and people involved - and which gave us one last question to contemplate:
"You know," my husband mused eventually, "my mother's maiden name is Barboza. Spelled with a Z, not the usual S; I've never seen anyone else spell it with a Z."
"Oh, now that I think about it," his mother said when he asked her later, "there were a couple of Joe Barbozas somewhere in the family, but no one EVER talked about them. If anyone asked a question about them, they were shushed right away. So I really have no idea."
It was 2 days after New Years', 2015, and my husband of just over two months hung up the phone. "Aunt Isabel called," he said. "Uncle John died on Tuesday." This was the fifth death in our families - the prior four had all been my relatives - since we had gotten married.
I pulled up the obituary for John, a former New Bedford police officer. I have been trying to put together a genealogy for my husband's family, the descendants of Portuguese immigrants who arrived in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1920, and thought there might be some helpful information in the obituary, since my husband's father was pretty reticent or forgetful about his childhood, and I didn't like to push. Sure enough, there was a list of John's siblings; one, Herbert, was predeceased.
"I told you about him," my husband reminded me, "He was the one in the Mafia. He killed himself."
"Wait. What?" I answered. "I don't remember this!"
"Stuck a gun in his mouth and blew out the back of his head. My dad has stories of being a kid that Herbert was always mean as hell, and always in trouble. John arrested him once."
"Really!"
"Yeah, his own brother. He was up on the Fairhaven Bridge, causing trouble - shooting up the bridge or taking potshots at passing cars or something, the story goes, and none of the other cops wanted to deal with him. They told John he had to go collect his brother, so John arrested him."
I promptly went to Google, and shortly found a 17 July 1970 newspaper article with the headline, "Man in traffic arrest identified as Barboza," in which Barboza and Herbert were arrested on illegal weapons and marijuana charges. Herbert was little more than a footnote in the article; clearly the focus was Barboza. Who was Barboza, and why was he so important? Growing up in upstate New York in the late 80s and 90s, I was removed, both by location and by time, from the Boston mob wars of the 1960s and 1970s. My knowledge of the New England Mafia pretty much began and ended with Whitey Bulger having recently been captured. I dug deeper. "Barboza was a hitman whose testimony sent Raymond Patriarca to prison."
"Patriarca!" exclaimed my husband, "He's a huge Mob boss!"
"And your uncle was basically BFFs with Joe "The Animal" Barboza who sent him to prison? Damn."
That pretty much clinched it: we were up all night reading articles, pulling up Wikipedia entries, and skimming through a 500+ page Congressional report titled, "Everything Secret Degenerates: The FBI's Use of Murderers as Informants." We also found a similarly long "Investigative Chronology" of the FBI's surveillance of the New England Mafia, detailing dates and contents of memos sent back and forth between field agents in Boston and J. Edgar Hoover, and tried to guess at what might be under the parts that were marked as "redacted." It was an overwhelming amount of information, and surely, I thought, someone has to have written a book on this already!
...which is a long digression regarding how I came to find this one. Much of my excitement for reading the book came, I admit, from this vaguely personal connection to the story and from so much of it taking place in the areas I am now so familiar with: Boston and the surrounding cities of Somerville and Revere; New Bedford, where I now live and where my husband grew up; the Lyman School - it still exists; I have driven through the campus on occasion while taking side-roads to avoid traffic on Rte 9 in Framingham, and had always assumed it was just another New England prep school. At the end of Chapter 20, Barboza has a secret meeting with a Patriarca representative in Freetown, just north of New Bedford, and brought along some trusted friends as backup - according to the "Investigative Chronology" we found, my husband's uncle was one of those trusted friends - a couple of Portuguese kids from the poorest side of New Bedford.
And in Chapter 21 came the part I was most eager to read: the description of Barboza's arrest on the Fairhaven Bridge. The fact that Barboza was not alone during his arrest here is a very minor omission regarding a very minor incident in Barboza's life (albeit the one that really re-embroiled him in the legal system, so, to him, perhaps not THAT minor), though I admit I was a trifle disappointed at not getting every detail, and it did make me wonder what other details might have been glossed over in descriptions of other events described.
I would call this book a very good primer on the New England mob scene from the mid 1950's through 1970's. It highlights major events and the contributing factors and players, but, naturally, a certain level of detail has been omitted, probably on the grounds of it not being truly necessary for the purposes of the focus of the book, which is, after all, Joe Barboza. The language and style are very accessible (notwithstanding that I smirked a bit when the author referred to women once or twice as the "softer sex" - people really still use that term these days?), and the book overall is very readable. While some reviewers have felt that the author has lengthy digressions on irrelevant material, I don't particularly agree - none of the digressions were particularly lengthy (a page or two at the most - this isn't Victor Hugo here), and serve to illustrate either other major events of the time period or the general environment surrounding the individuals involved.
Overall, I very much enjoyed the book, and appreciated having an encompassing view of the Boston Mafia wars and Joe Barboza's involvement - it gave me a much better understanding of the events, people, and time period mentioned in the Investigative Chronology and Congressional Report that we found. I sped through it in a matter of days, just reading while on my lunch break at work. The book provided me with a decent understanding of the events and people involved - and which gave us one last question to contemplate:
"You know," my husband mused eventually, "my mother's maiden name is Barboza. Spelled with a Z, not the usual S; I've never seen anyone else spell it with a Z."
"Oh, now that I think about it," his mother said when he asked her later, "there were a couple of Joe Barbozas somewhere in the family, but no one EVER talked about them. If anyone asked a question about them, they were shushed right away. So I really have no idea."
December 16, 2021
I found this book to be thoroughly informative, enjoyable and well written. As most of Casey Sherman’s work, it grabs you by the lapel and doesn’t let go. I suggest audiobook format because Jim Goad does an incredible job with reading the prose but also using the various accents, inflections and tone that adds a great deal to each scene. The addition of the Witness Security Program and the more violent assassinations are delightful. No watered down nonsense. Having grown up in Boston, and being a student of organized crime in all it’s forms, this is a fantastic book. And no heavy lifting so it reads smooth. I HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone with even a passing interest in Mob Life, Especially in Massachusetts.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 15, 2021
Great book. Well written. Lots of details is joes life. The only thing I didn’t like with the audiobook is the person that tries to do joes ascent. It was quite humorous and wrong. Best book about Joe and that includes his ghost written audio biography that was it detailed and he kept out his friends and crimes they did together.
June 27, 2023
Livro interessante, no fundo é a biografia de um criminoso de origem portuguesa que fez trabalhos para a máfia. Mostra a realidade do Massachusetts nos anos 60 a facilidade em encomendar um homicídio e põe a nu a credibilidade de um FBI, levantando questões interessantes sobre os limites da investigação criminal, que aqui foram largamente ultrapassados. Boa leitura!!
July 10, 2025
Captivating reading about the life of a Portuguese inside the organized crime life.
July 18, 2015
Animal: The Rise and Fall of the Mobs Most Feared Assassin was a fantastic read and especially for those who are mob buffs. It covers the “golden age” of mob activity in the 1960’s and 1970’s but most interestingly the focus is on the New England Faction led by Raymond Patriarca.
Joe Barboza, nicknamed the Animal, is a hit man for the mob in New England. He wants desperately to be a made man but because he is Portguese, that never transpires. This bind is part of the reason he chooses to play both sides against the middle – killing for the mob and testifying for the FBI.
Long before Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, there was Joe Barboza. The New England faction is even more interesting in many respects because it is made up of a real melting pot of organized crime: the Irish, the Germans and the Italians as well as young men from many minority communities who act as associates to these groups.
There is a lot of detail but probably the most fascinating aspect is just how crooked the FBI was, especially when dealing with Organized Crime. It goes beyond the FBI – all the way back to Robert Kennedy’s obsession and focus on OC to Hoover’s long standing crusade and win at all costs mentality that seeped to the lower levels of the organization.
At one point when Barboza and his family are being held by the FBI while he testifies, even the writing begins to feel claustrophobic – you start to feel like you are trapped right there with the family. This is also an introduction into how the Witness Protection Program came into existence and its success or lack thereof when it comes to mob informants.
A must read for those into mafia/mob books and the true crime genre in general.
Joe Barboza, nicknamed the Animal, is a hit man for the mob in New England. He wants desperately to be a made man but because he is Portguese, that never transpires. This bind is part of the reason he chooses to play both sides against the middle – killing for the mob and testifying for the FBI.
Long before Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, there was Joe Barboza. The New England faction is even more interesting in many respects because it is made up of a real melting pot of organized crime: the Irish, the Germans and the Italians as well as young men from many minority communities who act as associates to these groups.
There is a lot of detail but probably the most fascinating aspect is just how crooked the FBI was, especially when dealing with Organized Crime. It goes beyond the FBI – all the way back to Robert Kennedy’s obsession and focus on OC to Hoover’s long standing crusade and win at all costs mentality that seeped to the lower levels of the organization.
At one point when Barboza and his family are being held by the FBI while he testifies, even the writing begins to feel claustrophobic – you start to feel like you are trapped right there with the family. This is also an introduction into how the Witness Protection Program came into existence and its success or lack thereof when it comes to mob informants.
A must read for those into mafia/mob books and the true crime genre in general.
August 18, 2015
I would give it a 3.5. A truly fascinating account of a really tough, ferocious hoodlum who was around during the heyday of the New England mafia. It brings what you might expect, with a pretty serious twist. The Barboza story pre-dated the James Whitey Bulger story, but is in some respects the same story, with the same players. Barboza eventually was turned by the very same FBI Office that ran Bulger after Barboza had a falling out with his former "friends" in the mob. H. Paul Rico was the FBI Agent involved not only in turning Barboza, but in getting him to offer false testimony against mob associates Peter Limone, Henry Tameleo, Joe Salvati and Louis Greco in a murder case. The complicity of the government in having these men falsely convicted of murder was later exposed, with a massive financial judgement given to the surviving defendants, who had served over thirty years in prison. Not only did H. Paul Rico orchestrate the frame up of these men, but he was aware that the murder victim, one Teddy Deegan, was in danger before he was murdered. But since that danger came from hoodlums "cooperating" with the FBI nothing was done to protect Deegan. Who really killed Deegan? That would be Barboza's only friend, Jimmy "the Bear" Flemmi, the brother of Bulger partner Steve Flemmi. Agent Rico was later indicted in the murder of World Jai Lai owner Roger Wheeler, who was in a "business dispute" with James Bulger and Steve Flemmi. The Bulger "file" was pre-dated by the Barboza "file".
A good summer read, especially if mob history is of interest.
A good summer read, especially if mob history is of interest.
October 25, 2013
I hated this book. I was mad at myself for reading it all the way through. It's meandering and jumps around a lot in time. It has no index, which makes it harder to follow; doesn’t seem to have any storyline or structure; and offers no moral lesson other than: 1. There is nothing glamorous about murder and 2. Organized crime is a petty, vicious proposition filled with losers who are their own ultimate victims – as well as their friends and families. It doesn’t live up to its hype; it doesn’t live up to its title; and the quote from J. Edgar Hoover is misleading - it was more a matter of wish-fulfillment than an accurate assessment of Barboza’s [the protagonist] actual place in the underworld.
I guess there was one good thing about it, though – it made me want to stop wasting my time reading trashy, voyeuristic true crime books.
For the real deal, read ‘Wiseguy’ by Nicholas Pileggi (on which ‘Goodfellas’ was closely based); 'The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer' by Anthony Bruno (pretty gruesome, after all, but much more befitting of the hype; more awful and revealing than the movie, which practically made him a hero); 'Tokyo Vice' by Jake Adelstein; or 'Gomorrah' by Roberto Saviano.
I guess there was one good thing about it, though – it made me want to stop wasting my time reading trashy, voyeuristic true crime books.
For the real deal, read ‘Wiseguy’ by Nicholas Pileggi (on which ‘Goodfellas’ was closely based); 'The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer' by Anthony Bruno (pretty gruesome, after all, but much more befitting of the hype; more awful and revealing than the movie, which practically made him a hero); 'Tokyo Vice' by Jake Adelstein; or 'Gomorrah' by Roberto Saviano.
August 13, 2014
This grisly, macabre story of one of Americas most heartless and bloodthirsty gangsters will have you double checking your locks, second-guessing your friends, and reminding yourself that reality is closer to home than you think. Veteran writer Casey Sherman takes you deep into the world of one of the most notorious mafias in America, one that plagued communities with murder, blood, deceit, and intimidation. How do you bring down an organization like this? From the inside, of course. When Joe “The Animal” Barboza, one of the most deadly men in the crime world, turned on those who helped create him, the crime world is shattered as the darkest secrets are revealed and people’s lives are darkened in death.
“‘Your father was chopping wood down in the cellar and one of the logs popped loose and hit me by accident,’ she lied.”
Read the full review at http://www.musingwithcrayolakym.com/b...
“‘Your father was chopping wood down in the cellar and one of the logs popped loose and hit me by accident,’ she lied.”
Read the full review at http://www.musingwithcrayolakym.com/b...
June 24, 2013
Another goodreads giveaway, another good book. The story was a bit different from what I expected. I expected the story to be about Joe, not the whole New England mafia. I thought it was a great retelling of the mafia past but there were so many players that I felt a chart that explains who is who would be a great addition. All in all this was a good book.
November 14, 2013
A middling biography. Sherman pads the page count with lengthy digressions, such as a recap of the Boston Molasses flood while talking about Raymond Patriarca's upbringing. He makes frequent and extensive references to Barboza's own memoirs and to a Howie Carr book, to the point that I wondered why I was reading this one. So I stopped.
December 30, 2014
Great book....read over a 100 mafia books and this one answered many questions of the conspiracy of the FBI HERE IN New England.....Highly recommend the book to the New England market seekers of unanswered questions. Lastly, the book showed my how parallel the structure of Cosa Nostra is to business franchises in the real estate world...interesting....
May 12, 2013
I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads. I thought it was a good book and very insightful. You here alot about mob hit man, but I had never heard of this one. Not for the faint of heart :) good book.
June 29, 2013
Interesting book. To hear things about names you've heard in the news all growing up and knowing different places.
July 9, 2014
I'm somewhere between a 3 and a 4 on this. Animal is fascinating. The beginning and the end tell most of his story- the middle kind of goes around him, and talks about everyone else...
August 31, 2014
Barboza isn't that interesting. Not enough on Patriarca.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews