Ex-mob boss and Nahant resident Angiulo dead

Item Staff ReportBOSTON – Former New England mob underboss and Nahant resident Gennaro “Jerry” Angiulo died Saturday.The death of the 90-year-old Angiulo, once known as the godfather of organized crime in metropolitan Boston, was confirmed by Boston’s Joseph A. Langone Jr. Funeral Home, which is handling funeral arrangements (see obituary, page B7).Angiulo had been reportedly suffering from kidney failure in Lynn’s Union Hospital recently. Since his 2007 parole from a prison hospital and return to his Nahant home, his medical condition had been deteriorating.Federal authorities said Angiulo ran Boston’s rackets for New England crime overlord Raymond Patriarca, whose crime family was based in Providence, R.I., from the 1960s until the early 1980s.With a skill for making money, Angiulo rose to prominence with a sports betting operation and eventually became the area underboss.Angiulo and his three brothers, Donato (who died in early May), Franceso and Mikey, were convicted in February 1986 with evidence from conversations the FBI secretly recorded. The bugs recorded Angiulo ordering murders and beatings and boasting about his crimes.Angiulo served 24 years in federal custody for racketeering.Other trusted advisors during Angiulo’s reign were Sammy Granito of Revere and the late Larry Zannino of Swampscott, who served as his consigliere or counsel.In 1998, it was revealed in federal court that gangsters James “Whitey” Bulger, currently a fugitive from federal law enforcement, and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi gave the FBI instructions on where the bugs should be planted.Angiulo was the son of Sicilian immigrants who ran a North End grocery store. Law enforcement officials say he and his brothers were disciplined operators who had a virtual monopoly on the region’s illegal gambling and loansharking.(Material from The Associated Press and Item Staff was used in This report.)