The Boston Mafia’s Portuguese Hitman

The brutal life and death of Joe ‘The Animal’ Barboza

Mugshot of Joseph Barboza | MCI-Cedar Junction, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Joseph “The Animal” Barboza, a descendant of Portuguese Lisbon-born parents, was the only non-Italian hitman for the Patriarca clan of the Boston Mafia.

Nicknamed “Animal”, the “Portugee” went by many names, became notorious as the most vicious gangster in Boston and earned the fearsome…