As New England Mafia fades away, FBI Boston disbands organized crime squad
On an October afternoon in 1989, mobsters from Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts gathered at a modest home in Medford for a secret ritual: the induction of four soldiers into the New England Mafia, which marked a new beginning after their underboss was killed by a renegade faction.
“It’s going to be the life of the heaven,” consigliere Joseph “J.R.” Russo promised the new recruits, who pricked blood from their trigger fingers, burned holy cards and promised to kill anyone — even their own sons if necessary — to protect La Cosa Nostra, Italian for “This Thing of Ours.” As an FBI bug recorded the infamous ceremony, a historic moment for the law enforcement agency, Russo boasted that the secret Sicilian-born organization had thrived for seven generations, spreading to New York, Boston, Providence, Hartford, Chicago, and other cities across the country.
So much so that the FBI’s Boston office, which oversees much of New England, quietly disbanded its organized crime squad recently and re-assigned agents to other priorities, according to several people familiar with the move.
