Luigi "Baby Shacks" Manocchio, the former boss of New England's Patriarca crime family, died on December 12, 2024, at age 97. As the last Rhode Island leader of the New England Mafia, he maintained old-school criminal operations focused on illegal gambling, extortion, and loansharking.

Operating from Addie's Laundromat in Providence's Federal Hill neighborhood, Manocchio led the crime family from 1996, though by then the organization had been weakened by internal conflicts and legal troubles. His predecessor's convictions were partly based on information from FBI informant James "Whitey" Bulger, who was later murdered in prison by someone connected to the Patriarca family.

Born in Providence in 1927, Manocchio began his criminal career as a teenager in the 1940s. He rose through the ranks under Raymond Patriarca's leadership in the 1960s. After surviving a neck shooting in 1967, he fled to France in 1969 following murder charges related to two bookies' deaths. He returned a decade later when the key witness developed Alzheimer's, successfully overturning his life sentence through a plea deal.

The syndicate once controlled illegal gambling throughout Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, with hidden interests in Las Vegas's Dunes casino. Manocchio earned his nickname "Baby Shacks" due to an older relative known as "Shacks" for his frequent relationships with women.

His leadership ended in 2012 at age 85 with a five-year sentence for strip club extortion. During sentencing, he claimed to have "inherited the deeds" of his associates rather than making personal threats. The organization is now led by Carmen "the Cheese Man" DeNunzio of the Boston faction.

Related Articles

Previous Articles