Barbara Roberts, MD, then a 36-year-old cardiologist, was fearful and anxious when she entered the Rhode Island police barracks to meet Raymond Patriarca Sr, head of the notorious New England mafia crime family. Patriarca had indictments for drug trafficking, racketeering, armed robbery, white slavery, and loan sharking and had allegedly ordered several murders. J. Edgar Hoover called him "Boston's toughest hoodlum."
Yet Roberts had agreed to undertake his medical care. He had a long history of heart disease, heart attacks, angina, and diabetes and had developed osteomyelitis after suffering the amputation of a gangrenous toe. This was 1980, and that decision would change the course of her life.
"I had heard so much about Ray Patriarca and seen him on television testifying over the years," Roberts told Medscape Medical News. "I had the typical picture of a mob boss that everyone did at that time: Marlon Brando, Don Corleone. But when I first laid eyes on him, I thought, Oh my god, he's so tiny!"
Barbara Roberts, MD, and Raymond Patriarca Sr. Shutterstock
Roberts realized that Patriarca needed immediate medical care. With the FBI bearing down, Roberts got Patriarca admitted to a hospital, and she repeatedly testified that he was unfit to stand trial. After he was released from the hospital, she made house calls.
