Edward Barberra
Edward Barberra-Barberro is an Italian-American mob associate of the Lucchese crime family street soldier and later Bonanno crime family street soldier from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn who worked under Paul Vario in the 1950's and 1960's and later Dominick Napolitano and Louis Attanasio.
Biography
As an adolescent, Barberra hung out with mobster and future informant Henry Hill, who was then being groomed for the mob by Paul Vario. Vario eventually hired Barberra as an armed escort for patrons of his floating craps games in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. As a courtesy to big winners, Barberra and Frank Sorace would drive them home. The two mobsters would sit in their Cadillac outside Peter "The Killer" Abbandante's social club until the craps games ended in the early morning hours.
Later on, Barberra was implicated in the [...] of a African-American mugger. The man had attempted to rob Theresa Bovina, a young teenager in Barberra's neighborhood. Barberra, Abbandante, Sorace, and Peter Morales caught the mugger, dragged him to the roof of Bovina's apartment building, and threw him over the edge. Barberra was tried for his [...], but was never convicted. In the late 1970's or early 1980's, Barberra joined the Bonanno crime family and worked under Dominick Napolitano and later Louis Attanasio. In 1985, Barberra was arrested during a failed armed bank robbery in Atlanta, Georgia and sentenced to twenty years in prison. He was due to be released sometime in 2005.
Hill barely mentions his relationship with Barberra in his biography Wiseguy: Life In A Family Family written by Nicholas Pileggi. However, he does seem sorry that Barberra was incarcerated for the attempted bank robbery. He was released sometime in the late 1980's or early 1990's and continued his criminal career. In October 1996 Edward, along with his capo Louis Attanasio and Bonanno crime family mobster Ernest Casazza pled guilty to extortion charges. They were convicted for collecting a total of $2500 from a loanshark victim who had fallen behind in gambling debts.
References
- Pileggi, Nicholas, Wiseguy: Life In A Mafia Family, Corgi (1987) ISBN 055213094X