Salvatore Barbato was a member of the Gambino Family, who law enforcement once described as a major cog in the wheel of heroin trafficking. He associated with other major narcotics traffickers in the Family, including Vincent (Jimmy Jerome) Squillante, Anthony (Little Tony) Carminati, and Rocco (Rogie) Mazzie.
Salvatore (Fats Murphy) Barbato – aka Salvatore Joseph Barbato – was born in East Harlem, New York on August 13, 1913 (alternate dob listed as August 12, 1912.) Salvatore was one of eight children of Michael and Carolina (nee’ Immato) Barbato.
He had three brothers named Anthony, Michael, and Frank, and four sisters named Theresa, Maria, Lucille, and Anna. The Barbato children all attended the NYC School system, with Salvatore going as far as the seventh grade before he dropped out.
In 1940, at 27, he registered for the draft during WWII. At the time he listed his home address as 117 E. 111th Street in East Harlem and his employment at the United Stable Corporation.
He married the former Lucille DeFilippis and they soon started a family together, eventually having three sons named Christopher, Salvatore Jr., and Anthony. The Barbatos moved to the Bronx where they resided at a private two-story single-family home at 2128 Virgil Place.
Police records indicated that Barbato was known on the streets as “Fats Murphy” and described him as short and stocky at only 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighing 180 pounds, with dark brown hair he wore close-cropped, and dark brown eyes. Police intake files also noted he had several prominent facial scars including a one-inch diagonal scar on his upper lip and another three-inch scar running across his left cheek.
FBI #382288, NYCPD #B-84770
His criminal record started back in 1930 when Barbato was still only 17 years old. Over the years, he had arrests for armed robbery, possession of a weapon, disorderly conduct, and three separate violations of NYS and federal narcotics laws, resulting in three convictions.) In 1957, he received a 12-year federal prison term for conspiracy to sell and the sale of heroin. After exhausting all appeals, Barbato entered prison in 1959 to start serving this sentence.
Police intelligence reported that, through the years, Barbato lived and mostly operated around Manhattan and Bronx Counties.
Reviewing his rap sheet as well as his known associates, it seems that Fats wasn’t very diversified in his criminal pursuits. He seems to have specialized in the wholesale trafficking of hard narcotics, specifically heroin.
Stomping Grounds
Barbato was the co-owner and operator of the popular DiLisi’s Bakery, a profitable bake shop at 411 East 63rd Street in bustling Midtown Manhattan’s East Side neighborhood.
Although his legitimate bakery business was located in midtown Manhattan, “Fats Murphy” was generally known to hang around and do his other business with fellow mob guys from the Bronx.
Among his better-known underworld haunts and stomping grounds were Dick’s Diner at the corner of 138th Street and Bruckner Boulevard in the Bronx; The Blue Bird Bar at 2890 Buhre Avenue in the Bronx; a private mob social club on the corner of East 112th Street and Second Avenue in East Harlem; and Jennie’s Restaurant, a very notorious Mafia hangout owned by several top members of the Lucchese crew, at 2026 Second Avenue, a few doors down from the social club.
“Babania” Fats
The FBI as well as New York City’s Police Intelligence Unit both described Salvatore Barbato as a known hoodlum and prolific narcotics trafficker.
The Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (FBNDD) took it one step further, describing Barbato in their internal files as “An important Mafia member and narcotics trafficker, dealing in wholesale quantities of high-grade heroin. He was a major source of supply for heroin shipments going to Puerto Rico.”
“Fats Murphy” was also known for supplying several local Puerto Rican drug gangs with kilo quantities of heroin for local street distribution as well.
His listed Mafia associates included such important mafiosi as Gambino Family capos Vincent (Jimmy Jerome) Squillante, Anthony (Little Tony) Carminati and Rocco (Rogie) Mazzie, Gambino soldier Vincent (Jimmy Costa) Casablanca, and Lucchese Family capo Anthony (Tony Higgins) Castaldi.
All of the other above-named mafiosi were also considered to be major “babania” traffickers known to handle large-scale heroin transactions.
Member or Associate?
Although he had been repeatedly labeled as an important Mafia member through the years who maintained close friendships and connections to known Cosa Nostra figures, no law enforcement agency, be it the NYPD, FBI, or Federal Narcotics Bureau has ever officially labeled Salvatore Barbato as a fully inducted “made” member of the Mafia.
He’s never been identified in any U.S. Senate hearings as a member or appeared on any other official government chart as a documented soldier of any particular Cosa Nostra Family, per se. Yet, law enforcement authorities maintain that he was, in fact, an important cog in the wheel.
Despite that fact, “Fats Murphy” may have indeed been a Family soldier after all. If not, at the very least, he was an important Mafia “associate” who was most probably affiliated with the Carlo Gambino Family.
The Beginning of the End
Over two days, on November 13 and 14, 1956, drug agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics arrested Salvatore Barbato, along with his partner Paul DeVillo and crew members Salvatore (Sam) Alvino and George Rivera Patino, after a series of heroin purchases by undercover agents over several months.
Another defendant in the case, Eusebio Pimentel, had been arrested five weeks earlier, on October 9, 1956. A sixth defendant, identified as Robert (Bobby Jack) Jacovino, was already behind bars in Bronx County Jail, having been arrested earlier on state narcotics charges.
At the time of their arrests, federal authorities identified Barbato and DeVillo as the co-heads of this particular narcotics ring. The authorities also said that both men had two previous convictions each for narcotics violations in New York City.
“Fats” was later convicted on these latest drug charges. And as a three-time loser, this was the case where the judge sentenced him to 12 years behind bars as mentioned earlier.
Salvatore J. (Fats Murphy) Barbato died on September 8, 1968. At the time of his death, it is believed that Barbato had already been paroled from jail and was still living in the Allerton section of the Bronx. ”Fats Murphy” was only 56 years old.
Until next time…”The Other Guy”
