Manocchio leaving Superior Court in 1983 .
“ I said , ‘ Marc [ Smerling ], what do you think you know about me ?’” she recalls . “ He said , ‘ I know you were Raymond ’ s doctor .’ I said , ‘ Yes , and while I was Raymond ’ s doctor , I was Louis Manocchio ’ s mistress .’ His eyes popped out of his head and his jaw dropped .”
— Barbara Roberts
after hearing about the newly famous cardiologist . Mob members and cops , she says , were impressed with her credentials , since they knew Patriarca would only want the best .
“ I wound up taking care of a lot of law enforcement officials , probably for the same reason . Sometimes my waiting room would be several wise guys and several cops and a lot of elderly people sitting quaking in their boots ,” she recalls with a laugh .
Though her sought-after status was new , Roberts was not a complete stranger to police rap sheets . As a young woman , she ’ d racked up a reputation as an outspoken activist attending rallies up and down the
East Coast . Raised as the oldest of ten in a devout Catholic family , she rebelled in her twenties and joined the feminist movement , getting involved with abortion rights rallies and anti-war demonstrations . In her early years in the medical field , she worked at Planned Parenthood and was involved as a student activist .
“ I used to tease Raymond that I was probably his only doctor who had an FBI file as thick as his ,” she says . Two years before her memoir , Roberts was interviewed by Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier for their hit podcast Crimetown . It was the first time she spoke publicly about another piece of her story , up until then only known by close friends and family — her romantic affair with Luigi “ Baby Shacks ” Manocchio , at the time Patriarca ’ s number three man .
“ I said , ‘ Marc , what do you think you know about me ?’” she recalls . “ He said , ‘ I know you were Raymond ’ s doctor .’ I said , ‘ Yes , and while I was Raymond ’ s doctor , I was Louis Manocchio ’ s mistress .’ His eyes popped out of his head and his jaw dropped .”
Roberts met Manocchio in much the same way she met Patriarca , through Jack Cicilline . The two were getting dinner at a Federal Hill restaurant where Manocchio worked as manager , and the young doctor caught his eye . She describes the onetime mob boss as an “ old-fashioned gentleman ,” well-traveled and speaking three languages on account of the decade he spent running from authorities in the 1970s . They struck up a romance that continued briefly after his two-year stint in prison . After his release in 1985 , he made plans to return to Europe to avoid further arrest , and invited her to come with him . She declined , and met her now-husband four years later .
Though her days of waiting rooms filled with mobsters are now in the past , Roberts maintained a friendship with Manocchio and visited him before his death in December at the Rhode Island Veterans Home . As a doctor , she says , she learned to see her patients as humans , and not for their crimes .
“ As a physician , these things don ’ t matter ,” she says . — L . C .
Read more of Roberts ’ story or purchase her book at thedoctorbroad . com . To read an excerpt from her book , go to RIMonthly . com / mafia-mistressmemoir .