He went looking to make friends with guys from Southie? Where did you come up with that? Joe ran with Buddy Mclean, the man who started Winter Hill. Joe didnt have friends in Southie, he knew who the criminals were in Southie, but never ran with them. He had his own crew of guys from Eastie and during the gang war worked with the Somerville side and killed a bunch of men for Buddy. And he got killed cause he threatened Partriarca and decided to rat and they found him and did away with him. Didnt have anything to do with trying to make friends with Southie guys. This was during the 60s and at that time Southie had its own gang wars going on and they had nothing to do with the big Irish gang war, or the other factions around Boston. Southie didnt get invloved until Howie Winter, Joe Russo, Whitey Bulger and Pat Nee had a sitdown and came to an agreement that Southie would join together with the Hill and that goes with the saying, Whitey ran South Boston and Howie ran Whitey. Joe Barboza was not even a factor during this and it was also after Buddy died. Buddy and Joe had a strong connection cause Buddy was an Irishman, but raised by a Portuguese family. He would have done anything Buddy asked. Thats just a false statement, wondering where you got that from.