Summary Of Animal By Casey Sherman

In the novel Animal by Casey Sherman a Portuguese man named Joe Barboza wanted to join the Italian Mafia. There were two requirements for getting inducted into the Mafia, you had to be Sicilian, and you had to commit a contract killing. Joe Barboza was born in New Bedford and dreamed to be part of La Cosa Nostra, and always looked for ways around needing to be Sicilian.

Joe Barboza thought that if he killed enough people and did what the Mafia wanted they would have to let him become a member of the Mafia. He later went to the good side of the law, helping the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the FBI in bringing down the Sicilian Mafia. He was put into protective custody with his family, and had hits put out on him countless times. The novel opens up in a bar filled with mafia members and Barboza went and punched a member of the mafia and when he was told that he cannot put his hands on any member of the mafia, he looked right at the man that he punched and bit off a chunk of his cheek. Everyone kind of backed off and “Barboza’s legend began to grow.” (Prologue xiii) After this day everyone began to call him “The Animal.” Unlike many stories Casey Sherman didn’t start chapter one from the beginning he actually started it after Barboza had agreed to help the FBI in bringing down the Mafia. Sherman didn’t take the stereotypical route and began the tale of his

S. Patriarca. Patriarca was the mob boss for New England. Sherman goes on to mention that in February of 1959 Patriarca “had been summoned to Washington, D.C., to testify before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor Management.”(20) It was here that Patriarca was questioned as to threats and beatings made by his employees back in Providence at the “National Cigarette Service vending machine company.”(21) Patriarca denied the allegations and “painted himself as an honest businessman unfairly targeted and harassed by