The Doctor Broad: A Mafia Love Story
There are people in the know who say that Barbara Roberts caused the downfall of the New England Mafia. She did this, not by killing someone, or sending someone to jail, but by keeping someone alive, and out of prison, for about a year too long.
This is the true story of a devout Catholic schoolgirl who grows up to be a physician, an atheist, feminist, anti-war activist – as well as a Mob doctor and Mob mistress. The man she keeps alive and out of prison is Raymond L. S. Patriarca, the long-time head of the New England Mafia.
Now in his early seventies, Patriarca is in poor health, although he tries to hide this. A long-time diabetic, he has known heart disease and has recently undergone a toe amputation when he is arrested on capital charges relating to an old murder, and taken to the Rhode Island State Police Barracks in Scituate. Barbara Roberts takes him on as a patient that night, and her world is forever changed.
Her testimony in various courts that he is too sick to stand trial earns her the enmity of police, FBI agents, the Providence Journal newspaper, and some of her fellow physicians. But the care of Raymond is not the only stressor in her life. The father of her youngest child is suing her in Family Court for common law divorce, palimony, and custody of their young daughter on the grounds that she is an unfit mother. Her oldest daughter suffers a nervous breakdown. She is fighting a trumped-up felony charge of breaking and entering. And less than a year after becoming Raymond’s physician and protector, she begins a clandestine affair with the alleged #3 man in the New England Mafia, Louis “Baby Shanks” Manocchio. Two years later he is convicted of accessory and conspiracy to murder and sentenced to two consecutive life years in prison, plus ten years.
This is not just a Mafia story. This memoir traces Barbara Roberts’ life story from a now vanished world almost to the present. Her commitment to feminism and medicine leads her into unexpected byways. She travels a path she never foresaw into moral dilemmas she never envisioned. It is the story of a woman born into one world who comes of age in another; who expects to live one life but finds herself ad-libbing something very different; who faces challenges undreamt of by her mother, while providing a new paradigm for her daughters.
Coming Summer 2019
Kindle pre-order now available!
Other Books
How to Keep From Breaking Your Heart: What Every Woman Needs to Know About Cardiovascular Disease
Dr. Roberts discusses how women and men differ when it comes to heart disease: symptoms, risk factors, responses to medications, responses to surgery are all influenced by gender. Dr. Roberts details how women have been under-represented in clinical trials of medicines and interventions, and how this has often led to worse outcomes for women. She presents clear recommendations on how to prevent heart disease and includes a chapter on the history of medicine, from ancient times to the present.
Treating and Beating Heart Disease: A Consumer’s Guide to Cardiac Medicines
This handy guide gives capsule summaries for all the commonly prescribed cardiac medications. Dr. Roberts discusses dosages, side effects and indications in easy to understand language.
The Truth About Statins: Risks and Alternatives to Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs
Dr. Roberts takes an in-depth look at the clinical trial results that led to statins being the world’s most widely-prescribed and profitable drugs. She examines the myriad of sometimes crippling statin side effects that only became apparent after clinical trials were completed and presents the data on how women are more prone to these side effects, and less likely to derive any benefit. She presents drug-free alternatives to heart disease prevention such as the Mediterranean Diet, and includes a sampling of delicious recipes.