Ex-NE Mob Boss to Be Sentenced in Strip Club Plot When 84-year-old Luigi "Baby Shacks" Manocchio is led away to prison, the New England Mafia will lose an "old school" former boss who came up through the ranks during the mob's heyday only to be undone in his old age over his role in the shakedown of Providence strip clubs. The New England Mafia remains as a shell of its former self, crippled in its ability to control businesses through fear, stay out of the crosshairs of law enforcement or even adhere to the sacred code of silence that made the organization so powerful, observers said. Nine people described by prosecutors as Mafia leaders, members and associates were ensnared by an investigation into the shakedown of Providence strip clubs and other extortion activities. Aside from Manocchio, Raymond "Scarface" Jenkins, 48, is also being sentenced on Friday in U.S. District Court in Providence. He pleaded guilty to extortion conspiracy for his role in the extortion of a used-car salesman for $25,000. The organization also faces a bleak financial future as its gambling operations become marginalized by legalized casino gaming in some New England states and by Internet gambling operations, observers say. Also, the mob no longer has the "fear factor" that once commanded payoffs from businesses, some say. "It's not an area where there's a lot of money to be made anymore," said attorney Ray Mansolillo, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who represented Manocchio in the past but isn't involved in the strip club case. The case, Mansolillo said, shows the mob is now chasing scraps wherever it can, rather than collecting payoffs from a range of businesses. Retired Massachusetts state police Col. Thomas J. Foley, whose book on the hunt for reputed Boston mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger was published this week, said the New England Mafia can still make money but "it's not as easy as it was." "It was, you walk in, you do a little damage to the business, you threaten them and they fall in line," Foley said. They don't have the fear factor that was there in the earlier years. Manocchio is referred to by police as an "old school" member of La Cosa Nostra, who learned at the knee of the late boss Raymond L.S. Patriarca while developing the reputation of a gentleman in Federal Hill, the Providence neighborhood where he lived alone. La Cosa Nostra, which means "this thing of ours," is a national alliance of criminals who are organized by families or groups. In New England, they are known for running illegal gambling operations, loan sharking and moving stolen goods. When Patriarca died in 1984 he was facing charges that he and others took part in a scheme to skim $11 million from a labor union. To try to root out La Cosa Nostra, the FBI enlisted Bulger, who's also in his 80s, and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi as informants to supply information about their organized crime rivals. Bulger, who was captured with his girlfriend last summer in Santa Monica, Calif., after being on the run since 1995, is awaiting trial on charges he participated in 19 murders. He has pleaded not guilty. Investigators probing the Rhode Island strip club case found people inside the mob complaining about shoddy leadership from the reputed acting boss, Anthony L. DiNunzio.