Angela Raiola Biography

In May 2001, Angela Raiola was one of fifteen defendants convicted for involvement in a narcotics operation that distributed powdered cocaine, marijuana, and crack cocaine in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Raiola, an associate of the ring's leader, sold drugs from the bars where she worked. At the time of her arrest, her handbag was found to contain 14 plastic bags of cocaine. In 2003, Raiola, who was free on a $100,000 bond, pleaded guilty to the indictment’s top count. In October of that year, she was sentenced to three years of probation and four months of home confinement. In July 2004, a federal judge modified her probation, ordering her to enroll in an “outpatient and/or inpatient drug treatment or detoxification program.”

Angela Raiola was born on June 30, 1960, in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She grew up with four brothers and two sisters. Her uncle, Salvatore "Sally Dogs" Lombardi, was a captain in the Genovese crime family.

Angela Raiola had two children, Raquel and Anthony Donofrio. In 2009, she married Neil Murphy. In 2007, Raiola and her cousin opened a bar named The Drunken Monkey. However, it was shut down in 2015 due to her past criminal record.

Raiola started experiencing pain in her throat in 2015, and the doctors prescribed her antibiotics. When the pain did not subside, she went to an ENT specialist and was eventually diagnosed with a tumor that required immediate surgery. Raiola was believed to be cancer-free after successive surgeries and chemotherapy. However, a throat scan in December 2015 revealed that her cancer had not only returned but had also spread to her lungs and brain. In early 2016, she started immunotherapy after the tumors no longer responded to chemotherapy.

After battling cancer for several months following her initial diagnosis, Raiola eventually died on February 18, 2016, in New York. She was 55 at the time.