Pasquale Barbaro: From decades of the Rosary to crime kingpin

PASQUALE Barbaro’s ex-wife has revealed prison changed him from a ‘nice Italian man’ to a tattoo-obsessed serial dater who posted Snapchats of himself walking an unknown woman on a leash.

Rosary beads and crime, Pasquale Barbaro was a devout Catholic and a member of Australia’s oldest crime group the Calabrian mafia.

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SLAIN gangster Pasquale Barbaro’s secret life has been laid bare with new revelations he would read bible verses to his children by day before bedding escorts at night.

At sunset, the executed Sydney crime kingpin, a member of Australia’s oldest crime group the Calabrian mafia, stalked strip clubs and took escorts to his bachelor pad to film them naked so he could send raunchy footage to friends to boast.

Pasquale Barbaro read his children the Bible at night and enjoyed wearing expensive clothes and Rolex watches.

Barbaro, 35, had a fierce devotion to God and Archangel Michael and days before his death, fearing the end was nigh, asked his estranged wife Melinda Barbaro for a lavish $10,000 mahogany coffin adorned with statues of Jesus and Mary and a plaque of The Last Supper for his funeral.

He was gunned down two weeks ago in Earlwood after leaving a friend’s house for dinner.

His body has been embalmed in the casket and will be laid to rest in the family mausoleum at a coastal graveyard at La Perouse this week.

A coffin similar to the one used for the funeral of Pasquale Barbaro which had to be custom made for the gym-junkie’s musclebound body.

The coffin was custom-made to accommodate the gym-junkie’s musclebound body.

His wife Melinda, 31, told The Daily Telegraph: “He was typical Italian and loved everything to do with religion and food.

“Yes he loved his Versace shirts and Rolexes but he went to church to pray and was fiercely loyal and protective to me and our children.

“There were statues of La Madonna and Jesus and archangels around the house and we’d always read the Bible to the children at night.

“What he became just before his death was not the loving, kind, family man I married. He was different after prison, his head was messed up.”

Chantel Baptista, girlfriend of slain gangland identity Barbaro. Source: Facebook

A source added: “Weeks before he died, he knew the end was coming and told his priest he was scared and regretted many things in life, especially splitting with his wife.

“The padre told him to pray the rosary every night and ask for forgiveness so he would be spared death but his time was up.”

Barbaro’s entrenched Catholic beliefs, which compelled him go to confession every Sunday and pray the rosary, were in stark contrast to the murky life he led as part of Sydney’s organised criminal underworld.

Chantel Baptista, left, was the most recent in a string of young women Barbaro dated after his most recent stint in prison. Source: Facebook

When the sun went down, the tattooed gangster staked out the strip clubs of Kings Cross and was often seen at the Dollhouse strip club where he took home dancers for one night stands.

After separating from his wife in 2013, months after he emerged from a stint in prison for manufacturing the drug ice, he began to spin out of control.

After being jailed in 2012 for manufacturing the drug ice Barbaro is believed to have become addicted to tattoos. Picture: Instagram

He dated a string of young women including more recently dancer Chantel Baptista and developed an addiction to tattoos, adding new ones every week until his body was covered.

He took escorts to his bachelor pad in Darling Point and would send videos and Snapchats of his conquests to friends to boast.

One video obtained by The Daily Telegraph shows the gangster’s tattooed hand holding a leash attached to a scantily-clad woman crawling around on all fours to YG’s explicit rap tune Who Do You Love.

In one of the videos Barbaro’s heavily features as he films one of his conquests.

Soon a scantily clad woman is revealed on all fours with a leash attached.

A separate Snapchat clip shows him secretly filming the same woman naked on his bed.

He was painted as a man with countless enemies who liked to brag about his associates having moved away from his mafia background to set up his own drug network with independent groups in western Sydney among Middle Eastern crime gangs and bikies.

Two weeks ago a gunman opened fire unleashing seven bullets.

He was the eighth underworld figure executed in Sydney in the last 18 months.

Barbaro was dating dancer Baptista when he was gunned down outside the home of an associate in Earlwood. Source: Facebook

In 2001, aged 21, he was jailed for nine years with a non-parole period of six years after pleading guilty to drug dealing including arranging for his father Guiseppe to send him methamphetamine from Melbourne to Sydney via a drug courier on a plane.

He was arrested again in June 2012 and jailed for manufacturing 2kg of ice between 2010 and 2011.

He had survived at least two previous shootings.

The first was on New Year’s Day 2014 when three gunman opened fire on a luxury Oscar II yacht that Barbaro was partying on with Brothers For Life gang leader Farhad Qaumi and Kings Cross identity Adam Freeman, son of bookie and organised crime figure George Freeman.

In November 2015, Barbaro survived an attempt on his life at Leichhardt, in Sydney’s inner west. He was shot at several times but escaped unscathed.