Pasquale Barbaro laid to rest at small family funeral

Melinda Barbaro, wife of slain Sydney gangster Pasquale, said at his small family ­funeral yesterday that the father of two lived and died according to his favourite motto.

• Executed crime figure Barbaro’s family links to Mafia
• Pasquale Barbaro: The tough guy who had to die

SLAIN Sydney gangster Pasquale Barbaro was finally laid to rest at a small family ­funeral, with his wife saying he died according to his favourite motto.

Melinda Barbaro, 31, said the father of two — who was linked to Australia’s oldest crime group, the Calabrian Mafia — would often say “Live fast, die young and leave a good-looking corpse”.

“Those were his words,” she said. “Farewell, Pasquale, you can now rest in peace.”

Wife of Pasqaule Barbaro, Melinda Barbaro delivers a eulogy at his funeral in Melbourne.

Barbaro was laid to rest in a $10,000 coffin.

About 30 family members gathered inside the chapel to farewell him.

About 30 family members gathered at Tripodi Chapel in Coburg, Victoria, including Barbaro’s father Giuseppe. And despite the circumstances of Barbaro’s death, the service was not a roll call of Sydney’s or Melbourne’s underworld.

“Just good wholesome people, no criminals — except me,” Giuseppe Barbaro said.

Mr Barbaro, 60, who was sentenced to six years in jail in 2005 for supplying amphetamines, told The Daily Telegraph: “I want my boy with me in Melbourne where he belongs. He no longer has to watch his back and can now rest in peace with la famiglia.”

The family mourners heard how Barbaro developed a fierce devotion to God after he was jailed aged 21.

RELATED: BARBARO’S GRIEVING MUM: ‘I LOVED HIM, BUT DIDN’T LIKE HIM’

Barbaro was slain in Earlwood, gunned down in the street.

But when he emerged from prison for manufacturing methamphetamine in 2013, his life spiralled into a succession of parties, tattoos and fast cars.

“At the age of 21 he was jailed for six years and it was the darkest time of his life,” his wife said from the pulpit.

“But after he was sent to jail in 2012 … his life spiralled out of control.

“When he got out he partied and got tattoos.

“He confessed his sins to the end and asked God for forgiveness and now he is ­finally in peace.”

Priest Edwin Agius led the service.

A hand written message from Pasquale Barbaro's Nonno, Anna.

Barbaro, who leaves behind two young children, was laid to rest in an elaborate $10,000 mahogany coffin adorned with statues of Jesus and Mary and 24-carat gold roses and lilies.

The last farewell came two weeks after a modest memorial service was held for Barbaro in Sydney’s Italian quarter in Leichhardt, and a month after he was gunned down outside the house of a friend in Earlwood.

Four men linked to the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang have been charged with his murder.

Originally from the Cala­brian town of Plati, known as Italy’s “kidnap capital”, the Barbaro family rose to prominence during the Woodward Royal Commission when they were found to have been the principals behind Griffith’s marijuana industry. The family’s crime history stretches back decades in Australia.

Four men linked to the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang have been charged with his murder.

Pasquale’s grandfather, also named Pasquale, was murdered in Brisbane in 1990, having escaped an earlier ­assassination attempt.

A cousin, another Pasquale Barbaro, was murdered in a hit in Melbourne in 2003 alongside notorious crime figure Jason Moran.

And his uncle, yet another Pasquale Barbaro, is serving a 30-year sentence over the world’s biggest ecstasy bust.