New England Crime Family, Kevin Hanrahan cold case mob murder

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Court documents reveal the Federal Bureau of Investigation has received new information in the 1992 gangland slaying of reputed mob enforcer Kevin Hanrahan.

The Target 12 Investigators have learned the FBI is now re-examining the murder based on information from two criminal informants.

The new information came to light in court documents filed in February. According to the documents, an FBI informant — described as a Taunton, Mass., bookmaker — said he was being shaken down for protection money by Hanrahan.

In response, the document states the informant and another man pay a visit to a man named Gordon O'Brien to complain about the shake-down. The affidavit describes O'Brien as "a significant organized crime figure in Southeastern Massachusetts."

According to the documents, the informant claims that during that meeting, O'Brien made a phone call to Frank "Cadillac Frank" Salemme in Boston, then-mob boss of the New England Crime Family.

Within days of the call, according to the affidavit, Hanrahan was murdered.

The document does not disclose who pulled the trigger, but it does reveal the FBI is investigating Salemme for allegedly ordering the hit.

Salemme’s attorney, Steven Boozang of Boston, Mass., said the theory is ridiculous.

"Obviously someone has gotten into trouble and they're trying to get themselves out of trouble," said Boozang. "I know one thing, [Salemme] is an old school guy. He wouldn't have a conversation about anything on the telephone. It just simply would not happen."

Salemme, who federal authorities say was the head of the Patriarca crime family in the early '90's, was released from prison last spring. Boozang said at 76 years old, Salemme is trying to leave his former life behind, "riding off into the sunset" in an undisclosed location.

The new information is part of a criminal complaint against reputed mafia captain Anthony "The Saint" St. Laurent. St. Laurent is accused by the FBI of shaking down several Taunton bookmakers for protection money from 1988 to 2009. He has not been implicated in the Hanrahan mu http://af11.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/hollywood-goodfella-anthony-fiato-fbi-likescadillac-frank-salemme-in-patriarca-mob-cold-case/
Enrico Ponzo, a reputed Patriarca mobster who allegedly aligned himself with a rival faction in an attempt to prevent the ascension of Francis P. "Cadillac

Justice Department Won't Appeal $102 Million Verdict In Boston Wrongful-Conviction Case

The tortured legal ordeal of four Boston men wrongly convicted of murder by a cabal of gangsters and corrupt FBI agents apparently ended Friday with a decision by the U.S. Department of Justice not to appeal their record, $100 million wrongful imprisonment verdict to the U.S. Supreme Court, lawyers involved in the case said Friday.

The government had not appealed by a 5 p.m. deadline Friday, which lets stand an August 2009 decision by the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals upholding what is believed to be the largest verdict ever awarded in a wrongful imprisonment case, $101.7 million.

The four men spent decades in prison after FBI agents, in a scheme to cultivate mob informants, permitted the fabrication of evidence that led to their wrongful convictions for a 1965 murder.

The Justice Department's decision not to pursue another challenge of the verdict, awarded in July 2007 in Boston by U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner, is the latest in a half-century of legal developments arising in Boston about ruthless mob violence and shocking corruption by key figures in law enforcement. In its opening lines, Gertner's decision spoke of "egregious governmental misconduct," a "bullet-ridden" body, and the FBI's "callous disregard" for the four victims, referred to throughout as "the scapegoats."

Barring unexpected legal developments, the judgment will be divided among Joseph Savati, Peter Limone Sr. and the estates of the two other men, Henry Tameleo and Louis Greco Sr.

Tameleo and Greco died of old age in prison before a sensational series of legal developments beginning in the late 1990s proved that they had been framed by mob turncoats with the knowledge of agents at the highest levels of the FBI.

Three of the victims were reputed organized crime figures in Boston and were believed to have been framed to settle old disputes. Salvati, who had no connection to organized crime, was wrongly implicated in the murder because he had borrowed $400 from one of the turncoats and did not repay it quickly enough.

The FBI agents named in the wrongful imprisonment case were the same figures implicated two decades later in what became a sensational attempt by members of Boston's notorious Winter Hill gang to take over a significant portion of the U.S. parimutuel gambling industry. Oklahoma tycoon Roger Wheeler, whose World Jai Alai company owned the jai alai venue in north Hartford, was one of those shot dead in a conspiracy by then-current and retired FBI agents and mobsters in the takeover attempt.

Salvati's lead attorney in his lawsuit against the federal government was Hartford lawyer Austin J. McGuigan, who was joined in Hartford by his partner Joseph Burns and in Boston by attorney Victor J. Garo, whose early work on the case resulted in Salvati's being freed from prison after more than 30 years in 2001.

McGuigan said Friday that he was encouraged by the government's decision not to appeal. When the 1st Circuit upheld Gertner's damage award, McGuigan called the decision "the greatest experience of my legal career in terms of being able to right a wrong that had been perpetuated for so many years."

The 22-day bench trial before Gertner in 2007 amounted to a painstaking re-creation of events that began with the 1965 murder in Chelsea, Mass., of a nickel-and-dime hoodlum named Edward "Teddy" Deegan.

Salvati and the other victims produced as evidence hundreds of previously secret FBI reports showing that their innocence was widely known in the FBI within minutes of Deegan's murder. Nearly all the reports were routinely forwarded to the office of then-Director J. Edgar Hoover.

Deegan's real killers were the two mob turncoats that the FBI was trying to recruit as informants: Joseph "The Animal" Barboza and James Flemmi. Both were cold-blooded killers. An illegal FBI bug captured Flemmi bragging at about the time of the murder that he wanted to be Boston's most prolific hit man.

After Deegan was riddled with bullets in an unlit alley, FBI agents allowed Barboza to implicate the innocent men on the condition that he become a cooperating witness in a series of late 1960s mob prosecutions. Barboza agreed on the additional condition that his partner be kept out of the Deegan case as well.

In the trial court decision, Gertner wrote that the FBI records, which had been illegally concealed for decades, created a strong case against the bureau: "The FBI agents 'handling' Barboza ... and their superiors — all the way up to the FBI Director — knew that Barboza would perjure himself. They knew this because Barboza, a killer many times over, had told them so — directly and indirectly. Barboza's testimony about the plaintiffs contradicted every shred of evidence in the FBI's possession at the time — and the FBI had extraordinary information."

Boston mob fugitive Derek Capozzi captured

Update: Police tell LEX 18 Derek Capozzi is back in custody. U.S. Marshals and Versailles Police tell us they arrested him at 5:45 Saturday evening on Kentucky Street in Versailles. LEX 18 will have much more on Capozzi's capture on LEX 18 at 11.



U.S. Marshals said Saturday that escapee Derek Capozzi was captured by video surveillance at a Versailles business.

Cameras at the Dairy Queen in Versailles caught Capozzi walking in the parking lot at 1:59pm Friday afternoon. Capozzi still had the prison issued tan pants and white t-shirt. He was also wearing prison issued slip-on dark colored shoes.

Investigators say Capozzi kicked his way out of a prison van Thursday morning.

In 2005, he was convicted in connection with the brutal murder of a 19-year old near Boston. At the time, authorities say a group of gang members, including Capozzi, tried to kill her by overdosing her with pure heroin. When that didn't work, they strangled her and cut up her body.

Boston Mob enforcer, Derek A. Capozzi.on the run from kentucky prison van escape

A former Beverly man who was convicted of playing a role in grisly gangland murder of a young woman in 1996 has escaped from federal custody by kicking out the door of a van during a prisoner transport in central Kentucky.

Authorities in Massachusetts said they had been alerted to the escape of Derek A. Capozzi. “He is a bad guy and hopefully he’ll be caught quick,” said Deputy US Marshal Frank Dawson, a spokesman for the agency’s Boston office. “He is extremely dangerous.”

A multidepartment manhunt is under way in Kentucky for the fugitive, said Versailles, Ky., police spokesman Pat Melton.

Melton said Capozzi was being taken to Lexington, Ky., on Thursday to be flown to another facility out of state. He kicked open the door of the corrections van as it was turning onto the Kentucky 33 exit off the Bluegrass Parkway.

Capozzi, 37, was slated to be released from prison in 2046.

Capozzi was convicted by a federal jury in 2005 of helping to cover up the killing of Aislin Silva, 19, of Medford. Silva was killed by a Mafia-connected gang of drug dealers and thieves who feared she might cooperate with authorities. Capozzi helped to hack her body into small pieces and bury them after a fellow mobster strangled her.

Capozzi was convicted of joining the conspiracy to kill Silva, being an accessory after the fact, and conspiring to commit robbery. He was sentenced in August 2005 to 23 years in prison. He was already serving a 30-year sentence for a 1999 conviction on weapons and extortion charges.

Several other gang members were convicted in the Silva case. Gang member Kevin Meuse, who allegedly strangled Silva in Medford on Nov. 13, 1996, hanged himself in prison in 1997.

Joseph P. Silva, Aislin Silva’s father, said he had been notified by local law enforcement officials of the escape. He said he was confident that Capozzi would be caught.

“I hold great faith with them. They know what they’re doing,” said Silva. “I don’t believe he’ll get out of Kentucky.”

Doreen Henderson, Aislin Silva’s mother, said that hearing Capozzi’s name again had brought back painful memories.

“I’m hopeful that he will be apprehended very soon,” she said

Judge cuts Cheeseman DiNunzio some slack

A federal judge has gifted Boston Mafia godfather Carmen “The Cheeseman” DiNunzio another 30 days of freedom before he must report to the Federal Medical Center at Fort Devens on Oct. 22 and hunker down behind bars for the next six years. Read This Full story

U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young gave no reason yesterday for the stay, and assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Levitt didn’t balk - even after Young shot down his bid to ban DiNunzio from the North End for the next decade

Jerry’ Angiulo dies at 90

It was Boston’s first big Mafia case. New England mob underboss Gennaro “Jerry’’ Angiulo was captured on FBI tapes played at his 1985-86 trial ordering a soldier to “stomp,’’ stab, and strangle a witness, bragging about his crimes and berating underlings.

The wise-cracking Mr. Angiulo, who stood only 5 foot 7 and had a booming voice, serenaded spectators during a morning recess with his own version of, “I’m Just a Gigolo,’’ singing: “I’m just a racketeer, that’s all I ever hear, people know the game I’m playing. When they lay me to rest, with a lily on my chest, the gang will go on without me.’’

Ninety-year-old Mr. Angiulo, who outlived most of his old gang and witnessed the decline of the local Mafia, died yesterday at Massachusetts General Hospital of renal failure from kidney disease, according to his lawyer, Anthony Cardinale.

The once powerful mobster, who ruled Boston’s rackets from the 1960s until the early 1980s, considered it a personal victory that he survived 24 years in prison, won his release two years ago, and died a free man, friends said.
“He was determined to get out of jail, despite what was thought to be a life sentence, and spend the rest of his life with his family,’’ Cardinale said. “He accomplished that. He was a very strong-willed person. He outlived most of his enemies.’’ Full Story

James "Whitey" Bulger now small potatoes

Where’s Whitey?

Who cares?

Not Warren Bamford, the very earnest and squared-away gentleman who runs the FBI’s Boston office. Not really. Don’t get me wrong, Bamford said all the right things when he stopped by the Herald yesterday. Yes, he knows that James “Whitey” Bulger is a “career criminal” who killed at least 19 people we know of. And yeah, Bamford is still expending the “appropriate resources” to find the Southie gangster who still haunts post office walls right behind Uncle Osama. But the fact is, the White Man is coming up on 80.

And though he’s just miserable enough to live another 20 years, nobody on the FBI’s “Bulger Task Force” expects this seasoned killer to board a train or drive through a tunnel with a bunch of plastic explosives strapped to his chest.

Whitey may be a wrinkled monster. But he’s no terrorist.

And at this moment in time, terrorists are to Warren Bamford what an Italian mobster was to J. Edgar Hoover. In other words, the White Man’s basically a pimple on the arse of the universe. Bamford has bigger fish to fry.

To understand how much the world has changed since 9/11 is to hear Warren Bamford speak about how his FBI office reached out to the Somali community in Boston. Why? To alert them to the possibility of young Somalis returning to the homeland for terrorist training.

None of his agents are venturing over to the Beer Garden on East Broadway to address the boyos about a geezer psycho, who may or may not be stalking the green fields of Kilarney.

When I asked Bamford whether the FBI would consider allowing U.S. marshals to join the Whitey hunt, he seemed wide open to the possibility. The more the merrier. That’s when I knew that Whitey had indeed become small potatoes on today’s FBI playlist.

While Bamford may hold a federal management position under the big tent of the U.S. Justice Department, he declined to venture an opinion on the raft of civil suits, or millions in claims handed down for the past sins of imprisoned local G-man John “Zip” Connolly.

A week from now, Warren Bamford and his Whitey Task Force will call the media in for a Whitey update in advance of the old killer’s 80th year in this vale of tears. There will be accounts of new tips, new look-alike photos - maybe even a “we just missed him” tale. But no Whitey.

Truth is, Warren Bamford couldn’t care less. Sooner or later this awful old gangster will either die on the road . . . or have his brother bring him back to die in jail. In the meantime, we got all those terrorists to worry about.

Stephen "the rifleman" Flemmi

The Rifleman

Roxbury native, Stephen J. Flemmi got his nickname during the Korean War, when he was an uncanny marksman in the Army. In the 1960s, Flemmi developed close ties to both the Irish and Italian mobs, befriending Mafia boss Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme and earning a reputation as a cold-blooded operative. He later joined up with Somerville's Winter Hill gang, where he forged a close partnership with "Whitey" Bulger. Flemmi served as Bulger's front man, collecting money from bookies and inspiring fear in those who didn't pay their debts on time. He began informing for the FBI in the 1960s, a decade before his sidekick, Bulger.
Flemmi was arrested in 1995 on charges of racketeering and extortion, but fought the charges on grounds that the FBI had granted him and Bulger permission to commit certain crimes short of murder while they worked as informants. The ensuing court hearings dredged up some of the Boston FBI’s darkest secrets, including revelations of agents accepting payoffs and leaking information to help protect Flemmi and Bulger from prosecution. A judge ultimately ruled that the gangsters had received no promise of immunity, and Flemmi was sentenced in August 2001 to 10 years in prison for extortion and money laundering as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors. However, the revelation that he was an informant prompted his old cohorts to turn on him, the discovery of secret mob graves and new charges of murder against him.
Under a deal that spared him the death penalty, Flemmi pleaded guilty in 2004 to 10 murders -- including one in Florida and one in Oklahoma -- in exchange for a life sentence and began cooperating with the government. He alleged that he and Bulger had paid their former handler, Connolly, $200,000 while they were working as informants, gave cash and gifts to other agents and police officers, and offered details of corruption and murder. His cooperation led to Connolly's indictment in Florida on murder charges.

Sal Sperlinga Winter Hill Mob

Salvatore Sperlinga a/k/a "tough Sal "

Sal Sperlinga was in the Winter Hill Gang, and a close friend of boss Howie Winter. When they were both convicted in a 1977 pinball shakedown, Winter asked the judge to go easy on Sal because he was the sole support of his widowed mom. Sal was out on work release in 1980, toiling at the Magoun Square print shop of Somerville alderman Peter Piro, brother of state Rep. Vinny Piro, who would soon beat an attempted-extortion rap. Sal had told a local character, Dan Moran, to stay out of Union Square. Moran, angered, found out where Sal was working and tracked him down, and one Friday, while the boys were playing cards in the back of the shop, Moran came in and opened fire, killing Sperlinga. He was quickly tried and convicted, but he never had any “street justice” meted out, because his pal Howie Winter was still in prison

Hitting the Hitman

Hitting the Hit Men

Even alleged killers can be beaten up by a gang of thugs.
by Brendan McGarvey
Two reputed Mafia hit men got their asses kicked in a bar brawl on Delaware Avenue two weeks ago. The brawl started inside a Delaware Avenue club on a Thursday night when younger members and associates of the Philly Mafia started mouthing off to members of a gang from 10th and Oregon.
The men badly beaten in the brawl are both suspects in the murder of Raymond "Long John" Martorano. Martorano was gunned down in his car during rush hour Jan. 17 and died several weeks later. The two alleged hit men are brothers.
According to underworld sources, the brothers were in the club with several of their friends when they got into a verbal disagreement with members of an Italian-American drug gang known as the 10th and Oregon crew.
"The older brother was mouthing off and the 10th and O guys just started swinging," said one mob source. "The brothers and another friend got their asses kicked. Both brothers were knocked out, and one lost a piece of his ear in the brawl. The brothers were beaten so badly that they're still walking around with black eyes and swollen lips."
Underworld sources claim the young mobsters feel they have to retaliate to save face.
"Something bad is coming," another Cosa Nostra source told City Paper in an interview earlier this week. "Somebody is going to get killed over this."
The two brothers had been riding high since the murder of Martorano. "People have been treating them like mob royalty," said the source. "Everybody on the street knows they killed Long John."
The older brother has been openly dating the wife of a high-ranking gangster who is serving a sentence for racketeering. According to police and mob sources, the brother and the gangster's wife have been seen at several trendy restaurants in Old City over the last two months.
The 10th and Oregon crew responsible for the beatdown of the Mafia goodfellas are themselves new neighbors in South Philadelphia.
The former leaders of the 10th and O crew had numerous run-ins with the Mafia and with the Pagans motorcycle gang, but they've recently relocated to South Jersey, hanging out at a restaurant near the Deptford Mall.
The 10th and O crew is now under new leadership and appears to be as violent and as fearless as the previous generations of crew members, who sometimes worked hand in glove with the local Mafia and sometimes waged war against them.
In a related story, a former member of the Northeast Philly mob, also known as the K&A gang, claims that no one in the underworld wants to buy Martorano's Lincoln Towncar -- the car he was riding in when he was shot three times.
Last week the source told City Paper in an interview in Cosí in Old City that the Martorano-murder car is spooking potential buyers.
According to the source, the former head of the K&A gang was given an opportunity to buy Martorano's car. The former crime boss was once best friends with Godfather Angelo Bruno and had worked closely with Raymond Martorano.
"Look at that car," the retired K&A gangster told a friend. "Long John died in that thing. There's still cigarette butts in the ashtray. It's scary. I don't wanna buy it. It's too weird. It feels like Long John is still there."
Coincidentally, Martorano may have been killed in part because of his friendship with members of the old K&A gang.
Underworld rumors were rampant, according to both law enforcement and gangland sources, that Martorano was planning to take over the local Cosa Nostra with the help of North Jersey gangsters and with local muscle provided by the K&A gang.
"Martorano thought it was his turn to be boss," one mob insider told City Paper. "But the current boss disagreed. Martorano lost that argument Goodfellas he ain't. ."

Mob murder

Rhode Island State Police believe they have discovered the buried remains of slain mobster Joseph P. "Joe Onions" Scanlon behind the Lisboa Apartments in East Providence, according to a story by W. Zachary Malinowski and Mike Stanton of the Providence Journal.Police were directed to the site by Nicholas S. "Nicky" Pari, 71, of North Providence. Pari has already served time for the 1978 killing of Scanlon. He admitted to that crime back in 1982. His latest revelation for law enforcement came after he was arrested in Operation Mobbed Up earlier this week. The remains, unearthed yesterday, will be subjected to DNA testing.Scanlon grew up in an Italian neighborhood of Hartford, Connecticut, aspiring to Mafia membership. He moved to Providence with hopes of joining the Patriarca Crime Family. Scanlon had a falling out with area mobsters and reportedly began cooperating with authorities investigating Pari and Andrew Merola (right). Less than a month after becoming an informant, Scanlon disappeared.Pari and Merola were both arrested for killing Scanlon. At trial, Scanlon's girlfriend testified that the two men cooperated on the murder. Pari punched Scanlon to distract him, and Merola then shot Scanlon in the back of the head. The pair was convicted of first-degree murder, but they won a new trial on appeal. They subsequently pleaded no contest to lesser charges.On April 1, 2007, Merola at the age of 71. He had been battling cancer. A Providence Journal story reported that one of his last visitors was Luigi "Baby Shacks" Manocchio, head of the regional crime family. With the support of the New York Gambino crime family Patriarca managed to maintain power. The Patriarca crime family is an ItalianAmerican organized crime family ...

Keywords: hartford, manocchio, merola, murder, pari, patriarca,

This gangster’s fat in the fire

This gangster’s fat in the fire

For the FBI, bringing down the Cheeseman was like shooting fish in a barrel.

A very, very fat fish, that is. He weighs 400 pounds, this don of doughnuts, this king of the mozzarella mob. And Carmen DiNunzio can’t keep his bleepin’ mouth shut, any more than he can keep his pants from falling down around his 66-inch waist.

Yesterday, the feds released more information about the arrest of the 50-year-old moron formerly known as the Big Cheese, now the Cheeseman. And you can stick a fork in the Boston Mafia, because it’s all done.

As we pick up the story, Mr. Cheese is trying to muscle in on the very lucrative dirt racket in the city of Boston. The capo of capicola was scheming to sell dirt to the Big Dig. Go figure.

Of all the mistakes the Cheeseman made in this sad caper, the one I can’t get over occurred last Friday morning. He’d just been lugged, and as he sat around FBI headquarters, he began yapping about the family business.



I called up a retired wiseguy I know and read to him the 302 report on the Cheeseman’s revelations. The guy listened in silence until after I came to the final sentence.

“DINUNZIO advised that he believes that narcotics are ruining society.”

“What is he, a bleepin’ philosopher now?” my source said. “Doesn’t he understand everything he says will be used against him?”

But the G-men released even better material yesterday. They bugged conversations of his attempt to bribe a state hack. That’s right, you heard me - the Big Cheese wasn’t shaking someone down, he was delivering money to a guy he thought was a Mass. Highway Department inspector, for the privilege of dealing, not drugs, but dirt.

Only problem was, this corrupt hack was actually an undercover FBI agent. The third guy, the go-between, has been flipped.

You know how you learn in Mafia 101, never give your real name. The conversation begins with the rat introducing DiNunzio: “This is my friend, Carmen.”

The Cheeseman starts talking to the wired rat and the fed about what he was going to do to this trucker, Andrew Marino.

“I was gonna throw this bleeping kid off a roof,” he says.

First, Cheeseman, you’d have to run him down and catch him. And even if he were in a wheelchair, or even an iron lung, in a race against you, my money’d be on Marino.

The FBI hack then tells DiNunzio that “what I need is a guarantee that somebody’s got their foot on Marino’s neck.”

“Listen to me,” growls the gross gangster, “right here you got the guarantee from here.”

The fed is warming to his role. He is staring at 400 pounds of you-know-what stuffed in the sweatsuit of a 200-pound man.

“I don’t know you,” says the fed.

“I’m the Cheeseman.”

“You’re . . . the Cheeseman?” The fed deserves an Oscar for keeping a straight face as he says that. Back to you, Fromage-man.

“We straighten out a lot of beefs.”

And they eat even more of them. But by God.

“If they had 100 million dollars - and I’m talking out of school here. They better leave town. Cause it ain’t gonna be safe nowhere for them.”

Yeah, they cross the Cheeseman, he’ll sit on them.

“If the check ain’t there then I’m going to the bleeping can - ”

Yes, you are, Mr. Cheese. For a good long time, too.

Next, he starts stealing lines from “The Godfather.”

“If I can help you down the line. I’m not saying I can, but sometimes I could help you probably more than I could help myself or somebody in my own family because I’m, ah ...”

Because you’re the Cheeseman!

Mr. Cheese. For a good long time, too.

Next, he starts stealing lines from “The Godfather.”

“If I can help you down the line. I’m not saying I can, but sometimes I could help you probably more than I could help myself or somebody in my own family because I’m, ah ...”

Because you’re the Cheeseman!

Somewhere in Nahant, Gennaro Angiulo is weeping. Somewhere in Europe, Whitey Bulger is laughiing