The former New England Mafia chief Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme, serving a life term in prison for the 1993 murder of a Boston nightclub owner, has passed away at 89, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
According to the Bureau of Prisons web records, Salemme passed away on Tuesday. An email was sent to the bureau on Sunday requesting more details, but I did not immediately receive a response. WPRI-TV broke the news of Salemme’s death on Sunday.
Salemme oversaw the Patriarca crime family in Boston at the start of the 1990s. After finding that other mobsters had been talking about him to law enforcement, Salemme assisted in the conviction of a dishonest FBI agent.
When the nightclub owner’s remains were discovered in 2016, Salemme, an old ex-Mafia don who has acknowledged a number of other gangland crimes, was residing in Atlanta under the alias Richard Parker, making the man a government target once more.
Salemme’s 2018 trial was a throwback to a time when the mafia was a dominant and feared force in New England. Salemme adamantly denied involvement in Steven DiSarro’s killing, but he was found guilty after his former closest buddy gave a defiant witness statement.
How did Frank Salemme die?
Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme, a former powerful New England Mafia boss, serving a life sentence in jail for the 1993 murder of a Boston nightclub owner, just passed away unexpectedly at the age of 89, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
The Bureau of Prisons’ online records reveals that Salemme died on Tuesday. On Sunday, bureau representatives took their time responding when contacted via email for more information.
Frank Salemme Cause of death
The cause of Frank Salemme’s passing has not yet been revealed. Regarding Frank Salemme’s cause of death, nothing is known.
Who was Frank Salemme?
Francis Patrick Salemme, also known as “Cadillac Frank” and “Julian Daniel Selig,” was a Boston-based New England gangster who ascended through the ranks from hitman to head of the Patriarca crime family before testifying against himself to the authorities.
2018 Murder Case
After being found guilty of murdering Boston nightclub owner Steven DiSarro in 1993, Salemme received a life sentence.
Salemme’s last chance for a new trial was extinguished in March when the US Supreme Court declined to consider his appeal. He spent the remainder of his life behind bars at a federal prison in Missouri.
Federal prosecutors convinced a jury of 10 women and six men in 2018 that Salemme and co-defendant Paul Weadick murdered DiSarro in Salemme’s Sharon home before enlisting Joe DeLuca, the brother of the then-mob boss Robert DeLuca, and the Branch Avenue mill building in Providence to bury DiSarro’s body.
Salemme’s Former Attorney Statement
Despite his demeanour, Salemme was always “a gentleman” and “honest and open” with Steven Boozang, Salemme’s former attorney, in his memory.
1989
Salemme spent 16 years in prison for trying to murder a lawyer whose car was blown up in 1968; the victim lived but was left with a leg amputated.
In the 1960s gang wars in Boston, he participated in numerous deaths. After being released from jail, Salemme was shot and seriously hurt outside a pancake restaurant in a Boston suburb.
In 1989, as Salemme entered a pancake restaurant in Saugus, Massachusetts, a group of masked gunmen opened fire on him, attempting to kill him.
Salemme was then a rising star in the mafia family. Salemme lived, but another mob boss, William “Billy” Grasso, a native of Connecticut, perished.
After the shootings, a mob war started, but it ended when Raymond “Junior” Patriarca, the boss at the time, invited new family members.
Due mainly to the covert filming of the induction ceremony, Salemme took over as leader when Patriarca was imprisoned in 1992.
Witness protection scheme
The same year Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi was killed, and notorious South Boston criminal James “Whitey” Bulger were both detained; the elder Salemme was accused of racketeering.
Salemme learned that Flemmi and Bulger were both top-tier FBI informants after being found guilty and sentenced to an 11-year jail term. Therefore, Salemme agreed to tell the government what he knew about the two leaders of the Winter Hill Gang. Bulger was eventually discovered to have been hiding in California then.
While Salemme was captured in Florida a few months after Bulger was arrested in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 81, Bulger had been on the run for 16 years before being caught. Bulger was murdered in jail by fellow inmates when he was 89.
Salemme’s cooperation led to the conviction of John Connolly, a dishonest former FBI agent who served as Bulger’s handler.
Finally, Salemme signed up for the witness protection programme.
Read Also: Bertha Barbee McNeal Dies: The Velvelettes singer Bertha Barbee cause of death