Boston Gang's All Here: The Rifleman, Others to Testify at Cadillac Frank Salemme Mafia Murder Trial this Month
Francis (Cadillac Frank) Salemme’s murder trial starts this month.
Salemme, 84, was arrested in 2016 while in the U.S. Federal Witness Protection Program. He and Paul Weadick, 62, of Burlington go on trial April 24 in U.S. District Court.
The centerpiece of the case is the May 10, 1993, hit on Steven DiSarro, 43, who then owned the popular waterfront rock club The Channel.
"Extremely distraught” and dubious about a sit-down he’d been summoned to with the then-boss of the New England Mafia, DiSarro left a note at his Westwood home for one of his sons. In the note, he wrote that his sons wouldn't see him again anytime soon.
DiSarro then stepped into a car waiting for him and disappeared, prosecutors will allege during Salemme’s murder trial.
Stephen (The Rifleman) Flemmi and Robert P. DeLuca, are slated to testify, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Wyshak Jr.
Prosecutors will paint a chilling, detailed portrait of how DiSarro was strangled to death in Salemme’s son’s Sharon home. The reason was to stop him from talking to the FBI about reputed business dealings with the Mafia.
Salemme’s late son Francis Salemme Jr. had worked as an assistant manager at The Channel. He was on GPS and house arrest when he allegedly strangled his former boss as his father watched. Paul Weadick helped, holding down DiSarro’s legs, according to Wyshak.
Flemmi is serving life at an undisclosed prison for 10 murders. He will allegedly testify that he happened in on the murder in progress during an unannounced visit and watched as Salemme’s son walked DiSarro to the back of the house and then murdered the former nightclub owner.
DeLuca, 72, allegedly a made member of the New England Cosa Nostra, will testify against Salemme as per a plea deal under which he pleaded guilty in 2016 to obstruction of justice and making false statements.
He has yet to be sentenced.
DeLuca is slated to testify that he called the Cadillac Frank from a payphone and that Salemme had “a package” for DeLuca that he (Salemme) would bring to Rhode Island. Also, DeLuca will detail how he was told to “get a hole dug.”
Salemme is accused of driving DiSarro’s tarp-wrapped body to North Providence in an SUV and transferring it to the trunk of a car for others to dump in a pit after dark.
DiSarro’s widow, Pamela, is slated to testify about the note her husband left in their son’s bedroom before he “was never seen again by any member of his family.”
Salemme, a former top-level member of the New England Mafia who flipped to testify against notorious Irish mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger, was yanked out of Witness Protection and arrested in August 2016.
Salemme had been living in Atlanta, Ga., under the name of Richard Parker when he was arrested. He entered the witness protection program after cooperating against former Winter Hill boss James "Whitey" Bulger.
Rhode Island mobster Robert P. DeLuca Sr. was arrested two months earlier on charges that he had thwarted an investigation into the murder of DiSarro, whose remains were found a few months prior in Providence.
An indictment unsealed in US District Court in Boston in June 2016 charged DeLuca with obstruction of justice, plus two counts of lying to the Feds about the DiSarro murder, as well as additional murders of unnamed victims.
At the time, DeLuca, 70, was arrested by the FBI working with Rhode Island and Massachusetts State Police in Broward County, Fla. The longtime New England Mafia capo appeared in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, and was ordered held without bail until a hearing.
He allegedly had misled investigators after an earlier arrest, in February 2011, when he first agreed to cooperate with federal law enforcement authorities in an effort to obtain a lighter sentence.
DiSarro’s remains were found in March 2016 in a complex behind 715 Branch Ave. in Providence. The facility reportedly is owned by mob associate William L. Ricci.
An informant told investigators that DiSarro was buried there.
DeLuca made a deal in 2011, according to the June indictment that said he had agreed to cooperate against former New England Mafia boss Luigi “Baby Shacks” Manocchio and others charged with extorting two Providence strip clubs.
DeLuca pleaded guilty to a single count of racketeering conspiracy in July 2011, and in 2014, he was sentenced to serve only a single day in prison.
The indictment unsealed in June 2016 also alleged that DiSarro acquired The Channel, a former nightclub, sometime in 1990-1991 -- and that New England Mafia boss Cadillac Frank Salemme and his son, Frank, had also held a piece of the operation.
DeLuca was one of four soldiers inducted into the New England Mafia during a 1989 Medford ceremony that was bugged by the FBI.
He was also a codefendant in the 1995 federal racketeering case against Salemme as well as Whitey" Bulgerand Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi.
In 2003, Flemmi told federal and state authorities that he walked in on the May 10, 1993, murder of DiSarro at the Sharon home of Francis Salemme’s former wife, according to a DEA report filed in Boston federal court.
Flemmi said Francis Salemme and two others watched as Salemme’s son, Frank, strangled DiSarro to death. Flemmi named the two other witnesses as Frank Salemme’s younger brother, John, and a friend named Paul Weadick.
Salemme later told Flemmi that DeLuca "was present during the burial" of DiSarro, according to the report, Flemmi said, adding that Salemme had expressed concern about DiSarro’s friendship with a law enforcement cooperator.
Salemme’s son died in 1995.
When Flemmi implicated "Cadillac Frank" in DiSarro’s murder, the former Mafia don was already in the Federal Witness Protection Program for cooperating with the prosecution of Bulger and FBI handler John J. Connolly Jr.
In 2008, Salemme was sentenced to five years in prison for lying and obstruction of justice for denying any knowledge of DiSarro’s murder; this occurred during plea negotiations in 1999 that resulted in the racketeering indictment against Salemme.
Salemme denied the allegation that he had watched his son strangle DiSarro, then helped dispose of his body.
In a November 2013 trial, Enrico "Eric" Ponzo was convicted of several federal crimes, including the 1989 attempted assassination of "Cadillac Frank" Salemme.
 |
| Cadillac Frank: What a long, strange trip..... |
Salemme, 84, was arrested in 2016 while in the U.S. Federal Witness Protection Program. He and Paul Weadick, 62, of Burlington go on trial April 24 in U.S. District Court.
The centerpiece of the case is the May 10, 1993, hit on Steven DiSarro, 43, who then owned the popular waterfront rock club The Channel.
"Extremely distraught” and dubious about a sit-down he’d been summoned to with the then-boss of the New England Mafia, DiSarro left a note at his Westwood home for one of his sons. In the note, he wrote that his sons wouldn't see him again anytime soon.
DiSarro then stepped into a car waiting for him and disappeared, prosecutors will allege during Salemme’s murder trial.
Stephen (The Rifleman) Flemmi and Robert P. DeLuca, are slated to testify, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Wyshak Jr.
Prosecutors will paint a chilling, detailed portrait of how DiSarro was strangled to death in Salemme’s son’s Sharon home. The reason was to stop him from talking to the FBI about reputed business dealings with the Mafia.
Salemme’s late son Francis Salemme Jr. had worked as an assistant manager at The Channel. He was on GPS and house arrest when he allegedly strangled his former boss as his father watched. Paul Weadick helped, holding down DiSarro’s legs, according to Wyshak.
Flemmi is serving life at an undisclosed prison for 10 murders. He will allegedly testify that he happened in on the murder in progress during an unannounced visit and watched as Salemme’s son walked DiSarro to the back of the house and then murdered the former nightclub owner.
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Steven DiSarro, 43, was "extremely distraught” about sit down with Salemme.
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DeLuca, 72, allegedly a made member of the New England Cosa Nostra, will testify against Salemme as per a plea deal under which he pleaded guilty in 2016 to obstruction of justice and making false statements.
He has yet to be sentenced.
DeLuca is slated to testify that he called the Cadillac Frank from a payphone and that Salemme had “a package” for DeLuca that he (Salemme) would bring to Rhode Island. Also, DeLuca will detail how he was told to “get a hole dug.”
Salemme is accused of driving DiSarro’s tarp-wrapped body to North Providence in an SUV and transferring it to the trunk of a car for others to dump in a pit after dark.
DiSarro’s widow, Pamela, is slated to testify about the note her husband left in their son’s bedroom before he “was never seen again by any member of his family.”
Salemme, a former top-level member of the New England Mafia who flipped to testify against notorious Irish mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger, was yanked out of Witness Protection and arrested in August 2016.
Salemme had been living in Atlanta, Ga., under the name of Richard Parker when he was arrested. He entered the witness protection program after cooperating against former Winter Hill boss James "Whitey" Bulger.
Rhode Island mobster Robert P. DeLuca Sr. was arrested two months earlier on charges that he had thwarted an investigation into the murder of DiSarro, whose remains were found a few months prior in Providence.
An indictment unsealed in US District Court in Boston in June 2016 charged DeLuca with obstruction of justice, plus two counts of lying to the Feds about the DiSarro murder, as well as additional murders of unnamed victims.
At the time, DeLuca, 70, was arrested by the FBI working with Rhode Island and Massachusetts State Police in Broward County, Fla. The longtime New England Mafia capo appeared in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, and was ordered held without bail until a hearing.
He allegedly had misled investigators after an earlier arrest, in February 2011, when he first agreed to cooperate with federal law enforcement authorities in an effort to obtain a lighter sentence.
DiSarro’s remains were found in March 2016 in a complex behind 715 Branch Ave. in Providence. The facility reportedly is owned by mob associate William L. Ricci.
An informant told investigators that DiSarro was buried there.
DeLuca made a deal in 2011, according to the June indictment that said he had agreed to cooperate against former New England Mafia boss Luigi “Baby Shacks” Manocchio and others charged with extorting two Providence strip clubs.
DeLuca pleaded guilty to a single count of racketeering conspiracy in July 2011, and in 2014, he was sentenced to serve only a single day in prison.
The indictment unsealed in June 2016 also alleged that DiSarro acquired The Channel, a former nightclub, sometime in 1990-1991 -- and that New England Mafia boss Cadillac Frank Salemme and his son, Frank, had also held a piece of the operation.
DeLuca was one of four soldiers inducted into the New England Mafia during a 1989 Medford ceremony that was bugged by the FBI.
He was also a codefendant in the 1995 federal racketeering case against Salemme as well as Whitey" Bulgerand Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi.
In 2003, Flemmi told federal and state authorities that he walked in on the May 10, 1993, murder of DiSarro at the Sharon home of Francis Salemme’s former wife, according to a DEA report filed in Boston federal court.
Flemmi said Francis Salemme and two others watched as Salemme’s son, Frank, strangled DiSarro to death. Flemmi named the two other witnesses as Frank Salemme’s younger brother, John, and a friend named Paul Weadick.
 |
| Bulger, who was caught jerking off in prison. |
Salemme later told Flemmi that DeLuca "was present during the burial" of DiSarro, according to the report, Flemmi said, adding that Salemme had expressed concern about DiSarro’s friendship with a law enforcement cooperator.
Salemme’s son died in 1995.
When Flemmi implicated "Cadillac Frank" in DiSarro’s murder, the former Mafia don was already in the Federal Witness Protection Program for cooperating with the prosecution of Bulger and FBI handler John J. Connolly Jr.
In 2008, Salemme was sentenced to five years in prison for lying and obstruction of justice for denying any knowledge of DiSarro’s murder; this occurred during plea negotiations in 1999 that resulted in the racketeering indictment against Salemme.
Salemme denied the allegation that he had watched his son strangle DiSarro, then helped dispose of his body.
In a November 2013 trial, Enrico "Eric" Ponzo was convicted of several federal crimes, including the 1989 attempted assassination of "Cadillac Frank" Salemme.
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