Mob Hitman (Who Flipped) Accused In The Epstein Files

A person claiming to be a victim of Jeffrey Epstein accused Johnny Martorano—a Patriarca family- and Winter Hill Gang-affiliated hitman who admitted to killing 20 people and who testified at the trial of James (Whitey) Bulger, among others—of rape.

Johnny (Sickle Cell) Martorano.

This is according to a report that highlighted the allegation, which was emailed to two federal judges and was discussed last August by Federal prosecutors in New York, the Justice Department’s Friday release of around 3.5 million Jeffrey Epstein files has revealed

“John Martorano was the man who raped me and took a picture of me naked and said ‘let's take a picture for Clarence Thomas,’” the individual wrote. Yes, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is caught up in this. The same victim accused Thomas of sexually assaulting her, when she was a child: "This is also in my CIA file because a few people have asked me if I remembered, but I couldn't remember much of my childhood because I was drugged so much." (Read the FBI file here (pdf); the accuser also alleges numerous other individuals, including Steve Bannon, committed additional heinous crimes against her. We haven't seen any mainstream media coverage of any of it.)

Martorano was considered the "chief executioner" for the Winter Hill Gang, according to testimony from the 2008 trial of former FBI agent John Connolly, Whitey Bulger and Stephen (The Rifleman) Flemmi’s long-time protector/handler. 

The hitter cut a deal with law enforcement officials in 1999.  He served 12 years and two months in prison after agreeing to testify against Bulger, his former boss. 

Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr wrote a book with Martorano called Hitman: The Untold Story of Johnny Martorano.

Aside from his father Luigi, who brought him into organized crime, Martorano’s other mob mentor was Flemmi. (Martorano also testified against him.)  

Martorano’s first hit was reportedly on an associate of the Patriarca crime family who was (allegedly) planning to testify in a murder case.

In 2007, he was granted early release and the government provided him with $20,000 in cash.

In 2008, he did a television interview with Steve Kroft on 60 Minutes in which he discussed his feelings about the term “hit man,”  arguing that hit men are not the same as serial killers.  

MARTORANO: The hitman (the name of the Howie Carr book about him). That sounds like to me somebody getting a paid contract. You couldn’t pay me to kill anybody.

KROFT: But a lot of people would say you’re a serial killer.

MARTORANO: I might be a vigilante but not a serial killer. Serial killers you have to stop them. They’ll never stop.  And they enjoy it.  I never enjoyed it.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma in May 1981, Martorano shot World Jai Alai owner Roger Wheeler in the head. Wheeler had discovered a skimming operation taking place under his own roof connected to Bulger. 

Another hit was covered in a 2013 published report by Phillip Martin: “On a cold night in January, Flemmi got into a bar fight in the South End with an African American. Flemmi lost. He dispatched Martorano, who eventually tracked Herbert Smith to Dorchester. Martorano using a 38-caliber snub nose revolver put a bullet in Smith, but he also killed Smith’s passengers: 17 year old Douglas Barrett and 19 year old Elizabeth Dickson. After news of the murders leaked out, Martorano was a given a new nickname by fellow gangsters. Sickle Cell Anemia, a sometimes fatal disease that strikes African Americans.”

In 1979, Flemmi and Bulger got wind of an impending indictment related to a horse race-fixing scheme involving other Winter Hill Gang members. Alerted by associates, Martorano took off for Florida and escaped the roundup.

For the next 16 years, he lived as a fugitive, continually called upon to take out certain individuals on the hit list, including Roger Wheeler and John Callahan. Martorano finally paid the piper in 1995 when he was nabbed on a racketeering indictment. In 1999, he opted to obtain a get-out-of-jail-free card by agreeing to testify.

Martorano has expressed remorse for only one of his victims: Elizabeth Dickson, who was 19 when Martorano killed her while taking care of Herbert Smith in Dorchester for Flemmi.

Martorano reportedly has been leading a quiet life in Milford County, Massachusetts.