Former New England mob boss faces trial over 1993 murder

[May 09, 2018]    By Nate Raymond
 
 BOSTON (Reuters) - A former New England mob boss and an associate are set to go on trial on Wednesday on charges that they participated in the 1993 murder of a Boston nightclub manager whose remains were discovered behind an abandoned Rhode Island mill two years ago.

George Kaufman, stands with Frank "Cadillac" Salemme (R), in an U.S. government surveillance photo from early 1990s provided by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., on May 8, 2018. Courtesy U.S. Attorney's Office/Handout via REUTERS

Federal prosecutors in Boston allege that Frank "Cadillac" Salemme, 84, and Paul Weadick, 63, participated in the slaying of Steven DiSarro on the suspicion that he had been talking to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Prosecutors say the murder was witnessed by Stephen Flemmi, a longtime associate of Salemme and James "Whitey" Bulger, a contemporary of Salemme's who for a quarter of a century ruled Boston's criminal underworld and is now serving life in prison.

Salemme and Weadick have pleaded not guilty to murdering a witness. If convicted, they face up to life in prison.

Prosecutors said that Salemme, a hitman who by 1990 had emerged as the head of the Patriarca crime family in New England, had a secret interest in a South Boston music venue called The Channel, which DiSarro had purchased.

In 1993, an FBI agent told DiSarro he would soon be indicted and should cooperate with authorities who were probing Salemme and his now-deceased son, Francis Salemme Jr, prosecutors said.

They said that Flemmi - who is expected to testify at the trial - on May 10, 1993 witnessed Salemme Jr strangling DiSarro at Salemme's home as Weadick held his legs off the ground and Salemme watched.

Salemme later reached a plea deal and testified against former FBI agent John Connolly, who prosecutors say tipped him and Bulger off to their impending indictment, allowing Bulger to flee in 1994 and remain a fugitive until his arrest in 2011.

He was subsequently placed in the federal witness protection program and lived in Atlanta under an alias.

After DiSarro's remains were discovered in Providence, Rhode Island, prosecutors say he left his home in July 2016 without notifying the U.S. Marshal's Service as required. He was tracked to Milford, Connecticut, where he was arrested that August.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, editing by G Crosse)

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