Trial of former New England mob boss accused of murder to wrap up

[June 18, 2018]  By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) - Jurors are due to hear closing arguments on Monday in the trial of a former New England mob boss and an associate accused of participating in the 1993 murder of a Boston nightclub manager whose remains were discovered in Rhode Island two years ago.

Federal prosecutors in Boston will make their final case for why jurors should find Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme, 84, and Paul Weadick, 63, guilty for participating in the slaying of Steven DiSarro.

Salemme and Weadick have pleaded not guilty. Steven Boozang, Salemme's lawyer, has said that while Salemme long ago confessed to eight murders, he has consistently denied killing DiSarro.

The trial has provided a flashback to an era when organized crime in Boston was run by Salemme, who headed the New England family of La Costa Nostra, and James "Whitey" Bulger, the notorious gangster now serving life in prison.

According to prosecutors, Salemme had a secret interest in a South Boston music venue called The Channel, which DiSarro had purchased.

In 1993, a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent told DiSarro he would be indicted and should cooperate with authorities who were probing Salemme and his son, who died in 1995, prosecutors said.

At trial, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, a longtime partner of Bulger's who had known Salemme since the 1960s, testified that Salemme had expressed concerns that DiSarro was speaking to authorities and might implicate him in criminal activities.

L-R: Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme, Stephen Flemmi, Francis Salemme Jr and Luigi Manocchio appear in a U.S. government surveillance photograph taken in 1993 provided by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston, Massachusetts. U.S. Courtesy U.S. Attorney's Office/Handout via REUTERS

Flemmi, who is serving a life sentence for 10 murders and has been cooperating with prosecutors, said he witnessed DiSarro's strangling on May 10, 1993, when he went to Salemme's home to talk to Salemme.

He said that he saw Salemme's now-deceased son Frank Salemme Jr. in the kitchen strangling DiSarro as Weadick held his legs and the senior Salemme watched.

Concerned Salemme might be under surveillance, Flemmi said that he quickly left. But he said Salemme later told him DiSarro was killed and that his body was buried in a 20-foot deep hole at a Rhode Island construction site.

Authorities ultimately found DiSarro's body in 2016 behind a mill in Providence, Rhode Island.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Richard Chang)

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