New Year's Eve Bonus Episode - Dorothy Barchard - Boston's Black Widow

Lara:

Happy New Year! Today Nina and I are talking about Dorothy Frances Markwarth. Dorothy was a gun moll, FBI Confidential Informant and mistress to more than just a few bank robbers. She was also the lover of Atty. John Fitzgerald who later in their relationship lost his leg in a car bombing. Her lovers and potential suitors were willing to kill for her and more than a few went to prison for her and/or because of her. 

Nina:

You left out how many died because of her! The Black Widow of Boston.

Lara:

That’s what we should have called this episode! Ok tell us about her!

Nina:

Dorothy Frances Markwarth was born in Somerville, Massachusetts on the 23rd of December 1937 to Hans Markwarth and Jeanette DiGregorio. Hans had immigrated from Germany at the age of 16. His older sisters were both war brides who sponsored Hans and their parents. Jeanette was the youngest daughter of Angelo DiGregorio and Pasquelena Caccavello, both from Avellino. 

In November 1953, Dorothy married Richard Barchard in New Hampshire. She wasn’t quite 16 years old, but she lied on the marriage license and said she was 18.

Lara:

Richard Barchard was a local Somerville hoodlum who had recently been released from prison. Richard was the third child of Ruth Nichols and Emmes Barchard. He had been arrested in December 1949 for a kidnapping and armed holdup. According to the police, at about 1:30 in the morning, Salvatore Sperduto had just closed up his lunchroom for the night and was getting ready to head home. As he was walking to his car, a man held him at gunpoint. Three more men joined him and they all piled into Sperduto’s car. They forced him to drive them to Everett. There they switched drivers and Sperduto was put in the back with Richard. They cruised up and down the Newbury Turnpike until, at Peabody, the car pulled up in front of a diner called Leo’s Lunch. Barchard and Arthur Morel got out of the car and went inside. They held up the diner owner and his wife and a dishwasher. Barchard allegedly held a gun on them and forced them against the wall behind the counter. It was done so smoothly that the nine patrons in the diner had no clue what was happening. Barchard and his companion Morel escaped with $90 from the cash register. 

Nina:

They fled but didn’t seem very concerned about escaping because they kept cruising slowly. The police were notified by the diner owners almost immediately, and the suspicious behavior of the driver of the stolen vehicle caught their attention. Finding a revolver in the car was enough for them to arrest all five men. The cops didn’t realize that Sperduto had been kidnapped until he passed them a note in the police station. 

Barchard was later identified by the holdup victims as the man with the gun who had held them up. He and the others were charged with armed robbery, kidnapping, and using an automobile without authority, and held on $10,100 bail each. Richard pleaded guilty to the first two charges, but not the third. The following month, he was found guilty of all three charges plus an additional charge of robbing $237 from a Saugus cafe on December 21. He was sentenced to four concurrent 5-7 year terms in State Prison. An additional sentence was added a couple weeks later for yet another holdup that he and Morel had committed in Somerville on December 21. That one also only netted them $90.

Lara:

But now he was shackled in another way. In August of 1954, Dorothy gave birth to a daughter. 

That didn’t really seem to put a stop to Richard’s activities. But now he had a partner in Dorothy. It’s a little unclear how and when exactly Barchard and Dorothy hooked up with Whitey Bulger. But in November of 1955, the two men robbed the Hoosier State Bank in Hammond, Indiana while Dorothy, and Whitey’s girlfriend, Jacquie McAuliffe Martin, waited in the red and white 1954 Oldsmobile as lookouts. Whitey held two pistols on four bank employees and six customers and forced them lie face down on the floor, while Barchard who was unarmed, took a little over $13,000 in cash out of the teller drawers. Both men wore corduroy hunting caps with the ears turned down to obscure their faces. 

Nina:

Whitey had robbed the Industrial National Bank in Pawtucket, Rhode Island six months earlier with a man calling himself Carl George Smith, and Ronald Dermody.

Whitey later told the FBI that he had been introduced to Smith by another ex-con, and been talked into becoming a driver for Smith. When he learned that this deal concerned a bank robbery he wanted to back out. He further claimed that he was even more afraid when he learned he had to go into the bank since two members of Smith’s crew had backed out at the last minute. He stated that that first bank robbery was successful and afterwards he was in on three more bank robberies.

Lara: 

Smith was arrested in January of 1956 for another robbery in Indiana that he had allegedly committed with his brother-in-law about two weeks after the Hammond job. Whitey believed that Smith had named him to the Feds, and that’s how he ended up getting arrested by Rico in a bar in Revere.

Smith also landed in Alcatraz. At some point he was moved to the Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he was murdered on November 18, 1974, on the 19th anniversary of the Melrose Trust robbery. According to his death certificate, the main cause of death was “massive hemorrhage” from “multiple stab wounds” he had received in a knife fight. He died 25 minutes after being stabbed.

Nina:

Five days before the robbery in Indiana, Whitey had robbed a Melrose Highlands bank of $5000 with William L O’Brien at high noon. The only way they managed to escape was because a passing train blocked the cops from following them.

According to a 2012 article that was published by WBUR, after he was arrested by H Paul Rico in March of 1956, Whitey Bulger persuaded his girlfriend Jacqui to give up his accomplices so he wouldn’t have to. But the 302 the article links to doesn’t say that at all. What FBI SA Herbert Briick’s report to the Atlanta Penitentiary dated July 13, 1956, does say is the following:

“Bulger, after his apprehension, cooperated with this Bureau to the extent of admitting his participation in three bank robberies. He reduced his admission to signed statements and named his two accomplices in the Rhode Island bank robbery. He persuaded {redacted phrase} to cooperate with this Bureau. As a result of her cooperation, process was obtained for Bulger’s accomplices, Richard R Barchard, in the robbery of the Woodmar branch of the Hoosier State Bank in Hammond, Indiana, November 23, 1955, and for William L O’Brien in the robbery of the Highlands Branch of the Melrose Trust Company, Melrose, Massachusetts, November 18, 1955. Bulger orally admitted who his accomplices were in those bank robberies.”

At the age of 18 years and two months, Dorothy Barchard became a Confidential Informant for the FBI. 

Lara:

Richard Barchard was arrested at work on May 14, 1956. He had been living in Vallejo, California and working at a manufacturing plant in San Pablo. Bail was set at $50,000 at the arraignment hearing the following day. In addition, he was accused of running out on an $11 room bill in Vallejo. The authorities also alleged that Barchard was planning on marrying again, even though he was still married to Dorothy. 

You know what they say about a woman scorned.

Nina:

Well… I don’t think it was the first time, or the last.

An indictment was returned by a Hammond, Indiana Grand Jury on May 17, just three days after Richard was arrested in California. He entered a guilty plea on May 24, which meant that the trial would take place in California rather than in Indiana. Richard Barchard was sentenced to 20 years in Federal Prison on June 21, 1956 by a Federal judge in San Francisco and sent to Alcatraz.

Meanwhile, Dorothy had moved on with her life. 

Lara:

It didn’t take Dorothy very long to find a new beau. She hooked up with Louis Aquilla and Frank Martin Feeney. If you listened to our Thanksgiving bonus episode, you’ll recall Frank and Louis.. To hear more about Frank listen to that episode. We didn’t get into Louis' background before. I knew Louis when I was little. He was gunned down outside of Johnny Nichols’ apartment in Braintree on February 22, 1977. He was hit with 4 shotgun blasts and killed instantly. I knew his brother Jackie much better. Memories of a Barko lounger strapped down in the back of his El Camino. That story is for a later episode. Back to Louis.

Nina:

Louis was born on November 13, 1930 to Anthony and Violet Arquilla. He was the oldest of three boys. The family lived in both Somerville and Medford, so I assume that’s how he knew Dorothy. In August of 1949 Anthony killed his wife and then himself. Louis was already living on his own in Boston as he was already 18. His two much younger brothers were left orphaned.

Louis committed 12 robberies that year, culminating in the robbery of 5 guns from Kirkwood Brothers in the North End on a Thursday afternoon in mid-December. He and his compatriot then fled to New York City, where they blew the money they’d stolen and tossed a few of the guns off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River. On their return to Boston, they got a room at a hotel in the Back Bay, and invited some friends over. But their behavior made a clerk suspicious and he called the cops on them. Louis and his friend gave the police phony names and addresses. A search of the room revealed one of the guns that had been stolen a few days earlier, and Louis and his companions were arrested.

Lara:

Louis treated the whole thing like a joke. He and his accomplice confessed that they were guilty of several robberies, including the holdup of Kirkwood Brothers, and “one holdup in the West End”, but wouldn’t give any more details. Instead they stated that it was up to the victims to identify them. 

When one of the victims failed to identify him in a lineup, Louis stepped out, pointed to the man, and stated: “Sure, I remember sticking up that guy. Don’t you remember, I made you lie down on the floor while I grabbed the dough?”

He corrected another store owner, who said that Louis and his companion had robbed his place on Parsons Street in Brighton. 

“Wait a minute. You’re wrong. I remember, your joint is on Brighton Ave.”

The victim agreed that Louis was right and he had misspoken.

Nina:

The two were held on $20,000 bail each on charges of robbery and conspiracy to rob. 

Louis was eventually sentenced to a 12-15 year term for twelve robberies. 

As Lara mentioned earlier, we already introduced Frank Martin Feeney in our Thanksgiving Bonus Episode, but for those of you who haven’t listened to it yet, we will do a brief recap.

Feeney was a career criminal who had been in and out of reform schools and prison since before Dorothy was born. 

In November 1956, Feeney made his seventh escape attempt from the Massachusetts Prison system. His previous six attempts had all been failures, but this time he was successful. He and three other men overpowered their guards as they were being transported to a court appearance at the Suffolk County Courthouse in Boston.

Lara:

Two weeks later, Feeney and Louis robbed the Fidelity Baltimore National Bank and Trust Company of nearly $13,000. They were both masked, one had a shotgun, and the other a revolver. Dorothy was thought to be the getaway driver of a black Packard sedan that one of the men had purchased using a fictitious name. Feeney was described by the FBI as a “notorious safe-cracker, bank robber, gunman and escape artist.”

Louis had been paroled from prison in July, but had already been indicted for another robbery in Norton that he’d committed in October with his younger brother, Richard, who would later go on to become a Reverend. Just before noon on a Thursday, two men, one wearing a mask, the other with a hood over his head, held two bank employees at gunpoint and grabbed the money. They parted ways in a wooded area in Norton, with one of the men exiting the getaway vehicle. The driver outdistanced his pursuers in the direction of Taunton. But someone had gotten the registration number of the car and that led the police to 20-year-old Richard Arquilla. He was arrested as he arrived home later that same evening, and held on $50,000 double surety.

Nina

In late January 1957, the threesome were finally caught in Minneapolis. You know I think Dorothy ratted them out too. She was probably bored. 

Lara:

It’s also interesting how when she’s on the lam in December she’s described as a mother and the wife of a bank robber incarcerated at Alcatraz, but once they’re caught, she’s “a teenage girl”. 

Nina:

Police stated that the apartment had been under surveillance for some time before a score of FBI agents and several police squads sealed off the building shortly before 2am. After the building was surrounded, agents carrying submachine guns and clad in armored vests pounded on the door with demands that the occupants surrender. Within a few minutes, Louis and Feeney, both wearing pajamas, backed out the door, their arms raised in surrender. In answer to further demands, Dorothy appeared in the doorway, also wearing pajamas, and weeping.

Lara:

Of course she was! She probably called Rico herself!

Bail was set at $25,000 each for the men, and $20,000 for Dorothy. All three waived their rights to a preliminary hearing, which meant that they’d be extradited to Baltimore for trial. There was Dorothy blowing kisses to Louis as he was dragged away.

About 30 minutes into the flight the following week, Arquilla made a desperate attempt to hijack the plane. He had already attempted to thwart the US Marshals by pretending to trip as they boarded the plane, but he was quickly subdued. Louis quipped, “You can’t blame a guy for trying.” 

Nina:

Louis made his next attempt when one manacled hand was released so the prisoners could eat lunch. He bolted from his seat, threw the lunch tray in the face of his captor, and lunged for the cockpit, brandishing the small table knife from his tray. But he was thwarted once again. This time by a stewardess who slammed the cockpit door in his face and locked it. Louis was quickly overpowered by two US Marshals. He said afterward that he was trying to wreck the radio equipment. 

Lara:

Back in Baltimore, both Arquilla and Feeney pleaded guilty and testified on Dorothy’s behalf, claiming she had no part in the bank robbery in Baltimore. And there was Dorothy blowing kisses and professing her love for Louis.  An FBI Agent testified to the contrary, claiming that Dorothy had confessed to him on February 8, that she knew they were going to rob the bank in Baltimore before it happened. He further alleged that he had written a statement of what she had told him verbally, but that she then refused to sign it until she talked to an attorney. 

Nina: 

At least she knew how these things worked… I mean who knows what the statement he wrote up actually said. Never sign one of those things! 

Lara:

Dorothy was acquitted on a conspiracy charge on April 11, 1957. That same day, Louis was sentenced to 25 years in Federal prison for his part in the crime. It was set to run concurrently with a 20 year state bid for the Norton robbery that Louis had committed in October 1956.

Three weeks later, Dorothy was back in jail, held on $5,000 bail. The authorities in Minneapolis wanted her returned to face the charge of receiving $910 of the stolen funds from the Baltimore robbery.

Nina: 

On September 5, 1957, a newspaper in Hammond, Indiana reported that Richard Barchard had petitioned to vacate his sentence, saying that he pleaded guilty because the FBI had threatened to send his wife, Dorothy, to prison too. He claimed that he had not participated in the robbery with Whitey but that the other man in the bank was Carl George Smith. When he’d been arrested in early 1956, Smith had told the authorities that he had helped to plan the job in Hammond but that he himself did not participate in it. But now he’d retracted this claim and backed up Richard’s appeal. But it did no good, and Richard served out the rest of his sentence.

Two days later, Dorothy Barchard was again indicted. This time in St Paul, Minnesota on three charges stemming from the Baltimore job: possession of $910 of the loot, accessory after the fact, and harboring and concealing Arquilla, a known fugitive. In addition, the authorities charged her with being an accessory after the fact for the Norton job. She’d been in jail in Minnesota since May.

Lara:

On October 9, Dorothy pleaded guilty to the charge of concealing a felony, but not to the other charges. The other four charges were dropped and on November 7, Dorothy was sentenced to one year and a day in federal prison for “concealing evidence” related to the Baltimore bank robbery. She was credited for time served and released.

Nina:

Not long after Dorothy’s release, she teamed up with James Stanley “Spike” O’Toole. Spike was born December 7, 1927 to James John O’Toole and Nora Marie Walsh both of Ireland. By the 1940 census, Spike’s father had passed away, and it was just him, his mom and three brothers.  His older brother, William, died on a submarine in the Pacific at the tail end of World War 2. His body was never recovered. Spike was married to Noreen Ann Collins of Hammond, Indiana, on September 20, 1948. In March 1954, Spike was arraigned along with Thomas Buckley for stealing $500 worth of lace and electrical materials from cars in Dorchester. Keep in mind that neither Dorothy nor Spike were divorced at the time they hooked up in 1960.

Lara:

Spike was perfect for Dorothy, considering her track record with Richard and Louis. But unlike the handsome duo that she was previously enamored with, Spike had a face that only a mother could love on payday. Spike was arrested in late August 1961 while attempting to break into a parked cigarette vending truck on Route 35 in Danvers. His partners in crime were William B O’Sullivan, Wilfred Delaney, and Francis Xavier Murray. To make matters worse for themselves, the men tried to bribe the cops not once but twice after their arrest. The first time at the scene of the crime and the second time at the police station. But this only resulted in additional charges. The police also suspected the crew of robberies in Lawrence and Salem over the summer. They were released on $5000 bail. In late September, O’Sullivan, Murray, and O’Toole were all given suspended sentences and fined $500. Delaney was found innocent. 

Nina:

But Spike wasn’t the only lucky recipient of Dorothy’s affections. She also found time for extra-curricular activities with Joe the Animal Barboza and Atty. John E. Fitzgerald. If you listened to Episode 17, you might remember that Jack Kelley went to visit Fitzgerald in late September of 1962, only to find Dorothy half naked running out of Fitzgerald’s office and Barboza dangling Fitzgerald out of the window. Needless to say, Jack found another attorney, F. Lee Bailey.

Lara:

Then in January of 1963 Spike was arrested for stabbing Robert Hayward and Paul Haney. While Spike was sitting in the can, Dorothy was very busy. In May 1964, the police arrested a professional hitter from New York named Crazy Joe Donahue when they found him lurking around Henry Reddington’s place of business. The authorities alleged that Reddington had harbored both Donahue and Frankie Machine Gun Campbell at various times. You’ll recall that the Feds had earlier used Frankie Campbell to prod Billie Aggie into cooperating with them against Jack Kelley and the Plymouth Mail truck robbery suspects.

Nina:

On August 4th, 1964 Dorothy helped lure Harold Hannon to his tortuous death. Hannon was a gunman who worked for the McLaughlins in Boston during the 1950's and 60s. He had a reputation for torturing prostitutes. Buddy McLean and Barboza arranged for Dorothy to lure Hannon and his friend Wilfred Delaney back to an apartment for sex. He had no clue it was a trap. Hannon was tortured for hours and a blow torch was used on his genitals. The coroner said it was one of the most grizzly murder scenes he had ever seen. 

Delaney was given tranquilizers and booze before being strangled. I think they took out Delaney because he skated on the 1961 charges and Spike ended up getting a suspended sentence. Spike probably thought Delaney squealed. 

Lara:

I agree! 

The following month on September 4th another one of Dorothy’s beaus’ turned up dead. His body was found in a parked car on the corner of School and Belmont Streets in Watertown. Ronald Dermody wanted to be the only man in Dorothy’s life, so he hatched a plan and recruited the assistance of Georgie McLaughlin. He wanted the McLaughlins to take out Spike O’Toole, and in return he would kill Buddy McLean. Dermody shot the wrong man, 33 year old Charles Robinson, who he had mistaken for Buddy. But now the word was out on the street that Dermody was gunning for Buddy. Dermody’s fatal mistake was turning to SA H. Paul Rico for help. Unbeknownst to Dermody, Buddy McLean was a favorite Confidential Informant of Rico’s. Rico set up a meeting with Dermody, but Rico didn’t show up alone, he had Buddy with him. Buddy shot Dermody 3 times in the head through a partially opened window on the passenger’s side of the vehicle. The fatal bullet struck Dermody in the neck and passed out on the left side of his head. Rico and Buddy drove away in a blue sedan, returning to Rico’s home in Belmont, where Rico let Buddy hide out in his basement until the danger of arrest had passed. Dorothy was minus one admirer, and her sister was minus a husband! Dorothy’s sister Ann was married to Dermody, and had two kids with him.

Nina:

It’s so trashy! Worse than a reality TV show!

Let me give a little background on Dermody. Ronnie’s father, Joe, had been murdered in Charlestown State Prison in September 1954. Ronnie’s brother, Joe Jr. was serving time at Norfolk. Ronnie had been in and out of prison since he was sixteen, half his life. He had just gotten out of prison again, after serving 8 years of a 17 year term for the 1955 Pawtucket job that he had committed with Whitey. He was the first of Whitey’s crew to be released, and the first to be murdered. Whitey was still in Leavenworth, so the story goes that Ronnie fell in with the McLaughlins, and back in love with Dorothy. But no fairy tale ending there. 

Lara:

Eleven more murders happened between Dermody getting whacked and the next victim. 

On Saturday, January 23, 1965, at 3:15 in the morning, Dorothy and Edward S Johnson found Henry Reddington face down on the plush wall-to-wall carpeting in his office. Four bullets had struck him, three in the front of his pudgy frame, and one in the face.  

Johnson called the cops, who thought that Reddington might still be alive. But he was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Dorothy and her companion informed the authorities that they’d had a late night meeting scheduled with Reddington. When he hadn’t shown up, they tried reaching him by telephone. When they still couldn’t get ahold of him, they decided to look for him at his office.

Nina:

Reddington was Boston gangland’s 17th murder victim in a ten month period. He had long been rumored to be laundering money for the Brinks and Plymouth jobs, but as we know that wasn’t true. In 1963, Reddington’s home in Milton had been bombed when he was out of town.

Reddington was also considered a close associate of Georgie McLaughlin, who was still on the lam. Another later theory about why Reddington was murdered was that Wimpy Bennett owed him money and didn’t want to pay, and Spike did the hit.

Lara:

The other possibility was that it was retribution for him trying to shakedown Jack Kelley over the mail truck heist. More than one victim popped up over that stupidity.

Nina:

The hit wasn’t Jack’s style, though. As you will see when we get further into the season.

Lara:

I agree, but we’ll leave that discussion for later.

Spike O’Toole was released from Dedham jail in December 1964. The first person he went to see was Punchy McLaughlin. Punchy was recovering in Beth Israel hospital after yet another failed attempt on his life. This time the assassins had shot him twice with a twelve gauge sawed off shotgun, smashing his jaw, and slicing his liver. An eight hour emergency operation and three weeks later, Punchy was ready to go into hiding. Spike’s life was also under threat. He and Francis Xavier Murray had received telegrams threatening their lives the day before they were set to be released. The telegrams read: “You will receive the same benefits as Harold [Hannon].” The Staties took the threat seriously and gave the two men protection as they left the jail. 

Nina:

The following month, Dorothy brought a suit against O’Toole for non-support of their two toddler daughters. It was not her own idea. She had applied for aid from the State, but officials had insisted that she name the father of her children. Otherwise, they said, she would not be eligible for assistance. Spike was arraigned on a morals charge for having two children out of wedlock with Dorothy. When he was brought in by the police, Spike admitted to them that he was “a friend” of Georgie McLaughlin’s. And when he was asked further if he knew where Georgie was, Spike answered deadpan, “probably shot up someplace.” O’Toole was released on $1000 bail, and the morals case was continued for a month.

Lara:

Exactly one month later, Georgie was found in an apartment in Dorchester, where Spike had allegedly been harboring him since his own release in December 1964.

I don’t want to get too much into Georgie being on the lam in this episode. You’ll have to wait for that story.

Nina:

In the meantime, Dorothy was in court with her attorney, Joseph Sax, fighting rendition to New York where the authorities wanted her as a material witness in the murder trial of Crazy Joe Donahue. Sax had, of course, beaten the narcotics charges that the authorities had brought against him with Richie’s help a few years prior. But who knows what Richie said when they put him on the stand in that trial.

Lara:

The Perjury King! God only knows what story he concocted! It got to the point decades later that no judge would let him get on the stand! They’d rather throw the case out!

Nina:

On January 26, 1965, the State Police showed up at Dorothy’s door in Somerville and informed her that the judge wanted to see her in court. Dorothy reportedly told them that she couldn’t leave her two baby girls alone. However, she did agree to go with the cops after calling Sax. 

Lara:

By Friday that same week, Dorothy was on her way to NY, even though she maintained that she would not testify at the trial of Donahue, who stood accused of murdering a man in Central Park the previous April.

In the middle of March, O’Toole appeared in court, represented by attorney John Fitzgerald. That same Fitzgerald that she was having an affair with and who was representing her other lover, Joe Barboza.

Nina:

How was this not a conflict of interest on so many levels?

Lara:

No shortage of conflicts of interest in this story.

Another continuance was requested, which the judge granted since Dorothy had failed to show. The prior time she had still been stuck in New York.

Dorothy told the judge on April 20 that she and Spike O’Toole had been living together since January of 1960. She claimed that her two toddler daughters were Spike’s. O’Toole declined to question her more closely or to give his side of the story when the judge gave him the opportunity. The judge declared that Spike was the father and the couple left the court, and drove away together.

Nina:

Spike was still on a hit list, though. In May two men were arrested outside his home in Dorchester, one was carrying a shotgun, the other a .32. Spike finally went on the lam in July, hiding out on the Cape from both the cops and the assassins. The police were tipped off in late September that Spike was planning on visiting his ill mother in Dorchester. He surrendered without a fight and was arraigned on an assault charge. In November, Judge Elijah Adlow cleared him of the assault charge, saying he didn’t want to “clutter up the road with concurrent sentences”. 

Just a few days earlier Spike had been given a 5-6 year sentence in Walpole for harboring a known fugitive, Georgie McLaughlin. Attorney Joseph Sax told Judge Felix Forte that Spike had been “fleeing for his life and trying to hide” when Georgie came to him for assistance. He noted that O’Toole had been shot at on four separate occasions since being released from Dedham Jail the previous December. Forte agreed that Spike did not deserve the full sentence of 7 years given that he did not fight it out with the Feds when they showed up. “He demonstrated some respect for the law,” Forte concluded.

The following year Dorothy finally got divorced from Richard, but she was not the initiating party. Two years later things were about to blow up! Literally!

Lara:

In late 1967, Dorothy received a phone call telling her to stay away from Fitzgerald or she and her kids would be killed. Fitzgerald’s wife received a call informing her of his affair with Dorothy. Shortly after, on January 30, 1968, while driving his client, Joe Barboza’s car, it exploded resulting in the loss of his leg. Frankie Salemme and Stevie Flemmi were later indicted for the bombing. Supposedly it was meant to scare Barboza into not testifying.

Nina:

I still think Barboza had him blown up. There’s Barboza stuck out on the island with Pro and Vinnie Teresa hunting him in Vinnie’s boat with Pro in his scuba gear. He was probably heated because not only was Fitzgerald cruising around in his ride, but he was also bedding his girlfriend for over 6 years at that point. Getting hung out of a window wasn’t enough of a deterrent for Fitzgerald.

Lara:

Hey, he was lucky he didn’t get his dick blown off. If I was married to him, he would have lost more than a fucking leg! But Dorothy wasn’t too shaken up! Remember there’s the 302 where both Dorothy and dad are in the Cafe at the Ritz with their handlers. Both of them feeding them mounds of misinformation

Nina:

With Spike back in the can, and Dorothy finally freed from marriage to Richard, she soon got hitched again, this time to another Somerville hoodlum from her youth. David J Glennon had been in and out of reform school and jail since the 1940s. He’d been sentenced to 15-20 years for two 1957 robberies, and ended up at Walpole before being kicked out along with Billie Aggie in January 1958. 

Then in September 1964 he was incarcerated at Charles Street when a group of prisoners tried to escape. Glennon did not take part but was still transferred to Barnstable County House of Corrections at Garrett Byrne’s request. Byrne called him “a dangerous prisoner”.

Lara:

We’re unsure if they divorced or if Glennon passed away, but at the time of her oldest daughter’s death in 1990 she was using the surname Rogers. Neither of us could find the first name of her third husband. But there were more than a few Rogers from Somerville with criminal records. Also, we’ve never found a death record or obit for Dorothy. It’s very possible that she’s still with us. If anyone knows, let us know!

Nina:

We will get more into Spike, Dermody, Hannon, Reddington and Fitzgerald in upcoming episodes. Hope you continue to listen in! 

Lara and Nina:

Happy New Year!