Finding Frankie Salemme - The 1972 Arrest

Lara:

Hi all! Before we jump into today’s subject, I want to share a couple of the comments from our listeners about last week’s episode.

Nina:

They were all great, so if we don’t share yours, please don’t be angry with us!

Lara:

Vinny Teresa, the Walt Disney of the Mafia! 

Nina:

And Vinnie’s informant code was actually BSA - Bull Shit Artist!

Lara:

Thanks for all the comments as always. I’m a little bummed that David seems to have ditched us. If you’re listening, David let us know. We miss your feedback.

Nina:

Indeed! Ok time for Lara’s favorite person to gripe about, Frankie Salemme!

Lara:

I’ll try to control my outbursts today. I banged out a hundred swings and chomped on a top of the round steak that was as tough as shoe leather to wear me down a bit. I also read a recent post on Matt of Boston’s blog. Finally after 19 years, someone besides us called out Frankie on his bullshit story about being dressed as a rabbi and shooting Punchy McLauglin at the Beth Israel Hospital. At last! But Matt should check out who actually shot Jimmy Flemmi in the leg. Jimmy’s wife shot him because Jimmy killed Iggy Lowry who she was having an affair with. Check the timeline. Iggy was killed and dumped then discovered in the wee hours of September 3rd. Later that evening, Jimmy was shot after he told his wife what he had done. She was a lousy shot and clipped him in the leg. He certainly couldn't tell the law that his wife put a bullet in him because he just killed her bi-sexual lover who was his former jailmate. Jimmy did share that story with Barboza. Barboza, being the gossip that he was, repeated the story to others including the Feds but left out Jimmy’s name. No matter what Barboza had a soft spot for Jimmy.

Nina:

That’s for sure! Who knows what trashiness was going on between all of them! 

And by the way you don’t seem to be any calmer.

Lara:

Well we shall see! 

Back to today’s topic. In addition to Frankie Salemme, his arrest and trial, we’ll also be looking at Detective Billy Stuart's court case and how it fits with Frankie’s troubles, Frankie’s partner in crime and lies, Stevie Flemmi and the man who testified against Frankie, Bobby Daddieco.

Nina:

And we’ll be taking another look at Attorney John Fitzgerald and the possible reasons, beyond the standard excuse, as to why he was nearly killed by the car bomb planted in Joe Barboza’s batmobile.

Lara:

And his drunken bender with his colleague F. Lee Bailey!

Nina:

We definitely can’t leave that out!

But to begin with, we need to go back to the first week of September in 1969 when FBI Special Agent H. Paul Rico met with Frankie Salemme and Stevie Flemmi on Revere Beach to warn them to get out of town and take it on the lam because of a set of pending indictments. Let’s relay that event from how Frankie recalled it during his 2003 Senate testimony.

Lara:

You got it! An opportunity to prove to our listeners that I can remain calm while discussing Frankie. Here we go. Frankie stated that he received a phone call from Stevie Flemmi before dawn. Stevie told him he had something very important to tell him and that Frankie should pick Stevie up at his home which at the time was in Milton, MA. Frankie got in his car and rushed to Stevie’s house. Upon arriving Stevie hopped in the car and told Frankie they needed to go meet Rico on Revere Beach about some indictments that were being handed down.

Nina:

I’ve got a question, was Rico just hanging on the beach all night waiting for those two or was there a set meeting time?

Lara:

Hey maybe he was having a lobster roll and fries at Kelley’s!

According to Frankie’s tale Stevie and Rico had some signaling method setup. Supposedly Rico would call Stevie and say it was Jack from South Boston. That meant they were to meet at Revere Beach. Frankie said he didn’t know anything about it until it came out years later in the hearings.

Nina:

Yeah ok! Highly likely that’s another lie like just about everything else in his testimony. He’d either read it somewhere or Frankie knew about it all along because he was an informant too! We’ll get to why I think he was cut as a CI later.  

Frankie said when Rico arrived at the beach he pulled in front of their car and another agent who was definitely not Dennis Condon stepped out of the vehicle along with Rico. In fact, it sounded like the other agent was Richie’s handler, Gerard Comen. I’m trying to imagine why Rico would bring Gerard on an assignment that broke every rule in the book plus the new rules he was under since his life was allegedly under threat. Rico and Richie had already put the fear of God into Gerard, so maybe he knew Gerard wouldn't squeal. 

Lara:

Most likely just to continue to torment Comen. As Nina mentioned, Rico was under a direct order from J. Edgar Hoover, not to meet with his CIs unless he had a back up team consisting of at least two other agents because of the Rib Room plot to kill him.

Nina:

The alleged plot. Which we now know was a scam to get Rico out of Boston and to Miami, but only Richie and Rico knew that. 

Anyway since Rico wasn’t there in an official capacity, he certainly couldn’t drag a team of agents along. Supposedly Frankie backed up out of sight because he didn’t want the other agent to see him because he didn't know him. Rico walked over to the two men and explained about the pending indictments and said that they needed to get out of town. They both asked how serious it was. Frankie said he couldn’t recall exactly what Rico said but it was about the Bennett murder and the car bombing of Fitzgerald. The duo heeded the advice, scooped up Peter Poulos and hit the road.

Lara:

And as Rico had warned, the first indictments were handed down on September 11, 1969.

Frankie, Stevie, Poulos, “Sonny” Shields, Robert Daddieco and the late Richie Grasso were named as the suspected killers of William Bennett. Daddieco who was being held in protective custody was one of the “witnesses” who testified in front of the Grand Jury earlier that morning. Frank, Stevie and Sonny were hit with murder and conspiracy charges and Poulos only with conspiracy. 

Nina:

Another month passed before the second set of indictments were handed down. On October 10th, indictments were returned charging Stevie and Frankie with the January 1968 car bombing of Joe Barboza’s attorney, John Fitzgerald. For more about that listen to our New Year bonus episode on Dottie Barchard, the Defense Never Rests, and our episode about Joe Barboza.

That same day, Peter Poulos’ body was found in the Nevada desert. But he would not be officially identified until the following February. Not by the FBI, but rather a Boston Police Officer who was a specialist in matching fingerprints. Had the FBI released the prints to other law enforcement agencies, Poulos’ remains would have been identified within days of their discovery.

Lara:

But the Feds had to have known that it was Poulos and were protecting their golden boy Stevie Flemmi and despite what Frankie claimed, most likely him also. 

Nina:

We’ve both read through Frankie’s testimony several times and as we’ve said here and in other episodes, it’s clear that just about every word out of his mouth was a lie. To top it off Durham and Wilson let him get away with it. 

Lara:

At times it was as if Frankie was being guided and coaxed through his testimony.

Nina:

No question.

Back to the road trip. I think Stevie began panicking the moment the three of them started on their journey. He was probably stopping to call Rico every time he spotted a payphone. Poulos was likely having doubts about his fellow lamisters. With Stevie calling the mothership every five miles, it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what was really going on. A panicked Flemmi and a doubting Poulos were doomed from the start. What do you think was going to happen?

And let’s be honest, Frankie wasn’t one to instill confidence in someone either. 

Lara:

Talk about a trifecta! And remember Stevie had been under psychiatric care for anxiety and who knows what else.

Nina:

Can’t you just picture Frankie and Stevie bickering and playing the blame game as they drove through the desert? It’s going to be great on Netflix. 

Lara:

Enough to rival the Sopranos! Ok back to reality.

My first doubt or question is Frankie’s story that he went one way and Stevie and Peter another after LA. Remember Nevada still has the death penalty. Frankie couldn’t cop to being present at Poulos’ murder. Despite the deal he made with the Feds, Nevada could have chosen to charge Frankie with first degree murder. Stevie also never pled out in Nevada and Poulos’ murder technically remains unsolved. Talk about a travesty.

Nina:

I want to briefly cover Stevie’s later testimony about Poulos:

On the stand, Flemmi said that at some point Salemme left – but was still calling the shots:

Prosecutor Fred Wyshak: What happened to Peter Poulos?

Stephen Flemmi: He was murdered.

Wyshak: By who?

Flemmi: By me … Frank insisted, because he was part of the bombing.

Wyshak: You shot him?

Flemmi: Yes.

Wyshak: What did you do with his body?

Flemmi: Dumped him by the side of the road and left him there.

Lara:

How was Salemme calling the shots if he wasn’t there. It wasn’t like they had cell phones back in those days.

Nina:

Why do you always have to be so nitpicky?

Lara:

Just my nature!

We’ll get back to Frankie’s time on the run in a bit. As for Stevie there’ll be no shortage of him this season and next.

The duo may have been MIA, but the prosecution of the Billy Bennett murder conspirators carried on.

Nina:

Wimpy Bennett  and Jimmy and Stevie Flemmi’s favorite cop and handler, Detective Billy Stuart was indicted in February of 1970 for being an accessory after the fact in Billy Bennett’s December 1967 murder. That same day he was “relieved of his duty” as a cop. He’d been a member of the Boston Police Department for 19 years. Stuart pleaded innocent to the charges two days later and a trial date was set for April 7th.

At Stuart’s trial, an alleged associate of the Bennetts testified that they were paying Billy Stuart $50 a week, but the dates he gave were after both Walter and Wimpy had already disappeared. There was also a monthly payment envelope that had the initials BM on it. Probably another local cop since the Bennetts were not involved with the Feds as CIs. 

Lara:

At the trial, Robert Daddieco testified that there were six men involved in the plot to kill Billy Bennett, the late Dickie Grasso and the five men who had been indicted back in September of 1969. 

Robert claimed that Dickie Grasso was Billy Bennett’s bodyguard and therefore was “the only man who could get close to him”, and Sonny Shields was the trigger man. Things went sideways when Billy Bennett saw the gun, and tried to escape from the car and that’s how he fell out into the snowbank. Stevie Flemmi and Frankie were in a second car to serve as a getaway vehicle for Grasso, Daddieco and Shields. But instead, they were trying to retrieve the now deceased Billy Bennett before being scared off by a taxi driver. In typical Flemmi fashion, Stevie called up Billy Stuart to save him. And as usual, Stuart came running. He drove them back to the murder scene and helped them move the abandoned getaway car which was still running with the then dead Grasso in it. Grasso had panicked after Billy Bennett had fallen from the car, and his cohorts saw fit to kill him.

Another perfect Netflix scene. 

Nina:

On April 25th, Billy Stuart took the stand in his own defense. In court, he identified Robert Daddieco as Grasso’s real killer. Stuart said that he knew Daddieco because he had arrested him in 1962 for a parole violation. As we recounted last week, Daddieco had been arrested after Vinnie Teresa gave him up in 1958. But Stuart stated that he had never even seen Sonny Shields until the first day of the trial. 

Lara:

That may or may not have been true since Sonny had a criminal record dating back to when he was a juvie and was sent to Shirley. He escaped from there with three other boys in 1953 and made it all the way to Albany, NY in a stolen car. The following year, Sonny was picked up again while attempting to commit a b&e on Blue Hill Ave. He’d climbed in through a skylight using a rope. His accomplice escaped the same way the two men had gotten in before the cops arrived. We’ll get more into Sonny and his background in future episodes.

Nina:

Stuart claimed that he’d been shocked to hear that Billy Bennett had been murdered.  He did concede however that the Bennetts had all been his informants. But he stated that he had never revealed his sources even to his bosses. “Even the FBI does not reveal the names of informers.”

Under cross-examination, he claimed that he did not have a quid-pro-quo relationship with his informants.

An outright lie given how much running he’d had to do for Jimmy Flemmi over the years. From rescuing Jimmy after Maureen Flemmi shot him in the leg to moving Margaret Sylvester’s corpse after Jimmy got high and botched the disposal job. 

Lara:

Hugh Shields and Billy Stuart were acquitted on April 30th. Shields was sent back to Walpole on a parole violation charge. But Billy Stuart was free to go about his business. In an interview with the press, he lambasted the prosecution and alleged that the investigation into Billy Bennett’s murder had been sloppy because Daddieco had turned prosecution witness so quickly after the indictments. 

Nina:

Technically, the only reason the Feds got the indictments was because of Daddieco’s bogus testimony. We’ve seen how well that worked for the Feds. Just look at the Teddy Deegan murder trial for instance.
 

In the meantime, Frankie and Stevie were still nowhere to be found. In May of 1972, Edward Harrington, special justice department attorney and the head of the New England Task Force told the press that they represented ten federal investigative agencies. He pointed out the 24 convictions attributed to Vinnie Teresa’s testimony, and of course Jack Kelley’s testimony in the Marfeo/Melei murder trial and the ‘68 Brinks heist case. And he praised Daddieco’s cooperation without which the authorities would not have obtained indictments against Frankie and Stevie.

Lara:

You left out Dennis Raimondi, but will get to him in another episode.

Let’s fast-forward seven months later to Frankie’s apprehension on December 14th.

Nina:

By none other than FBI SA John Connolly. The magic part is that Connolly just happened to be walking by when he spotted Frankie who at that point had been on the lam for over three years.

There is no way he was in NYC that entire time. The apartment he was living in had been rented in September of that year under the name of Jules Selig along with his YMCA membership that began the same month. I’m not basing my theory only on that, but I feel he was with Stevie up until the end of August, most likely in Canada.

Lara:

I tend to agree with you. We also have the added wrinkle of Louis Manocchio possibly having been roommates with Frankie in NYC. As for the identity Frankie had taken up, Jules Selig, that poor man! He had been swimming at the L Street Beach in the summer of 1968. Fond memories of the L Street Brownies! 

Nina:

Who eats brownies at the beach?!

Lara:

No, not brownies you eat! The brownies are swimmers who are famous for their New Year’s Day plunge in the Atlantic!

Nina:

What a bunch of weirdos!

Lara:

Oh yeah! Anyhow, while Jules was changing in the bath house someone nicked his wallet  and that’s how Frankie became the curator of a Wichita, Kansas Art Museum! The poor man and his mother! The Feds haunted them for nearly a year.

Nina:

The Feds were convinced that there were cryptograms hidden in the notes found in Frankie’s apartment. But of course they never decoded any secret messages.

Lara:

Secret messages! I can’t!  It’s unclear exactly how Frankie and Louis hooked up once they were on the run. Billy Candelmo seems to have been the likely matchmaker. No matter how it happened, they were an odd couple!

Nina:

I don’t doubt that Louis was in NYC a large portion of the time, but like you, I have my doubts about their roommate status.

According to the FBI report on Frankie’s apprehension, he’d been staying with Louis Manocchio. This was supposedly how the Feds discovered Louis’ assumed identity of Richard Tamiglia, which would eventually lead them to the ski slopes of Chamonix three months later.

The same FBI report also noted that the New York Field Office had been looking for the lamisters in the area of Central Park West for six weeks. They weren’t scouring the neighborhood, but only checking in a few times a week in hopes of catching them off-guard. They continued the practice for another week after Frankie was arrested by John Connolly in the hopes of apprehending Louis. 

The implication of that then to me is that Stevie had a general idea of where Frankie was located but not an exact address. He passed the information on to Rico who then disseminated it to Connolly. 

Lara:

I was thinking more along the lines that Rico had given a heads up to Louis and Frankie. Louis was told to get lost because they couldn’t risk Louis’ return and the convictions of Raymond Patriarca, Rudy Sciarra, Pro Lerner and the others being overturned. RI State Attorney General Israel didn’t want Louis back. After Louis was “found” in Chamonix, he once again went missing. Listen to the third episode of this season for more on that. 

I think Rico convinced Frankie to allow himself to get caught and save his ever important street cred. 

Nina:

I think Frankie and Stevie were almost certainly in contact with one another because a search of the apartment revealed papers with phone numbers from Montreal and Western Quebec. I’m convinced that Stevie and Rico gave up Frankie’s location and hung him out to dry. They sacrificed Frankie for Stevie. Why? Maybe because Stevie was easier to manipulate. 

And Frankie must have known what they’d done. And that’s why he said some of the things he did three decades later in his Senate testimony. It was his revenge on Rico and Stevie. 

Also in the apartment were the 13 volumes of transcripts from Hugh Shields’ trial.

Lara:

Oh gee and where do you think Frankie got 13 volumes of trial transcripts from? It wasn’t like he submitted a FOIA request! He got them from Rico! And I believe that the reason Frankie had to get spanked was because of his outspokeness over the Teddy Deegan murder case.

I want to make clear that this is Frankie’s recollection that I’m quoting here, but others who knew Frankie at that time confirmed that he was upset over the verdicts that were handed down. To be fair everyone except the Feds and the prosecutors were upset. Everyone knew Barboza and Jimmy Flemmi killed Teddy and everyone knew the Feds knew and suborned Barboza’s perjury on the stand. Ok off of my mini tirade. Here’s what Frankie claimed:

“After the convictions were handed down in the Deegan case, Rico and Condon came into the shop like they usually did. Condon was elated over their success, and said, “I wonder how Louie Greco likes it on death row.” 

“How can you say that, Dennis? You’re a Knights of Columbus, you’re a holy name society.” Frankie replied.

“Well, if you’re so smart and you think you know so much, why don’t you get on the stand and testify?” Denny shot back.

“Dennis, who is going to listen to me? Who is going to believe me? I’ll get on the stand if you do. You won't get by St. Peter in the gate, you can't, you broke one of the ten commandments, thou shalt not bear false witness, you can't get by him, Dennis.”

Frankie continued, “Once I hit the sore spot of the religious aspect with him, then he really blew his top.”

Now I believe that recollection of the exchange was hyperbolic to say the least, but I do believe that was enough of a slight to earn Frankie a stretch in the can.

Nina:

I agree, and there were Feds who confirmed Frankie’s ire over the convictions. According to an FBI memorandum written by SA Raymond Ball on August 2, 1968, Salemme was very vocal in his disgust of the verdict. He stated that the DA Garrett Byrne was trying to make an empire for himself and that something should be done about Fitzgerald, saying it was too bad they hadn’t finished him.

Salemme said that the District Attorney’s office had lied, the witnesses in the trial had lied and also the Feds had lied and the only ones that did not lie were the defendants.

Lara:

Don’t worry, Fitzgerald had his chance to try to torment Frankie during the trial. Frankie was arraigned in NY before being extradited to Boston. Bail was set at half a million dollars.

When he finally made it back to Boston, Frankie was arraigned in Suffolk County Superior Court on December 19th and held without bail. Joe Balliro represented him at the arraignment during which the Prosecutor announced that Frankie was also indicted for the car bombing of Fitzgerald. The DA’s office would never try Frankie or Stevie for William Bennett’s murder. Instead they chose to pursue the Fitzgerald car bombing charges.

Nina:

The car bombing trial finally began on June 11, 1973 with jury selection. By now Frankie was being defended by F. Lee Bailey. The Assistant DA was Kevin Mulvey and the judge was Roger Donahue. The jury was to be sequestered for the duration of the trial.

Lara:

I want to note that Spike O’Toole was killed two months before the trial started. Very convenient.

The highlight of the trial was John Fitzgerald’s testimony. He recounted the events leading up to the attack. According to him, he had been at his office in Everett cleaning out his desk, since he and Al Farese were in the process of dissolving their law partnership. He reported to the FBI before heading out to Barboza’s batmobile. 

Nina:

Why was he reporting to the FBI? 

Lara:

I assume it was because his client, Barboza, had flipped. 

Nina:

I’m suspicious of everyone!

I think we should go over the sequence of events again for people since the Barboza episode was so long ago.

Lara:

I’m planning on doing that right now as it was all part of Fitzgerald’s testimony.

At 5:15 pm on Tuesday January 30, 1968, Fitzgerald left work and walked about a block behind the law office in Everett to where he’d parked Barboza’s black and gold car. He sat in the vehicle, but started it before he closed the door. Had the door been closed he most likely would have been killed.

He testified that his first response was to demand that SA Rico be contacted. A local Everett cop rode with him to the hospital. Fitzgerald handed over a .38 that he’d had in his hip pocket, and a .25 from his jacket pocket. He stated he had started carrying about six months prior. 

Fitzgerald, who was conscious from the time of the explosion until he was put under anesthesia, demanded that Rico and Condon come to see him. And that they did!

Nina:

An FBI 302 from November 1967 recounted a meeting Fitzgerald had with SAs Rico and Welby. He told them that Al Farese was planning to testify against his former client Barboza, claiming that Al had a letter from Barboza to Chico Amico detailing the mafia’s activities. Farese also had 3x5 cards detailing interviews he’d had with Barboza. 

Fitzgerald recounted a recent incident that had taken place at his office where Guy Frizzi had threatened his secretary, saying he’d killed before and would kill again. The mafia attorney claimed it was over income tax problems Frizzi was having. 

As a result of these threats, Fitzgerald said he went looking for Peter Limone because Frizzi was Limone’s partner, and he hoped Limone would take care of it. Limone promised to tell Frizzi to lay off.

Lara:

That is the first time I heard that Guy Frizzi was partners with Limone. I wonder if any of our listeners know. Since Frizzi was with Barboza it sounds to me like that story was planted to make Limone look connected to Barboza to reaffirm Barboza’s Deegan tale. But maybe I’m off.

Fitzgerald claimed that in early November of ‘67, Larry Baione called him and asked for a meeting. The attorney agreed to meet Baione at the Howard Johnsons on Rte 1 in Dedham. I had no idea there was Ho Jo’s on rte 1 in Dedham but that was before my time. Fitzgerald supposedly went alone, and Baione arrived with Phil Waggenheim, but Phil remained in the car. 

Baione was worried that Barboza was going to flip on everyone and asked Fitzgerald for help. But Fitzgerald claimed that he had no influence over Barboza. Baione then offered to pay Fitzgerald for all the information he could get on Barboza. But Fitzgerald claimed that he refused the offer.

Nina:

Well you know he was soooo ethical.

Lara:

Sure he was. A regular Boy Scout!

Nina:

Fitzgerald then told SAs Rico and Welby that shortly after the meeting, Dottie Barchard received an anonymous phone call threatening her and her children if she didn’t stop seeing Fitzgerald. His wife had also gotten a phone call about his affair with Dottie.

Fitzgerald also told the Feds that when he was checking around as to who made the telephone calls to his wife and to Dorothy, “The Office”, meaning the mafia, had tried to lead him to believe that it was Spike O'Toole's friends. But he’d checked with O'Toole, and Spike told him that it wasn’t him.

Lara:

Then Fitzgerald dropped another bombshell on the Feds: the mafia had said they’d kill Spike O’Toole (who was still locked up at Concord for harboring Georgie McLaughlin) if Fitzgerald agreed to fix Barboza’s testimony for them. 

When Rico asked for the name of the person who had told Fitzgerald that, he refused to answer, saying only, “I’m not going to divulge the identity of this person, but I have given the identity of this party to Jimmy O’Toole, and he will probably be in trouble when O’Toole comes out of jail.”

He also claimed that he had asked Spike about the threatening phone calls, and O’Toole assured him that it wasn’t him or his associates.

Nina:

I have questions about what Dorothy was really feeding to the Feds about these guys. I’d like to write Dorothy’s story someday. Still trying to find out if she's still kicking. 

Back to Fitzgerald’s testimony.

He offered to show the jury his injuries, but Bailey objected. He told the jury that the mob was out to get him and his client, Barboza.

During Frankie’s Senate testimony three decades later he claimed that he had been asked to take care of Fitzgerald by “Providence” i.e. Raymond Patriarca, and he agreed since Fitzgerald was working with Barboza against the mafia. According to his story, after scoping out the situation, Frankie decided it was doable since Fitzgerald was pretty lax with his personal safety. 

Lara:

Here’s where the story loses its credibility for me. After the preliminary work was done, Frankie testified that Larry Baione intervened and said they had changed their minds and wanted to use a car bomb. At that point, Salemme claimed that he dropped out. But Stevie stayed on and worked with Larry to plant the bomb. Larry and Stevie working that close together seems highly unlikely. Long time listeners might recall that Stevie Flemmi had a grudge against Baione going back to at least 1966. Flemmi would regularly complain to Rico about Baione and said he planned to kill him but he wanted to make it look like it was someone else’s doing.

Nina:

He didn’t have the guts to do him in, but instead Stevie eventually opted to take his revenge on Baione by using his power as a Top Echelon Informant. More on that later in the season.

Lara:

Back to the trial and the next prosecution witness, Robert Daddieco. He told the court that Frankie had approached him just a few weeks before the attack, and asked him for help going after Fitzgerald. Frankie would later claim that Daddieco overheard a conversation between him, Stevie, Howie and Joe Mac about killing Fitzgerald, to “make an example of him.”

After it all went sideways, Daddieco claimed that Frankie had said to him, “It’s a real mess. It didn’t go as I wanted it to. Don’t say anything about it.”

Nina:

Because it’s Winter Hill or whatever label was slapped on them back in those days. If it wasn’t for the Feds propping them up and backing them up, they would have faded off into the sunset.

Lara:

People bicker about who was the founding father of Winter Hill. Was it Joe MacDonald, Buddy McLean, Howie Winter, Whitey Bulger or Stevie? It was more Rico than any of them. It was the Feds creation to wipe out the Mafia.

Nina:

I still can’t figure what sort of self-loathing the Flemmi’s suffered from. I’m referring to their ethnicity. 

Anyhow, when the ADA asked Daddieco who had ordered the hit, Robert answered, “Larry Biommi…The newspaper wrote the last name B-i-o-m-m-i, but obviously he meant Baione. Daddieco did not elaborate and the ADA dropped that line of questioning.

Daddieco also testified that he had seen Frankie practice wiring dynamite to a car in a garage on Marshall Street in Somerville. In addition, Daddieco claimed that he had been the one to drive Frankie to Fitzgerald’s office in Everett so that he could wire Barboza’s car. He said he watched as Frankie did “something under the engine hood”.

Lara:

Both sides rested on June 15th. They made their closing arguments and the case was sent to the jury for deliberations. Frankie was found guilty on two counts convicting him of armed assault with intent to murder and battery by means of a dangerous weapon. Sentencing was scheduled for the following week at Bailey’s request.

On the day of Frankie’s sentencing, at the ADA’s request, the judge sentenced Frankie to 19 - 20 years on the first count and 9 - 10 on the second count for a total of 28 - 30 years. 

An appeal was filed on Frankie’s behalf and a motion for a new trial just two days later. 

Nina:

Prison didn’t keep Frankie out of trouble. Just two months after his conviction, he was charged with bribing a corrections officer to smuggle in food. I’m jealous of his shopping list:

“He handed me two regular supermarket bags of food in the receiving room. There was provolone cheese, anchovies, Italian bread, peppers, tuna fish, squid.”

Lara:

In late April 1974, Joe Balliro filed a motion to have the Billy Bennett murder charge against Frankie dropped. The judge agreed since the Feds had “lost” Robert Daddieco about six months prior and had no case without his testimony. This would not be the last time they’d lose Robert!

And like magic two weeks later, Stevie Flemmi surrendered to the police at his attorney’s office. He pleaded innocent in Suffolk County Superior Court to the Billy Bennett murder charge, and the judge ordered him held on $100,000 bail. A bail reduction hearing was set for the end of the month. The following day, Flemmi appeared in court in Middlesex County for his arraignment on the Fitzgerald car bombing charges. 

In November, the Billy Bennett murder charges against Stevie were dropped after the Assistant District Attorney informed the court that Daddieco was still missing. 

Nina:

Frankie’s appeals didn’t go as well. The Massachusetts Appeals Court upheld Frankie’s conviction in March of ‘75. 

But in April of 1978 attorney Harvey Brower gave it one more shot.

Brower attempted to prove that Fitzgerald had paid F. Lee Bailey a retainer of $10K. The money was to go to Dottie Barchard if Spike O’Toole killed him. If Fitzgerald killed Spike first, the money was to be used to defend Fitzgerald on murder charges. Fitzgerald, of course, denied this, though he did concede that he had been having an affair with Dottie. 

A longtime affair! They’d been seeing one another since at least 1962!

Lara:

Goodness Dorothy was a busy girl! On the stand, Fitzgerald claimed that he’d told Farese that the Mob planned to kill him and pin it on Spike. 

“I told Al and I gave him the names. I said, ‘Al, I’m going to get hit,’ and I named them and I said, ‘after it’s over, they’ll say Jimmy O’Toole did it.’”

Fitzgerald’s testimony took so long, Al Farese, who had also been called on by Frankie’s lawyer to take the stand, was told he had to come back the following day. Farese, who hadn’t wanted to testify in the first place, yelled at Brower, “I’m not coming back! You’ll have to get 15 judges to get me back!”

Nina:

Brower pressed Fitzgerald about his drunken bender with F. Lee Bailey after the two had imbibed a little too much Irish Whiskey. That evening, Fitzgerald told Bailey about the threats made against him. On the stand Fitzgerald said he didn’t trust Bailey as he was “an organized crime lawyer.”

Lara:

The chutzpah! This is from the man who said that among his list of clients were 20 of the men killed during the gangland war in the 1960s! What were they, choir boys?

Nina:

The man was cheating on his wife with a mob moll! Her husband robbed banks with Whitey and she informed on them to the Feds. She went on the run with Louis Arquilla and Frank Martin Feeney then gave them up! She turned in Spike and Georgie McLaughlin because Spike was sleeping with someone else. She was sleeping with Barboza too along the way while all the while informing to Rico. 

Lara:

Hey, don’t worry about it, they made him a judge! 

Back to the appeal. Brower felt that he could have had the conviction overturned on the basis that Bailey had a conflict of interest by acting as Frankie’s attorney during the trial. He claimed that the conversation between Fitzgerald and Bailey was covered by attorney-client privilege, and that disqualified him to serve as Frankie’s counsel. 

Nina:

In November of 1978, Frankie’s conviction was upheld in Federal Appeals Court. Frankie’s argument was that he’d been convicted on the basis of guilt by association since Fitzgerald had mentioned the names of Raymond Patriarca and Jerry Angiulo in his testimony.

In January of 1979, he lost his bid for a second trial. Two years later his third appeal was also denied. 

Lara:

In April of 1982 he was charged with escaping while working in a hospital. Evidently the COs would allow him to slip away and then return back before anyone had noticed. Frankie had been receiving regular furloughs since his conviction, but always returned. But it wouldn’t be long before Frankie was home!

Next week we’ll be looking at the hit parade from 1970 to 1973. 

Nina:

You’ll have plenty of time to complain about Johnny Martarno.

Lara:

Indeed! Thanks everyone.

Nina & Lara:

BYE!!!