Federal jury finds former New England boss Cadillac Frank and associate guilty of murder

Federal jury finds former New England boss Cadillac Frank and associate guilty of murder

  June 22, 2018    Dapper_Don

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A federal jury on Friday convicted former mob boss Francis P. Salemme and an associate for murdering a Providence native in 1993.
The convictions in the case of the aging mobster known as “Cadillac Frank” and accomplice Paul Weadick resolved a mystery that had endured for more than two decades: What happened to Steven DiSarro?
With its verdict, the jury gave an answer: Salemme and Weadick murdered him.
DiSarro’s body was then buried in an unmarked grave behind a mill in Providence, where it remained for more than 20 years.
“For 25 years, Frank Salemme and Paul Weadick thought they had gotten away with murder,” Harold Shaw, the special agent in charge of Boston’s FBI field office, said at a news conference after the convictions. “Justice is being served.”
The verdict came after four days of deliberations in this legally straightforward case: the murder of a witness.
Prosecutors said Salemme’s son strangled DiSarro as Weadick held his legs in a struggle in the kitchen of a Sharon, Massachusetts, home. Salemme, then the boss of La Cosa Nostra of New England, orchestrated the murder over concerns that DiSarro would disclose his secret interest in a South Boston nightclub, prosecutors said.
The murder and the trial occurred in Massachusetts, and a South Boston nightclub not far from the courthouse called The Channel played a central role in the case. But key witnesses were from Providence, including two ex-mobster brothers who said they arranged to bury DiSarro’s body behind a Providence mill. That evidence corroborated testimony from notorious killer Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, who said he walked in on the murder.
DiSarro’s remains were found in 2016, after the former owner of the Branch Avenue mill got into legal trouble of his own and admitted to a long-held secret about the body that was buried there. DiSarro had gone missing in May 1993, almost 25 years to the day that the trial over his death began.
Salemme, by then in the witness protection program after a life in and out of prison, was pulled out and charged with the murder of a witness, along with Weadick. Salemme’s son had since died.
Steven Boozang, an attorney for Salemme, said his client was disappointed by the verdict, but, at nearly 85 years old, was more disappointed for Weadick, who is in his early 60s.
“That’s just the kind of guy he is,” Boozang said.
An attorney for Weadick left court without commenting to a crowd of reporters outside.
Boozang said his client would appeal the case, describing eyewitness Flemmi as a liar and the DeLuca brothers of Rhode Island, who said they arranged to bury DiSarro’s body on Salemme’s orders, as unreliable.
DiSarro’s family said in a statement that the trial had finally brought them closure — even the gruesome details of the death of a man who was a father, a husband, a brother, a successful real-estate developer, a nightclub owner. DiSarro, then 43, left a note that told a son he wouldn’t see him for a long time. He never saw him again. On Friday, the DiSarros instead saw an answer, at last.
Three of DiSarro’s children attended a courthouse news conference. They were too overcome with emotion to speak; their eyes welled with tears as the authorities spoke about holding their father’s killers accountable.
The reaction of the DiSarro children — one son’s jaw clenched under the strain of holding back tears — brought to stark relief the dangers of romanticizing organized crime and the violence that comes along with it.
Witnesses held forth on a cast of characters like “Cadillac Frank” Salemme, James “Whitey” Bulger and “The Rifleman,” like something out of “The Sopranos.”
But focusing on that dark chapter of organized crime “obscures what this case is really about,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling. “It’s about a man named Steven DiSarro.”
Gangs like MS-13 are still a problem in the area, Lelling said. But the case that ended Friday was a mere echo of a time when the Mafia was a big problem in New England. Through the efforts of law enforcement, Lelling said, it no longer is.
“The Mafia in New England is not what it used to be,” Lelling said. “It’s almost gone.”
The case was especially important for the justice system because it involved the murder of someone Salemme feared would become a witness.
Fred Wyshak, the unassuming mob prosecutor who led the trial team, said he was exhausted.
Asked by a reporter if the case heralded the end of an era — the era of Cadillac Frank and his gang of crooks and killers — Wyshak said: “I hope so. It’s been quite a ride.”
He continued: “I hope this is the last case of this kind that we have to or need to prosecute.”
Sentencing is set for Sept. 13.

http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20180622/cadillac-frank-salemme-found-guilty-in-1993-murder-of-providence-native