By the beginning of 1994, New England mafia boss Francis (Cadillac Frank) Salemme’s reign atop the Patriarca crime family was running on fumes. His enemies, both in law enforcement and on the street – remnants of the Boston mob crew opposed to his ascent to power five years earlier – were gaining traction in their collective efforts to unseat him as Godfather. The fact that he allegedly ordered the murders of at least a half-dozen foes tied to the crime family’s Boston faction during his time at the helm only served to strengthen the desire of cop and crook alike to take him down. Salemme, 84 today, is currently on trial for the 1993 gangland slaying of nightclub owner Stevie DiSarro, his former business partner. DiSarro’s remains were found in Providence two years ago and subsequently Cadillac Frank, who had flipped and turned witness for the government while behind bars in 1999, was ripped out of the Witness Protection Program and charged with DiSarro’s homicide. With Salemme fighting for his freedom in a Boston federal courthouse, let’s take a look back at his last dance as don of New England. Cadillac Frank Final Days Timeline: February 1994 – Fall River, Massachusetts racketeers Joe (The Animal) Savitch and Louis (Miami Beach Louie) Alexander vanish. Savitch and Alexander’s bones are discovered in Maine three years later. Authorities believe the pair either ran afoul of Salemme and his shakedown efforts or butted heads with their former protégé, Timmy (The Bat) Mello, Fall River crew chief and Cadillac Frank’s former cellmate in prison in the 1980s. March 1994 – East Boston mob figures Anthony (Bennington Street Tony) Ciampi & Michael (Big Mike) Romano, one-time members of the renegade crew that had tried to block Cadillac Frank’s ascension to boss, seek and receive permission from imprisoned Patriarca capo Bobby Carrozza, the step brother of the renegade crew’s leader, Joe (J.R.) Russo, to lead a rebellion against the Salemme regime. *In October 1993, Salemme’s top enforcer Richard (Richie the Hatchet) Devlin began attempting to extort tribute from Ciampi and Romano. *The East Boston mob rebellion headquartered out of Ciampi’s Breed’s Hill Social Club. March 4, 1994 – Former renegade crew member Vinnie (Gigi) Marino is released from prison and takes a leadership position in the rebellion. According to the FBI, Marino was part of an execution squad sent to kill Salemme at a Saugus, Massachusetts pancake house in the summer of 1989 (Salemme was shot five times, but survived the attack). March 31, 1994 – Salemme’s two top enforcers Richard (Richie the Hatchet) Devlin and Richard (Richie Nine Lives) Gillis come under a barrage of gunfire by Ciampi as they stalk members of the rebellion outside the Breed’s Hill Social Club. The bulletproof vest-adorned Devlin is killed. Gillis is shot three times but lives. April 1, 1994 – Salemme regime Providence soldiers Ronnie Coppola & Pete Scarpellini are shot to death inside Coppola’s Hockey Fans Social Club in Cranston, Rhode Island by “made” mobster Antonino (Nino) Cucinotta in a fight over a card game Coppola was running. Cucinotta was originally in the Salemme camp, however, had begun souring on his leadership methods and the behavior of his loyalists. June 1994 – The Patriarca’s two warring mob factions hold a peace conference at Kelly’s Pub in East Boston’s Central Square, with Big Mike Romano representing the rebellion and Stevie Rossetti and Bobby Luisi, Jr. representing Salemme. September 1, 1994 – East Boston crew member Michael (Little Mikey) Romano, Jr., Big Mike’s son, is killed by the Salemme group – some say as the unfortunate victim of mistaken identity – as he changes a flat tire outside the Stadium Café. September 2, 1994 – Massachusetts State Trooper Mark Charbonnier is shot to death by Salemme enforcer Dave Clark during a routine traffic stop when Clark, allegedly involved in the conspiracy to murder Little Mikey Romano, Jr., worries that Charbonnier will discover evidence of the conspiracy in his vehicle. September 10, 1994 – Salemme loyalist Joe Cirame averts an ambush attempt by the East Boston crew. September 16, 1994 – Joe Cirame is wounded in an ambush outside his home. September 21, 1994 – Salemme drug dealer Mike Prochilo averts being struck in a drive-by shooting coordinated by the East Boston crew. September 25, 1994 – East Boston crew enforcer and drug dealer Sean Cote stabs Salemme loyalist Timmy O’Toole in a bar fight. October 13, 1994 – High-ranking Salemme lieutenant Stevie Rossetti survives an ambush outside his home. October 20, 1994 – Salemme lieutenant, Joe Souza is shot in an East Boston phone booth by Big Mike Romano. October 31, 1994 – Joe Souza dies in the hospital on Halloween. December 11, 1994 – Salemme drug dealer Paul Strazzula is killed in Revere, found stuffed in the truck of his car, which has been set ablaze. Jan 5, 1995 – Cadillac Frank Salemme is indicted on racketeering charges out of federal court in Boston. June 24, 1995 – Francis (Frankie Boy) Cadillac, Jr. dies of AIDS-related cancer under indictment in two different federal racketeering cases and the suspect in multiple mob-related murders. Aug 11, 1995 – Cadillac Frank is apprehended by U.S. Marshals hiding in West Palm Beach, Florida. The Aftermath: November 6, 1995 – The 99 Restaurant & Pub Massacre: Salemme loyalists Bobby Luisi, Sr., Roman Luisi, Antonio Sarro and Anthony Pelosi are gunned down while eating at a Charlestown tavern April 3, 1995 – Old-school Boston mobster Richard (Vinnie the Pig) DeVincent is killed in Medford, Massachusetts after rebuffing shakedown efforts from the remaining Salemme regime. October 14, 1996 — East Boston loyalist Frank Imbrescia is ambushed in his office, but survives the shooting. November 24, 1996 – Gigi Marino is shot entering his Caravan Social Club and fellow East Boston crew enforcer Robert (Bobby the Beast) Nogueira, Gigi Marino’s bodyguard, is killed in the parking lot of a Comfort Inn in Revere, Massachusetts fifteen minutes later down the street.
