Who was ‘Cadillac Frank’ Salemme? Ex-New England mafia boss serving life sentence dies in prison at 89

Who was ‘Cadillac Frank’ Salemme? Ex-New England mafia boss serving life sentence dies in prison at 89
Online records for the Bureau of Prisons show that Salemme passed away on Tuesday, Dec13. (FBI via AP)

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Former New England mafia head Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme, who was serving a life term in prison for the 1993 murder of a Boston nightclub owner, died at the age of 89, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

Online records for the Bureau of Prisons show that Salemme died on Tuesday, December 13. Salemme led the Patriarca crime family in Boston in the early 1990s before assisting prosecutors in convicting a dishonest FBI agent after finding that other mobsters had been talking about him to the police. The old mafia boss, who has admitted to a spate of other gangland crimes, was residing in Atlanta as Richard Parker when the nightclub owner's bones were discovered in 2016, making the old ex-Mafia don a government target once again.

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Salemme's 2018 trial was a throwback to the days when the mafia was a feared and strong force in New England, reported AP. Initially, he denied the fact that he was involved in Steven DiSarro's killing, but later he was convicted after his one-time best buddy testified against him. Salemme was involved in multiple deaths during Boston's gang battles in the 1960s and has served 16 years in prison for attempting to murder a lawyer who survived but lost a limb when his car was blown up in 1968. Salemme was critically injured in a shooting incident that took place outside a suburban Boston pancake house after being released from prison.