{"id":248799,"date":"2022-12-20T09:33:59","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T15:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=248799"},"modified":"2022-12-20T15:07:01","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T21:07:01","slug":"cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Cadillac Frank:\u2019 Former New England Mafia Boss Frank Salemme Dies in Prison at 89"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mafia boss Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme died in prison in Missouri last Tuesday at the age of 89, online records from the US Bureau of Prisons show. The cause of death is unspecified.<\/p>\n

\"Frank
Hitman turned Mafia boss Frank Salemme, above, died of unknown causes at the US Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Missouri a week ago. (Image: AP\/FBI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Salemme led the Patriarca crime family in the early 1990s. Rubbing shoulders with Irish gangster Whitey Bulger\u2019s Winter Hill Gang, Salemme\u2019s outfit controlled illegal gambling, extortion, loansharking, and drug rackets in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.<\/p>\n

\n

Born in Boston in 1933, Salemme became an associate of the New England Mob in the 1950s. But then-boss Raymond Patriarca wouldn’t let him become a made man because he said it was a privilege reserved for full-blooded Italians. Salemme\u2019s mother was Irish.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Instead, he became a trusted hitman and participated in the vicious turf wars of the 1960s between the Patriarca and the Irish gangs.<\/p>\n

Power Vacuum<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In the 1980s the arrest of then-boss Jerry Angiulo created a power vacuum in the New England mafia, and Salemme led one of the factions wrestling for control of the organization.<\/p>\n

His Irish roots helped him forge close ties to Bulger and Stephen Femmi of the Winter Hill Gang, and their support helped install him as the de facto boss of the Patriarca family by 1991.<\/p>\n

Little did Salemme know, Bulger and Flemmi were longtime FBI informers whose evidence had helped convict Angiulo. The feds had allowed the pair to run their criminal operations with impunity in return for information about the inner workings of the Patriarca mob.<\/p>\n

\n

In 1995, Salemme was indicted on extortion and racketeering charges, along with Bulger and Femmi, whose credit had by then run out with the FBI. That\u2019s when Salemme discovered, through court documents, that his close allies were snitches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The discovery prompted him to become a government informant himself. His testimony helped secure the conviction of Bulger\u2019s former FBI handler, John Conolly, on racketeering, obstruction of justice, and murder charges.<\/p>\n

Conolly\u2019s ties to Bulger had led him to \u201ccross over to the dark side\u201d in the words of the judge, who sentenced him to 40 years in prison.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1972, Conolly had captured and arrested Salemme for his involvement in the unsuccessful car-bombing of a lawyer who was representing a mob informant. Salemme was sentenced to 16 years in prison for that crime.<\/p>\n

Bulger Killed in Prison<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Tipped off by Conolly, Bulger went on the run shortly before his indictment and was a fugitive for 16 years. In 2013, he received two life sentences for racketeering and murder.<\/p>\n

He was killed in his prison cell<\/a> in October 2018 at the age of 89. The murder occurred less than 12 hours after he was transferred from a Florida prison to US Penitentiary Hazelton in West Virginia.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two of the inmates since indicted<\/a> for Bulger\u2019s murder have reputed connections to the Patriarca crime family.<\/p>\n

\n

Salemme was placed on a federal government witness protection program after cooperating with authorities. In 2018, he was indicted for the 1993 murder of bar owner Steven DiSarro and sentenced to life imprisonment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Assistant US Attorney Fred Wyshak said that Salemme admitted to murdering eight people during the 1960s and was suspected of involvement in a further six in the 1990s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mafia boss Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme died in prison in Missouri last Tuesday at the age of 89, online records from the US Bureau of Prisons show. The cause of death is unspecified. Salemme led the Patriarca crime family in the early 1990s. Rubbing shoulders with Irish gangster Whitey Bulger\u2019s Winter Hill Gang, Salemme\u2019s outfit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":248800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1074],"tags":[84179,13765,84180],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Cadillac Frank:\u2019 Former Patriarca Mafia Boss Dies in Prison at 89<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Frank Salemme died at the US Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Missouri a week ago. He was former boss of the Patriarca Crime Family.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Cadillac Frank:\u2019 Former Patriarca Mafia Boss Dies in Prison at 89\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Frank Salemme died at the US Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Missouri a week ago. He was former boss of the Patriarca Crime Family.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-20T15:33:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-20T21:07:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Frank.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/\",\"name\":\"\u2018Cadillac Frank:\u2019 Former Patriarca Mafia Boss Dies in Prison at 89\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Frank.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-20T15:33:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-20T21:07:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Frank Salemme died at the US Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Missouri a week ago. He was former boss of the Patriarca Crime Family.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Frank.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Frank.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"Hitman turned Mafia boss Frank Salemme, above, died of unknown causes at the US Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Missouri a week ago. (Image: AP\/FBI)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"\u2018Cadillac Frank:\u2019 Former New England Mafia Boss Frank Salemme Dies in Prison at 89\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u2018Cadillac Frank:\u2019 Former Patriarca Mafia Boss Dies in Prison at 89","description":"Frank Salemme died at the US Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Missouri a week ago. He was former boss of the Patriarca Crime Family.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u2018Cadillac Frank:\u2019 Former Patriarca Mafia Boss Dies in Prison at 89","og_description":"Frank Salemme died at the US Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Missouri a week ago. He was former boss of the Patriarca Crime Family.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2022-12-20T15:33:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-12-20T21:07:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Frank.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/","name":"\u2018Cadillac Frank:\u2019 Former Patriarca Mafia Boss Dies in Prison at 89","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Frank.jpg","datePublished":"2022-12-20T15:33:59+00:00","dateModified":"2022-12-20T21:07:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Frank Salemme died at the US Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Missouri a week ago. He was former boss of the Patriarca Crime Family.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Frank.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Frank.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"caption":"Hitman turned Mafia boss Frank Salemme, above, died of unknown causes at the US Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Missouri a week ago. (Image: AP\/FBI)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cadillac-frank-former-patriarca-mafia-boss-dies-in-prison-at-89\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\u2018Cadillac Frank:\u2019 Former New England Mafia Boss Frank Salemme Dies in Prison at 89"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248799"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}