Joe Salvati

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Joe Salvati, wrongfully convicted of a mob-related murder, was ultimately cleared by evidence found by Boston journalist Dan Rea. [1] Sentenced to life in May 1968, he was released in 1997. [2] As a result, the House Committee on Government Reform investigated whether or not the Government withheld evidence. [3]

Contents

In 1965, Edward "Teddy" Deegan was murdered in an alley in Chelsea, Massachusetts. In 2007, Judge Nancy Gertner awarded $102 million to those whose convictions were overturned, stating FBI agents were trying to protect their informants, including "one of the true killers, Vincent "Jimmy the Bear" Flemmi, who was an FBI informant." Joe "The Animal" Barboza's testimony was crucial in convicting Mr. Salvati. [4] At the time, it was the "single largest sum ever awarded from the federal government under the Federal Tort Claims Act." [5] [6]

Edward Deegan murder

Within hours of Deegan's murder, J. Edgar Hoover had a memo from the Boston field office on his desk accurately identifying all the shooters, the actual shooters, as opposed to the four innocent men who would be convicted of the crime on the false testimony of Joseph Barboza in 1968. The memo never mentioned Salvati or his co-defendants. [7]

Salvati, whose only previous arrest had been for breaking and entering in 1954, was working odd jobs and had borrowed $400 from a friendly local moneylender. One day, the moneylender's accounts were unexpectedly taken over by Barboza. Barboza wanted Salvati's debt paid immediately, but Salvati was unable to pay, and stole the baseball bat from one of Barboza's enforcers who had been sent to collect the $400. A few days later, Salvati was arrested for the murder of Terry Deegan, a man who Salvati had never even heard of before. [8] Salvati's lawyers believe Barboza, the first in Boston recruited for the FBI witness protection program, set him up "simply to settle old scores." [9] [10]

Coverup and conspiracy

Radio talk host Howie Carr would later surmise, "For the FBI, it was more important to keep Vincent, and later Barboza, on the street as informants than it was to prevent the framing of innocent men. In fact, the railroading of the four men served two purposes for the FBI, it would enable Vincent and Joseph Barboza to escape conviction for a murder they had committed, and it would also remove several Patriarca crime family members or associates from the criminal world that the FBI had not been able to eliminate in a legal manner". [11]

See also

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The murder of Edward Charles "Teddy" Deegan occurred on March 12, 1965. Deegan was shot and killed in an alley next to an office building in Chelsea, Massachusetts at approximately 9:30pm. In 1967 police charged six men with Deegan's murder, and at trial, the prosecution's primary witness was Federal Bureau of Investigation criminal informant Joseph Barboza. On July 31, 1968, the court convicted Louis Greco, Henry Tameleo, Ronald Cassesso and Peter Limone of Deegan's murder, and sentenced them to the death penalty. Joseph Salvati and Roy French were sentenced to life imprisonment as accessories to Deegan's murder. In 1997 Salvati's sentence was commuted by Governor William Weld, and in January 2001, a judge overturned Peter Limone and Joe Salvati's convictions after uncovered FBI documents proved their innocence. In 2004, Judge Nancy Gertner ruled that federal lawsuits by the families of Louis Greco, Henry Tameleo, Peter Limone and Joseph Salvati had permission to be filed against the United States Government, and in 2007 a landmark decision ordered the United States Government to pay $101.7 million to the accused and their families for wrongful conviction. The use of FBI informants for the wrongful conviction of four innocent men is noteworthy because it unveiled the corrupt activities that occurred in the FBI during the 1960s.

References

  1. ↑ The Salvati Case: Alumni uncover FBI corruption, exonerating client after 30-year imprisonment Archived 2014-10-06 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ↑ "Barboza -All about the Providence Mob, by Allan May". Archived from the original on 2006-08-31. Retrieved 2014-09-06.
  3. ↑ House Opens 30-Year-Old Mob Investigation
  4. ↑ Gov't to pay $102M for mob convictions
  5. ↑ The Salvati Case: Alumni uncover FBI corruption, exonerating client after 30-year imprisonment Archived 2014-10-06 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ Meet the $101.7 million dream team
  7. ↑ Freedom for the Fall Guys After Decades Behind Bars
  8. ↑ https://www.readersdigest.ca/culture/justice-delayed-exoneration-joseph-salvati/
  9. ↑ Freedom for the Fall Guys After Decades Behind Bars
  10. ↑ Justice Delayed: The Exoneration of Joseph Salvati
  11. ↑ The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century By Howie Carr
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