Gerard Thomas Ouimette (March 6, 1940 – April 19, 2015), commonly known as The Frenchman, was an American mobster and author from Providence, Rhode Island who was a prominent associate of the Patriarca crime family.
[1] During that time, Catholic nuns provided emotional and material support for the Ouimette family, bringing them food and clothing and checking in nearly every day.
[2] The psychiatrist who conducted them concluded: It seems likely that, because of the nature of this boy's problems, and because of the lack of acceptable moral principles, he will indulge in delinquent behavior again.
On January 24, 1969, Ouimette and his brother John were arrested on charges that they shot a Pennsylvanian mob hitman outside a Cranston restaurant.
[1]On July 9, 1972, while still in prison on the gun possession charge, Ouimette was convicted of conspiracy to kill Michael Greene and Homer Perkins, career criminals who had been found murdered three years prior.
[2][7] He was sentenced to ten years in prison, and was sent to the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI), a maximum security facility in Cranston.
[2] In March 1977, Ouimette called Vincent Vespia, a state police detective sergeant, at his home and threatened to break his jaw.
[3] The situation was such that Kennedy would walk past the front guard desk, with no questions asked, and corrections officers would deliver the food directly to Ouimette's first floor cell.
[3] Once, Kennedy was arrested by state police for attempting to deliver Ouimette a case of 46-ounce soda cans that had been emptied, filled with whiskey, and then resealed.
[3] Ouimette and his gang would walk to a second-floor lawyer's meeting room and get drunk on smuggled alcohol in styrofoam cups.
[7] However, he was rumored to be a "marked man" by rival organized crime groups, placing his life in danger upon his release.
[2] State police detective Captain Brian Andrews described Ouimette as the "Prince of Atwells Avenue," the stronghold of organized crime in New England.
"[3] Despite this, Ouimette was never convicted of murder, but he was regularly a suspect in mob killings in Rhode Island and the rest of New England.
[3] In 1981, Ouimette was charged with the murder of John Barbieri, an East Greenwich businessman with mafia ties whose body was found in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, with a bullet in the back of the head.
[2] Ouimette was released on parole on October 28, 1994, and moved to Fall River, Massachusetts,[12] but was tracked daily by local, state, and federal law enforcement.
[14] The government presented as evidence several recorded conversations in which Ouimette threatened to commit violence against Calenda.
[14] As Whitehouse put it: "A couple of Rhode Islanders were told that they would need to pay money and if they didn't they would be hurt fairly severely.
[14] James Gellerman, an alleged co-conspirator in the Calenda crime, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the government.
[2][14] He testified that one time at St. Rocco's Club in Providence in February 1995, Ouimette had instructed him to "crack" Calenda to get him to repay the alleged loan, and that Paul Parenteau was present for this conversation.
[14] These witnesses included Duxbury, Gellerman, the widow of a mobster whom Ouimette had an affair with, and strippers from the Satin Doll nightclub in Providence.
[14] Gellerman further testified that the next day, Ouimette had met with him at a restaurant and instructed him to go to Duxbury's car dealership, along with Parenteau and Harry Drew, so the three men could collect the money.
[14] In addition, several strippers who worked at the Satin Doll were called to the witness stand to testify regarding Ouimette's assaults and threats against Duxbury at the strip club.
[3][14] Ouimette struck an intimidating presence in the courtroom, and when he rose from his chair at one point during the testimony, the strippers became so fearful that they broke into tears and refused to even look in his direction.
[13] At the sentencing, Ouimette briefly addressed the court, criticizing the federal government for relying on paid witnesses to make its case.
[14] Ouimette died on April 19, 2015, aged 75, at the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina, a medium-security prison where he had spent the previous 19 years.