Murder of Edward Deegan
[2] 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.
[4] Deegan was part of the Bonanno crime family, and was the maternal uncle of American academic administrator Gerard T. Indelicato, who served as education advisor to Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.
[5] Deegan grew up in Boston's West End and became what many true crime authors and criminologists, such as Emily Sweeney, describe as a "career hood"[4] or "local gangster".
[2] In 1966, Joseph Barboza was persuaded by FBI agent's Paul Rico and Dennis Condon to become a cooperating witness in return for lighter punishment for the crimes he had committed.
[2] At 11:00 p.m. on March 12, 1965, Edward Deegan's body was found lying on his back, covered in blood, with a twelve-inch screwdriver near his left hand in an alleyway in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
[4] Within hours of Deegan's death, the Boston field office sent a memorandum to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover identifying Joseph Barboza, Vincent Flemmi, Ronald "Ronnie the Pig" Cassesso and Wilfred Roy French as present in the alleyway at the scene of the crime.
FBI agent Paul Rico promised Roy French and Ronald Cassesso lesser sentences if they corroborated Barboza's false testimony.
[2] A number of individuals were arrested immediately after his testimony, and on May 27, 1968, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts commenced the prosecution against Wilfred French, Peter Limone, Henry Tameleo, Ronald Cassesso, Louis Greco and Joseph Salvati for the murder of Edward Deegan.
[3] The investigation also revealed tapes and secret recordings which proved Barboza's testimony in the Deegan trial was inconsistent with the interviews he gave to the FBI.
Therefore, it is very likely that at least some federal officials understood that Barboza had committed perjury before the Suffolk County grand jury and that he was prepared to provide testimony at trial that was not true.
[9] In early 2007, the court commenced proceedings for the lawsuit, with Greco, Tameleo, Salvati and Limone's lawyers placing blame on the FBI for their client's wrongful imprisonment and urging the judge to compensate their families.
On July 26, 2007, U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner held that the FBI assisted Barboza in framing four men for Deegan's murder, and withheld information for decades that could have cleared them.
[5] In his 2007 publication, radio talk show host Howie Carr discussed the events that had occurred, saying, "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.
