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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangland_Murder_of_Edward_Deegan

Gangland Murder of Edward Deegan[edit]

The murder of Edward Deegan, known by his nickname “Teddy Deegan”, occurred on March 12th, 1965[1]. Deegan was shot and killed in an alley next to an office building in Chelsea, Massachusetts at approximately 9:30pm[1]. In 1967 police charged six men for Deegan’s murder, and at trial, the prosecution’s primary witness was Federal Bureau of Investigation criminal informant Joseph Barboza[2]. On July 31st 1968, the court convicted Louis Greco, Henry Tameleo, Ronald Cassesso and Peter Limone of Deegan's murder, and sentenced them to the death penalty[1]. Joseph Salvati and Roy French were sentenced to life imprisonment as accessories to Deegan’s murder[1]. 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[3]. In 2004, Judge Nancy Gertner ruled that federal lawsuits by the families of Louis Greco, Henry Tamelo, 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[3].


Background[edit]

Edward Charles Deegan, informally known as ‘Teddy’, was born in January 1930[4]. He 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 ganster" [5]. Edward Deegan's extensive police record goes back to 1948 when he was arrested and charged with larceny[4]. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Deegan was arrested and charged for break ins and armed robberies, and in 1959 he was sentenced to six months in the Norfolk County House of Correction[4]. By the 1960's, Deegan had become "a peripheral figure" in the Boston underworld[2], which at the time, had become known for its gangsters and competing hoodlum groups[4].

The murder[edit]

On March 12th 1965, Edward Deegan was found dead in an alleyway in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Deegan's body was found lying on his back, covered in blood, with a twelve inch screw driver near his left hand at 11:00pm that night. Police reports revealed that Deegan was gunned down at approximately 9:30pm while attempting to break into a Chelsea finance company's office building[6]. He was shot six times, and police believe three different weapons were involved; one .45 calibre and two .38 caliber guns.

The trial[edit]

On October 5th 1967, criminal informant to the FBI Joseph Barboza testified [2]. Barboza informed the Suffolk County Grand Jury of the promises offered to him by the federal government and gave his recollection of how the homicide was carried out[2]. Barboza testified that on January 20th 1965, Peter Limone told him Edward Deegan's death had been approved by the leader of the Patriarca group, and offered him a $7,500 contract to kill Edward Deegan[7]. According to Barboza, Limone's motive was that Deegan had broken in and stolen eight two thousand dollars from him, and therefore he would "pay any amount of money'" to get Deegan killed[2]. He testified that he had spoken to Henry Tameleo and that he was involved in the conspiracy, and that Joseph Salvati wore a wig that made him appear bald at the crime scene, and was part of the group that murdered Deegan[2]. Barboza also implicated Wilfred ‘‘Roy’’ French, Ronald Cassesso and Louise Greco. 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[1].

The court struck a deal and agreed to reduce Barboza's sentence, and file more serious charges against the other men indicated[8]. Whilst the prosecution sought the death penalty for the six codefendants, Louis Greco, Henry Tameleo, Ronald Cassesso and Peter Limone were convicted of Deegan’s murder and sentenced to the death penalty, while Joseph Salvati and Roy French were sentenced to life imprisonment as accessories to Deegan’s murder[1]. Massachusetts abolished the death penalty shortly after sentencing, and thus none of the convicted were executed and their sentences were commuted to life in prison[3].

In August 1983, the Massachusetts Advisory Board of Pardons suggested to the governor that Limone’s sentence be commuted. The petition to have Limone's sentence commutted was supported by Deegan's family who expressed their belief that he was innocent and wrongfully convicted [3].On September 20, 1983, Governor Dukakis rejected the petition. In 1997, Governor William Weld commutted Joseph Salvati's life sentence to time served, and he was released from prison[3].

Overturned convictions[edit]

In December 2000, a Justice Department decided to investigate corruption in the FBI. The investigation revealed numerous files that had not been revealed to the parties of the Deegan murder during the trial[3]. The files contained information pertaining to the Deegan murder and revealed that Deegan was marked as a target by FBI informants[8]. According to these files, Joseph Barboza, Ronald Cassea, Jimmy Flemmi and Wilfred French had carried out the murder, and Greco, Limone, Tameleo and Salvati were falsely convicted for the murder with FBI complicity[3]. Whilst Henry Tameleo and Louis Greco died in prison in 1985 and 1995 respectively, Peter Limone and Joseph Salvati's convictions were vacated in January 2001, and they were released from prison after 33 years of incarceration[3].

Federal lawsuit[edit]

In 2001, Peter Limone filed a $300 million federal lawsuit against the United States Government. [3]Loius Greco's son and relatives of Tameleo also filled seperate law suits, asking for up to $75 million dollars in damages each. In 2002, Joseph Salvati filled a $300 million federal lawsuit[6]. All four law suits were for the wrongful conviction of the defendants and the malicious prosecution they had incurred. On the 17th September 2004, a federal judge allowed the lawsuits to proceed since “the state prosecution of Limone, Greco, Salvati, and Tameleo was procured by the FBI and nurtured by both federal agents and state officers who knew that the charges were bogus" [9]. On the 26th July 2007, U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner held that the US Government were to pay the wrongly accused $101.7 million in damages for their wrongful conviction[10].


  1. ^ a b c d e f Commonwealth v French [1968] (Suffolk County Super. Ct).
  2. ^ a b c d e f Committee on Government Reform (2004). Everything Secret Degenerates: The FBI’s Use of Murders as Informants. Washington: U.S Government Printing Office.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i The Justice Institute (2005). FBI’s Legacy of Shame. Justice Denied: The Magazine for the Wrongly Convicted, (27).
  4. ^ a b c d e Sweeney, Emily (2012). Boston Organized Crime. Charleston, S.C: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9780738576732.
  5. ^ Cobin, S. (2009). Upperworld Gangsters, Underworld Businessmen: Made Men, Corporate Raiders and the Discrepancies between the Enforcement of Organized and Organizational Crime - Or, Why a Last Name that Ends with a Vowel Still Means Hard Time for a Defendant. Hamline Journal of Public Law & Policy, 30(2), pp.627-682.
  6. ^ a b Fisher, Stanley Z. (2002). "Convictions of Innocent Persons in Massachusetts: An Overview" (PDF). Boston University Public Interest Law Journal 1. 1: 32, 33 – via HeinOnline.
  7. ^ Trial Transcript, Commonwealth v. French, (Suffolk County Super. Ct. 1968); Common- wealth v. Limone, Cr. No. 32367, 32370, slip op. at *3 (Suffolk County Sup. Ct., Jan. 5, 2001)
  8. ^ a b Cass, Ronald A. (2015). "Power Failures: Prosecution, Discretion, and the Demise of Official Constraint". International Centre for Economic Research Working Paper Series.
  9. ^ Limone v. United States
  10. ^ U.S. Must Pay Out $100 Million for Wrongful FBI Conviction". Reuters. 2007-07-27. Archived from the original on 2008-07-05. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
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