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News and Features about Organized Crime, Mafia and La Cosa Nostra taken from National and Local News Sources. In an attempt to get you this type of coverage in a timely manner we can not be responsible for the content of the following material. |
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12-23-00 Judge: Lawyer can reveal hit man's confession.
by J.M. Lawrence, Boston Herald A Boston attorney will finally get to tell his dead client's secrets in the quest for truth in a 1965 gangland slaying in which four men may have been wrongly accused and sentenced to death, a judge ruled yesterday. Middlesex Superior Court Judge Margaret Hinkle - considering reputed mobster Peter Limone's bid for a new trial - took the highly unusual step of releasing lawyer Joseph J. Balliro Sr. of his attorney-client privilege so he can divulge information he was told decades ago about the murder of Edward ``Teddy'' Deegan. The legendary Boston defense attorney has been waiting years to officially tell the courts that his client, Mob hit man Vincent ``Jimmy The Bear'' Flemmi, confessed to the crime in the 1960s before his death. Balliro could not be reached for comment yesterday. Balliro has written an affidavit stating Vincent Flemmi, the brother of notorious gangster Stephen ``The Rifleman'' Flemmi, told him Limone and three other men convicted in the crime - Joseph Salvati, Henry Tameleo and Louis Greco - had nothing to do with Deegan's murder. Limone's defense has filed motions for a new trial that would include testimony from Balliro. Hinkle declined to rule yesterday on a motion for bail for Limone, who has been in jail for 33 years, and called another hearing for next week. ``We're moving along and hopefully he'll be home soon,'' Limone's son Peter said yesterday. Balliro's information about Flemmi's confession adds to explosive new evidence that surfaced this week on the bloody killing in a Chelsea alley 35 years ago that changed so many lives. A special task force on internal corruption in the FBI released stunning reports also suggesting Limone and the three other men did not kill Deegan. The reports of now-retired FBI agents H. Paul Rico and Dennis Condon state the government not only had information that the men were innocent, but also allowed their informant, Joseph ``The Animal'' Barboza, to testify against his enemies as the only witness at trial. ``I don't know how they sleep at night - Rico and Condon - knowing what they did,'' Limone's wife, Olympia ``Olly'' Limone, said yesterday. The revelations about Limone's possible innocence prompted a call on Beacon Hill yesterday for Gov. Paul Cellucci to pardon him. ``I'm going to try to do anything I can because it is a miscarriage of justice,'' said Kelly A. Timilty, a member of the Governor's Council. ``If we have a man sitting in prison for 30 years for something he didn't do, we have to correct that.'' Timilty said she intends to move swiftly to bring Limone out of MCI-Norfolk. Before the murder conviction, Limone had a record for running dice games. He and the three other men faced the electric chair until the state eliminated the death penalty in 1974. Salvati's sentence was commuted and he was released in 1997. He had demanded a pardon. Greco and Tameleo died in jail. ``I want to see if we can get pardon hearings as quickly as we can,'' Timilty said. ``These men might not be here today if the death penalty hadn't been abolished, and that frightened me.'' The Limone family had dreams of a Christmas homecoming for Peter. But Hinkle did not rule on the motion to let him out on bail after prosecutors said they need more time to study the move and the newly released FBI documents. It also was unclear yesterday whether Hinkle would have the authority to release Limone. Suffolk County District Attorney Ralph C. Martin II's office opposed the bail motion, but ``the commonwealth may change its posture somewhere down the road,'' assistant district attorney Mark Lee told the court yesterday. Limone's attorney, William Koski, asked the court to consider the decades his client has spent behind bars. Hinkle's decision to set another hearing for next Friday drew groans of frustration from Limone's many family members in the courtroom and outrage from his co-counsel, John Cavicchi. ``They're engaged in a continuing obstruction of justice and a conspiracy to violate Mr. Limone's civil rights,'' Cavicchi said. Included in the FBI's old reports is information from an unnamed informant two days before the March 12, 1965, murder, stating Vincent Jimmy ``The Bear'' Flemmi was planning Deegan's demise. Several days after the rubout another report was made to then-FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in which agent Rico wrote the names of five men who the informant said killed Deegan: Vincent Flemmi, Joseph ``The Animal Barboza, Ronald Cassesso, Wilfred Roy French and Romeo Martin.
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