Johnny Martorano
Johnny Martorano | |
---|---|
Born | Somerville, Massachusetts, U.S. | December 13, 1940
Other names | Vincent Joseph Rancourt, Richard Aucoin, Nick, The Cook, The Executioner, The Basin Street Butcher |
Occupation | Gangster |
Years active | 1964–1999 |
Criminal status | Paroled/Released in 2007 |
Children | 5 |
Parent(s) | Angelo Martorano Elizabeth Mary Hunt |
Relatives | James Martorano (brother) |
Allegiance | Winter Hill Gang |
Criminal penalty | Sentenced to 12 years in prison |
John Vincent Martorano (born December 13, 1940; also known as "Vincent Joseph Rancourt", "Richard Aucoin", "Nick", "The Cook", "The Executioner", "The Basin Street Butcher") is an American former gangster and former
Early life
John Martorano was born in
The Martorano family moved to the Irish enclave of East Milton. Martorano and his brother attended St Agatha's parochial grammar school in Milton through grade 8, where Martorano was a classmate of future congressman Bill Delahunt. Martorano attended Mount Saint Charles Academy in Woonsocket, Rhode Island as a freshman while his brother remained in Milton, enrolling in Cunningham Junior High School. Later, in his freshman year, Martorano dropped out of Mount Saint Charles and joined Jimmie at Cunningham. During high school, he and Jimmie were standout football players, and were elected co-captains of the team for their senior season in 1958. Although recruited by several college teams, Martorano did not continue his education beyond his graduation from Milton High.[1]
In a 60 Minutes interview with Steve Kroft, Martorano claimed that when he was young his father told him, "You're the oldest son and this is your heritage" (referring to his father's connections to organized crime). "You've got to take care of your family and be a man."[2]
Criminal career
After graduating from high school, Martorano turned down seven football scholarships and instead stayed in Boston. Hanging out in the
Ralph DeMasi, a Boston mobster incarcerated in White Deer Township, Pennsylvania, would later write to the courts that when he was driving down Morrissey Boulevard with fellow Irish mobster William (Billy) O'Brien in 1964, Martorano pulled up in a car alongside them and gunned down O'Brien, shooting him seventeen times with a machine gun and wounding DeMasi. In his letter about the events that almost led to his death he wrote, "I thought someone was taking target practice at us. It was my good friend John Martorano."
Martorano rapidly became one of the Winter Hill Gang's most prolific
In 1979, Flemmi and Bulger learned that Martorano and several other Winter Hill members, including James "Gentleman Jim" Mulvey, 'Volkswagon' Dwight Taylor, and Victor 'The Vulture' Vitale, were about to be indicted for a horse race-fixing scheme involving Fat Tony Ciulla. They warned Martorano, who quickly fled to Florida. He spent the next 16 years as a fugitive, although he was frequently called on to take part in murders. Along with Winter Hill member Joe McDonald, he was the triggerman for the hits on Roger Wheeler and John Callahan.[5]
Arrested in 1995, Martorano was charged, along with Flemmi and two Boston mafiosi, on a massive racketeering indictment; however, he abruptly agreed to a plea bargain deal in 1999. He was angered that Bulger, Taylor, Vitale, and Flemmi hadn't made any effort to keep him out of the 1979 race-fixing indictment, but had persuaded FBI agent John Connolly to ensure they wouldn't be indicted. More seriously, Bulger and Flemmi had been the ones to tip off authorities about Martorano's whereabouts.[5] In return for confessing his murders, Martorano received a reduced prison sentence of 12 years. In 2007, he was released from prison and given $20,000 to start a new life.[6]
Murder victims of John Martorano
- Alfredo "Indian Al" Angeli
- John Banno
- Douglas Barrett[4]
- John Callahan[5]
- Richard Castucci
- Elizabeth Frances "Liz" Dickson[4]
- Ronald Hicks (Martorano confessed to a federal prosecutor that he killed Hicks to prevent him from testifying against the Campbell brothers and Dennis W. Chandler in their trial for the triple-murder of Guido St. Laurent, Carnell Eaton, and Harold King)[7][8]
- John Jackson
- Thomas "Tommy" King
- Michael Milano
- Joseph J. "Indian Joe" Notarangeli
- William L. "Billy" O'Brien
- James "Spike" O'Toole
- Robert Palladino[3]
- Albert Plummer
- Herbert "Smitty" Smith[4]
- James Sousa
- Anthony Veranis
- Roger Wheeler[5]
60 Minutes interview
On January 15, 2008, Martorano was interviewed by Steve Kroft on the CBS News television program 60 Minutes.[2] Initially, Martorano had agreed to be interviewed by Ed Bradley, a former Mount Saint Charles Academy classmate, but Bradley died before this could occur. During the interview, Martorano expressed remorse for having killed Elizabeth Dickson, the woman in the car in Dorchester.
Although his friends
Whitey Bulger trial
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. (July 2019) |
In June 2013, Martorano testified as a prosecution witness in
Personal life
Martorano was married to Carolyn Wood, an Irish-American, with whom he fathered five children,[10] including Vincent, John Jr. and Jeannie Martorano. Carolyn divorced him in 1975, after twelve years of marriage[11]
In popular culture
In the Whitey Bulger biopic Black Mass (2015), Martorano is portrayed by W. Earl Brown.
References
- ^ a b Carr, Howie (2011); HITMAN: The Untold Story of Johnny Martorano
- ^ a b Kroft, Steve (Interviewer) & Martorano, John (Guest) (January 15, 2008). "The Executioner". 60 Minutes. Archived from the original on January 21, 2008.
{{cite news}}
:|author=
has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ ISBN 978-0-7653-3239-4.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7653-3239-4.
- ^ ISBN 0-06-095925-8.
- ^ Murphy, Shelley (January 16, 2008). "US paid hit man $20,000 on release". The Boston Globe.
- ^ "Key events in the life of Johnny Martorano". Boston Herald. April 25, 2011. Retrieved April 9, 2023.
- ^ Carr, Howie (June 18, 2013). "Carr: Martorano's 'career' nothing to be proud of". Boston Herald. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
- ^ Lovering, Daniel (June 19, 2013). "Confessed killer says did not dictate deal to turn on 'Whitey' Bulger". reuters.com.
- The Boston Herald. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
- ^ Chiu, Alexis (December 22, 1999). "Reputed Hitman Comes Clean". Associated Press. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
External links
- Cullen, Kevin (January 7, 2008). "A Rat Through and Through". The Boston Globe.
- "First person interview with Detective Mike Huff about Roger Wheeler's murder case". Voices of Oklahoma Oral History Project. August 13, 2013. Archived from the original on September 26, 2013.
- "First person interview with Detective Mike Huff about Roger Wheeler's murder case". Voices of Oklahoma Oral History Project (Original audio and transcript ed.). August 13, 2013. Archived from the original on July 29, 2010.
- "John Martorano Article Archive". thechicagosyndicate.com.