Vincent Flemmi
Vincent Flemmi | |
---|---|
Born | Vincent James Flemmi September 5, 1935 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Died | October 16, 1979 Norfolk, Massachusetts, U.S. | (aged 44)
Other names | Jimmy The Bear |
Occupation | Gangster |
Years active | 1960s–1979 |
Relatives | Stephen Flemmi (brother) Michael Flemmi (brother) |
Allegiance | Winter Hill Gang Patriarca crime family |
Vincent James Flemmi (September 5, 1935 – October 16, 1979), also known as "Jimmy The Bear", was an American
Early life
Vincent Flemmi was born in 1935, to Italian immigrant Giovanni Flemmi (1892–1991), and Mary Irene (née Misserville) Flemmi (1912–2000), who was of Irish descent. He was raised in the Orchard Park
Criminal career
During the Boston gang wars of the 1960s, Vincent, along with
Relationship with FBI
In May 1964, FBI Special Agent
Edward Deegan Murder
The evening of March 12, 1965, Edward Deegan was shot to death by Vincent Flemmi and Joseph Barboza, among others in an alleyway in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Within hours, J. Edgar Hoover had a memo from the Boston field office on his desk accurately identifying all the shooters, the actual shooters, as opposed to the four innocent men who would be convicted of the crime on the false testimony of Joseph Barboza in 1968.
Deegan Murder Coverup and Conspiracy
Radio talk host Howie Carr would later surmise, "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. In fact, the railroading of the four men served two purposes for the FBI, it would enable Vincent and Joseph Barboza to escape conviction for a murder they had committed, and it would also remove several Patriarca crime family members or associates from the criminal world that the FBI had not been able to eliminate in a legal manner".[1] One of Deegan's friends told him about a bank burglary in Chelsea, and he'd meet up with several guys from Ebb Tide, a Mafia-run gin mill on Revere Beach. Vincent's shooting party would include mob associate, Joseph Barboza.
Teddy Deegan was a maternal nephew of
Benjamin murder
On May 4, 1964, the police found the body of Francis Regis "Frank" Benjamin.[2]
According to Kevin Weeks, a longtime associate of Flemmi's brother Stephen,
The murder of Francis Benjamin, for which the Bear had gotten the life sentence, was a particularly ugly one. After he'd shot Benjamin in the head, using a gun that belonged to a cop, the Bear had cut off the head to avoid any ballistics evidence tracing the gun to the crime. But they fingered him anyhow.[3]
Later life and death
In 1975, while serving an eleven-to-eighteen-year sentence for assault with intent to commit murder, he'd received one of the state's first weekend furloughs from prison. Vincent immediately fled, and was not apprehended until three years later, in Maryland, Maine. On October 16, 1979, Vincent died of a drug overdose[4] at the state prison in Norfolk, Massachusetts.
Legacy
According to South Boston mobster Kevin Weeks,
When Stevie's brother Jimmy the Bear died of a heroin overdose while serving a life sentence at MCI Norfolk for the murder of Francis Benjamin, Jimmy and I went to the wake. While we were viewing his brother lying in the casket, Stevie was standing there with his mother and father and Michael. Mary went over to Jimmy and said, crying, 'Vincent was such a good boy. He never hurt anyone.' Stevie looked at her and said, 'Stop, Ma. He killed everybody.'[5]
References
- ^ The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century By Howie Carr
- ^ Animal: The Bloody Rise and Fall of the Mob's Most Feared Assassin by Casey Sherman
- ^ Kevin Weeks, Brutal, page 136.
- ISBN 978-1614233404.
- ^ Kevin Weeks, Brutal, page 136.
External links
- thebrothersbulger.com
- The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century by Howie Carr
- Barboza: By Joe Barboza with Hank Messick