Former Mob Boss 'Cadillac' Frank Salemme Gets Life In Prison

BOSTON, MA — A former mafia boss and his associate were handed life sentences Thursday in federal court in Boston for a 1993 murder, according to the US Attorney's office.

Francis P. Salemme, was arrested in 2016 in Connecticut when he was 82 and he and co-defendant Paul Weadick were convicted of strangling to death Boston nightclub owner Steven DiSarro in 1993 after DiSarro's body was found in a mob grave in Providence two decades after his death.

Prosecutors said the murder was to prevent DiSarro from talking to the feds about Salemme's secret ownership of the club.

"He had aspired to be a gangster his entire adult life," Assistant U.S. Attorney William Ferland said Salemme, Patch previously reported. "All of the effort and time he put into making his name, so to speak, in the world of organized crime was being put at risk by Steven DiSarro."

Salemme and Weadick face up to life in prison if convicted. Both denied their involvement.

In the early 1990s, Salemme was the "boss" of the New England La Cosa Nostra until he was indicted on separate racketeering charges in 1995 and convicted in 1999. He was subsequently convicted of obstruction of justice in 2008 for lying to federal authorities about the murder of DiSarro.

Salemme, once lived on Marie Avenue in Sharon. His son Frank Jr., another one time Sharon resident, was accused of the 1993 strangling death of nightclub owner DiSarro, although he died before this could be fully investigated.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Former Mob Boss 'Cadillac' Frank Salemme Verdict: Guilty
• Former Mob Boss 'Cadillac' Frank Salemme Trial To Wrap
• Cadillac Frank Murder Trial Underway
• Boston Club Manager Killed by Mob ID'd 23 Years Later

Image: Francis Salemme's 1995 FBI booking photo. Credit: FBI Public Domain.