Former Mob Boss 'Cadillac' Frank Salemme Trial To Wrap Today

BOSTON, MA — The closing arguments in the murder trial of former New England mob boss Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme wrapped up the weeks long trial Monday in a Boston Federal Court. A federal jury is set to deliberate now that the arguments are over.

Francis P. Salemme, was arrested in 2016 in Connecticut when he was 82 and he and co-defendant Paul Weadick are charged with 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 say 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 of the now-84-year-old man who stood accused in the court. "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 deny 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 Steven A. 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 Steve DiSarro, although he died before this could be fully investigated.

Previously on Patch:

Cadillac Frank Murder Trial Underway

Boston Club Manager Killed by Mob ID'd 23 Years Later

Former Mob Boss Charged in Murder of Boston Nightclub

Frank 'Cadillac' Salemme, Burlington Associated Indicted

Image: Francis Salemme's 1995 FBI booking photo. Credit: FBI Public Domain. Some AP material was used in this story.