Mobster claims ties to 50 murders

Howie Carr: Imprisoned Boston mobster Stevie Flemmi admitted yesterday to participating in “probably about 50” murders during the course of his 40 years in organized crime.

Testifying at the murder trial of his old partner, “Cadillac” Frank Salemme, “The Rifleman” was asked by defense lawyer Steve Boozang how many.

“More than 50,” Boozang asked, “or less than 50?”

Flemmi, who turns 84 today, paused.

“Well,” he finally said, “considering (Whitey) Bulger’s murders, (John) Martorano’s murders, Winter Hill’s murders, (Wimpy) Bennett’s murders — that’s a lot of murders.”

Flemmi finally settled on 50 — “either as an actual participant or the conspiratorial aspect.”

In 2003, Flemmi pleaded guilty to 10 murders, and is now serving a life sentence plus 30 years in an undisclosed federal penitentiary. He was brought back to Boston to testify against Salemme, the former godfather of the New England Mafia who is charged with murdering Boston bar owner Steven DiSarro in May 1993.

Flemmi claims he happened by Salemme’s house in Sharon as Salemme’s late son, Frank Jr., and the other defendant, Paul Weadick, now 63, strangled DiSarro.

Flemmi said as he parked at the home of Salemme’s ex-wife in Sharon, he saw Frank Salemme Jr. and DiSarro walking into the house. When he followed them in, he said, he saw the younger Salemme in the kitchen strangling DiSarro as Weadick held his legs.

“I thought I saw Jackie (Salemme) somewhere,” Flemmi said. “Then Frank immediately stepped forward and I said, ‘Frank, I’m leaving immediately.’ I didn’t want to be in that area.”

Flemmi later said that while he and Salemme were jailed together in Plymouth for several years in the 1990s, they never discussed the murder of DiSarro.

Twelve of the 18 jurors and alternates are women, and as he began the cross examination, Salemme’s attorney went into great detail about two of the 50 murders — those of two girlfriends of Flemmi, both 26 when they died. One, Deb Hussey, was the daughter of his common-law wife, by whom he had three children.

Asked about his sexual relationship with his stepdaughter, Flemmi mumbled “indiscretions” and claimed she was 18 when he began having sex with her.  MORE