'Cadillac' Frank Salemme Murder Trial Goes To Jury

Frank "Cadillac Frank" Salemme (Credit: Federal Bureau of Investigation/Wikipedia)

"Cadillac Frank" Salemme. (FBI)

BOSTON (WBZ-AM) -- With closing arguments in the murder trial of mobster "Cadillac" Frank Salemme having wrapped up, the case has been turned over to the jury for deliberation. 

Salemme, along with co-defendant Paul Weadick, is on trial in the murder of former Channel Nightclub owner Stephen DiSarro, whose remains were found behind an abandoned Providence, Rhode Island mill in 2016. 

There were times during the defense's Monday closing arguments that Assistant US Attorney Fred Wyshak could barely contain himself, jumping out of his seat to object. He spent his closing Tuesday morning tearing into the defense's theory that Salemme and Weadick were being framed by former cohorts that had perhaps even committed DiSarro's murder themselves.

Wyshak even found himself in the strange position of defending the integrity of former mobsters Stephen 'The Rifleman' Flemmi and Robert DeLuca. He said Flemmi and DeLuca's stories corroborated each other, and said that with DeLuca in witness protection and Flemmi is serving a life sentence, the two men had no opportunity to collaborate. Wyshak said Flemmi is "a bad guy, no doubt about it"--but said the defense didn't present any evidence that Flemmi had ever given bad information as a government witness.

He said Flemmi's and DeLuca's testimony also lined up with that of several other witnesses who had no motivation to lie--people who were not mobsters or murderers.

That testimony and a pile of circumstantial evidence, Wyshak said, point to Salemme and Weadick killing DiSarro. He told jurors that no other explanation makes sense.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Kendall Buhl reports


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