Prosecutors File Motion to Protect Secret Witness at Aging Mobster's Trial

Prosecutors in Boston filed a motion to protect the identity of a “secret” witness in the murder trial of former 84-year-old mob boss Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme.  They called it a "matter of life or death".

Paul Weadick, 62, is also on trial along with Salemme.  Both men are charged in the 1993 slaying of club owner Steven DiSarro, whose body was only found in 2016.

The Boston Globe revealed Monday morning that the government wants Judge Allison D. Burroughs to move the public and the press to a different courtroom when any witness security inspectors with the US Marshals Service testifies. Audio of the inspectors’ testimony would be broadcast into the second courtroom.

“This procedure will assure that the substance of the testimony, except for the ability to see the Witness Security Inspector, will be known to the public as it occurs,” prosecutors wrote.

The human remains were unearthed in March behind a Providence mill complex owned by a reputed mob associate and were positively identified as those of the South Boston nightclub manager who vanished in 1993, the FBI confirmed.

Salemme was arrested shortly thereafter and charged with the murder.  

Salemme was indicted in 2004 for denying knowing anything about DiSarro's killing while negotiating a plea deal in 1999. He was sentenced to five years in prison. The indictment alleged that Salemme and his son had a hidden interest in DiSarro's nightclub, The Channel.

Salemme, who headed the Patriarca crime family in the early 1990s, has previously denied a claim by another mobster that he watched his son strangle DiSarro and helped dispose of his body. Salemme's son died in 1995.

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com