Richard Castucci

Richard J. Castucci (December 1, 1928 - December 29, 1976) was among the few full-blooded Italians in the American crime gang, the Winter Hill Gang, other than Alex Rocco, Vincent Flemmi, Stephen Flemmi and Michael Flemmi. He was also a Top Echelon Program informant.

Biography

Richard was a close associate of Steven Flemmi and the Winter Hill Gang. He had introduced Stephen Flemmi and John Martorano to a major New York bookmaker when they were organizing Anthony Ciulla's race fixing scheme. At the time of his death he was divorced from his first wife Sandra. He had a sister named Denise and a son Richard Castucci Jr., one daughter born in 1954 and two other children. He had one brother who was involved with Richard who owned the The Daily Catch seafood restaurant. Castucci was the owner of The Ebb Tide Lounge, The Libra Lounge, Jaws and The Squire strip clubs. Of his strip clubs. The Ebb Tide Lounge was a Patriarca crime family "clubhouse" which overlooked Revere Beach in Revere, Massachusetts and the Squire located at 604 Squire Road in Revere, Massachusetts. It was at the Ebb Tide Lounge where the Edward Deegan mob hit was organized in 1965, including countless other crimes over the years. It earned such a notorious and seedy reputation that he changed the name to The Beach Ball in in the late 1960s.

He was featured in the "Boston Herald" and several other local newspapers after acting as a good samaritan and successfully stopped an armed robbery with his father when he was twenty one years old. In 1970, his wife Sandra was allegedly having an affair with Patriarca crime family member drug dealer Salvatore Caruana. Richard had suspected Salvatore of fooling around with his wife and confronted Salvatore. He told him to stay away from his wife. During that time, Richard had been very busy settling his financial problems with The Beach Ball and his high-stakes poker games he held there. He had been away from his home for days on end. It was also suspected that Richard's sister knew about the affair and did nothing; a "red-haired girl" suspected of being Richard's sister had been seen in the company of Salvatore and Sandra. After he was notified of the affair, he felt he owed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) a favor. In 1970 he had two families, one from a previous failed marriage, to support and had a $16,000 second mortgage on his home in Revere, Massachusetts, including the many bills from The Beach Ball. He was being hounded by loan shark collectors and was in debt to John Harrison, also known as "Hard Boiled John", paying $300 to $400 installments, besides the debt he had withstanding on the nightclub. He was informed of the alleged affair by the FBI. His wife has since denied she was having an affair with Caruana. After news of the affair spread, Salvatore disappeared and was never heard of again. It is thought by authoritieswho that Richard was involved in the disappearance and suspected murder of Salvatore.

On January 30, 1970 after the disappearance of his wife's suspected lover, Salavatore, Richard agreed to become an FBI informant. But around that same time, Richard began feeding information to the FBI, and he passed on vital information about two fellow Winter Hill Gang members, Joseph "Joe Mac" McDonald and James Sims. He knew they were hiding out in Greenwich Village in New York City and informed the FBI. The Winter Hill Gang found out and decided to murder Castucci. But before they murdered him, they planned to earn a lot of money with him. All through the fall of 1976, John Martorano, James Martorano, Anthony Ciulla and Stephen Flemmi wagered heavily in NFL games with Richard. He was told he could pick up his money in Somerville at the Lancaster Foreign Motors garage.

When he got there, as John Martorano later confessed, he handed Castucci a bagful of cash and told him to go to an apartment with Stephen Flemmi and James J. Bulger. Castucci was sitting in the apartment kitchen sorting the bills, with his back to the front door, when John Martorano walked in and shot Castucci in the head. Bulger and Flemmi cleaned up the blood and wrapped the body in a child's Raggedy Anne doll sleeping blanket and stuffed in the trunk of his brand new 1982 Cadillac Deville. Then they put Castucci's body in the trunk of his Cadillac Eldorado and drove it back to Revere, where they abandoned the car behind Northgate Shopping Center located at 339 Squire Road in Revere, not far from his The Squire night club.

John Connolly protected Stephen Flemmi and James J. Bulger by filing reports suggesting that Castucci was deeply in debt both to the Winter Hill Gang and the Patriarca crime family, and that Castucci settled his debts with Winter Hill first. Upon discovering their murdered informant, the FBI called a meeting about Castucci's murder; FBI Special Agent John Connolly remarked, "Winter Hill doesn't kill that way." Richard's murder was the fourth murder victim of the Winter Hill Gang found in an automobile trunk in four years at the time of his demise. After the murder of Richard Castucci, the FBI appointed James J. Bulger to keep tabs on Joseph "Joe Mac" McDonald.

Following Richard's murder, John Connolly later befriended his wife and daughter, and regularly dined at the restaurant of Richard's brother, The Daily Catch.

References

"The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century" by Howie Carr

External references

* http://archive.seacoastonline.com/1999news/9_10_sb2.htm
* www.wrko.com
* www.whiteywatch.com