Ex-New England mob boss Cadillac Frank dies in prison. Here's his connection to Providence

Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme, a Mafia boss in the Patriarca crime family, has died in prison.

An online federal prison record, dated Dec. 13, identifies the 89-year-old Salemme as "deceased."

The Providence Journal reviewed the record to confirm Salemme's death. WPRI first reported the death on Sunday.

Salemme, who once led New England's La Cosa Nostra crime syndicate, had tried to contest the charge that put him away for life in 2018.

The jury found him guilty of killing Steven DiSarro, a Massachusetts nightclub owner in 1993 to keep the 43-year-old father from talking to authorities.

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Salemme had feared that DiSarro might expose his own secret involvement in a South Boston nightclub, The Channel.

So an accomplice, Paul Weadick, had held DiSarro’s legs as Salemme’s son, who has since died, strangled him, prosecutors had said. Salemme had watched.

Prosecutors had also presented a witness who testified that he had walked in on the murder.

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That witness was Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi -- a partner of notorious gangster James “Whitey” Bulger.

DiSarro’s body had been moved from Massachusetts to Rhode Island and buried.

In 2016, the FBI received a tip.

It came from the former owner of an old mill building off Branch Avenue who was in legal trouble. He admitted to a long-held secret about the body that was buried on the property.

An excavation confirmed the report.

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At the time, Salemme had been living in Atlanta.

He was in a witness protection program after a life in and out of prison.

At the subsequent trial, in U.S. District Court in Boston, Salemme's lawyer told the court that the mobster had cooperated against a corrupt FBI official, helped defuse prison turmoil and served honorably in the armed forces.

It wasn't enough to save Salemme from dying in prison.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Cadillac Frank Salemme, former mob boss, dies in federal prison at 89