Howie Carr is a Boston journalist who writes a column for the Boston Hearld, He also has a radio show. He is probably best known for his reporting on Boston organized crime. Here he discusses the passing of Cadillac Frank Salemme. Carr notes that organized crime was successful because it had help from law enforcement, the FBI chief among the enablers.
Anyway, on Dec. 28, 1964, the Bear was sitting in a Ford Falcon on Harrison Avenue, on the Roxbury-South End line, with a small-time jailbird named George Ashe. High on something or another, Flemmi suddenly pulled out a gun and shot Ashe in the head.
Howie Carr, December 28, 2022, The Howie Carr Show
Then the Bear stumbled out of the car and wandered off in search of another drink, or fix, or something. The problem was, as he murdered Ashe, across the street two uniformed Boston cops from what was then District 2 were watching him.
The cops had witnessed a murder, by a well-known local hoodlum and killer. The cops pondered the situation, and quickly made their decision. The compact car was on the corner of Mass Ave. If they pushed it across the street, it would be in District 4, in other words not their problem.
“I would be in another division, and they wouldn’t have to investigate it, so they wouldn’t have to explain what they did.”
In thirty years, I ran across a variety of crooked cops. This was in Texas; Boston doesn’t have a corner on the market. That being said, I can’t see the crooked Texas cops pulling such a stunt. Nope, to a man, they were too fucking lazy to push a car that far.
