The Irish mob has a stronger presence in Boston than any other city in America. A month after her father disappeared, police found his car, empty. He didnt get to that spot without some serious help though. Kevin Two Weeks Weeks (born 1956) Kevin Weeks served as Whitey Bulgers enforcer in the 1970s and 1980s. He was convicted in a second trial and sentenced to life. Rico subsequently filed a false report, stating that Flemmi told him that others were responsible for the murder. Wimpy Bennett and his two brothers Walter and William were all murdered in 1967 during the middle of the McLean/McLaughlin War. Bennett was roughly the right age and height, had a raspy voice, and had a history of committing violent crimes, including two shootings. Seven months later, William Bennett's crumpled body would be pulled off a snowbank, a bullet through his brain. After the cop shot at their car three times, they abandoned the car and took off on foot. Wimpy on January 1, 1919 in Boston to William Frederick Sr. and Flora Caroline Seymour. He violently crashed into a guardrail and died on the scene. Stevie and Frankie are sitting in prison, and either cant remember or dont know the answer. The Bennett family has yet to receive any closure. By MINA KIMES. In a brutal killing, Martorano actually ran over OToole with his car after walking out of a bar in Dorchester. Walter, the boy bootlegger! They know it, but want to hang onto the fantasy that these were stand up guys. Patrick Nee Patrick Joseph Nee is a retired former Winter Hill Gang member. George survived but some close to him say he was never was the same after that night. It was a sad year for the Bennett family and put a microscope on just how bad the war had gotten with some 60 men killed. ``I know that some of the rocks will probably be pulled back on guys like Rico. of Mattapan had been found shot and beaten to death in the trunk of his car in Medford on February 1, 1967. Boston Police officer, Frankie Desario talks about the Bennett Brothers and their violent demise.Oral History. Ed Punchy McLaughlin (died 1965) Ed McLaughlin was known as Punchy. Richie was a government informant for 40 years. He was at one time a heated rival of Whitey Bulger but eventually joined forces with him after Whitey took over the gang. So Sweet was freed. One of the boys said his boss named Steve gave him permission to use the car. In 1967 all three Bennett brothers were murdered. He had been warned by his protege Bulger to lay low but OSullivan refused and as a result was gunned down right in front of his family home. His father Arthur Sr. was involved in the McLean-McLaughlin War of the 1960s. BOSTON, Massachusetts (The Boston Herald) -- Any illusions Bill Bennett Jr. had about life being fair evaporated in 1967. The Flemmi brothers Stephen and Jimmy the Bear were in a precarious spot, being Bennett disciples but also ties with Barboza and Winter Hill. The year 1967 was not a good one for the Bennett family. Wimpy was looking for Det. Ronald Dermody (died 1965) Dermody was a bank robber who was fresh out of prison in the early 1960s. In January of 1960 a man named Charles Kirby received a phone call at his TV repair shop by a man looking for Wimpy. The following day Wimpy met with a friend at 10:00 am and was supposed to sign a company payroll after that, but never showed up. And before you say anything, NO that doesnt make any sense either! He told the agents that until Punchy was murdered he had been shaking down Sonny regularly not that he had something on him, but just putting fear into Sonny that something would happen to him., Walter continued on that Sonny was getting a lot of people in the middle with his stories of where his wealth came from such as gambling and borrowing from shylocks, and admitted to lending Sonny a couple of thousand dollars himself. His father had passed away the previous summer. Butchie lived a very violent life, having killed three people. Robert S. Bennett III (born 1939) is an American attorney and senior counsel to Bennett LoCicero & Liu LLP. He was often tipped off about the activities of his rivals and more than once was given a heads up about potential informants. The McLean vs. McLaughlin Boston Irish Gang War. Supposedly their plan was to kill him and then dump the body with Walter and Wimpy in Hopkinton. The. The war had started when a drunken George McLaughlin had groped a girlfriend of one of Buddys friends. Nicholson was with Buddy McLean the day that Bernie McLaughlin was killed outside of the Morning Glory Cafe in Charlestown. Hugh Shields was the trigger man. One of the charges against Billy Stuart was that hed participated in moving the car that had Dickie Grassos body in it from Dorchester to Brookline. He was a free man by 1987 and decided to leave Boston for St. Louis where he resumed his criminal activities. Stevie was driving in Middleton, Mass on September 23, 1966 when a car pulled up beside him and bullets rang out. Bennett and Rob Gronkowski give the Patriots two 6-foot-6-inch tight ends with a Pro Bowl on their rsum, a combination that could be impossible for opposing defenses to stop. The Bennetts were well established gangsters in the area and one of the strong Irish sets that resisted working with Patriarca and the Italian "Office" in Providence, Rhode Island. By now, most of the main early targets of the war were dead or in jail. Bernie McLaughlin (died 1961) Bernie McLaughlin was the leader of the McLaughlin brothers and the most powerful gangster in Charlestown. the Boston Globe ran an article about Wimpys disappearance. Puchy had been in many bloody street fights. $90.00. His crumpled body was found in a snowbank on Harvard St. near Blue Hill Ave. with a bullet through his brain. He went on a mission to kill Buddy McLean but instead shot the wrong man. When McLean got killed in 1966, Winter took over the Winter Hill Gang, which was not named after him. Nee was a supporter of the IRA and spent a significant amount of his efforts raising money to send them firearms. Weve covered a lot of Wimpys activities in other episodes, so we wont go into all of it again. Even the FBI does not reveal the names of informers.. In 1963 the Postals concluded that while Walter Bennett had not been that helpful he was a valuable pipeline and further contact should be maintained to nurture this cooperation.. No one was going to trust Wimpy Bennett to be their bookkeeper! I'm a steelworker by trade, but I also love history. He did not want the war in the first place but the McLaughlins persisted. His father had passed away the previous summer. Raymond was pissed but Jack didnt bat an eyelash. Or was someone else responsible for their demise? Like you said no shortage of people that loathed Wimpy. His two uncles, Edward ``Wimpy,'' and Walter Bennett ran a gambling. Does Wimpys boosting count as a profession? By this time, Stephen Flemmi was already working for the FBI and him and his brother were switching alliances. They pistol whipped the guard and forced the bank manager and customers to the floor. The men took Peter Poulos with them but according to Frankies version of events, he left them in California and went back east to New York City and wasnt present when Stevie murdered Peter Poulos in the Nevada desert. that while Walter Bennett had not been that helpful he was a valuable pipeline and further contact should be maintained to nurture this cooperation., In October of 1966, citrus Baron Charles Von Maxcy was attacked in the bedroom of his Florida home. . Wimpy and Fats Buccelli were sentenced to one year in Deer Island for possession of part of the Brinks loot, but in May of 1957 Fats and Wimpy were cleared of being accessories after the fact. A crazy Wimpy story. How we compiled the list. Salemme Jr. has since died. The Bennett brothers were delivered by the forces of truth and justice into the hands of darkness. The second agent stood to the side and wasnt involved in the conversation the other three men were having. He did concede however that the Bennetts had all been his informants. Annesburg Three Brothers Gold While hunting near Cotorra Springs in the north I ran into a stranger who asked me to rest by his fire. And it gets too ugly. Not the gangster part, the Irish part. Among his gangster peers, Buddy was revered for his extreme toughness and loyalty. Rico was unsuccessful, but Stevie took over the Bennetts illegal enterprises anyway. A man named William Kelley did not come into the picture until 1984, when Sweet made a plea-bargain deal to testify against Kelley for being one of his hit men. Americas Most Wanted Gangster & the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice, The McLean vs. McLaughlin Boston Irish Gang War. The men who beat him up did drop the nearly lifeless McLaughlin off outside a local hospital. Hed been with the BPD for 19 years. But since Stevie Flemmi was involved, the whole thing went terribly wrong. The mystery of what happened to Wimpy and Walter still haunts the Bennett family to this day. He would be in his early 90s. After losses at Boston College and North Carolina, Virginia coach Tony Bennett played different combinations in stretches, and the changes paid off. Double Deal - True Stories of Criminals, Crimes and Lies. Punchy was an ex pro boxer who drank hard and got in many bar fights. or. They havent seen each other since the 1990s, Flemmi said. Its worth noting again that the Bennetts were paying off at least one cop, but likely more. They had come to get revenge for Tommy Sullivan murder 7 years before. MALDEN (CBS) - Two young brothers from Malden are in the spotlight Thursday after being named "heroes" by a national organization that recognizes young people doing great things. There was little time to celebrate the killing of Punchy because 11 days later Buddy McLean was gunned down by the ambitious Stevie Hughes. Joe went on to testify and put Patriarca behind bars, although much of his testimony is proven false. An intruder threw a sheet over his head, stabbed him four times, shot him once in the head and then fled from the 324-acre estate. But instead Stevie was waiting for Walter and killed him there as he was walking up the stairs. Hope you join us again. ``I don't believe our family will ever know any satisfaction,'' Bill Bennett said. The 1950 Brinks heist, the 1962 Plymouth Mail robbery and the Gardner Museum heist in 1990. Punchy was in front of the Beaconsfield Hotel on Beacon St in Washington Sq in Brookline when he was shot. They turned on each other and fell apart. On one side was Buddy McLean with his enforcer Joe The Animal Barboza. His FBI contact John Connolly gave him advanced warnings when indictments for racketeering were about to come down in 1994. They were roughly a quarter Irish from the Bennett line. Hugh Shields had a record that dated back to the time he was in juvie. Jack Kelley. The only reason the McLaughlins got wiped out was because they wouldnt cooperate, they werent informants or collaborators and that was their undoing. Fast forward to June of 2018, as we mentioned at the beginning of this episode Stevie was on the stand and asked to ID Frankie in the courtroom and he couldnt. Wimpy had a particularly close relationship with Detective Billy Stuart of the BPD, and was regularly informing to him. They were also Loyalists, which is how part of the family ended up in Canada for a few generations. two days later and a trial date was set for April 7. an alleged associate of the Bennetts testified. Informant added that they did this to pacify the LCN since there could not be any peace with Wimpy feuding with Larry Baione. He would soon kill the Killeen brothers to take over Southie. It was hard enough finding the census! After years of making music together Brooklyn natives, the Bennett Brothers - Guitarist, Jimmy and Bassist, Peter Bennett - have had the honor of performing alongside greats such as Levon Helm, B.B. Many of the crimes and people we'll be highlighting will be told in part from his perspective. At the trial of Hugh Shields in April 1970, Daddieco testified that there were six men involved in the plot to kill Billy Bennett. The boys used the trick of luring them to an apartment through an attractive lady. He then mentions he heard of another feud in Annesburg where a brother stole all the gold and hid it before he was killed by the brothers. Stevie Flemmi allegedly told Rico about his involvement in Wimpys murder. The year 1967 was not a good one for the Bennett family. He would find out later that two of his gang members, Whitey Bulger and Stephen Flemmi had been informing on him. What he will forever carry with him is the memory of eavesdropping on a pair of FBI agents who paid his doomed father a chilling visit shortly before his death. ``In the end, what it comes down to,'' Bill Bennett said, `` is that some people are more important than others.'' Billy Stuart on the 18th of January 1967, but Stuart didnt have time to meet him. There doesnt seem to be anything so out of the ordinary about their childhood. He eventually joined Joe Barboza and Vinnie Teresa in the newly created Witness Protection Program. It goes too deep. And Walter also loved running his mouth to the authorities. It was one of the most horrific double murder scenes in Boston history. Shea turned his back on organized crime. Four days later, informant number BS-922-C stated that Stevie Flemmi and Frank Salemme had taken out Walter and Wimpy Bennett. Its believed that the woman who George McLaughlin was Alexs girlfriend and that he helped administer the beating. With all those supposedly involved, you would expect someone to know where the bodies of Walter and Wimpy are buried. Richie was a thief, drug dealer, conman and storyteller like no other. He told them to get out of town and they obeyed. In one year, 1967, all three Bennett brothers disappeared: Edward, in January, Walter in April, William two days before Christmas.