Boston Gang Wars- Waterfront Murders I

WILLIAM CAMERON,  49                                                   June 10, 1956

On June 10, 1956, after receiving a phone call, the Boston Police found William Cameron murdered.  I decided to start with William Cameron because his murder both links to the Boston gang past and looks forward.   Four murders in the next two years appear to be connected to William Cameron’s murder. William Cameron’s murder also looks back to January 17, 1950, the date of one of the most notorious crimes in Boston, the Brink’s Robbery in Boston’s North End.

The Brink’s Robbery was the greatest heist in the country up to that time.  A group of eight men in Captain Marvel masks and peacoats stole about $1.3 million in cash and $1.5 million in checks, money orders and other securities from the supposedly impenetrable Brink’s building.  The Brinks robbery headlined the nation’s news for weeks even before the Brink’s company offered an amazing $100,000 reward.

This heist went unsolved for years. Joseph “Specs” O’Keefe one of the robbers, left town immediately after the robbery, leaving behind his cut of the money stolen. He got jammed up in Pennsylvania for a different robbery and did some time there. When he came back to Boston, Specs wanted his share of the haul. He became a pest and bothered the others for his cut. None of his former pals wanted to deal with him so they decided to hire a hit man to murder him. They reached out to Elmer “Trigger” Burke, a hit man from Hell’s Kitchen, New York who took the job.  According to police, Burke drove up to Boston and opened fire on O’Keefe with a machine gun from a moving car.  Burke only managed to wound O’Keefe.

The FBI made several visits with Joseph “Specs” O’Keefe while he was recovering from gunshot wounds in the hospital. The constant pressure broke O’Keefe. On January 6, 1956, O’Keefe admitted his role in the robbery and implicated eight other men. Six of them were captured on that same day. Two remained at large.

A little over four months later, on May 16, 1956, the FBI raided the hideout of the last two accomplices who Specs had fingered, Thomas F. “Sandy” Richardson and James J. Faherty. Richardson and Faherty were able to stay well hidden because Thomas Ballou helped them out by securing food and other items.  We will learn more about Thomas Ballou later.

Richardson and Faherty were arrested. They would be brought to trial in the fall of that year, convicted, and sentenced to prison for life. Back in those days, the courts moved cases through the process expeditiously and did not look kindly on big time burglars. Richardson and Faherty would be paroled after serving fifteen years in 1971.  Ballou was indicted for “harboring, concealing and maintaining and assisting” them while they were hiding out. He was never brought to trial on those charges.

After Richardson and Faherty arrests, the first thought of the criminals in Boston was who tipped off the FBI about their hideout. Who would have known they were hiding out in that location? The person who secured the apartment for them where they were holed up obviously knew.