Category: Boston Gang Wars

Punchy McLaughlin was murdered by Roxbury Gang members Steve Flemmi and Frank Salemme. The McLaughlins did not blame the Roxbury gang for killing Punchy. They pinned it squarely on the Somerville gang led by Buddy McLean. We know that because nine days after Punchy was gunned down, Buddy McLean was murdered by the McLaughlin associates,…

The Martorano brothers were friendly with some of the Roxbury Italian gang. Yet they were not an intricate part of this group of Roxbury gangsters who were allied closely over the years with Wimpy Bennett’s Gang, such as Steve Flemmi and Vincent “Jimmy the Bear” Flemmi, and Frank Salemme. I’ll call Vincent Flemmi by the…

Six month after murdering Hicks, John Martorano would stab to death 35-year-old John “Jack” Banno.  John referred to Banno as “Touch.” As expected, John attempts to justify the murder by claiming Touch was a pimp and a dope dealer, as if the murder statute makes these professions an exception. Not content with the pimp and…

In March 1969, John murders his fifth African-American victim, Ronald Hicks. John said he was asked by Roberta Campbell, the wife of Alvin Campbell, to help her husband who was in jail. Alvin Campbell, along with his brother and another guy named Deke Chandler, were charged with murdering three guys. John said he liked Roberta…

Junior lived in the same neighborhood as I did. I would see him on occasion and talk to him. It’s my recollection we called him Junior but others called him Tony. I was more friendly with his brother Ralph one of the nicest guys I knew. Unfortunately, he died after a fall in October 2019….

Here’s how John Martorano tells the tale of these three murders of Herbert Smith, Elizabeth Dickson and Douglas Barrett.  Martorano says he did not know Herbert Smith. He was told by Steve Flemmi in the early morning of January 5, 1968, that Herbert Smith had beat him up at Basin Street, the bar owned by…