Roxbury Gang Murders – Francis Benjamin

On May 4, 1964, the owner of a car which had been stolen the previous November was notified his car had been found. He went with his wife to check it out. He looked at the interior and was satisfied it was his. 

He then went to the trunk to see if his golf clubs were still there. As he opened it, he quickly pushed his wife away.  In it, he saw the headless body of a 32-year-old ex-convict, the father of six children who lived in Dorchester. He was a Korean war veteran and a former state prison inmate. He had been released two weeks earlier. He was identified through his fingerprints. His name was Francis Benjamin. 

Like many of these crimes, we find a body and we scratch our heads searching for some motive. One theory was that Benjamin was slain because he disclosed to authorities an escape plot in prison that involved digging a tunnel to escape; another theory related the murder to the Brink’s robbery because Benjamin was a friend of some of those involved in it. 

Joe Barboza said that Wimpy Bennett shot him and Jimmy Flemmi cut off his head. Cutting off someone’s head was not a regular part of the gangster murders but if there was anyone capable and willing to do it, Jimmy Flemmi was. The Flemmi brothers were very weird. Steve had no trouble pulling the teeth out of the mouth of longtime girlfriend he just murdered. 

Kevin Weeks, a friend of Steve Flemmi, said Jimmy Flemmi chopped off Benjamin’s head so the bullet he put in it would not be traced by ballistics back to a cop. Weeks would state Jimmy was convicted for that murder. He was wrong. No one was charged with never mind convicted for his murder. More misinformation from a person who turned state’s evidence who supposedly had inside information. 

Another source that talked about Benjamin’s murder was Francis X. “Gaga” Murray.  Gaga was a gangster from South Boston who was a close buddy of Spike O’Toole. His experience in the gangster world of Boston was set out in a book titled, “Gaga.” He said that Benjamin was a real tough guy. After he got out of prison, Benjamin went looking for “black beauties,” a common narcotic used in prison. 

We know that in 1962 Jimmy Flemmi was in Walpole prison at the same time Frankie Benjamin was there. Most likely, they knew each other or at least, knew of each other. I wondered whether something happened in Walpole the caused bad blood between them which Benjamin thought was forgotten. 

Gaga said that to get the narcotic Benjamin went to see Jimmy Flemmi at the Dudley Lounge, owned by Wimpy Bennett. While there, Benjamin got into a fight with Jimmy and several others. Wimpy pulled out a gun trying to break up the fight. Jimmy seized the gun and shot Benjamin in the head. The bullets from the gun could be traced back to either an FBI agent or Boston cop so Jimmy cut off Benjamin’s head. 

When they were dragging the body of Benjamin from the lounge to the back room, a sticker saying “Dudley Lounge” caught on to his back. When the police discovered the body, they saw the sticker. One of them, Bill Stuart, called up Wimpy and told him of the discovery. Wimpy saw there was blood all over the floor, so he set his lounge on fire. I figured this was another one of the gangster stories.  But, then I searched for a fire on the date Benjamin’s body was discovered. Sure enough, newspapers reported a fire at the Dudley Lounge that night. 

Soon after this Jimmy Flemmi would be a target of the McLaughlins. I thought perhaps that was because he murdered Benjamin. I could not find any connection between Benjamin and the McLaughlins that would make them want to get revenge against Jimmy.