March 18, 1973-
A week and a couple of days after murdering Milano, Martorano and Winter took another ride with their automatic weapons in a vehicle being driven by Jimmy Sims. Martorano again places Whitey in another car with them – the crash car. As I understand it, the crash car is to block people who go after the shooters. I find it odd that Whitey, who was still on federal parole and not yet protected by the FBI, would agree to drive the crash car. Martorano knew how badly the federal prosecutors were intent on blackening Whitey so he threw him into any murder he could. The Boston jury in the Whitey case did not believe Martorano about Whitey’s involvement here either.
Martorano was also a witness for the prosecution at the trial against retired FBI Agent John Connolly. He told several of his stories at that trial too. Not one of them did the Boston jury believe. It seemed the only ones who believed Martorano in most of his stories were the federal prosecutors and their investigators who befriended the murderer.
Martorano’s story about the Plummer murder was that they received information that Indian Al Angeli was having dinner at the Aquarium restaurant with three other guys. They headed over to that area. The Angeli group left the restaurant about 7:00 p.m. They got into a 1972 Buick sedan owned by a Chelsea garage. The Angeli group headed up Commercial Street toward Indian Al’s joint, Mother’s. Martorano’s car pulled in front of Angeli’s car causing it to stop. John fired at the Angeli car from the rear window.
Bud Plummer had the bad luck to be driving. He was killed instantly. Two of the other guys in the car were wounded. Both were taken to the hospital but checked themselves out the next day. One of the wounded was Hugh “Sonny” Shields, 36, from Dorchester. He was a participant in the murder of Billy Bennett five or so years before with Richard Grasso when they shot him in the car, and he fell out onto the street. He was tried for that murder but acquitted.
The other guy was Frank Capizzi, a buddy of Bud Plummer. He would testify at the Whitey Bulger murder. He said it was about ten on the night of the shooting. He was having a drink. He decided to visit his grandmother who lived on Hanover Street. He asked Bud to give him a ride there. On the way, they were fired at by another car. He was hit in the head and back. When the shooting ended, he said he said reached out to Bud to say “let’s get out of the car.” He reached to where his head should have been, but it was not there.
Martorano claims the guys got out of the car and fled. In an earlier version , Martorano said his car fled right after the shooting – as you would expect considering the shooting was in downtown Boston. Martorano said the “fourth passenger opened the back driver’s side door, jumped out, and took off running down the alley next a restaurant named Giro’s. That was Indian Al.”
It’s sort of amazing that Indian Al fled unscathed. Perhaps he was not there as Frank Capizzi claims. In either case, the gang messed up again murdering the wrong guy.
Newspaper reports confirm Martorano story that it happened at 7:00 p.m. and contradict Capizzi’s version that it was later that night. Eyewitnesses told a different story than Martorano. According to the newspaper, witnesses said a black sedan pulled alongside the victim’s vehicle and sprayed the car with bullets from the back to the front. The side windows and windshield were shattered.
Capizzi was an old friend of Indian Al. Both men faced charges in November 1969 of using explosives to level the Highland Meadows Motel in Stowe, Vermont. He may have been the intended target rather than Indian Al as Martorano claimed.
On March 2, 1973, the day after the Michael Milano’s murder and a little over two weeks prior to Plummer’s murder, Capizzi had just dropped his two children off at school and was heading home. Five bullets were fired into the car. Capizzi was hit in the leg. He pulled the car to the side, hailed a taxi, and went to the Winthrop Community Hospital where he was treated.
After Plummer’s murder, Capizzi again went to the Winthrop Community Hospital. He had his wounds treated. He signed himself out the next day. He then fled Massachusetts. He did not return for forty years until a subpoena required his testimony in the Whitey Bulger trial.
Hugh Shields was last heard of in 2000. Federal prosecutors subpoenaed him before the grand jury to give evidence against Steve Flemmi where he was compelled to testify. He admitted he was the trigger man in the Billy Bennett murder and that Flemmi was involved in the planning of it. Judge Mark Wolf ruled that what the prosecutors did in compelling his testimony was impermissible.
Federal prosecutors are not supposed to use the grand jury to get evidence for a case on which they already had returned an indictment. Wolf ruled Shields testimony could not be used in the case against Flemmi. An interesting twist on this is that had Shields refused to testify he would have been held in contempt and imprisoned because the issue of the admissibility of his testimony would not have come up.
How Plummer fit into the Indian Al gang is not certain. He clearly was hanging around with the guys who were part of the gang. Martorano said that although Plummer had no record, he was involved with Indian Al. He had not worked for two years but was living in an upscale section of Andover, MA. He owned a Cadillac and Thunderbird. I have no way of verifying it although I tend to doubt Martorano’s suggestion of Plummer having ill-gained wealth. He did not know him. Further, Martorano always sought to justify murdering people by suggesting they were criminals and he was doing some type of service to society at large.