Ronald Dermody is often grouped in as a victim of the “Irish Gang Wars.”was not a member of either the McLean or the McLaughlin gang. He was not involved in their dispute. He was an armed robber from Cambridge.
Dermody was sixteen, halfway through his short, delinquent life when he was arrested in October 1948 with others members of a Cambridge gang who had done several burglaries. He was sentenced in November to five years at Concord which meant he would have to serve a year or less. Dermody had spent some time in state prison for at least one other time for armed robbery and was a full fledged criminal at age 24 when the FBI got him.
On February 8. 1956, the FBI arrested Dermody for the $42,112 holdup of a Pawtucket, R.I. bank on May 17, 1955. Dermody’s companions in the Rhode Island holdup were Whitey Bulger, 26, of South Boston, Richard Barchard, and Carl George Smith, 33. Bulger would be arrested on March 4, less than a month later.
Federal justice was swift back then. On April 20, 1956, Dermody pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison. Despite his prior convictions, his prison time, and the 17-year sentence, Dermody landed back out on the street eight years later in June 1964. Whitey Bulger was sentenced to 20 years. He would be back out in 1965.
After his arrest by the FBI, Dermody fell in love with a real, true-to-life gun moll, Dorothy (Dottie) Barchard. Dermody likely met Dottie through Bulger and Richard Barchard, his two fellow bank robbers.
Years earlier, Dottie, as a teenager, had married Richard Barchard after he had been released from Walpole State Prison. Barchard had been incarcerated in 1949 for five to seven years for having committed two armed robberies. Not only did Barchard marry Dottie after his release from Walpole, but he also became partners with Bulger around the same time. Before joining up with Dermody, Bulger and Barchard robbed a bank located in Pawtucket, R.I. on May 17, 1955. Later on, November 23, 1955, Barchard and Bulger went west to rob a bank in Hammond, Indiana with the assistance of Carl George Smith who was from that area. Barchard took his new wife Dottie then age 17 on the trip to the Midwest. Bulger took his girlfriend, Jacqui McAuliffe age 29. The FBI added the Hoosier State Bank in Hammond, Indiana and a bank robbery in Melrose, MA to Bulger and Barchard’s conviction for the Pawtucket robbery they did with Dermody.
Dottie Barchard certainly was not going to wait while Richard did his time. She was a pretty girl, turning 18 years old, and her husband was heading off on a twenty-year prison term. She had a taste for the excitement of the criminal lifestyle and wanted more of it. We next encounter her as the driver of the getaway car in a November 21, 1956, Baltimore bank holdup. She was now eighteen or nineteen-years-old. She was in the company of Martin Feeney, 41, and her new boyfriend, Louis Arquilla, 27.
Feeney and Arquilla met in Walpole prison. Arquilla first made news at age 19 when he was arrested with his buddy Robert “Redhead” O’Connor. They were in a lineup where victims of robberies were brought in to identify them. It was reported that when victims faltered in their attempts to do so, “they would refresh their memories by describing in detail the circumstances of the robbery.” Arquilla was sentence to 12-15 years in Walpole State Prison for a series of “12 armed robberies, as a member of Boston’s infamous “red-head” gang.”
At the time of the Baltimore robbery Feeney, was an escapee from Walpole prison; Arquilla was on parole and was wanted in connection with another robbery in Norton. After hitting the Baltimore bank, they went to the Mid West and took up residence in an apartment building in Minneapolis on December 15, 1956.
The two guys went out every day while Dottie stayed in the apartment as best the neighbors could tell. By late January 1957, the FBI had tracked them down, surrounded the building where they lived, and ordered them out of the apartment one at a time at 1:30 a.m. The two men came out wearing pajamas; Dottie came out in “a tight-fitting two-piece pajama outfit.”
The FBI agents, in bullet-proof vests with riot guns aimed at the suspects, heard Dottie say pointing to Arquilla, “Let me kiss him. . . . Please let me kiss him” She wept. “I just want to kiss him goodbye.” She then kissed him as the agents looked on. She then said: “Good-bye honey” and Arquilla responded “Good luck baby and take it easy.”
On January 29, 1957, they were transported from Minneapolis back to Baltimore aboard a Northwest Airlines Stratocruiser to face charges. At about 1:00 p.m. Arquilla escaped his guards and rushed toward the cockpit with a dinner knife. He was thwarted in his attempt to get in there by a quick-thinking stewardess who slammed the cockpit door. Arquilla said he wanted to take over the plane. Feeney commented to him after he was subdued, “That wasn’t so smart.” Arquilla responded, “It was a chance. Perhaps my one chance and I took it.”
When their case came up in Baltimore the men pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 25 years in prison. Dottie went to trial. She was described as an “attractive little girl,” blonde, who appeared in court wearing white bobby socks and brown loafers. Her defense attorney described her as “a child covered with a cloak of innocence.” She was acquitted when her co-felons testified that she knew nothing about their plan even though she admitted to an FBI agent that she did know. Dottie walked free.
Feeney was said to have escaped from jails seven times. He would later say he made 20 attempts to break out. After Feeney did his federal bit, he was returned to Walpole to finish his sentence. He realized the errors of his way at some point, became a model prisoner, was pardoned by the governor, and ended up at age 58 getting his master’s degree from Goddard College in Vermont. He married a 22-year-old Middlebury college graduate and, in September 1979, became an associate director in Massachusetts Department of Corrections. He said he planned to write a book about his 41 years in prison. He said he was trying to go straight.
About twenty years later on February 23, 1977, forty-six-year-old Louis Arquilla left an apartment on Skyline Drive in Braintree sometime after dark. He walked toward a parking lot. A man with a shotgun was waiting for him. He was shot dead.
After the love of her life, Arquila, was headed for prison, Dottie found herself another criminal boyfriend. Whether Dottie was still married to Richard Barchard is not known. She became involved with James “Spike” O’Toole. Dottie would have two children with him. Dottie was in one of those off again – on again – relationships with O’Toole. It was on when he was on the street, it was off when he was in prison.
O’Toole was in jail doing the time with his friend Francis X “Gaga” Murray when Dottie and Dermody started seeing each other. .Like with the other guys in her life, some suggest Dottie found Dermody who had just been release from prison a new source of companionship. There is some evidence Dermody did hook up with Dottie. He had no driver’s license; he was using the license of James “Spike” O’Toole which was found in his wallet. He could only have attained O’Toole’s license from someone close to O’Toole. Was it Dottie or was it, as Gaga wrote, Dottie’s sister? Gaga said Dottie and O’Toole lived with him for a year after they began going together. Gaga said Dermody was dating Dottie’s sister. He also said Dottie was the only woman they knew who did time.
Everyone in Savin Hill knew Spike O’Toole. They knew he was dangerous. A local asked Spike when both were in Conner’s tavern how many people he killed? Spike responded I stopped counting at 14.
Thanks Neal. I have heard his name a bunch. I will see what other stories I can find about him.