Last Rites Read Online Free PDF

perceived as a possible flight risk. The Charles Street Jail was an overcrowded, one-hundred-year-old dilapidated stone jail on the banks of the Charles River. The inmates were living among the most horrid and unsanitary conditions imaginable. Rats were known to come up through the toilets and bite inmates, windows were broken out for ventilation in the summer and the heat worked intermittently in the winter. The jail was a sort of funhouse for psychopaths and deviants. But Angiulo wasn’t just any inmate, and his status afforded him certain luxuries, such as never having to wait in line to use the telephones, having food brought in so he didn’t have to eat the usual slop and bribing the guards to get a better cell. Life in prison is different for wise guys than other people. While a guest of the “Graybar Motel,” he bought all the inmates on his cell block television sets so they would be quiet while he was consulting with his lawyers on his case. Another time, he bailed out a section of the jail so he could have peace and quiet at night.
    In the end, the jury convicted him on twelve crimes under the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act, including extortion, loan sharking, obstruction of justice and racketeering. When he was sentenced to forty-five years in Leavenworth and fined $120,000, he responded, “Thank you, your honor. Do you mind if I sit down?” As he was exiting the courtroom after unsuccessfully arguing for a reduction to his sentence so he wouldn’t have to die in jail, he said, “We’ll have to outlive them all.” While in prison, he managed to keep his sense of humor intact. As he was going into the prison theatre one day, he commented, “What’s this, The Great Escape ?” The guards didn’t find it funny, however. The comment landed him in solitary confinement for one day. It seems that a fellow inmate who worked in the clothing room with him had escaped a few days prior.
    Angiulo was released from federal prison in 2007 after serving a total of twenty-one years. He left the Devens Federal Medical Center in the early morning hours under the cover of darkness with as little fanfare as possible. He quietly resided in Nahant with his second wife, Barbara. He had two sons, Jason and Jerry, and a daughter; his eldest daughter died of a brain aneurysm. He quietly faded into obscurity and passed away on August 29, 2009, from kidney failure. His passing was hardly covered by the media due to the attention paid to Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy’s funeral.
    Reflecting back on Angiulo’s turbulent years of crime illustrates that although he tried to resolve mob problems without taking lives, there were necessary exceptions to this rule to protect the stability of the business. One particularly violent example occurred on November 12, 1959, when a worker in the Everett dump discovered the body of North End criminal Joseph “Augie” Demarco with six bullets in his head. The Everett dump was located about a mile from the city of Revere. Demarco was last seen in an after-hours club in Boston called the Coliseum, which was owned by the mob. A grand jury was convened in Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge. The grand jury called six witnesses: Jerry Angiulo; Larry Zannino; Phil Waggenheim, a contract killer; Henry Noyes, a mob soldier; Peter Jordan, mayor of Revere; and Phil Cresta. No indictments were handed down. However, the unofficial story was that Augie Demarco was robbing Angiulo bookies. Augie’s death served as a warning to other would-be criminals that Angiulo bookmakers were off limits. The fact that Revere mayor Peter Jordan was called to testify helps establish that the mob was firmly entrenched within the city of Revere and had protection from its politicians.
    The Ebb Tide Lounge on Revere Beach Boulevard was a lounge and nightclub that was popular with the residents of Revere. The club was often frequented by