$101m civil verdict for wrongful convictions in gangland murder

A federal judge, in a scathing rebuke of the FBI, ordered the government to pay a record $101,400,000 for its role in wrongfully sending four men to prison for a 1965 gangland murder in Chelsea.

US District Judge Nancy Gertner found that the FBI withheld evidence that the men had been framed, as Peter Limone and Joseph Salvati grew old during their three decades in prison, and Louis Greco and Henry Tameleo died behind bars.

"It took 30 years to uncover this injustice," Gertner said. "This case is about intentional conduct ... the framing of innocent men."

US Justice Department lawyers have argued that the FBI was not liable because it had no obligation to share internal documents with state prosecutors or defense lawyers, and that the state prosecuted the four men after conducting an independent investigation. "The government’s position is, in a word, absurd," Gertner said.

The judge, who heard testimony during 22 days of trial that ended in February and has been weighing her decision since then, announced her ruling from the bench today as Limone, 73, of Medford, Salvati, 74, of the North End, and relatives and friends of all four men packed the courtroom.

The award included compensation for the years each of the men spent in prison, as well as money to the men's wives and children, who had taken the stand during the trial and emotionally recounted how their lives had been shattered. Salvati was a 34-year-old father of four young children when he was arrested and spent 29 years and seven months in prison. Limone was a young father of four when he was arrested and spent 33 years and two months in prison.

Tameleo died in prison on Aug. 18, 1985 at age 84 after serving 18 years in prison. Greco died in prison on Dec. 30, 1995 at age 78, having served 28 years. The four men were convicted in 1968 of the slaying of small-time hoodlum Edward "Teddy'' Deegan, who was gunned down in a Chelsea alley.

The discovery of secret FBI files that were never turned over during the men's 1968 trial prompted a state judge six years ago to overturn the murder convictions of Limone, who was immediately freed from prison, and Salvati, who was paroled in 1997.

The documents showed that the FBI knew that the key witness in the case, notorious hitman Joseph "The Animal" Barboz, may have falsely implicated the four men, while protecting one of Deegan's true killers, Vincent "Jimmy" Flemmi, who was an FBI informant. The brother of fellow informant Stephen "The Rifleman'' Flemmi, Vincent Flemmi was in prison on unrelated charges when he died in 1979.