Salemme claimed that Steven DiSarro was “robbing money” out of the Channel nightclub, according to DeLuca, who said he advised him: “Get rid of him...throw him out.”

“We had a little talk,” said 72-year-old DeLuca, recounting that in May 1993, Salemme — then the boss of the New England Mafia — complained that he and his son, Frank, were being “robbed” by their business partner in a South Boston nightclub.

Former Mafia capo Robert “Bobby” DeLuca looked uncomfortable Tuesday during his debut as a government witness as he broke omerta — the Mafia’s code of silence — and implicated his former friend, Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme, in a gruesome murder decades ago.


Salemme’s response, according to DeLuca, was: “Frankie Boy will take care of him.”

A couple of days later, DeLuca said Salemme called and ordered him to be ready the next day, “make sure you’ve got a hole dug and some lime...I’ll be down with a package.”

The following day, Salemme delivered DiSarro’s body to Providence, according to DeLuca, who said he made arrangements for his brother and several other men to bury it behind a nearby mill.

His testimony bolstered an account offered earlier in the trial by his brother, Joseph DeLuca, also a member of the Mafia.

The discovery of DiSarro’s remains in March 2016 set the stage for Salemme’s murder trial in federal court in Boston. The 84-year-old former Mafia don, who himself had been a government witness, was yanked out of the federal witness protection program to face charges, along with Paul Weadick, 62, of Burlington.

Prosecutors allege that Salemme, his late son, and Weadick killed DiSarro to prevent him from cooperating with the FBI against the Salemmes, who had a hidden interest in the Channel.

DiSarro was a 43-year-old father of five when he vanished, and Tuesday two of his sons sat in the courtroom listening to graphic testimony about his slaying.


DeLuca is no stranger to the Boston courthouse. He was indicted in 1995 on federal racketeering charges, along with five others, including Salemme, and notorious gangsters James “Whitey” Bulger and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi.

After learning that Bulger and Flemmi were longtime informants, DeLuca wrote poetry from prison, denouncing informants as “rats.”

But, in 2011 when facing indictment for extorting payments from Providence strip clubs, DeLuca cut a deal to evade prison. He wore a body wire and secretly recorded conversations with fellow mobsters that helped prosecutors snare nine people, including another former New England Mafia boss, Luigi “Baby Shacks” Manocchio. The mobsters all pleaded guilty, so DeLuca never had to testify.

On the stand Tuesday, DeLuca admitted that he lied to prosecutors in 2011 by claiming he didn’t know anything about DiSarro’s slaying. He said he didn’t want to implicate his brother, who had helped dispose of the body.

DeLuca was arrested after DiSarro’s remains were found. He told jurors that Salemme told him that his son strangled DiSarro, while Weadick held his feet off the ground. Salemme also said that his brother Jackie, who has not been charged, helped wrap up DiSarro’s body, and that “the nice guy” — Steve Flemmi walked in on the murder, according to DeLuca.

Flemmi, who is currently serving a life sentence for killing 10 people, including two women, is expected to testify later in the trial.


Salemme’s son, Frank, died in 1995 of lymphoma.

The day after the burial, DeLuca said Salemme returned to Providence.

“He wanted to go by and see where the body was buried, so we did,” DeLuca said.

Dressed in jeans, a black short-sleeve shirt, and white sneakers, DeLuca offered jurors an insight into a mob power struggle.

After Salemme was shot in 1989 by a renegade faction, then boss Raymond “Junior” Patriarca reneged on a promise to pay his hospital bills, according to DeLuca.

Later, while Patriarca was in prison, Salemme sold his vintage cars and kept the money, prompting Patriarca to hire enforcer Kevin Hanrahan to kill Salemme, DeLuca, and Manocchio, according to DeLuca.

Instead, DeLuca said he helped set up Hanrahan’s murder in 1992.

DeLuca also told jurors that he was one of four soldiers who pricked their fingers, burned holy cards, and were inducted into the Mafia on Oct. 29, 1989, at a Medford home. Later, he learned that it was the first and only such ceremony ever bugged by the FBI.

Shelley Murphy can be reached at shelley.murphy@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @shelleymurph.