Gerard Ouimette

Gerard Thomas Ouimette (March 6, 1940 – April 19, 2015), commonly known as The Frenchman, was an American mobster and author from Providence, Rhode Island who was a prominent associate of the Patriarca crime family. He served for years as one of Raymond L. S. Patriarca's lieutenants, and also headed his own faction of the Patriarca mob.

Early life Ouimette was born on March 6, 1940, in Providence, Rhode Island. His parents were both of French descent. His father worked as the Governor of Rhode Island's chauffeur. After his father died, he and his brother would shoplift to make some money. It may have originated in the Ouimette's unique ancestry in a mostly-Italian American mob. Ouimette himself credited police with the name, writing in his 2012 memoir:

'The Frenchman' is the name that Rhode Island police attached to me in 1969 since I am proud of my French descent, an anomaly in that neighborhood. Due to ensuing notoriety, the name stuck. He was sentenced to ten years in prison, and was sent to the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI), a maximum security facility in Cranston. There, he even had influence over the warden. Patriarca was in and out of prison, and Ouimette served as his second-in-command at the ACI, which they used as a recruiting ground for the mob.

Ouimette had a telephone installed in his cell, but an FBI report from April 16, 1979, reported that he was the leader of a non-Italian faction within the Patriarca crime family:

Subject OUIMETTE controls a large group of criminals known as the OUIMETTE faction, whose criminal activities include gambling, loansharking, extortion and property violations such as major hijackings, robberies and burglaries. Although not Italian, OUIMETTE enjoys the same stature as lieutenants under RAYMOND L.S. PATRIARCA, who controls organized crime (OC) in the Boston and New England area. Ouimette was charged alongside fellow mobster Robert P. Deluca Sr. The government presented as evidence several recorded conversations in which Ouimette threatened to commit violence against Calenda. Deluca was sentenced to 10.5 years for his role. He died in his sleep 10 days after being diagnosed with lung cancer. He had also suffered from heart disease and other health issues.

His death was confirmed by Rhode Island State Police Colonel Steven O'Donnell, who called Ouimette "one of the most notorious villains Rhode Island has ever known." His body was sent back to Rhode Island for a funeral and burial.

Ouimette had more than ten criminal convictions in his life, including one for punching an FBI agent. He had spent 46 years of his life in prison, from Adult Correctional Institutions in Rhode Island to federal prisons, including the Lewisburg Penitentiary in Pennsylvania and the Marion Penitentiary in Illinois. At the time of his death, he was working to appeal his last conviction.

Personal life At 24, shortly after his release from his first prison sentence, Ouimette impregnated a local girl, Frances Gravelle. He told her marriage was not an option given his lack of employment, and the couple would not consider abortion because they were Catholic. Instead, Gravelle planned to raise their boy as a single mother and Ouimette gave her some money.

Ouimette was raised Catholic but stopped believing in God after his two brothers died in a construction accident.

Works What Price Providence? (2010) self-published memoir written while in prison