murder of Edward Deegan

The murder of Edward Charles "Teddy" Deegan occurred on March 12, 1965. Deegan was shot and killed in an alley next to an office building in Chelsea, Massachusetts, at approximately 9:30 p.m. On July 31, 1968, the court convicted Louis Greco, Henry Tameleo, Ronald Cassesso and Peter Limone of Deegan's murder, and sentenced them to death. In 2004, Judge Nancy Gertner ruled that federal lawsuits by the families of Louis Greco, Henry Tameleo, Peter Limone and Joseph Salvati had permission to be filed against the United States Government, and in 2007 a landmark decision ordered the United States Government to pay $101.7 million to the accused and their families for wrongful conviction. Deegan was part of the Bonanno crime family, and was the maternal uncle of American academic administrator Gerard T. Indelicato, who served as education advisor to Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. Deegan grew up in Boston's West End and became what many true crime authors and criminologists, such as Emily Sweeney, describe as a "career hood" Edward Deegan's extensive police record goes back to 1948 when he was arrested and charged with larceny. He had been shot six times, and police believe three different weapons were involved, one .45-caliber and two .38-caliber guns. The prosecution sought the death penalty for all six co-defendants. Louis Greco, Henry Tameleo, Ronald Cassesso, and Peter Limone were convicted of Deegan's murder and sentenced to death. Joseph Salvati and Roy French were sentenced to life imprisonment as accessories to Deegan's murder.

In early 2007, the court commenced proceedings for the lawsuit, with Greco, Tameleo, Salvati and Limone's lawyers placing blame on the FBI for their client's wrongful imprisonment and urging the judge to compensate their families. Indiana Republican and member of Congress Dan Burton, and Congress members William D. Delahunt and Stephen F. Lynch had condemned the FBI's mishandling of informants during their involvement in the investigation, and were present in court during the case. On July 26, 2007, U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner held that the FBI assisted Barboza in framing four men for Deegan's murder, and withheld information for decades that could have cleared them. The US Government were to pay the wrongly accused $101.7 million in damages for their wrongful conviction, which, at the time, was the "single largest sum ever awarded from the federal government under the Federal Tort Claims Act." $13 million of this settlement went to Henry Tameleo's estate, specifically his son and wife.