The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 9

The Boston Sunday Globe September 6, 1964 Few Leads to 9th Gang Slaying Police Sought Last Victim-an Ex-Convict--as Suspect in Somerville Shooting iiiiiuiiiiiiniiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiii QAMr ua GANG WAR In Chicago: 55 Killings roxbury lMro BENJAMIN fjj IBISES. I ITOWRVJ Continued from Page 1 The rash of lawlessness has prompted high level police meetings in an attempt to combat the situation, and the rapidity of the executions has prompted a call for legislative action. Acting on the heels of the killing of Somerville bank robber Ronald P. Dermody shot in Wa-tertown Friday night Middlesex Dist. Atty.

John J. Droney called for an emergency meeting of the governor and the Legislature. In a letter to Atty. Gen. Edward W.

Brooke, Droney called for added steps to protect the public. "The old ways of protecting the public are not good enough," said Droney, a Democratic candidate for governor. Brooke was unavailable for comment, but an aide said the attorney general would give full consideration to Droney's suggestions. Dermody, 32, whose record dates back to 1951, was sentenced to 17 years in a Federal Penitentiary in 1956 for a $42,000 Darlington, R.I., bank holdup. He was released recently and had been sought by Somerville police for a Thursday night shooting in that community.

His death triggered extreme police concern that the underworld vendetta would extend even further. He was shot three times in the head while seated in a parked car. Undoubtedly the worst wave of murders in modern U.S. history was the one that swept Chicago between 1926 and 1932, when gangland murders hit an average of 55 a year, according to the Chicago Crime Commission. There were only two gang murders in Boston during 1962-1963, but there have been nine in the last six months.

Nathan Colsia, 46, of West Roxbury, was found dead Nov. 14, 1962 dumped inside a panel truck in Dorchester. A vending machine company owner and the operator of a finance company, Colsia was beaten and shot through the head. In 1963, Robert Muccioli, 31, of Woburn, was found in the North End of Boston with a bullet through the brain. Muccioli was a known associate of loan shark enforcers.

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiin Immediately after Dermody's execution Boston Police Comr. Edmund L. McNamara announced that Deputy Supt. Herbert F. Mulloney would coordinate the Boston investigation in the series of gangland murders.

Bodies of four of the victims were found in Boston. State police officials reportedly were stepping up their efforts to assist the local communities where killings took place. One ranking officer said evidence in the killings is almost "negligible," remarkably so. Speculation was advanced that two gangs at least several of the men involved were vying for power and possibly a lucrative undertaking. But police have been unable to pinpoint th possible venture nor determine gang structures, or exact reasons for the slayings.

Several of the men killed had connections in the Boston area, particularly Dorchester. At least four had been closely associated. Dermody had been wanted for questioning in the shooting of Charles Robinson, 33, of 2 Canal lane, Somerville, as he walked along Broadway Thursday night. Recovering at Massachusetts General Hospital, Robinson told police he did not see his assailant before and could offer no explanation for the shooting. The outbreak of gangland slaying is without equal in this state, says one veteran official.

'Cops After Me' He Tells Lawyer By RONALD A. WYSOCKI The Docket of Gangland 'Justice VICTIM: STATUS: RECORD: DATEi FOUND: METHOD: Once booked on suspicion of assault and battery with dangerous weapon; never MAR. IS UNSOLVED A Roxbury sidewalk. Shot in head from ambush as he left a christening party. ml- WILLIAM J.

SHfRIDAN. II MAY 4 UNSOLVED Just released after 5-year term for armed robbery. Served time in Missouri for robbery; Boston for breaking and entering. Decapitated. In th'i trunk of a stolen car.

parked in South Boston. FlAit'CIS BENJAMIN. SI Drehrtr for help in getting back his driver's license," the lawyer said. "He told me he was trying to go straight and was about to get a printers union card for steady employment." The lawyer continued, "Friday night he was frantic. He said to me: 'The cops are after me everyhere.

They think I shot a guy in Somerville. I didn't do it. If I did, I wouldn't even bother you. I'm leveling with (Dermody was referring to the wounding of Charles Robinson on Broadway, Somerville, Thursday night.) Lawyer: "Why don't yon give yourself up?" Dermody: "Look, I can take care of myself. It's my wife I'm worried about.

The cops went to my house and kicked in my door. You've got to help her. She hasn't got anything to do with it." (Dermody is estranged from his wife. They have a son.) Lawyer: "Have your wife call me at this number I'll be there in about a half-hour." There was a slight pause in the conversation as Dermody fumbled for a piece of paper and pencil to write down the number. It is assumed that police found the piece of paper in his pocket.

The lawyer waited for the second call but it never came. The next day he learned that Dermody was dead. According to the attorney, the victim was on his way to contact his wife. The lawyer said that Dermody gave no indication in his conversation that he feared someone wanted to kill him. Murder victim Ronald P.

Dermody telephoned a Boston lawyer for help Friday night and while the attorney awaited another pre-arranged call, the former bank robber was shot to death. On the slain man's person was a torn piece of paper with a jotted-down phone number, the number Dermody was supposed to call the second time. It was 10:45 p.m. when the lawyer's phone rang and he heard Dermody's frantic voice. He learned that Dermody had tried unsuccessfully to reach him earlier.

The next call was scheduled for 30 minutes later at approximately 11:15 p.m. Dermody was gunned down as he sat in an idling car in Watertown at 11 p.m. Knowledge of the heretofore unknown call was gained by a coincidence of names. The attorney called this reporter at his home Friday night at 8:30 p.m. "What do you want? the attorney asked.

"I don't want anything," my answer. "I have a message here that 'Ronnie' called," the lawyer said. "It says the matter was urgent. You're the only 'Ronnie I know." A little more than two hours later, the attorney learned the true identity of the caller. It was Dermody.

"He was clearly upset," the attorney said. "At times he bordered on incoherence." The lawyer had met Dermody on several occasions since the man's parole from a Federal prison four months ago. "He approached me before Shot twice in back of head. No criminal record; resigned from M.D.C. police rather than face charges of associating with known criminals.

UNSOLVED MAY 12 In woods off Chestnut Wilmington, near the Woburn line. KV8SEU. C. NICHOLSON. IS pj JULY 21 Extensive record over 20 years, including 12-15 year sentence for $200,000 jewelry robbery.

Shot in base of skulL In the trunk of his car, parked outside a North Quincy motel. UNSOLVED se PAIL J. COLLICI. It PrTMcnc Shot in back of the head. In the same car trunk with Collici JULY 23 UNSOLVED No police record.

'Punchy' Seen Link In 6 Gang Slayings VINCENT A. B1SE8L FroTldene Hannon and Delaney were called "nartners in crime' by police officials. Police believed Police record over 40 years including larceny, burglary, narcotics. UNSOLVED Strangled by the Chinese torture knot that chokes its victims trying to free hands and legs. AUG.

20 In Eoston Harbor near Logan Airport A thin thread of circumstance would seem to connect at least six of nine recent gangland slayings with George P. (Punchy) McLaughlin of Charlestown, whose name is No. 10 on the FBI's "most wanted" list. The only murder warrant in any of these unsolved killings is for McLaughlin in the Mar. 15 shooting of William J.

Sheridan after an argument during a Roxbury party. Policp said McLauehlin was BAEOLD A. HANNON. Everett they were killed for robbing their underworld bosses of some illegal profit. They were apparently slain aboard a boat and their bodies dropped in different parts of the harbor.

The bodies of two Providence men, both shot in the head, were found stuffed in a car trunk on July 23 in Quincy. Paul J. Collicci and Vincent A. Bisesi, operators of. a phony door-to-door air conditioning business, were seen in Newton several weeks before their murder accompanied by a man in a Florida-registered car who fitted McLaughlin's description.

Police also want to question McLaughlin about the May 12 murder of former M.D.C. pa seen driving a car with Florida Convicted in 1956 for throwing a man off a Dorchester bridge. Free on bail for attempted housebreak. UNSOLVED Drowned; apparently was knocked unconscious and dumped into harbor. In Boston Harbor near Pier 9.

AUG. 20 plates on the night of Sheridan's murder. The car was registered to Harold Hannon, the Everett ex-convict whose body was fished from Boston Harbor Aug. 20 along with that of Wilfred T. Delaney of South Boston.

Hannon was a close friend of McLaughlin's. WILFBED T. DKLANEX. t7 Seath Baitoa trolman Russell C. Nicholson, found in Woburn with a bullet in the back of his head.

When a detective on the M.D.C. force, Nicholson was spotted by McLaughlin in the company of two men charged 1 v- fe awi I with the 1961 murder of Ber 1 SEPT. 3 UNSOLVED nard McLaughlin, George'a brother. On a lovers lane off Rte. 139, Pembroke.

Shot twice in head; body severely beaten, throat wai slashed. Breaking and entering in Boston, 1951 and 1952; escapes from Deer Island and Charles Street iaiL Imprisoned in New Hampshire, 1963, for larceny. LtO C. LOWBT. 7 South Baitau Nicholson resigned under charges of "being in the company of persons of ill repute." The charges referred to his association with the two men booked for Bernard McLaughlin's murder.

McLaughlin is reported 9 have a machine gun in his possession and was described by the FBI as "extremely In a car parked at the corner of Belmont and School Watertown. Shot three times in head. SEPT. 4 Dates from 1951. Includes $42,000 holdup in Rhode Island.

Sought in Somerville for shooting. UNSOLVED ANTHONY'S HAWTHORNE in Lynn draws Lobster lovera from a-near and a-far to anioy GEORGE P. McLAUGHLIN Lobster at its very beat. BONALD P. PERMOST.

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