Last Rites by William J. Craig Read Free Book Online Page A

average exam time of two hours and several minutes. Once the test was turned in, the officers thought that they may be under suspicion, so they devised a plan. They came up with the bright idea to break in to where the tests were stored and change their answers to some of the questions, thinking that their test results should not be so good as to raise suspicions but only high enough to pass and be promoted. Edward Robinson, a former Revere Police officer, was found guilty of mail fraud in attempting to buy a copy of the sergeant’s exam. Former Revere Police Chief John “Jake” DeLeire was also implicated in the exam fraud and convicted. After the men were caught, prosecuted and convicted, the U.S. Federal Appeals Court held up all the convictions of the seven other men, including the mastermind of the swindle, Gerald Clemente.
    Another event that left a black eye on the Revere Police Department was when several officers responded to an alarm at CVS store and pharmacy on Squire Road. When the officers arrived, they noticed that the store had been burglarized. Some of the officers began filling the trunks of their police cars with merchandise from the CVS store. The corrupt officers were caught on surveillance cameras and prosecuted for their actions.
    A former Revere Police officer tells a story of when he first joined the force, back in the 1950s, and he was walking a beat in Beachmont Square. This officer was filling in for the regular officer, who was on vacation. While patrolling the square, he was to call in to the station from a call box every hour after doing his rounds. When the officer went to call in to the station, he unlocked the call box and discovered a bottle of Irish whiskey inside. As the day progressed, the rookie officer took a sip of whiskey every time he called the station. At the end of the week, the bottle was gone. When the veteran officer came back from vacation, he instructed the rookie to replace the bottle and never let it happen again. This was the way the Revere Police conducted itself for close to fifty years. While these incidents do not speak well of them, the Revere Police officers were still held responsible by the general public to keep the peace. In addition, that meant dealing with the mob as part of their duties.
    In September 1991, Revere Police responded to a call at a home on Mountain Avenue. There they found a pool of blood and brain tissue on the front porch. A short time later, Robert Donati was found in the trunk of his 1980 Cadillac on Savage Street. He had been bludgeoned to death and his throat was slit. Donati was a small-time racketeer who collected money for Vinny “the Animal” Ferrara, who was imprisoned at the time. At first, investigators believed that Donati was about to flip and that was the reason behind his murder. It was later alleged that Donati had been involved with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist. In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, two men dressed as Boston Police officers approached the museum. The museum security allowed them in but quickly realized that they weren’t really cops. The infiltrators tied up the security guards and proceeded to rob the museum. Within ninety minutes, they had stolen several works of art, including Rembrandt’s only seascape. They cut the works of art out of the frames, leaving only jagged edges. Investigators looked into the possibility that the IRA might have been involved with the help of Whitey Bulger. Then a small-time hood and wannabe singer named Myles Connor became a possible suspect. Although he was serving a fifteen-year sentence in a Rhode Island prison at the time of the robbery, all roads seemed to lead to him as being the mastermind behind the heist. It seems that Myles Connor and his band, the Wild Bunch, had played many clubs at Revere Beach that were frequented by Donati and other mobsters. During this time, Connor cased the Gardner Museum and informed Donati of how