October 10, 2022 — Despite at least three people that could be indicted still being alive, authorities appear less and less likely to ever bring charges in the fall 1992 gangland slaying of New England mob enforcer Kevin Hanrahan. The highly-sensationalized Hanrahan hit marked its 30-year anniversary last month.
One former mob shot caller from Rhode Island pleaded guilty in the case four years ago and named his co-conspirators. State and federal grand juries have heard testimony in the case over the last half-decade. But no indictment has dropped. And according to sources familiar with the Hanrahan murder probe, unless something unforeseen pops up, it’s unlikely any charges will arise from the investigation.
“It might just not be in the cards,” one source said. “
Hanrahan, 39, was gunned down in Providence on the evening of September 18, 1992 leaving a dinner in Federal Hill. According to informants, Hanrahan had been plotting to murder then-New England mob boss Francis (Cadillac Frank) Salemme and his underboss Luigi (Baby Shacks) Manocchio on the orders of jailed deposed mafia don Raymond (Junior) Patriarca, Jr., son of the crime family’s longtime don and namesake.
Per his own plea deal, former Providence mob captain Robert (Bobby the Cigar) DeLuca admitted to relaying the order for Hanrahan’s slaying from Salemme in Boston to Manocchio on Federal Hill. DeLuca was Salemme’s “Kingsman capo,” operating as his eyes and ears in Rhode Island between the late 1980s and their racketeering bust together in 1995.
DeLuca, 76, was the star witness at Salemme’s 2018 murder trial for the Stevie DiSarro homicide in which he was found guilty. Bobby the Cigar and his brother buried DiSarro’s body underneath a converted textile mill in Providence.
Salemme and DiSarro co-owned a South Boston rock club turned topless bar and Salemme thought DiSarro was working with the FBI and IRS. DiSarro 43, was strangled to death on the morning of May 10, 1993 inside Salemme’s family home in suburban Boston. His remains were finally unearthed in March 2016 on a tip from the owner of the property he was laid to rest on.
Salemme leveraged Patriarca, Jr.’s weakness as boss in the 1980s to being Godfather of the region himself for the first half of the 1990s. Patriarca, Jr. used Salemme for protection from a group of mob malcontents in Boston. Hanrahan, a tough Irish strong arm from Rhode Island, received consistent muscle work from the New England mob’s Providence faction during his heyday. He frequently did collections for top brass and died a suspect in multiple still-unsolved mob murders from the area.
After surviving an assassination attempt launched by the crime family’s Boston group in June 1989 and briefly taking refuge in California, Salemme returned to New England in 1990 upon Patriarca Jr. and the Boston crew that ousted him from the throne being incarcerated took power unopposed. Patriarca, Jr. felt shunned and forgotten about by Salemme — mostly financially — while he was in federal prison and sought vengeance by hiring Hanrahan to kill him and Federal Hill mob stateman Baby Shacks Manocchio, Cadillac Frank’s No. 2 man. By accepting the murder contracts, Hanrahan felt entitled to a piece of Salemme and Manocchio-protected bookies and loan sharks before he actually carried out the job.
Bobby DeLuca became Manocchio’s boots on the ground for the Hanrahan murder conspiracy, according to his own statements. Per people familiar with his cooperation and grand jury testimony, DeLuca names Providence mob figures Edward (Little Eddie) Lato and Rocco (Shaky) Argenti as the two-man hit team in the Hanrahan murder. Lato, a seasoned felon, is allegedly a high-ranking New England mob chief today in Providence. Argenti, who would rise to be consigliere of the crime family, was cut down by cancer in 2003.
Hanrahan was shot by a pair of masked assailants departing a meal at The Arch steakhouse in Federal Hill. DeLuca met with Lato at a nearby bar in the minutes following the Hanrahan hit. Little Eddie Lato is one of three men that could potentially face charges in the Hanrahan hit. Baby Shacks Manocchio, 95, and Cadillac Frank Salemme, 89, being the others.
Manocchio eventually replaced Cadillac Frank Salemme as boss of New England’s Patriarca crime family and reigned fir almost 15 years until he abdicated his throne in favor of retirement more than a decade ago. The 76-year old Patriarca, Jr. retired when he left prison in the late 1990s. Salemme is currently serving a life prison sentence for the DiSarro homicide.
This article was originally posted here