Shortly after midnight on May 31, 1980, Robert LaMonica parked his car in the lot next to his apartment building in Braintree. He got of the car and started walking toward the entrance when four shots rang out. Two of them hit LaMonica. One entered his brain and he died on the spot.
On August 20, 1981 a jury convicted Frederick Weichel of first-degree murder for the shooting of LaMonica. There was bad blood between the two men, but for 33 years Weichel has maintained his innocence, and further claims that convicted mobster James Whitey Bulger framed him.
Now an attorney representing Weichel pro bono, Michael Ricuitti, is preparing for a new hearing in May. Working with the Innocence Project, Ricuitti will introduce evidence to the state Supreme Judicial Court that he claims will show that his client is indeed innocent. Meanwhile, Hank Brennan, an attorney for Bulger, agrees that Weichel is innocent but says that Bulger did not frame him.
“It is well known within the underground circles that Freddie Weichel didn’t commit the murder, which he was accused and convicted of,” Brennan said. “In fact, the person who committed the murder is still alive and walking the streets today.”
In fact, Brennan insists that Bulger, after his arrest, worked to demonstrate that Weichel was in South Boston at the time of the shooting in Braintree.
“He made a number of efforts to reach out to people and offered many times assistance to help Freddie Weichel’s brother to make an effort to free Freddie,” Brennan said.
In addition, Brenan says Bulger’s former Winter Hill Gang associates, especially Steve “The Rifleman” Flemmi, lied about him framing Weichel in order to curry favor with federal prosecutors during disgraced FBI agent John Connolly’s trial.
“During the course of events while he was incarcerated, the unfortunate occurrence occurred that the government disseminated information with Steven Flemmi suggesting somehow Bulger and Connolly were complicit in covering up the murder [linked to] Freddie Weichel’s incarceration, which could not be further from the truth,” Brennan declared.
WGBH News has been in touch with Weichel’s attorney, Michael Ricuitti, requesting an interview. We hope to bring you his version of events in the coming days.
