"Once-vindicated Limone avoids return to prison; Pleads no contest in crime-ring case" by Milton J. Valencia, Globe Staff | July 2, 2010
WOBURN — Nine years ago, Peter Limone walked out of prison a free man, vindicated after serving 33 years — 10 of them on death row — for a gangland murder he did not commit. He would later receive a huge cash settlement for the wrong done to him.
Yesterday, he came close to returning to prison, this time for running a Mafia-affiliated crime ring that racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in gambling profits.
Limone, 76, of Medford, allegedly a ranking member of La Cosa Nostra, did not deny that he oversaw the crime ring. He pleaded no contest in Middlesex Superior Court yesterday to 12 counts of extortion, organizing a gambling syndicate, and criminal usury, or loan-sharking....
I didn't know he worked on Wall Street.
Judge Leila Kern, citing Limone’s age and potential for rehabilitation, decided against prison time. He was ordered to serve five years of probation, with conditions that he stay away from known mob figures and wear an electronic monitoring brace let....
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Sometimes age doesn't matter at all.
Limone, dressed in a suit and tie, left the courtroom in silence with his head down — a contrast to the scene three years ago, when he and Joseph Salvati and the families of two other men who had died in prison walked out of a federal courtroom with, collectively, a $101.7 million award for the decades they spent in prison. Limone’s share: $26 million, plus interest.
They were wrongfully convicted for the 1965 killing of Edward “Teddy’’ Deegan, a small-time hoodlum in Chelsea. Federal hearings exposed an FBI coverup of the protection of mob figures who played a role in the killing, resulting in the wrongful conviction....
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Yeah, they are investigating to find the truth, right.
The Limone crime ring collected thousands of dollars in gambling profits and extorted 50 percent of earnings from other rings, the documents say.
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Limone was also a loan shark, collecting 2 percent interest on debts, or 280 percent annually, authorities said....
Is that a better return than what Goldman Sachs gets?