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° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° Deegan It was Teddy Deegan’s greed that killed him. In early March 1965, a North End hood named Charlie Moore told Deegan about the Lincoln National Bank in Chelsea, which was a prime target for a big score. Moore explained that the finance company, which was located on the second floor of the building, kept a pile of money in its safe and that they would have access to the building after hours, thanks to Moore’s brother—a local cop who had agreed to leave the back door of the building open for a cut of the cash. The offer was too good for Deegan to pass up. He had been waiting for a score like this for some time. Deegan’s pockets had been a little lighter recently as a result of the murder of his former partner, Harold Hannon, at the hands of Barboza and Buddy McLean. Deegan jumped at the chance and quickly pulled in his friend Anthony “Tony Stats” Stathopoulos to help him on the job. Tony Stats offered to be the wheelman for the robbery, so that meant Deegan would need a third man to help him open the safe. He called on another friend, Wilfred “Roy” French, whom he had used on some previous burglary jobs. French was also a bouncer at the Ebb Tide Lounge. Deegan was confident that his three-man crew could pull off the score, and he also believed that they would encounter no resistance, which is why he decided to leave his gun at home. On Friday night, March 12, 1965, Tony Stats borrowed his brother’s Pontiac and called Deegan, who then phoned French at the Ebb Tide Lounge. “You ready?” Deegan asked. French told him yes, and the two decided on a meeting place where Tony Stats would pick him up for the job. Roy hung up the phone and returned to the bar, where Barboza, Flemmi, and five associates—Romeo Martin, Nicky Femia, Francis Imbruglia, Ronnie “The Pig” Cassesso, and 10 Blood on the rise it’s following me° Jim morrison 96° casey sherman Freddie Chiampi—were all waiting. French told the Animal that everything was a go. Barboza and his crew went out the back door of the Ebb Tide toward Romeo Martin’s car, while French took off for his rendezvous with Deegan and Stathopoulos. Barboza opened the trunk of Martin’s car and reached for a bulletproof vest and a bag of disguises. Joe applied a phony mustache and put on a pair of horn-rimmed eyeglasses while Cassesso did the same. The Animal had strategically mapped out the hit on Teddy Deegan with the forethought of a field general. He would use two cars for the job; one to block traffic and another to make a hasty retreat from the scene. Neither vehicle was known to police, unlike Barboza’s own Oldsmobile Cutlass, which was dubbed “the James Bond car” by local cops because it was equipped with a hi-tech alarm system and a mechanism that spewed thick black smoke from the tailpipe. Femia was ordered to take one car and park it around the corner from the Lincoln National Bank. He had the vehicle in position to make a hard right and stall it in the middle of the street, thus blocking the route from the Chelsea police station if he had to. Barboza, Flemmi, Cassesso, and Martin placed the other car in position down the street at a parking meter between Broadway and Luther Place with its front wheels turned out to the street ready for a speedy getaway. Barboza and his team had also bent back the plates on the front and back of the car, leaving only a few numbers exposed. The men were sitting in the car with the motor running when Barboza noticed a man in a topcoat and scally cap walk by the vehicle and stop a few paces ahead. The man turned around and headed back their way. “What does this motherfucker want?’ Joe asked aloud.45 The man leaned down and rapped on the window, giving Barboza a good look at him. “Hey, your plate is bent,” the man said. Barboza’s stomach tightened. The passerby with the keen eye happened to be a well-known Chelsea police captain named Joseph Kozlowski. Barboza’s crew didn’t take any time answering Kozlowski. Instead, Romeo Martin pulled out onto Broadway with tires screeching and took off down the street. Kozlowski didn...

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