In June 1989, Angelo “Sonny” Mercurio, lured “Cadillac Frank” Salemme to a meeting outside a Saugus, Massachusetts IHOP. Gunmen wearing camouflage fatigues then opened fire from about 15 feet away outside the International House of Pancakes, wounding him in the chest, “Cadillac Frank” Salemme, made a mad 30-yard dash for cover, a move that probably saved his life.
With his would-be killers in hot pursuit, and a car’s wheels squealing on the shopping center parking lot, Frank Salemme lunged into the lobby of a neighboring pizza shop, grabbing the door as a bullet pierced his left leg. By 1991 Salemme, with the support of James “Whitey” Bulger, had become the de facto boss of the Patriarca family.
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