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You are now listening to true murder, the most shocking killers in true crime, history and the authors that have written about them: Gacy, Bundy, Dahmer, the night stalker Dgk every week, another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and infamous killers in true crime, history, true murder, with your host journalist and author Dan Zupansky good evening, cold winter's night in early one thousand, nine hundred and sixty three mob enforcer, Rocco Anthony Bolero and pair of associate stormed a dark apartment on the outskirts of Boston and engaged in a fierce gunbattle with several assailants police off.

Is it turned out waiting in ambush For the Ex convict in recent prison escapee in the aft map, the young woman and her toddler son late dead, the story of Taco Bell Arrow petty criminal. In for Sir for New England Crime Boss, Raymond Patriarca played out glaring headlines across the country following the shootout with the Boston police. Had he Did the commands of the cops to drop his weapon Rocco would not have spent the next fifty there's behind bars and his girlfriend and her son might still be alive today unsteady, I heard the gun erupting death and mayhem in the apartment in the app map of the shootings. All fingers pointed at Rocco, but he maintain his innocence in the death of his girlfriend and her son for the rest of his life go plagued with lingering questions. Did he fire the dead? bullets, or did they come from another source, Did he unknowingly killed a pair, or was he simply guilty a vanilla home invasion? What was the police true involvement? The little

meet with the author over the span of a couple years, along with list tales of criminal escapades Valero handed over reins of documents, correspondence and clippings related to his life and the which crime that put him behind bars, Valero, arrange for meetings with many of his family members and associates the rock Rocco's on story of his life, but more importantly it is his version of the events from the night of February. Second, one thousand nine hundred and sixty three in a Boston, suburb and his profession of innocence, Anne until his dying breath. Book. They featuring this evening is shots in the dark. The saga of Rocco Bolero. With my special guest author Zimmerman welcome to the program, and thank you very much for agreeing to this program Daniels in. Thank you for having me Dana much appreciated. I spent quite a bit of time putting together the story. Writing this story about Rocco Bolero and now now like much appreciate any opportunity. I can have

such as this to share that story with others. Tell us how you came to be in a position or why this was important to you. Tell us a little bit about your journalism background as a stringer for many years and tell us a little bit about how you came to be in a position to be able to watch yeah well, the less for the last two decades, nineteen years to be exact I've, a string of for an assortment of of uh papers, mostly weekly, some dailies, and mostly in a sports capacity, and that's really where I cut. Where I cut my teeth with. Writing I'm not a Elmo journalist. I did not go to college for this. I'm self taught and and uh people find it hard to believe that, as they read some of my material but again through those years I as I learn

great so to speak, I decided I wanted to write a story and Add the story about Rocco Bolero since very early years. Very early age uh because I grew up with it: the the victims, the two victims Bobby Wagner and Mark Wagner Ware, not to my cousin and grew up through the sixties and seventies, fully aware of the story, my family shared it with me, but shared with me, was a story of cool bolero, cold blooded, killer, cold blooded, murderer uh, and that's what I that's. What I believe, because that's what I was told so when I decided to write this book, I went into the prison for the first visit with Rocco and it didn't take very long for him to convince me that I was wrong and forward my family members that in fact, hadn't killed. My cousin would

killed by police bullets. Allegedly Rocco was actually in love with my aunt. He wanted to make a family with her and her two children mark and and Bernice. It was just one of those situations where he he was living with her they've fallen in love over a span of seven months after they met her husband was in jail. She was married, her husband was in jail and. True, probably not the best set of circumstances seeing Rocco while her husband Walked away and that came to light when her husband was due to be released. On February. First, one thousand nine hundred and sixty three, you know obviously bad things. Going happen as a result of that release from jail

But again I grew up with the story and I went into the prison my first visit with Rocco after reaching out to him a he couldn't get. I mean fast enough. He actually reached out. One of his relatives are sister and asked her to track me down so that he could. He could array for that. First, at first meeting that first visit to the prison Ann once I was there interesting, I went the processing. I walked into the visiting area. I sat down and waited. Obviously I knew what Rockabill ever like. I had photos. I had seen throughout the years. He didn't know me well what I look like obviously, but when he came through the the entryway and and checked in looking around the room- and I stood up and kind of this is a hand and. He came over and I expected I reached out to shake his hand and he actually

arms around me, the embrace me and then step back, and he said I can't believe it standing in front of Maine to these DNA, and it kind of struck me that, fifty years, fifty years after her death, this man, I could sense. That is something not right about the story. I've been told. I could sense that he, he truly loved my on to be and over the course of the next three weeks, three or four weeks between communications with Rocco between twice weekly visits. In providing documentation. As I said, MIKE Intro or correspondence Apfa David's, major major documents that it was just a stack of material like every day. It gets something in the mail from them and go through it, and then I take the time that, obviously, as a as a

Searcher of researching into this this crime, I would cooperate a lot of the material that he gave me. I reach out to attorneys and reach out to police, as I gather other materials, to ensure so that what he was giving me was accurate and and one hundred send of the time anything that he told me or gave me or provided Tord, my search it was accurate. I seldom found anything if anything was not accurate. It was only because of the passage of time. So many years have gone by that. Even the best. Memories fade, someone and I came to understand in a very short period of time that I had it all wrong: I wasn't about to write a book about a cold blooded murderer Rocco Valero. I is about to write a book about an innocent man who was sent to prison for a crime. He did not commit, as

we write in the book, tell us how Rocco Valero meats to be. Wagner told me was a young woman. She was only twenty one at the time, and, as I mentioned her, her husband isn't present. She had two young children and she just like this. She like to be out like to go out and see friends. She like to kind of hang out at lounges and socialize and she was lonely, so one night in July, of nineteen sixty two. She arranged a babysitter and went to a place Boston. It was called the combat zone locals around here would know exactly what that is, but it's a red, it's the red Light District and it's loaded with assorted. Keep shows bookstores, but also, many many lounges kinda dotted the landscape, the and in the combat

and most of them are run by mob figures. They were owned by most, most of them are owned by the underworld, and she acquainted one called the new Yorker. Where, in the in the basement to downstairs areas Rocco described it, it was kind of the movers, movers and shakers of the underworld. A lot of a lot more figures would kind of ply their trade there and she met Rocco there, she was with another, the gentleman but we're what kind of worked his way into her graces and before long they were sharing sharing stories and drinks, and they they fell for each other so quickly. In fact, that rocco- literally moved in with her into her apartment, and they basically were- I guess you could call the fan against her two young children eh year boy in a six month, old girl

and ruffle ruffle made his family. He he treated them as his family. It's really refrigerator with groceries. He by her new saying she was kind of a little bit downtrodden financially. This is her husband being locked away, so she struggle to get by and and Rocco would help in that respect, he would buy her things and- and it was, it was good situation for him. Unfortunately, Rocco also was a was a was a criminal. I mean honestly. He would he would have bet that every every time we talked his career is work was to burglarize local businesses, jewelry stores. Anything that that he could, he could fence off to more or less make a living. And that was all as part of the organization. He wasn't enforcer for the patriotic family

His family was one level of tears of mafia and, involvement in the Boston area. They, the Valero family, work directly for the Angelo family, turn the Angiulo family work for the patriarchal family. So it was several levels away, but Rocco was still officially. He could use that uh mob enforcer and again Committed crimes to to supplement his income, how was it that explain how it was in this situation that they were in uh. They were lobsters, but he was able to go out with this person's girlfriend, while he was in prison. Tell us how the brothers

reacted to this. His own brothers react to this, and, and how do you explain in the book how this is possible? Even old people might think this weren't possible in the confines of the mafia. Well, at the time Boston's go to a very sordid history of mob activities? and at the time the italian mob rules, they ruled the city. You see family was very powerful. You don't You didn't sneeze in the organization without their permission, her husband, Barney Wagner was a distant distant member of irish section. The irish mob at the time didn't have much much power. Much sway in the city.

And Rocco. Basically, he was you know he felt that he could do pretty much anything he wanted an. Brothers really didn't stand in his way. They would. They would give him advice, but he was twenty six at the time He had already been in prison a couple of times for different crimes and they felt that. You know the right in the maturity to make his own decisions about what he would do. And the really is nobody to stand in his way as far as getting into a relationship with with Toby and that he did and that persisted for about seven months. Until the till February of sixty three. One of the action of in the book- I'm sorry sure yeah. That's why I was going to get to some of the some of the fascinating stories that you have here that really dead. Straight that He'S- I guess much different than anybody. We've read before tell us a couple of stories that you include that

great sort of his unique character. Well, one. I think it was a During the editing phase of this book, one of my editors I had used a description. Rocco was a having a heart of gold. She reached back to me and kind of question that that terminology, that description of Rocco, that, how could a criminal nature have a heart of gold, and I explained to her that other than first responders and and maybe a physician in an emergency room there very the people that walked this planet, they can claim to have saved three lives. An RA cool was one who could, during the most of his life, he saved three people and their families their that exist today, big because of his actions, for instance, he. During uh during one of the stays in prison, there was an upgrade

using a riot and MCI Walpole. It's one of the most notorious prisons in on the EAST coast, and there was a riot in nineteen sixty seven we're Rocco risked his own life to step in front of the guard and hold off some of the rampaging inmates who wanted a piece of that card. That guard managed to survive. He got he got away as a result of Rocco's delaying delaying the The attack later on in his life when he was on it, one of his several escapes, as as you read, he was pretty good escaping from prison's several times he he managed to find his way out, but during one of his escapes he was living San Francisco with a former associate. And they were at the San Francisco. Pier was on July Fourth, one thousand nine hundred and eighty and the associate head of two year old daughter who they

lost track of her for a few seconds. She stuck Golden fell into the San Francisco Bay and most people just froze. According to the description in the newspaper people frozen nobody, nobody reacted except for Rocco. He didn't has it he dove into the water. He sure rowdy rescued her and it all, It was just one of those things where, yes, he was a criminal. Yes, he rob stores. Yes, he broke into businesses and the in the dark of night but he also, as I had heart of gold, he would he. Risk his own life to save others right you You include some of these. These hijinks, where you incredible access and- and you take us right in the vehicles as they were, escaping from these robberies,. Tell us a little bit about the fur coat robbery, because it's an important

Yes, it is. It was an important robbery him and his partner Gianni Cerrone went first store in the in the town, just outside of Boston called Brookline. And they they. They run the store of pretty much all that fur coats in one thousand nine hundred and sixty two dollars. It was seventy five thousand, but nowadays that would be quite a quite a bit more than the purpose of that was too to give them as gifts some of his some of the mob associate some of the the higher ups in the in the in the organization as well as fencing, some of them for income, so they the store, and then they got a hold of panel truck instead, it all and hunger coats there. So that was actually the store on wheels as he described it. Where would come and look at the coats and they take one for their wives or girlfriends, and and then

change the time to to transport them to Providence to hand them off to the patriarch of family and that night turned it turned out to be very pivotal in Rocko's life during the the transportation fee, they were pulled over by a police cruiser with the number of officers in the in the cruiser, and they were subsequently arrested and soon landed in jail, the the best of corrections, and he knew it is with his history. He you, Been released from prison for other crimes not too and in not too distant past, and after that, he was facing a long stretch as a result. So like Taco Bell Arrow is he decided he wanted to escape and he had listed. He listed Toby to a system in that he figured out that this prison was

in excess of a hundred years. Is all the cast iron bars that front of the cells with very or is very basically easy to cut if he could get his hands on on a cutting tool. And that's exactly where to be came in? She ended up the smuggling in hacksaw blades and getting them to Rocco prisons different in those days they didn't have metal detectors the guards. The officers were less apt to pat down a woman. It was just a whole different time and she managed to get the hacksaw blades and it took Rocco forty days to cut through these bars, but he managed to do so and okay, he went out the window and men to get back to Boston and his family and to be the they get together soon after the escape. He was

pretty adept at using a hacksaw blade. Let me just put it that way: he did it a couple of times in a very short span of time. Tell us a little bit more about your at Toby and Mark and the daughter named Bernice, but oddly they called her when tell us a little bit more about their life that they had, even though he was on the run. Tell us the state of affairs with this couple and the and the children what we're we're Toby. I was two at the time my mother and Toby were schoolmates. They both went to Brookline High School and that's how they got. To know each other, and that's how my mother eventually met my father proved to be they They look kind of a tough existence. Kobe was into some things that you probably should have been

her husband. Barney, wasn't the best character that they kind of ran with again people who just were on the put on the wrong side of the fence so to speak, and they eventually got married had had the two kids to be absolutely adored mark my mother describe it. I believe I used it in the book that he was a attached to her hip wherever she was to mark was uh, but for some reason. Bernice wasn't quite the love child that mark, and oddly enough, after the as I was doing, my research, I didn't have to talk to Bernie's that wasn't necessary because she was a six month old infant. An I had. The story as it was given to me in written uh but curiosity. Obviously, in most, authors are curious about characters and, and people are writing about so I saw

got her out and she it ended up being adopted by family, very close to where I lived at the time it was. It was one of those strange coincidences. I discovered where she grew up after adoption. She was. Literally just four miles away from where I left the entire This is a blood cousin, first cousin. She she's she's a good life for herself now she's runs a business Cape COD, and she's doing very well. My memories of Mark basically triggered by photos that I have that would provide of to me by by relative of us together, there oftentimes, my my my learn to be would go out, shopping missions and take the two of us in the same carriage and kind of kind of push us along and and those my those are my my sing with mark.

We were the same age and, had this incident not happen, we would have grown up first cousins and ' 'cause. We were close in age, we likely it closest relatives and, over all time, my mother, I used it in the book. My mother would often tell me a story that, when she was married to Father and Toby was married to Wagner, There wasn't a lot of money at on hand, and so one night they suggested to told me my mother, that they go to the nearby market and see if they can get a couple of good steaks free of charge, so to speak. And they actually put them under the mattress is of the the baby carriage though mark, and I sat in and scroll down out of the supermarket, and when I told when I told Rocco with the story as we went through, some of the things

my memory. My recall he kind of it stuff and he said we have a room for you here at the prison. So you know there was little snippets like that but I was testing the memory of my mother and she was in her late 60s at time. When I was doing my research and she had some some good stories and some good recall, but again it is a two year old. I don't recall very much myself. What was the real, oceanship, characterized by that Toby had been in with Barney Wagner. Well, Bernie Wagner was he he drank, he used drugs, he was often the toxic and he really didn't treat her as well as he she obviously. Basically, I found that information out by way

a family member who provided me with her diary. It had that, after after she was killed, the family managed to get a box of materials, a yearbook high school, a diary, some other some letters and I went through those, and I found some entries in the diary by my aunt told me about Barney that weren't very they weren't very nice. She basically described him in a poor way and Runkle backed up because obviously Rocco spent seven months with her and discussions would lead to him at times and he he realized that Toby was being mistreated by this man and he wanted. He wanted to correct that. He wanted to to treat her like deserve to be treated, and that was his goal recently. He was, and an escapee from prison text con on the run in Boston after he managed to escape the first time to get back, but they

plants he until we were going to take the kids. They were going to run off to the West Coast, make a life life for themselves and obviously changed names and and live as a family. That was this plan. I was his goal and she on Board early February, one one thousand nine hundred and sixty three rolled around and and bad things started to happen. As a result, now We talk about February. First, one thousand nine hundred and sixty three and she's Toby is hesitant to talk to Rocco yeah about this, but finally she does, and so what did she tell him? And how does she tell him about? What's going to happen? revolving door. Freckles are obviously yeah. Obviously Rocco was keyed into some of the the things in the in the in the area of crime and punishment to speak, you know there's a net,

work and everybody seems to know everything that's going on. They share information and he knew that her husband was getting out on that day, he waited. He gave her the opportunity to to to tell him he told me to tell him herself not divulge, that he already knew so at a breakfast one morning. She ah some hesitation. She came out with it. She said my husband's getting out and his reaction was to not disclosing. He already knew and then basically ask her what she planned to do. What was was her thoughts and her plan was that she was going to gather the kids go out to see Barney and asking for a divorce, and once that was done and she and Rocco could could run off, make them make their escape so to speak. But time went by, she left the apartment. They were hiding out in Chelsea, which is a suburb of North of Boston. She didn't return

For some time there were no phone calls. It was no communication from an and group concerned that uh, It had happened to her that her husband, uh was may be angry because of her request for a divorce, and he thought maybe some harm had come to her. So he he in this car and took a drive to where we thought she might be Indian encountered. Barney is a couple of couple of his friends, including a hired hand in the irish mafia. They had a an altercation that include shots being fired. Nobody was hit at the time, but once Rocco had separated himself from that, he return who is apartment. He gathered more weapons and a couple of friends, a brother and a third hand, and together.

They went back to the location where they thought to be was being held against her will by Barney and his friends. It was a small apartment in Roxbury, which is just on the outskirts of Boston. And after some time the storm this apartment, it was pitch black you it was so dark. You just couldn't see the hand in front of the face. And in that apartment, Rocco surmised, that Barney was there holding to be against her will when, in fact, the people waiting in the apartment in the darkness were Boston police officers. It's gotten word that Rocco was on potentially on his way there and They staked out the apartment, they plunged into darkness and they waited for him, and he did in fact show up Ann it was a huge gunbattle Rocco two associates and three police. Buses that exchange fire and the darker department.

One of the descriptions in the police report and the follow up was that it was so dark that they weren't shooting at people. They were shooting at gun, flashes that that's is description by one of the one of the police officers that was in the apartment at the time. What happened next is after Rocko and his associates fled and they're running on the sidewalk trying to get to a to the getaway car. More shots came from the apartment and Rocco obviously, and understandably, was confused. The thought was, who, who is he shooting at? Who are they shooting at? Were not there anymore? And he later told me he said you know. It had I known there were police officers in that apt. I would look on within one hundred miles of that place. I'm not

you know, I'm not crazy to the point where I'm going to assault an apartment and and go in to a situation like that with there police are there. I Turn tail and just wait it out to be at that point, but he thought he was rescuing her, the entire time that he planned and staged this this invade in this assault in this apartment. He thought he rescuing Toby from the clutches is over her, the husband and his friends, and that that wasn't the fact. Let's use this as an opportunity Daniel to stop for a second to talk about our sponsorship station The holidays are almost here and if you're selling stuff online, you know it's crazy, you got orders coming in and you need to get them out in time to meet those holiday deadlines, so use ship nation dot com to get your order. Quickly and keep your customers happy ship station

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Daniel. I think we need to go a little bit words in terms of what happened in that apartment. An the altercation that you spoke of with, which is very important, with the muscle for Barney Wagner and in initial altercation. When I came out of their vehicles and Clifford came uninterrupted the conversation that Rocco was having with Toby's Ex husband, about that exchange. What he had said to Wagner what Wagner it said to him which is important to what led to this tragedy. Well it started with Rocco actually reaching the apartment. The first time he approached the door again it was the same darkness, the same apartment, looking unoccupied it looked like it was unoccupied, but as as he approached the door, he could hear it

the crying inside and decided to to make his way and he broke through a glass panel and in there he found daughter, Bernice Bernice on the floor. She had the falling off the bed, it seemed and she was lying on the floor crying. There was also four other babies in that apartment. Three three of the babies in that apartment, those with the children of a woman named Mary Adams who won the apartment, was friends with Toby right so Rocco. You know suit to the baby cleaned it up a little bit back on the bed and as he ventured back outside wondering where the mothers were the entire time he Sarkar just ahead, and in that kind of that three figures and the Barney Wagner, and so what Rocco did? Is he summoned Mister Wagner over to his car? An after some some hesitation Wagner agreed to get in the car and have a discussion with Rocco, and it was a she

discussion, but Rocco was just trying to kind of settle things down on and coming to an understanding of what what was going to take place. Wagner was actually. He was okay with the discussion. There was a moment where he was nervous. He was uptight, Rocco Bolero obviously had a reputation in the city and Wagner was aware of that, but Rocco took the step he actually handed or tried to hand Barney Wagner his gun in in a in a gesture of peace. What with fractured this discussion, that was, is going well it so, while the me back up a little bit the discussion between them included that Barney they just wanted his son. He wanted mark only he he didn't want to be any longer. He wanted he. He would be willing to accept that divorce request, but he just wanted the sun and obviously going to take take mark away from from to

that was going to happen. So we want to let happen mark with a letter. I mean I'm not going to let it happen, so the discussion was going along and next thing you know, there's a knock on the window and it's uh it's freeman and he basically, His nickname is punchy, punchy freeman. He basically was Barneys strong arm. He was a boxer. He was who is an irish tough. He worked for the irish gang and he they're, basically Barney uh a little extra muscle in this situation with Rocco Balera and he broke up the conversation. He actually suggested that they and it and Barney agreed to get out of the car and they left, and there was a a minor call follow he wasn't going to let it rest at that point. Ann.

Ultimately punchy. Lost control of his car on some icy roads and slammed into a snowbank an and Rocco, took the opportunity to fire his weapon at the car. It didn't hit anybody it the slogan embedded in a in the car seat in the front, but it's it's set some some new. So it said the situation in motion. That rock was not fired his gun and escalated the altercation at that point And that's when he decided to return to his apartment in Chelsea in and gather some more people and weapons and return return in search of Toby. He still hadn't seen her. So he he has a plan to go and rescue her. He thinks that

the mobsters are going to be holed up in the place because he has been at this place before he goes back blues brothers. Is it? Is it not a risky plan to go into a building? That's dark! What that's what his thought process was along with his partners. Well, they there were a little bit hotheaded at the time, and he admitted that he says he should. He should have thought it up more carefully. Running into the department? Again, He thought he was face squaring off against three. Irish gangsters, including Bonnie, Wagner he'd, never fathom that they would be police there that just didn't even cross his mind. He was just all of which will be that he was willing to risk life and limb two to rescue her to. Out of that situation, he told me in hindsight he Sadie, which just never let her go, to see him and ask so that divorce Ann

his brother, his brother, Salvatore, was just loyal. I mean that the man was loyal to him. There was they were inseparable most little brothers where there were six of them. These men were just inseparable and they they'd run into a burning building or building filled with potential sale once with guns to do what they had to do ah and the third guy as well, it is just all about loyalty, weather, but the Rocco's decision run into that apartment. What it's the right or the wrong one. They were going with him. There was no tooth. There was no two ways about it. Was she not? Tell us of the conversation he has with her the last couple conversations what is contained in what she says to him. Put this in perspective as well. What was he told by her? Well, she was but it turned out the reason he thought she was in that apartment is because he actually called the apartment,

During his visit there earlier, he had, acquired an address and phone number book when he was it tending to you're nice, and so he took the phone book and when he was back in his apartment he called, and he actually first with Mary Adams, who was upset. Mary Adams was Barney's sister, She was upset that number one Rocco had broken into our apartment, never saying that she had LE children behind and the department also that she Rocco at shot at her brother. She became aware of that he has to speak to Toby. Meanwhile, the police are already there. This standing there observing these. These conversations as they're taking place and Toby takes the phone and her last words with Rocco, basically she's, telling not to come to the apartment there waiting for you and what he took as they're waiting for you wasn't. She never said the word LISA cops she's just said there

waiting for you and his first assumption was Barney and his is his men and that's what that's, what registered with him and that's where the plan started, taking shape once once. He heard that, and those are the last words they spoke. Now you talk about them escaping. We can talk about the car accident, a separation, but let's fast or to his decision once he realizes well pardon me, maybe on fast tracking what happens with Toby and more very rushed to the hospital there in grave condition. What happens to them? The conjecture is that when Rocco left the apartment with this Asos kids. They were running for a getaway car. They were actually being pursued because there were two more people further up the street more police officers as it turned out and they actually

gunfire in those police officers once once the rock so is shot at them again taking their friend Barney Wagner's, they ran back to their car and a police chase ensued earlier. When Rocco was running on the sidewalk to get to his brother's car and get out of that area. We heard those shots in the apartment. More shooting after a pause in the conjecture, was that Toby and Mark Ann Marie Adams and her kids were hidden in the apartment. They were in the back of the apartment. It was kind of a rectangular building and the the police said push them into the back of the building and hit them and spare rooms. So the conjecture was that in the darkness, the police thought that Rocco and his associates was still there. Excuse me and,

they reloaded their weapons and started firing again and what they were doing was actually fire in each other rock. It was long gone and in the middle to this during the low in the shooting, it was thought that to be had picked up mark an made her way to the front of the apartment. Thinking the shootings over here is a chance to get out when, in fact, that she reached the front of the apartment and the cops began firing again. That's when she was she took a bullet and as well as Both of them would hit. She was hit in the head, Marcus Fitness and sonic, and they were both fatal wounds as it turned out so that you know in the meantime, Rocco's escaping there's a car chase between him and the two police that were staked out further up the street,

the Raptors car he he escapes he jumps out of the car and an opportunity and escapes. Meanwhile, his brother, in the third, the third hand crash into a taxi cab, and there eventually brother escapes at the third hand, is arrested. Bye Eventually, everybody Rocco and his brother Salvatore, they both turned themselves in to to face the legal consequences. After a couple of is to turn themselves in. Now what happens as a result of that? Turning in what does he find out about the things he is charged with that he may not have known before, and then what is this decision afterwards? Well Rocco decided as a result of this. He knew that he was going to be guilty before presumed innocent. He was guilty this association with the organization, because

what he did for a living history is, he just knew that it didn't matter whether he could find a way to come out. This innocent it just wasn't going to happen for him. He was going to be guilty any. He looked at it because of his association, but you know still: he didn't want to plead guilty to the crime. You plead plead guilty to a first degree. Murder. Your yours is signing into pulling your death warrant at the time they Boston actually had the the death penalty for first murder was available overtime. They overturn that and but either it was still going to be a life in prison sentence. So he decided he wanted to fight the charges. Do you have to do to try to either reduce a sentence or go free

one of the other. He always admitted during our discussions whenever it came around to the fact that storm that apartment like he did? He always had. That was that was wrong. It was a crime. He understood that he should do time, for that He said one thousand five hundred and twenty years it was a bit he could do without you probably was only twenty six at the onus forties, but then, unfortunately, one of the attorneys who happened to be his cousin came along and came up with plan to get his brother. And the third hand get them at least on an earlier sentence, a manslaughter charge, so they would just ten years but to make that work Rocco had to agree to plead guilty to the first degree murder charge, which a mistake every attorney I talked to. While I was researching this book agreed that that was a huge mistake, because it was basically admitting guilt when he was.

Claiming that he wasn't he was innocent and that triggered a very long prison term. And then, as he went through his his career, unfortunately, he was actually getting close to parole in the 80s. He decided to to walk away from a farm detail and more or less just escaped from prison. A third time Ann that reset the clock. Once we got him back that reset the clock Rocco was was in for the long run. When did you get to speak to him in what year and where was he residing. At the time it was? I just turned. I just turned fifty. It was Two thousand and I had research for the book for about a year. Gathering materials, doing interviews with people

so in twenty ten run around the time. Like I said I turn fifty. I decided it was time to try to meet him. I them a letter requesting for to come to the prison and my first visit with him like I described and that that's started a long two plus year string of visits twice a week, typically Tuesday night I would go and every Saturday morning I would go and spend a couple hours with Rocco the difficulties encountered. Was I really didn't have any connections with the prison folks? I tried, I made an effort, but they wouldn't allow me to to bring anything into the prison. So is a notebook or a pen or a tape recorder. Anything of that nature was not allowed uh. So all of our discussions over the two years were done by memory, whatever quickly do as I'd sit and talk and I'd, ask questions, and I would race back to my car after

the visit was over and scribble down as much as I could remember, in a notebook Eventually, we had correspondence where but right on the letter with a series of questions, and he would he would write back with answers and detail, the answers- and I have a stack of letters of this nature that we used to to gather the information, I would need to write the book. There was a on a side note. This is a story I like to tell my wife, Mary. She at the time she's she had a huge. There are of prisons, she would watch those television shows on tv and and see some of the conditions in inside prisons, and it would it just make a wide eyed and So as time went on, we actually got permission for rock to call me call it my home, where he would have a ten or fifteen minute allowance and

call me. And. We have conversations but a lot of times. I was, I was working nights at the time and he never knew when I would be home. It was tough, he couldn't it's Will the calls it was kind of a random thing? We call my wife would answer and they day he befriended her. They became very close friends. She sending greeting cards setting, send materials to the prison magazines whatever may be, and so one Saturday morning I was getting ready to go from my weekly visit and she looked at me and she said I'm going with you and I'm like I'm going to the prison. She said. Yes, no, I want to meet him and she came and it was difficult for, but she processed through and and met Rocco Bolero and they became the best of friends. And she was the one that was holding his hand bedside when he passed away. Yeah.

You were asked to speak at his eulogy as well yeah the family. He approached me and they asked me over for the course of time. Once I got to know Rocko very well, he actually introduced me to a lot of his family members, particularly his brother or the Billy, who also part of the organization. I met him at his club and became very close to the point where, once a month, he and his wife and myself and my I could go out and have dinner's and We give me so it was great. He had so much information to share with me and he was well. To do that, and he actually, during the course of this research, he actually introduced Maine uh We had dinner with the at the time the head of la Cosa Nostra the head of the Mafia and in New England I Peter Limone, and that was pretty exciting. A lot of people would kind of look at that side way.

Doesn't say you're sitting down at the table with the head of the mafia. How can you enjoy that and believe me, it was. It was very exciting, very pre, The the alarm ability to meet this man, and he too spend time with rock on prison. He too was able to share some snippets that reached the book with his permission, You include a story about Rocco on the run with his brother and where they stop. Where does he want to stop by. Before e, knowing that she's the way. Where does he want to stop with his brother? Why? Well, the key, stop that he wanted to make before he left the city and I went on the run, was Cemetery, where, where Toby was buried it, and little town on the North Shore, Boston called Everett, and he he she described the shirt actually repeatedly. I believe you told me three

sometimes he had assured that to be a bottom, it was a white shirt with some thin pinstripes as a matter of fact, if you the cover of the book where soon SIRI is apprehended by the police, the shirt that he's the shirt that he's wearing in that photo is an identical shirt to the one he had the night. He went to the he went and and should get another shirt just like because he loved it so much, but the one that to be had given him. He was wearing the night at the cemetery and he decided to scratch a little bit of the soil on her grave site. After him, brother found the grave site. They searched the cemetery in the darkness and they found it he scratched the surface of the soil and took the shirt off and buried it with her, and he he won, told me during our conversations he says, if you don't believe me about the shirt he says: go there, he dig a little hole and you'll find probably shards of the buttons or something of that nature, and I

They basically said no Rocco I'll. Take your word that the shirts there I'm not going to go in and dig a hole in my aunt's grave, so a little side note on that. What we didn't talk about the media's response to this, and also you include it at the same time,. There was the Boston strangler running around killing people. So the police you mention, is the most inept police force in of the era- tell us a little bit more about the police response and their criticism of the police. In this case, well, the media did uh, criticize them quite heavy. Actually it wasn't just the Boston area was nationwide. I managed to find newspapers in far places like Chicago and and California that carried the story about the night of the shootings. And obviously the police gave We're given a pretty hard time, including the three offices involved involved, it wasn't

steak out, they did it on their own, they managed to, or that Rocco was in the area are, might come to this house and and did this on their own. They didn't grant get permission for it a little bit of a renegade operation, so to speak so took a lot of flak and at the time the police was getting the Boston Police Department getting pretty his beat down by the media and that for the failure to apprehend the the Boston strangler when the shootings took place. The straw, it was about halfway through, is his run of murders and and the police, didn't have a shred of evidence. The the word inept- I actually borrow that word because, when the movie came out about the Boston, Strangler Tony Curtis as a star, the movie posters actually used the word police force, and I thought it was the best word to describe the operations of the Boston police at the time.

They actually never caught the Boston strangler, he was captured by a suburban police department and so I think that kind of take credit for his capture, but there the meteor approach to them was exactly that. How could you let something like this happened where innocent twenty one year old woman and her two year old Son killed and in the midst of a city? That's just totally up in arms over the over the in a bill. Do these police officers to capture this this individual? It was just a bad time for the Boston police, lot of bad press. Was a criticism of them luring because they knew what likely why to the Rocco would do or could do, and the other thought I thing I thought was odd- was that when you talk about the all

officers, placing the people in separate rooms, there was two groups of p. Sue several rooms in. But you talk about an officer of, and I believe it was in The room with them is it it was Only clear I don't know it was clear to me if the police reasoning for how they got shot was any anyhow corroborated or proven. Basically, the Loring just was a coincidence. They they struck upon. Opportunity to capture to apprehend Rocco Bolero. He was a price, so they They found out about the fact that he was potentially coming to this house and cash in on the opportunity to vision to keep them in the house was, it was basically keep the

the women and children that house was was a really that was just a terrible steak, but considering the hour I can kind of climb into their heads and see where they were thinking. Although I I don't agree with it It's one in the morning, it's February in Boston, it's freezing cold outside Anut talking to him and five children. Where do you put them? So they made the decision to keep them in the apartment, knowing all well that they could be the violence taking place there at any time. So that was that was a pretty bad mistake on their part, Calvin was in the room with him, but he did move up to the kitchen during the gunfight and engaged at the time. So all three- cops are involved in it, what they did after the fact was Mary Adams, the owner of the apartment. She was twenty one as well with three kids and they kept custody for several months.

And they worked on her the sheet. He had some weapons. It's a munition so to speak. Her husband was also a criminal, He was one of the three men that was with Barney his name at Robert Adams and so, but they used the fact that there were charges pending against him to work with her to basically make a witness and in the newspaper she actually came out and claim that she saw Rocco, walk to be in shooter point blank in the head and then also fired at Mark yeah. But the attorneys. The attorneys basically made her look kind of I guess you could say they made it look kind of silly in the courtroom. The one Questions was if the police couldn't see who they were shooting at. How could you see Rocco Bolero shoot these two victims and

heard testimony fell apart as a result, but they tried. They tried some different things to make that case, but the case was really already made because Rocco Bolero was was a gangster. He was part of an organization that committed crime There's no question about that and, as I said before, he was he was guilty before even stepping inside of a courtroom, his character in Eudemian rate that, through this book, an illustrated through all these stories, like with the for truck his model was that if, if were to be arrested, if there is his heart was going to be arrested, he would go and he would not abandon that person. So, in the case, if this plea agreement to plead guilty to first degree murder, so that these people will get a reduced, far reduce n it's a manslaughter did. You 40s use that good natured, that sense alone,

loyalty and duty in this case wrongfully so, but is that what went on Yeah I mean is that the loyalty is obvious in the organization, especially back in those times, loyalty to a fault the they stuck with each other? They did whatever had to be done, whether it was potentially hazardous to their health or or something of nature. They whatever had to be done. They did it even though they may have thought it was the wrong thing to do and Rocco call it call it a haphazard approach to life, but he's in his early twenties and today I mean you talk about kids at that age. They think they're invincible and Rocco I kind of a mentality that he was invincible in the end, as he went about some of these things that nothing could happen to him. He was going to be okay, he's going to come out of it,

but it I come back to the word loyalty the sacrifices made for each other. It was just. You didn't see that in other places you didn't you didn't, don't get that kind of loyalty in a lot of organizations and. Even families. Rocco was upset. Actually we talked to him about his bro who was in on the shootings with them, and he was really upset that he had made that sacrifice that he plead guilty to first degree murder, to give his brother opportunity to get out of prison sooner and the reason was that his brother had a young young child. His wife just had a baby right around the same time that he look up in jail and so Rocco was upset that his brother didn't use the time to his benefit. Families benefit. He went back into the life he got shut up and drugs and drinking again and just uh. He died young as a result,

and that really that bothered Rocco that he you know he did. This his brother and his president reciprocate with doing the right thing he he spoke of and I mean it's, you see it in the movies where they talk about just being a regular stiff, leaving leaving Life behind seem that he could do it. Didi Conn play that. Did you talk about that? Did they talk about that him and to be he did actually was facing a potential that having a kind of a ready made family and Toby in the two kids he did. He did consider it there were a couple of times. He mentioned that he might just become a working stiff, get on the hit on the nine hundred to five hundred train and do the right thing, but he trade? The some criminal escapades that he took part in war, exciting a lot of them. A lot of these guys that were doing this. It wasn't so much for the money,

is for the craving the the excitement craving the life and that's what he was going to have to separate from. He was going to have to find the means to. To to enjoy his life out tried the criminal world and it was a task that was a tough task when he, when he would explain some of his some of his crimes to me and we kind of go over them. He got very animated. It was it something like kind of a. I used to compare it to an athletic endeavour, we're an athlete which is something really exciting and succeed at his sport are an- Morocco was the same way. He found a lot of success and some of his crimes. You talk about being animated, and you spoke to him at length.

How animated was he when he spoke about your aunt and mark, especially and Bernice, but those times. Atlanta anime. He would. He would explain how much he loved my heart. Every time you would across a situation where her name would come up. He would would get kind of upset little bit. People just didn't believe that he loved my on Toby and mark they were his family. He called them his family, in fact, the discussions to with his his cousin about you know, pleading guilty to first degree murder, so that is brother could go free earlier. His cousin actually used the term your family is gone. Your family is no longer here, so you really don't have a family. Unlike your brother, he has a family. Your family is gone. Do this for his family?

Rocco with that would basically say I love and funny thing is every time I met one of his relatives as Owen reduce me to some of his relatives, and I would I would go to meet. We have discussions with them. They would say the same thing to a person. You know you, they would say Dan. You know you're you're, love, Jaron had daughter, he worshipped her and it was believable. He actually told the police. As he was being taken from one precinct to another in a cruiser, he actually asked the police if he could visit with her body, rested and say his goodbyes, and they basically blew him off on that. But it does it does those kind of feelings he had for silly. As time went on during his life, he didn't meet other women, a married woman while he was in prison and then when he was when he escaped and fled to say, Cisco, you met a woman there and they eventually got married,

but it was always about to be it always circled back to her. What is this I mean, I guess it's. I guess we do know from this interview. What does this book me mean to you now that it's published and it's out there and people can read it? Why? that meant to you and as any anybody reacted to it. That's been close to the story I yeah I do have some issues with some family members on both sides, they're minor and they're, easy to to deal with from from where I stand the whole purpose of the book. When I first started out to write it again at the at the time, it was to write the story about cold blooded murderer Rocco Bolero, and that was my families benefit, but, and it turned it became something altogether different, and it became telling the rockabilly real story about a man who was wrongly

accused of a double murder and spent the rest of his life in prison and died there. Just I wanted to tell that sorry to show how unfair it was it. I sacrificed a few things along the way, but again minor things. People who disagreed with some of my some of my police and some of my philosophy is about the whole thing. I did turn some people, which I I found great success in that with relatives that had originally had different thoughts an once. They had an opt to read the book and listen to what I had to say. They, they we're on board, others know others or a little more stubborn about the the approach and they they stuck with their they stuck with their beliefs that he wasn't is quite quite as innocent as I claimed. He was.

But if it is, they can fit. I'm sorry go ahead. Sorry go ahead for his sake. You know it's obvious during the course of this interview. You've heard me say a lot of things about Rocco Bolero, Anet, sob I said I became a very close friend of his my wife and I we we were involved in his eulogy, we're involved in. We were there when he, passed away and we become very close friends with his remaining family members. It's obvious that I wrote this book because I wanted to make a friend show his innocent show hit the fact that he, his It was wasted as a result of some mistakes he made, but certainly not because of the crimes for the alleged crimes. Well. You certainly set the records with this. I want to congratulate you on shots in the dark, the sag of rock bolero. Thank you very

H. Daniel Zimmerman this is a wild blue press release. Do you have a facebook page website tell us how they might find out more about your work or the whip? The web page is still in development. I don't have a facebook site yet, but if uh, if perspective readers want to uh to take a look at this book, they can find it on Amazon under obviously shots in the dark, or they can amazon my name Daniel Zimmerman and it it typically comes up as the first hit. Yes and also Wildblue Blue Press as well and wild blue press exactly. I want to thank you very much Daniel Zimmerman. It's been a pleasure shot. The dark to of Rocco Bolero. Thank you very much Daniel. You have a great evening. You too! Thank you good night.

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