35 Facts About Gerard Ouimette

Gerard Ouimette's father worked as the Governor of Rhode Island's chauffeur.

Gerard Ouimette had to resign when he contracted tuberculosis, which is contagious, and found work as a taxicab driver.

Gerard Ouimette's father died in 1948, when Ouimette was seven.

Gerard Ouimette was arrested in an alley, holding a gun, which he claimed he picked up after it was dropped by a man fleeing law enforcement.

In 1956, when Gerard Ouimette was 16 years old, he was given a series of psychological tests.

At that time, Gerard Ouimette was already serving a five-year sentence for possession of a gun after a crime of violence.

Gerard Ouimette himself credited police with the name, writing in his 2012 memoir:.

On July 9,1972, while still in prison on the gun possession charge, Gerard Ouimette was convicted of conspiracy to kill Michael Greene and Homer Perkins, career criminals who had been found murdered three years prior.

Gerard Ouimette was sentenced to ten years in prison, and was sent to the Adult Correctional Institutions, a maximum security facility in Cranston.

Gerard Ouimette had a telephone installed in his cell, which was supposed to be used for his work with National Prisoners' Reform Association, but in reality was used to continue managing his organized crime from within the prison.

In March 1977, Gerard Ouimette called Vincent Vespia, a state police detective sergeant, at his home and threatened to break his jaw.

Besides Gerard Ouimette, there were other members of his crew in the north wing, including his brother John, Chuckie Flynn, a mobster from Lowell, Massachusetts, and two convicted killers, Ronnie Sweet and Maurice Lerner, a Massachusetts native and mob hitman who was once a professional baseball player.

Gerard Ouimette was not a made member of the mob because he was not Italian, but an FBI report from April 16,1979, reported that he was the leader of a non-Italian faction within the Patriarca crime family:.

Gerard Ouimette was acquitted twice of murder and attempted murder charges in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts.

In 1980, Gerard Ouimette had a falling-out with Charles Kennedy, one of his enforcers.

Around the same time, Vincent Vespia, the state police detective, claimed that Gerard Ouimette had a contract out to kill him.

In 1981, Gerard Ouimette was charged with the murder of John Barbieri, an East Greenwich businessman with mafia ties whose body was found in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, with a bullet in the back of the head.

Gerard Ouimette was released on parole on October 28,1994, and moved to Fall River, Massachusetts, but was tracked daily by local, state, and federal law enforcement.

Less than five months later, Ouimette was arrested yet again, charged with having extorted $125,000 from Paul A Calenda, a Cranston restaurant owner, and for attempting to extort $5,000 from Providence car dealer and mob associate David Duxbury.

Gerard Ouimette was the first criminal from New England to be prosecuted by Whitehouse as US Attorney for Rhode Island.

At trial, the federal government presented evidence that in early 1995, Gerard Ouimette was involved in two acts of extortion: the first involved efforts to collect a loan made to Paul Calenda and the second was an attempt to receive money from David Duxbury.

The government presented as evidence several recorded conversations in which Gerard Ouimette threatened to commit violence against Calenda.

Gerard Ouimette testified that one time at St Rocco's Club in Providence in February 1995, Ouimette had instructed him to "crack" Calenda to get him to repay the alleged loan, and that Paul Parenteau was present for this conversation.

Gellerman and Duxbury both testified that Gerard Ouimette had assaulted Duxbury one night at the Satin Doll and demanded he pay a sum of $5,000 by the next day.

Gellerman further testified that the next day, Gerard Ouimette had met with him at a restaurant and instructed him to go to Duxbury's car dealership, along with Parenteau and Harry Drew, so the three men could collect the money.

At the sentencing, Gerard Ouimette briefly addressed the court, criticizing the federal government for relying on paid witnesses to make its case.

Gerard Ouimette appealed the decision, but the appeal was rejected.

Gerard Ouimette died on April 19,2015, aged 75, at the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina, a medium-security prison where he had spent the previous 19 years.

Gerard Ouimette died in his sleep 10 days after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

Gerard Ouimette had suffered from heart disease and other health issues.

Gerard Ouimette had more than ten criminal convictions in his life, including one for punching an FBI agent.

Gerard Ouimette had spent 46 years of his life in prison, from Adult Correctional Institutions in Rhode Island to federal prisons, including the Lewisburg Penitentiary in Pennsylvania and the Marion Penitentiary in Illinois.

At 24, shortly after his release from his first prison sentence, Gerard Ouimette impregnated a local girl, Frances Gravelle.

Gerard Ouimette told her marriage was not an option given his lack of employment, and the couple would not consider abortion because they were Catholic.

Gerard Ouimette was raised Catholic but stopped believing in God after his two brothers died in a construction accident.