A federal judge ordered the U.S. government to pay a record $102 million for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s role in the wrongful murder convictions of four men in 1968, including one man who was sentenced to death. U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner said the FBI’s conduct was “shocking” and characterized the government’s explanation for the events leading to the wrongful convictions of Louis Greco, Henry Tameleo, Peter Limone and Joseph Salvati as “absurd.” She wrote, “Now is the time to say and say without equivocation: this ‘cost’ — to the liberty of four men, to our system of justice — is not remotely acceptable. This case is about intentional misconduct, subornation of perjury, conspiracy, the framing of innocent men… . The FBI’s conduct was intentional, it was outrageous, it caused plaintiffs immeasurable and unbearable pain and the FBI must be held accountable.”


Judge Gertner found that the FBI knew that Joseph “The Animal” Barboza - their star witness in the federal case against Greco, Tameleo, Limone and Salvati - was lying when he identified the four men as responsible for a 1965 gangland murder. Despite knowledge that the informant was lying, federal agents vouched for his credibility because he was a “top echelon” informant in their war against La Cosa Nostra. In the years that followed, the FBI covered up the informant’s lie as the wrongly convicted men struggled to prove their innocence. As that fight continued, Greco and Tameleo died in prison. Salvati and Limone (who was originally on death row in Massachusetts), each served nearly 30 years behind bars before being freed when their convictions were overturned in the late 1990s.

The judge’s order awards Salvati $29 million. Limone will receive $26 million, and the remainder of the settlement will go to Greco’s and Tameleo’s estates, their wives, and family members. “I missed all the anniversaries and birthdays and graduations of my children. … Thirty years — and they done this intentionally. No money could make up for it,” Salvati said after the verdict was announced.
(Washington Post, July 27, 2007). See Innocence.