Anthony “The Saint” St. Laurent to admit guilt in 2006 murder-for-hire plot
10:45 AM EST on Thursday, January 20, 2011
By Tom Mooney
Journal Staff Writer
St. Laurent
“The rat” accusation stuck in the craw of the old mobster.
So much so, court records say, that Anthony “The Saint” St. Laurent sought the ultimate retaliation.
He would have Robert “Bobby” DeLuca, another old remnant of the Patriarca crime family, killed for publicly accusing him of being a government informant.
Now, St. Laurent, already imprisoned for running an extortion ring, plans to admit his guilt in the 2006 murder-for-hire plot, according to a plea agreement filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.
Authorities first charged St. Laurent with the murder scheme in 2009. St. Laurent initially pleaded not guilty, and his defense lawyers later argued in court that St. Laurent’s earlier guilty plea to extortion was supposed to protect him from prosecution from the murder-solicitation charge.
But prosecutors denied there was any immunity agreement, and St. Laurent’s attempt to have the murder-for-hire charge dismissed failed.
The plea agreement details for the first time the “intense hatred” St. Laurent had for DeLuca, who since the mid-1990s has accused his fellow mobster of cooperating with the Rhode Island State Police and the FBI.
As detailed in the plea:
Since the spring of 2006, St. Laurent solicited several individuals whom he believed capable of killing DeLuca. St. Laurent told each that he had received permission from the then-head of the fractured New England mob, Luigi “Louie” Manocchio, for the hit.
One day in April 2006, St. Laurent met a man from Taunton in a Johnston parking lot. Together, they drove into downtown Providence where St. Laurent pointed out the Sidebar restaurant on Dorrance Street where DeLuca worked as a kitchen helper.
As consideration for the murder, St. Laurent offered the prospective hit man cash. The money, he said, would come from an Attleboro bookmaker who then paid “protection” money to DeLuca. With DeLuca dead, St. Laurent said he would begin collecting that protection money.
St. Laurent’s plan, however, became more complicated when federal authorities arrested him and charged him with running an extortion ring. Still, he hadn’t given up hope.
While imprisoned at the Federal Medical Center Devens in western Massachusetts, St. Laurent repeatedly solicited another inmate to find someone who would kill DeLuca.
The inmate expressed concerns about the ramifications of killing a made member of the mafia. St. Laurent tried to relieve those fears by saying he had permission from the boss.
Instead of offering cash to the killer, St. Laurent offered possible membership into La Cosa Nostra.
In follow-up conversations with the inmate, secretly recorded by the government, St. Laurent “assured the inmate that defendant was serious about procuring DeLuca’s murder and that he would not back out from the proposed plan.”
The killing was never carried out.
The plea agreement does not detail when St. Laurent will plead guilty to the murder-for-hire charge.
When he does, he’s also expected to plead guilty to a separate charge that between 1988 and 2009 he conspired with his wife and his son Anthony St. Laurent to extort “protection” payments from a group of bookmakers in Taunton.
This guy is a complete disaster. Plotting to kill the future underboss and having your wife pick up extortion payments real smart. I would have to think he is a marked man if he ever makes parole.
