By David Amoruso
Former mobster Ralph DeMasi was found not guilty on Monday of the killing of armored truck guard Edward P. Morlock Sr. in Worcester in May of 1991. 82-year-old DeMasi was a notorious leader of several robbery crews and close friends with infamous crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger.
It looked like the law had finally caught up with the elderly gangster when they indicted him on murder charges two years ago. Prosecutors claimed DeMasi was one of five men who held up an armored truck outside a supermarket.
They also said DeMasi shot and killed Morlock Sr. before grabbing the cash. They said that because of the crew of five robbers, only DeMasi and one other man are alive today, and that man, Ronald Martel, decided to cooperate with authorities.
Both DeMasi and Martel were arrested four months after the deadly robbery for attempting to rob a Brink's armored truck in Newburyport. DeMasi did over two decades in federal prison on those charges.
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But he won’t do any more time for the murder of Morlock Sr. or the robbery of the armored truck. The jury found him not guilty on the murder charge. That left the armed robbery charge, but Judge Janet Kenton-Walker previously allowed a defense motion for a required finding of not guilty on that one based on the statute of limitations.
DeMasi’s lawyer Michael Hussey frequently attacked Martel in court, calling him a criminal and a liar. He even argued that DeMasi was never even anywhere near where the robbery took place. Not for lack of trying, though. “There was a robbery once a month, if not more,” Hussey told the court. “It was like the wild west.”
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Now a free man once again, DeMasi will have to do without his old friend “Whitey”, who was viciously murdered in prison by other mobsters. The two men kept in touch and wrote each while locked up behind bars.
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