Tangled tales from Southie
It's fair to say that the events of July 17, 1984, remain in dispute.
That day looms large in Michael Patrick MacDonald's much-praised memoir, "All Souls: A Family Story From Southie." Not only was it his mother's 50th birthday, but it was also the day that his beloved older brother Frank, a former Marine and Golden Gloves boxing champion, died during a holdup of an armored van in Medford.
In "All Souls," MacDonald, who was 17 at the time of the holdup, tells a gruesome story. Working with "Ricky, the former state trooper," Frankie gets shot by the driver of the Wells Fargo armored van during the stickup. "The worst thing for us was that it was a minor wound," MacDonald writes. "Frankie could have lived for hours, and likely survived, if there'd been any attempt to save his life."
Instead, MacDonald writes, Frankie's accomplices "stuffed his head in trash bags and pushed him under the seat" of the getaway car. Then they ditched the car, leaving Frankie's body behind. MacDonald writes that his mother learned from the coroner that Frankie had been strangled, presumably so he wouldn't squeal to the cops.
Who could have predicted that "Ricky, the former state trooper," would eventually serve time for the Medford heist and become . . . a writer? Richard Marinick is not just any writer, but, like MacDonald, a chronicler of the South Boston netherworld/underworld nexis. Marinick's recent novel "Boyos" -- in which an armored car heist figures prominently -- has been favorably reviewed and appeared for several weeks on the Globe's bestseller list.
"MacDonald is a good writer, but as far as his story goes, it's a combination of half-truths and outright lies," Marinick says. In September 2002, he filed a multicount libel and defamation claim against MacDonald and WCVB-TV (Channel 5), which broadcasts the newsmagazine "Chronicle."
"He went on 'Chronicle' and said his brother was murdered by his cohorts," Marinick continues. "Frank was my best friend. If I had killed him, I would have been indicted for that. The FBI, the State Police, and the Medford police interviewed me about it. Frankie died of a gunshot wound. After he was shot, I went back and grabbed Frankie, and he was dead -- like that word, deadweight. The police found the car five minutes later. MacDonald is telling a tale."
Newspaper reports support Marinick's story. On July 18, 1984, citing Middlesex County District Attorney Michael Pelgro, the Globe reported that "the wounded man climbed into the back seat of the getaway car," which was quickly abandoned and found by police 30 minutes later. Medford Police Captain John Keating told the newspaper that "an autopsy was performed on the dead man and showed he died from a single bullet wound to the upper right back."
Neither MacDonald nor Channel 5 ever filed a response to Marinick's suit, which was dismissed without prejudice a year later. Marinick's lawyer, Michelle Grenier, told the court in 2003 that MacDonald's "current whereabouts are unknown." "We couldn't service him with papers," Marinick says.
Reached by telephone, MacDonald said he knew of no lawsuit. He alternately claimed to be too busy to discuss Marinick's story and pled ignorance about the facts of the armored car heist described in his book. "Ricky was there? I didn't know that," he said. Switching gears, he said, " 'All Souls' is a memoir. I'm not talking about Ricky. I don't engage in the whole blame thing. He's on his journey; I'm on mine."
Curiously, yet another chronicler of Southie verite has an opinion about the events of July 17. "I don't care for Rick Marinick," says Edward McKenzie Jr., author of "Street Soldier: My Years as an Enforcer for Whitey Bulger and the Boston Irish Mob," who says he was a close friend of Frank MacDonald. "He definitely left [Frank] to die. But the story about him strangling Frankie to death isn't true. Michael got the second-hand stuff."
Alex Beam is a Globe columnist. His e-dress is beam@globe.com. 