Robert Parisien; FBI agent helped tape Mafia induction
On an autumn day in 1989, FBI Agent Robert G. Parisien hastened to "bug" a house on Guild Street in Medford before anyone arrived for a Mafia induction ceremony. An audio intercept specialist, he worked with three other agents to plant the listening devices that would make the first recordings of a Mafia induction ceremony.
"I enter alive into this organization and leave it dead," the Sicilian-born capo regime Biagio DiGiacomo was recorded saying on tapes that became the first undeniable evidence of the existence of La Cosa Nostra. The evidence helped clinch jail time for 17 members of the Patriarca crime family from three states who had gathered at the house in Medford.
Mr. Parisien died Monday after scuba diving for lobster off the Gloucester coast. He stopped breathing after he returned to the surface and, despite efforts to revive him, died before arriving at Addison Gilbert Hospital. He was 56.
Mr. Parisien was born to French-speaking parents and raised in Salem, where he attended a French language grammar school. His fluency would lead him to Paris and Chad on FBI assignments in the mid-'90s.
He attended Bentley College, where he received a bachelor's degree in accounting. In 1972, he entered the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va. He was later assigned to the Newark, N.J., office, where he got his first taste of organized crime, according to colleagues and relatives. He talked about that work only long after it passed.
"When he transferred from Newark, he talked about his experiences in Newark," his wife, Luz E. (Marxuach), said. "He certainly was selective about what he discussed at home, but anything past tense he was very proud of."
In Newark, Mr. Parisien developed a knack for identifying informants who knew the ins and outs of extortion rings in New Jersey. "He had the money guy, and he knew how the funds flowed and who was doing what," said retired agent John DeCourcy, a former Bentley classmate, FBI colleague, and business partner.
Mr. Parisien transferred to the Boston FBI field office in 1985 as a member of the technical staff. In October 1989, Mr. Parisian helped capture sound that would be used to refute Mafiosi.
"It was the first time they were ever able to record an actual Mafia ceremony," DeCourcy said. "It's the only time it's ever been done, and it's never been duplicated since. That information has been used in a substantial number of court trials as evidence that the Mafia does exist."
After supervising the surveillance squad for four years, Mr. Parisien retired from the FBI in 1999. In 2000, he joined DeCourcy in opening Bentley Associates, the name a nod to his alma mater. Headquartered in Andover, Bentley Associates offered criminal investigation and surveillance services to banks and corporations who suspected employees of stealing and/or embezzling.
Mr. Parisien's affinity for the Red Sox led to some work in baseball as well. In addition to serving as a consultant to security personnel at Fenway Park, he helped establish security apparatus for the first World Series after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks between the New York Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Such work was perhaps more public than what he was accustomed to. "He would rather be in the background," DeCourcy said. "He'd be the last one that you would find out about."
While in his professional life Mr. Parisien targeted criminal enterprises, he cherished each person he met as a civilian.
"No matter where we went, a grocery store or a gas station, he would leave with a friend," said his stepdaughter Stephanie Burke of Tewksbury. "He went out of his way to find the lost person in the crowd."
In addition to his wife and stepdaughter, Mr. Parisien leaves two daughters, Danielle and Martine, both of Newburyport; another stepdaughter, Christina Pelletier of East Kingston, N.H.; a sister, Patricia Devoe, of Salem; and two granddaughters.
A funeral will be held tomorrow at 9 a.m. in St. Anne Church in Salem.
