Have The Feds Found Gary Westerman?

Have The Feds Found Gary Westerman?

  April 09, 2010    Dapper_Don

---

Image via Wikipedia

In Agawam, MA the feds may be getting warm in their search for the cold body of Gary D. Westerman who "disappeared" in 2003.  Westerman was an associate of Anthony Arillotta -- a reputed Genovese capo charged last February for his alleged role in the 2003 hit of his predecessor Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno in Springfield -- and after Arillotta became a cooperating witness investigators began digging for the remains of Westerman at 160 Springfield Street.  The digging started on Tuesday morning, and on Thursday the search continued into the evening well past normal quitting time as reported by Stephanie Barry for The Republican:

The search for what are believed to be the remains of Gary D. Westerman, an organized crime associate missing since 2003, intensified after night fell on Thursday. While a parking lot across the street from a residential parcel at 160 Springfield St. has been filled with undercover law enforcement vehicles since the search started in earnest Tuesday morning until about quitting time each day, it remained packed with investigators’ cars into the night. Investigators toiled in the darkness under hot lights in a wooded area behind a house set back on a little hill off a well-traveled road. It seemed a distinct shift in a very public but buttoned-up investigation, raising questions about whether forensics experts had hit evidence.

Photos from the dig

Also charged for their alleged roles in the Bruno hit are Arthur Nigro, a reputed former acting Genovese boss, and Fotios "Freddy" Geas, a supposed sometime enforcer for Arillotta.  Frankie Roche, the admitted triggerman in the Bruno slaying, alleges that he was paid $10,000 by Geas for the job.

UPDATE:  The feds have scored, and  "a medical examiner's van arrived on scene at 160 Springfield St. after midnight on Thursday, eventually carting away what are believed to be the remains of Gary D. Westerman" as reported by Stephanie Barry for The Republican:

With prison convictions for drug dealing and a truck heist, and established ties to organized crime, Westerman’s legacy to date had been his unexplained vanishing. * * * Organized crime investigators have long believed Westerman angered rival gangsters during a particularly tumultuous time in the Western Massachusetts underworld. * * * Over more than three days of searching this week, the FBI and Massachusetts State Police brought a small army of investigators – including evidence response teams and ballistics experts, indicating Westerman was likely shot there.