By Sharon Oliver
Contributing Writer
BROOKLINE – Once considered polite and athletic, Maurice Lerner was born in Cambridge in 1935 and grew up in Brookline, where he played baseball for Brookline High School. Nicknamed “Pro,” even early on Lerner was disciplined in fitness training and healthy dieting during a time when ballplayers relied on genetics and talent to get listed on sports rosters.
After graduation, he served two years in the U.S. Marines. After his military service, he played minor league baseball for 10 years with several teams, including the Washington Senators, the Charlotte Hornets and the Boise Braves through 1963.
Life of crime
Nevertheless, somewhere between 1962 and 1963, Lerner slowly traded time holding a bat for brandishing a gun as he drifted into a life of crime and garnering the attention of New England Mafia boss Raymond Patriarca.
In 1962, gunmen held up a U.S. mail truck that was delivering $1.5 million in small bills from Cape Cod to the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston in what is known as the Great Plymouth Mail Robbery. Among the robbers involved were George “Aggie” Agisotelis and John “Red” Kelley who was dubbed “Swiss Watch,” because of the methodical ways in which he plotted his robberies, including the infamous Brinks job and as “Saint John,” due to his patience.
Aggie and Red suspected fellow gang member Thomas Richard would never stand up to questioning, even though he had disappeared. Although Lerner was never charged, it is believed that he was also a member of the gang. It was he who found and shot Thomas Richard. To this day, the $1.5 million in cash (equivalent to well over $16,000,000 in today’s dollars) has not been found by the authorities.
Another alleged hit assignment for Lerner occurred when 325-pound Vincent “Fat Vinnie” Teresa, a lieutenant in the Patriarca crime family, took the baseball hitter-turned-hitman out on his yacht one day. The pair went circling around Thacher Island looking for another family hitman-turned-cooperating witness, Joseph Barboza, who federal marshals had stashed away. Fortunately for Barboza, his would-be killers were outnumbered.
Castro plot
Eventually, “Fat Vinnie” Teresa was sentenced to prison for a stolen securities racket. But while there, he too turned into an informant after learning some of his pals on the outside had stolen money he had stored up for his family. While in prison, he told one whopper of a story that took place in 1978 and regarding Mafia involvement with the CIA, specifically a plot to assassinate Cuba leader Fidel Castro.
According to Teresa’s 300-page deposition, he claims to “have been there when the information came in for Henry Tamaleo and Raymond Patriarca and they picked Maurice ‘Pro’ Lerner to do the work. This is the story that was told to Henry and Raymond, to whack out Fidel Castro and the man that was picked was . . . Lerner.”
Of course, Patriarca denied the story, telling the Boston Herald American that if anyone believed anything Teresa said they’d have to be crazier than he is, adding that he never knew “Pro” until they framed Lerner like they framed him.
At the time, Lerner responded with the simple response of it not being true. However, it is well documented that the CIA did reach out to underworld figures to discuss assassinating Castro during those politically heated days of the 1960s. The agency hatched several plans to go after the long-ruling dictator. According to CIA documents, the so-called “Family Jewels” that were declassified in 2007, one assassination attempt on Castro prior to the Bay of Pigs invasion involved Chicago Mafia boss Sam Giancana, John Roselli and Santo Trafficante. Some of the CIA assassination attempts on Castro’s life were given the CIA project name ZRRIFLE.
“Red” Kelly told prosecutors that he also knew of a plot to assassinate Castro and had been approached about participating along with Maurice Lerner.
Prison sentence
In the killings of bookmaker Rudolph “Rudy” Marfeo and his bodyguard, Anthony Melei, Lerner and Patriarca were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and were sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1970. Lerner also was convicted of two counts of murder for which he was sentenced to two life terms in addition to the ten years for conspiracy.
Lerner’s conviction was years later overturned by the Rhode Island Supreme Court in 1988. The court eventually vacated his conviction and ordered a new trial. Lerner pleaded no contest and was released due to time served.
Lerner led a crime-free life after his release from prison, spending his days reliving baseball memories. He died in 2013.
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