Latest news with #Plotnick
Boston Globe
21-05-2025
- Boston Globe
Federal authorities put this old wiseguy away. He's accused of plotting to kill them.
According to an affidavit filed in US District Court, Ralph plotted to kill three federal officials who were involved in his 2012 conviction for racketeering. One of the most telling nuggets in the affidavit recalls that the informant who tipped the feds off to Ralph's alleged murder plot claimed he was unable to open on his computer documents with the home addresses and names of the targets' family members. Advertisement This isn't Goodfellas. It's Oldfellas. After serving his most recent prison sentence, Ralph had managed to stay out of jail for one whole year before being charged last week with violating probation by lying to federal agents, communicating with convicted felons, and dabbling in steroids and marijuana. Oh, and plotting to murder the feds who put him away. 'DeLeo has been fixated on seeking revenge for years,' federal prosecutors wrote. 'DeLeo's entire life has been devoted to crime.' Ralph has done time for armed robbery in several states and a contract murder in Ohio. He's been convicted of robbing department stores, supermarkets, banks. He's escaped custody. He was a made Mafioso, a 'street boss' for the Colombo crime family in New York. Pretty impressive for a kid from Somerville. Advertisement And yet despite seeming non-stop convictions, he kept getting out of prison. Whatever happened to three strikes and you're out? Ralph has had more strikes than French farmers. His rap sheet is longer than 'War and Peace.' Of all Ralph's myriad criminal exploits, none tops his 1977 murder of Dr. Walter Bond, a physician in Columbus, Ohio. In 1977, Ralph was doing 25-to-40 years at the state prison in Walpole for armed robbery and kidnapping when he managed to escape from the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain after complaining of stomach pain and taking a guard hostage. Ralph hightailed it to Ohio, where he prevailed upon Dr. Donald Plotnick, whom he met while in federal prison in Pennsylvania when Plotnick was serving time for illegally selling firearms. Plotnick allowed Ralph to hide out in a trailer on his farm. Plotnick introduced Ralph to another dubious Ohio physician, Dr. David Ucker. Upon meeting the career criminal from Massachusetts, Ucker realized Ralph was just the kind of guy to sort out a problem he had. According to But after confronting Bond on the doctor's office doorstep, Ralph shot him dead, as he put it, 'only to be nice.' Ralph considered it an act of mercy. After the murder, Plotnick introduced him to yet another Ohio doctor, who tried to alter Ralph's appearance with plastic surgery. Ralph went on the lam, again, but was shot and wounded by police in 1978 after trying to rob a bank in Columbus while armed with a hand grenade. Advertisement With no other cards to play, Ralph copped to shooting Bond and agreed to testify against Ucker. In his thick Boston accent, Ralph regaled a jury of Midwesterners with tales of derring-do and criminal cunning. It was considered the most sensational trial in that part of Ohio. Fortunately for Ucker, the jury didn't believe Ralph and Ucker was acquitted. There's a famous photo of Dr. Ucker and Dr. Plotnick celebrating the acquittal, drinks in hand. But, through his cooperation, Ralph hit the lottery. As part of his plea agreement, he was transferred to a federal prison where he became friendly with Alphonse 'Little Allie Boy' Persico, who was poised to become head of the Colombo crime family in New York. Ralph got lucky, again, in 1991, when Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste granted him clemency for Dr. Bond's murder. Bond's widow, Marie Bond, was shocked, telling the Columbus Dispatch, 'This is a hardened criminal, and they are going to let him loose.' Ralph was returned to Massachusetts, to finish the sentence he was serving when he escaped from the Shattuck. He emerged from prison in 1997 with a standing invitation to do crime with the Colombo crew. According to federal prosecutors, he wasn't out of prison long before he became a 'made' guy in the Colombo family. Presumably the wiseguys in New York either didn't know or didn't care that Ralph had been a government witness in Ohio. Cooperating with the government, at any level, is usually a deal-breaker in that line of business. Ralph used his newfound status as a made guy to carve out a new career as a cocaine trafficker, moving drugs between Massachusetts and, of all places, Arkansas. Advertisement Alas, in 2009, one of Ralph's mules got lugged and so, too, did Ralph. At the age of 66, Ralph was charged with racketeering. As my colleague Shelley Murphy reported in 2010, FBI agents tapped DeLeo's cellphone the year before and recorded Ralph waxing philosophic on the difference between the wiseguy subculture in Boston, where he was a nobody, and New York, where he was a somebody. 'Here,' he said of Boston, 'I'm nothing.' But in New York, 'Everybody is holding the door for ya, helping on your coat, giving you hugs. Kissing you, and all this type of stuff. 'Oh, you gotta sit in front, you gotta do this, are you comfortable? Can I get you coffee?' ' Ralph insisted he was not the kind of wiseguy who needed all that flattery and attention. 'I'm not into that type of stuff,' he said. 'At heart, I'm a regular guy.' A regular guy who regularly gets sent to prison. He got out last May Last week, Ralph 'Danger would be the primary basis,' she said. Eighty-two-years-old, and still dangerous. Ralph's attorney, Kevin Barron, offered a more sympathetic view, describing Ralph as 'an ailing and infirm' man who suffers from a blood disorder, is undergoing chemotherapy treatment, and requires ongoing dental surgery. Ralph complained he couldn't hear the proceedings. Advertisement Ralph's luck appears to have run out. He has a detention hearing Thursday. The dentist can wait. Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at
Chicago Tribune
27-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Two friends publish book on the Chicago area's 1970s rock and roll concert scene
In the 1970s, Mark Plotnick and his concert-going buddy Jim Summaria got to see all of their favorite bands at various concert venues in the Chicago area. 'If it was big, it came to Chicago,' said Plotnick, now of Libertyville. 'In those days we had venues that could accommodate very large acts. The biggest stars came here. Chicago was a must stop for a lot of these bands.' Plotnick and Summaria, formerly of Oak Park, saw dozens of shows at the Auditorium Theater, International Amphitheatre, Arie Crown Theatre and Kinetic Playground in Chicago and at B'Ginnings in Schaumburg. In 1973, Summaria became the staff photographer for Flip Side Productions, which owned a popular record store chain, and began taking hundreds of photos the two friends turned into their first book, 'Classic Rock: Photographs from Yesterday and Today,' in 2019. Plotnick, a retired corporate writer, prepared extensive biographies of all the featured artists, but the publisher asked him to reduce the information to bullet points, he said. Recently, Summaria approached him with an idea for a second book, ''70s Chicagoland Rock Concerts,' that would focus on Plotnick's writing, Plotnick said. Last October, Arcadia Publishing brought the book to print, featuring 300 pages of Plotnick's commentary on 50 artists and dozens of additional photos from Summaria. 'We wanted to focus on back stories, interesting tidbits, influences, set lists,' Plotnick said. 'We wanted to expand on the first book. I went back and took a lot of the work and updated it. I made it very, very current.' Arcadia imposed a few constraints on content, but essentially said 'have at it,' he said. 'They were very excited,' Plotnick said of the results. 'They loved what they were reading. Without having to go out and buy a biography or autobiography of every band, I wanted to give a nice summary with some interesting things people would not know about these acts, and make it an easy read at the same time.' Summaria, now of Algonquin, said the two shopped the first book to 30 different publishers before finally finding Amherst Media. 'This time we got it right out of the box,' he said. 'We just chose 50 concerts. Mark wrote a lot of good stuff. He worked hard on it. That's how the book came about.' Summaria said he likes that the new book featured both his and Plotnick's strengths. 'There are three pages of biography per band,' he said. 'I also researched set lists, and Mark put in influences.' Plotnick said his favorite musician of all time is Eric Clapton, but The Who were the most exciting band to watch. 'They are the best band that best represents rock music in the 1970s,' he said. 'Along with the (Rolling) Stones, they had the best songwriting. The musicianship was phenomenal. The stage presence was phenomenal. They were explosive, but they could do soft things too.' Summaria agreed. 'They were all great in so many different ways,' he said. 'My favorite to photograph was The Who. They had three dynamic personalities. You could shoot (bass player) John Entwistle for one song and he never moved the rest of the show. (Drummer) Keith Moon, (guitarist) Pete Townsend and (singer) Roger Daltry were all exciting.' Plotnick and Summaria are also staff contributors to the Chicago Blues Guide and host an online radio show, 'That Classic Rock Show,' which is expected to begin streaming from the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66 in March. Both 'Classic Rock: Photographs from Yesterday and Today' and ''70s Chicagoland Rock Concerts' are included in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's library and archives, Plotnick said. Summaria's photos have been featured at both halls of fame, the Grammy Awards, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Grammy Awards, and Good Times Magazine, Summaria said. Recently, Christie's auction house purchased some to help auction the late Jeff Beck's guitars, he said.
