The 69-year-old con man charged with slipping a fatal dose of cyanide into the iced coffee of James ?Whitey? Bulger extortion victim Stephen ?Stippo? Rakes tried to talk his way out of suspicion but was caught in a lie by his own GPS unit, court documents show.
William J. Camuti of Sudbury ? famous in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a TV hawker for his collapsed Loan Depot home-equity loan company ? told cops he ?never saw Rakes again? after a 15-minute chat July 16 at a McDonald?s parking lot in Waltham, where he tried to pitch the former liquor store owner a phony real estate deal, according to prosecutors and a Lincoln police report.
Investigators searched Camuti?s car, home, computer, cellphone and GPS unit ? which placed him at the wooded spot in Lincoln where Rakes? body was found the next day.
Camuti was held without bail yesterday in Concord District Court, where he was charged with attempted murder, misleading police and unlawful disposition of human remains. The suspect is set for a dangerousness hearing on Tuesday. The attempted murder charge was filed because final lab reports on Rakes? cause of death are not yet complete, a spokeswoman for the Middlesex District Attorney?s Office said.
?We allege this defendant intentionally put poison in the victim?s iced coffee and then disposed of his body,? Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said, specifying that Camuti used two teaspoons of potassium cyanide. She said Camuti and Rakes knew each other for years, and that Camuti owed Rakes ?a significant amount of money.?
Camuti, whose birthday was yesterday, was sentenced to nearly 10 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution in 1994 after he was convicted of mail fraud in connection with a mortgage-selling scheme, according to court records. He was also convicted of bank fraud and money laundering by a federal jury in Kansas.
Rakes, 59, a grandfather and retired MBTA worker, was found without his wallet in Lincoln on July 17. A day later, his Dodge Caravan was found seven miles away in Waltham.
Rakes was a key figure in the feds? extortion case against Bulger, 83, who is alleged to have seized Rakes? newly opened Stippo?s Liquor Mart in South Boston in 1984 so the Winter Hill Gang could use it as a front for their headquarters.
Rakes was hoping to take the stand in Bulger?s trial, but prosecutors ultimately chose not to have him testify.
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