Boston Crime Stories

Gangland Wire

Gary Jenkins: Mafia Detective

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 623 Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of Gangland Wire, host Gary Jenkins sits down with author Daniel Zimmerman, whose investigative works dive deep into the dark corners of Boston's organized crime world. Zimmerman has written two gripping true crime books that reveal the raw and often tragic realities of life on the fringe of the Mafia. He recounts his research for his book, Shots in the Dark, which led him to an informal meeting with former New England boss Peter Limone.

His first book, Shots in the Dark, tells the harrowing tale of Rocco Anthony Balliro, a Boston mob associate whose desperate and poorly planned rescue mission turned into a deadly shootout. Believing he was storming into danger to help a friend, Rocco unknowingly walked into an ambush set by Boston police. When the smoke cleared, the cost was unimaginable—his girlfriend and her young son lay dead. Zimmerman takes us behind the headlines, exposing the chaos, confusion, and heartbreak of that fateful night.

Zimmerman’s second book, Chasson’s Run: The Prison Break That Captivated America and the Love Story That Fueled It, shifts focus to one of Boston’s most violent and manipulative criminals. This is the story of a man so dangerous, yet so persuasive, that he convinced a woman to help him escape from the infamous Walpole State Prison. It’s a tale of charm, obsession, and reckless loyalty—set against the backdrop of one of the most dramatic prison breaks in U.S. history.

Join us as Daniel Zimmerman unpacks these explosive stories and reflects on the twisted loyalties, romantic delusions, and violent consequences that define Boston's mob lore.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, welcome all you wiretappers. Good to be back here in studio of Gangland Wire. I have today
0:05.5	Daniel Zimmerman, a little bit different sort of a story. Now, he has another book. A lot of you guys
0:11.6	might be a little more interested in. We're going to talk about that just a little bit.
0:15.2	But the main book we're going to look at is Chasins Run. I think I pronounce that right.
0:20.1	It's actually chasing. Chasing like, which kind of fits the picture.
0:26.1	It's based on. Well, Daniel Zimmerman, welcome. I really appreciate you coming on.
0:31.3	Well, thank you. I appreciate you having me for this talk.
0:33.6	Yeah. Now, Daniel, tell the guy's a little bit about yourself. So tell the guys a little bit about your story.
0:39.8	Well, oddly enough, I am a newspaper writer, but not the type you would think. I've been writing for over 25 years now, actually, a column or columns for local newspapers. And I cover, of all things, high school sports. I go out to area high schools. I
0:56.0	watch the games. I take notes, take interviews, grab comments from players and coaches, go home and
1:02.0	write it. And a couple of days later, it's in the newspaper. Is that in the Boston area?
1:07.0	Yes. I'm Boston area. 25 years I've been doing it. You know, it's funny you say that because I did a library presentation from my first book.
1:13.9	And one of the questions in the audience from a woman was, how do I translate writing high school sports into writing mob books?
1:21.6	Yeah.
1:22.2	And I told me, you know, there's two aspects of both.
1:24.9	You have to, number one, be able to research, find out information,
1:29.6	keep track of information, and be able to do an interview with your subjects. And in this case,
1:34.2	it would be athletes and coaches. On the book writing side, you're reaching out to suspects and
1:39.1	police officers and so forth. So there's a technique and there's a skill you learn in both.
1:45.2	I think they translate well into each other. You're really both in both situations, you're trying to get
1:50.3	people to tell your story and give you some interesting little sound bites. Oh, trust me.
1:55.5	Trust me. I get that a lot. As far outside of the newspaper writing, my full-time work over the last five decades
	...

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