A Dead Former Union Member, $180K in Cash and One Big Mystery: The Story of William Coyman
- Posted on May 3, 2012 at 8:10am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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This black and white inmate booking photo released by the New Hampshire Department of Corrections shows William P. Coyman, of Boston, who had been sentenced to prison for theft and drug possession. (AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — The mystery began with a heart attack, a man with a past, and a bag of money that federal authorities now want to keep.
Last August, a retired Teamster from Boston stepped off an Amtrak train in New York City and collapsed on the platform at Pennsylvania Station. As medics tried to revive him, police searched his backpack for identification. Inside, they found the stuff that “Law & Order” episodes are made of: $179,980 in cash, bundled with rubber bands and tucked inside two plastic bags.
That raised some eyebrows. So did the dead man’s background.
William P. Coyman, 75, a lifelong resident of Boston’s Charlestown section, had a criminal history dating to 1955. His record included prison time in New Hampshire after he was caught with a pile of cocaine and $20,000 that had just been stolen from a department store.
Coyman’s old union, International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 25, was notorious for its organized crime ties in the 1990s. Years ago, Coyman’s name was mentioned in news articles about allegations that union officials were shaking down Hollywood film crews and forcing producers to give cushy film set jobs to gangland hoodlums. He’d worked as a driver on some of the films in question.
Police brought in a drug-sniffing dog, which indicated traces of narcotics in both Coyman’s backpack and briefcase, according to a court filing. Investigators contacted one of Coyman’s relatives, who said he had been working as a courier for a company called 180 Entertainment and was supposed to have been delivering cash from Boston to Philadelphia when he died.
Agents looked into the company and found that its registered headquarters was a small house in a blue-collar section of Philadelphia, with personal watercraft and two luxury cars parked in the driveway.
All this made the Drug Enforcement Administration very suspicious.
In February, federal prosecutors in New York asked a judge for permission to keep the cash as the suspected proceeds of drug dealing.
Reached by the AP in California, Coyman’s son, also named William, declined to speak about the situation, other than to say that the money didn’t belong to the family.
“The people connected to that money are probably not good people,” he said. “My dad was a great man. But clearly he had a colorful history. … As a kid growing up, my father was in the newspaper and it was embarrassing. It has been embarrassing my whole life.”
Friends and relatives who posted remembrances of Coyman on websites after his death recalled the brighter side of his life, including a fondness for Irish song, loyalty to family and an affinity for the local horse track.
A lawyer from Providence, R.I., has filed court papers claiming the cash on behalf of 180 Entertainment. In the filings, the attorney, Steven D. DiLibero, identified his client as a man named Joseph Burke but didn‘t explain the company’s business or say where the money was headed.
Court records obtained by The Associated Press show that Burke is another longtime Charlestown resident with a colorful past.
In 1988, he was sent to prison for a string of six bank robberies in Florida. At the time, he told FBI agents he had been involved in as many as 18 heists of banks and armored cars, in several states, before being captured in Minnesota.
Prison didn’t rob him of his criminal impulses. While still incarcerated, in 1994, Burke was caught in an FBI sting conspiring to distribute 5 kilograms of cocaine in Charlestown with the help of some associates. He had more time tacked on to his sentence and was finally released on a combination of probation and parole in October 2010.
Contacted by The AP, DiLibero said he wouldn’t talk about Burke or give any information about the mysterious $180,000.
On April 20, Burke was arrested on an alleged probation violation. Since his release from prison, he had failed a drug test and also had been accused of leaving the country without permission, according to remarks made by lawyers and a judge at an initial hearing on the matter.
Prosecutors involved in Burke‘s cases in New York and Boston didn’t return phone calls. A spokeswoman for the DEA also didn’t respond to requests for information.
Real estate documents show that the Philadelphia house listed in some records as the headquarters of 180 Entertainment is owned by Anthony Fedele, a former business partner of the late Philadelphia music producer Stephen Epstein. Before his death, Epstein was known for being a close friend and occasional business partner of Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino, the onetime boss of the Philadelphia mafia.
The courts have yet to rule on whether the DEA will get to keep the money.
Coincidentally, A&E announced in March that it had teamed up with Boston-born actor Mark Wahlberg to make an unscripted docudrama about Coyman’s old union, Teamsters Local 25. The union says it cleaned up its act years ago after top officials were convicted in a series of federal racketeering investigations.
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Comments (34)
teddrunk
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 11:39amUnions and Organized Crime you say? Well, I’ve never heard of such a thing. Where is Jimmy Hoffa and the pension fund anyway.
Report Post »ICEDRAGONNITE
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 12:41pmNow the cops want the cash Hummmmm.
Report Post »Free2speakRN
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 11:23amI wanna know where that $20 is!
Report Post »MAMMY_NUNN
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 10:36amI say destroy it no one gets it but we can’t even trust it will be destroyed a Conundrum.
Report Post »JRook
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 10:47amLet’s see a piece on Jim Baker or even Jimmy Swaggart so we can bash organized religion by association. Or better yet how about a true story about the immense amount of good the overall union movement has done for every worker in the US in terms of safety, fair wages, benefits, vacation and arbitrary management decisions. I’ve never have been in a union, but held several management positions in NYC hospitals that had unions. Unions were not a problem in the NYC hospitals that had fair and steadfast management. When you see union contracts that have outrageous terms, it is because management is either stupid, weak, lazy or all three.
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 11:37amHmmm…seems like all the unions have done in my area have been to put companies and good paying blue color jobs, out of business over the last 40 years.
Report Post »Centurian
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 2:09pm@JROOK:
Nice how you place halos over the union leaders’ heads while stating that:
” When you see union contracts that have outrageous terms, it is because management is either stupid, weak, lazy or all three.”
As a person who was born and raised in Flint, Michigan, the birthplace of the auto unions, I can attest to the fact that that line is pure dribble.
I have watched first hand how the unions have changed the business terrain of this city (if not the whole state!), and it has not been for the better.
Granted, unions were extremely necessary in their beginnings, but ever since the late 70′s, all I have seen is greedy union members demanding more from General Motors. And do they support other unions? No. When the UAW went on strike, they strongarmed other unions to walk in goose step with them.
BUT when the teachers unions went on strike? The UAW could care less. I know, since my father belonged to the UAW and my mother was a teacher. How they treated my mother and other union teachers was a wake up call to me.
Lying bunch of greedy overpaid arrogant workers…
Report Post »HuskerDave
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 10:07amThe money is suspicious, sure; but I’m always wary of city police agencies asking to keep money they find. Drug residue on the money? Didn’t the Mythbusters confirm that 90% of U.S. paper currency has drug residue on it? It’s just a little eyebrow-raising.
Report Post »AxelPhantom
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 9:36amDrug cartels
Hezbollah, Unions, OWS, inner-city gangs, Taliban….illegal guns
Fast and Furious, Eric Holder, Thug tactics, NBP, Nation of Islam, Muslim Brotherhood
Main Stream Media mum.
Democrats……
Report Post »POdVet
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 9:33amThe Teamsters have cleaned up their act so well. They went from being led by a mafia connected Hoffa to being led by a mafia connected Hoffa…
Report Post »Abraham Young
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 9:32amOnly the demoralized will do the misdeeds involved in a tyrannical government.
Gangs operate by increasing their territory
Report Post »sndrman
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 9:22amburke is a bundler and the money was going to the dnc watch this slowly go away and holder(doj) say burke and all associated with the case are not going to be charged….LOL you do know i’m kidding right?but politics and criminals go hand and hand ask the old gov. of nj right….
Report Post »billrow
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 9:21amAll money has traces of narcotics…so they always use that excuse to “arrest” any cash that they want.
Report Post »drbage
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 9:19amOther stories that make you strain to believe:
Report Post »-the late Sen. Kennedy had no culpability in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne;
-Sen. Kerry did not believe he was doing anything wrong by mooring his yacht in RI; and,
-Sec. Clinton believes that the Chinese govt will do no harm to Mr. Chen.
enderwiggen
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 9:16amLife was simpler when the mob ran the unions instead of the commies.
Report Post »roadhog
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 9:03amAn Old Bagman
Report Post »piper60
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 9:03amObama has a connection with this somewhere. The real question is what?
Report Post »LaBelle
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 9:00amUnions have and always will be corrupt, look at the type of people they always have in their employee.
Report Post »Trebuchet
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 8:57amDrug money laundered by the Unions on it’s way to support the Occupiers.
Report Post »SAVAGEONE
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 8:49amThe DEA just wants the Cash…That is all…
Report Post »ishka4me
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 9:01amfor those of you not from Ma, being from Charlestown says it all. Need no more info.
Report Post »RLTW
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 9:05amIt’s probably being bundled for the Obama campaign at this moment.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 8:45amAnd the DA wants to keep the money,any wonder why they don’t wana legalize drugs, that’s why…
Report Post »dannyo
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 8:43ammay he rest in cow manuer..
Report Post »jonah5
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 8:40amSounds like one of Obummers bundlers went down with a bundle.
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 8:39amA union pig and illegal activity,that’s shocking say it aint so.The mob and unions are as clean as our dear leader and his drunk yes man.
Report Post »Gary S
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 8:37amUnion Goonies =Crooks.
Report Post »Constructionist
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 8:36amIn an unrelated story, the Obama reelection campaign has recently claimed a $179, 980 tax write-off for miscellaneous asset depreciation.
Report Post »EqualJustice
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 8:35amThey CLEANED UP THEIR ACT? hahahahaha It’s BOSTON! They’re ALL criminals there and have been for decades, back to old man Kennedy. who was into prostitution and bootlegging. Did you think HE EARNED all that money? hahhahahaha Nothing has changed and the UNION label is all over the illegal activity. FORGET ABOUD DIT….
Report Post »Inlightofthings
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 8:30amTIp of the iceberg….
Report Post »blanco5
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 8:28am“Former” would be the operative word of why he is dead now.
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