Bonus Episode: The Arrest of Ralph DeMasi

An infamous gangster. The wife and children he left behind. And the innocent man he allegedly gunned down.

80-year-old Ralph DeMasi is known throughout New England as both a prolific armored-car robber and a dedicated family man. After decades in prison, he thought he would live out his last years in freedom. Then the police made a break in a cold case, and now Ralph has a new charge on his long rap sheet: murder.

For a full list of credits, and more information about this episode, visit our website at crimetownshow.com.

Read Dan Barry’s New York Times article about Ralph DeMasi, “The Holdup: A Mobster, a Family and the Crime That Won’t Let Them Go.”

Welcome to Crimetown, a series produced by Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier in partnership with Gimlet Media. Each season, we investigate the culture of crime in a different city.

In Season 2, Crimetown heads to the heart of the Rust Belt: Detroit, Michigan. From its heyday as Motor City to its rebirth as the Brooklyn of the Midwest, Detroit’s history reflects a series of issues that strike at the heart of American identity: race, poverty, policing, loss of industry, the war on drugs, and our universal desire for a savior. Detroit’s a tough town, and its residents are even tougher. They’ve weathered riots, a drug epidemic, political scandal, and innumerable other hardships, but they’re still here—and they have stories to tell.