Robert Parisien, 56; FBI Agent Recorded Mafia Induction
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Robert Parisien, 56, an FBI agent who planted the bugs that yielded the first recording of a Mafia induction ceremony, died Monday while scuba diving near Kettle Island off Massachusetts.
The cause of death was believed to be a heart attack.
Parisien captured mobsters taking a blood oath and pledging their loyalty and silence at a Medford, Mass., house in 1989. The tape was a critical piece of evidence used to prosecute more than a dozen members of the New England Mafia in the 1990s.
A native of Massachusetts, Parisien earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Bentley College.
He worked as an FBI agent from 1972 to 1999, including assignments in Newark, N.J., the Congo, Paris and Boston, ending his FBI career as supervisor of the agency’s Boston technical unit.
He had recently worked as a private investigator.
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