Leonard ‘The Quahog’ Paradiso dies in prison

REVERE – One of the North Shore’s most infamous convicted killers died in a Jamaica Plain hospital Wednesday after a battle with testicular cancer.Leonard “The Quahog” Paradiso, 65, a former Revere fish peddler, died at 9:35 a.m. at the Lemuel Shattuck prison hospital, authorities said.Paradiso was serving a life sentence for the 1979 murder of 20-year-old Marie Iannuzzi of East Boston and attempting to rape two other women. Authorities said Iannuzzi was sexually assaulted and strangled before her body was dumped in a Saugus marsh.As recently as two weeks ago, Timothy Burke, a former prosecutor who helped put Paradiso behind bars, released a book linking Paradiso to the murder of Harvard graduate student Joan Webster, who disappeared around Thanksgiving 1981 from Logan Airport. Her remains were found buried in Hamilton in 1990.Paradiso was eyed in Webster’s disappearance for nearly 25 years and authorities went through great lengths to dig up evidence in the case.In the 1980s, investigators pulled Paradiso’s sunken boat, Malafemmena, Italian for “evil woman,” from Boston Harbor in an attempt to locate Webster’s remains.In 1985, Burke was one of the prosecutors who ordered an X-ray of Paradiso’s finger that authorities believed became imbedded in the convict’s skin while allegedly murdering Webster on his boat.Webster vanished from Logan on Nov. 28, 1981. Two days later, Paradiso was treated for hand wounds at a Lynn hospital and metal slivers were removed from his hand.At the time, Paradiso told doctors the injuries were the result of a cherry bomb explosion. But in a jail house interview with the Daily Item in 1984, Paradiso said the injury was caused when a .50 caliber shell blew up as he polished it.Though linked publicly, Paradiso was never charged with Webster’s homicide.The family of Webster said publicly they believe Paradiso is responsible for Joan Webster’s death several times since the mid 1980s.Twenty years ago, Paradiso sued Burke for libel, but a judge dismissed the case in 1987 saying Paradiso’s reputation was so bad he was “libel proof.”Burke now has a law practice in Needham. The title of his new book is “The Paradiso Files: Boston’s Unknown Serial Killer.”Some members of Paradiso’s family still claim he is innocent, including his brother Michael, who reportedly called Burke’s book, “a bunch of trash.”