Schneiderhan was born in
Roxbury, Massachusetts to
working-class immigrants from
Riedlingen,
Donau, Germany. He grew up in a
tenement at 25 Ambrose Street in Roxbury, in the predominantly
Italian Orchard Park neighborhood where the
Patriarca crime family capo Ilario Zannino, Ilario's first cousin Phillip Zannino, and the Flemmi brothers, were born and raised. As a childhood friend of the brothers
Vincent Flemmi,
Michael Flemmi and
Stephen Flemmi, he idolized Stephen and maintained a friendship with him into adulthood. He graduated from high school in 1952. He served in the Marine Corps and was a veteran of the Korean War. After his honorable discharge in 1955, he joined the
Boston Police Department, where he worked with (now Detective) Michael Flemmi and Detective Joseph Lundbaum. In 1959, he joined the
Massachusetts State Police and worked until 1981. After his retirement, he worked for the New England State Police Intelligence Network. From 1968 to 1978, he worked in the Attorney General's Organized Crime Unit, where he rose to chief
intelligence officer and was regarded as an expert on organized crime. Working in the unit gave him access to information that could help his friend Stephen Flemmi, now a powerful figure in the
Winter Hill Gang. It has been suggested, but never proven, that he accepted bribes for this information. When Flemmi went to jail in 1999, Schneiderhan kept in touch with him and with
Kevin Weeks, Bulger's deputy, who knew that Schneiderhan had done many favors for the gang. On March 19, 2003, Schneiderhan was convicted of
conspiracy and
obstruction of justice. His two co-defendants, his brother-in-law and niece, pleaded guilty for their roles in warning of the FBI telephone surveillance and were sentenced to one year of custody. On September 16, 2015, Schneiderhan died at his home in Holbrook, Massachusetts. ==References==