Stephen Rakes Cause of Death: Cyanide Poisoning, Motive, and Appeal

Stephen Rakes died on July 16, 2013, from acute potassium cyanide poisoning. His cause of death was homicide: a business associate named William Camuti laced Rakes’ iced coffee with a lethal dose of cyanide at a Waltham, Massachusetts McDonald’s to avoid repaying a $100,000 debt. Rakes was 59. His body was found the next afternoon in a wooded area off Mill Street in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and because he had been dropped from the witness list in James “Whitey” Bulger’s federal racketeering trial only hours before he was killed, the death drew immediate national attention.¹

How the Poisoning Happened

On the morning of July 16, 2013, Camuti called Rakes and arranged a meeting. He falsely told Rakes he had secured a large check tied to a $28 million civil judgment against Bulger and wanted to show him a real estate investment in Wilmington.² Camuti arrived early at a McDonald’s in Waltham, bought two iced coffees, and stirred two teaspoons of potassium cyanide into one of them before Rakes arrived.³ The receipt was time-stamped 1:07 p.m. Phone records showed the two spoke at 11:30 a.m. and again at 1:29 p.m.

Rakes drank the coffee and died in Camuti’s car. For the rest of the day Camuti drove through Waltham, Woburn, Burlington, and Lincoln with the body inside.³ GPS data from the vehicle showed it passed Mill Street in Lincoln twice before stopping there at 8:48 p.m. for about three and a half minutes, long enough for Camuti to drag the body into the woods.²

A jogger found Rakes the next day, July 17, at about 1:30 p.m. There were no visible injuries and no identification on the body.¹⁴ Rakes’ own car was later located roughly seven miles away, still in the McDonald’s parking lot.

In October 2013, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner formally ruled the cause of death was acute cyanide poisoning and the manner of death was homicide.⁵

Why Camuti Killed Him

The motive was debt. Camuti was 69, facing eviction for nonpayment of rent, and Rakes was his largest creditor, owed $100,000. Recorded phone calls captured Rakes pressing angrily for repayment. There was no check and no investment property; the Wilmington trip was a pretext to get Rakes alone.² At trial, Chief of Homicide Adrienne Lynch told the jury, “The one and only reason that Mr. Camuti killed Stephen Rakes was money.”⁶

Investigators confirmed early on that the killing had no connection to the Bulger trial, despite the timing that fueled initial speculation.⁷

Camuti had a documented history of financial fraud. In 1994 he was convicted of federal mail fraud for defrauding five Waltham investors who had trusted him to place their money in residential mortgages, and he was sentenced to 116 months in federal prison with $2.5 million in restitution.⁸

How Investigators Identified Camuti

A search of Camuti’s Sudbury apartment on July 19, 2013, turned up printed copies of January 2013 emails requesting a quote to purchase potassium cyanide. One message listed Camuti’s phone number, and the email account was linked to his cell phone. Camuti admitted buying the cyanide but first claimed it was for Rakes to use in a jewelry business. His computer held more than 100 search results for “cyanide,” including a page answering the question of whether potassium cyanide could be mixed into hot coffee or tea.²

On July 20, four days after the murder, officers went to Camuti’s apartment and found him with severe self-inflicted wounds to his wrists and arms. He was airlifted to Massachusetts General Hospital. Interviewed at the hospital on July 21 and July 23, he admitted putting potassium cyanide in Rakes’ coffee and throwing the container into a dumpster behind his storage unit.²

Charges, Trial, and Sentence

Camuti was initially charged with attempted murder, misleading police, and unlawful disposition of human remains while toxicology results were pending.⁹ After the medical examiner’s ruling in October 2013, a Middlesex County grand jury indicted him for murder the following month.⁵

The case went to trial in Middlesex Superior Court in April 2017. The prosecution relied on surveillance video of Rakes leaving the federal courthouse that morning, GPS tracking of Camuti’s vehicle to Lincoln, the email and computer evidence, and Camuti’s hospital admissions.³ Defense attorney Brad Bailey did not contest the cause of death. He argued the confession was involuntary because Camuti had lost significant blood, was in severe pain, and was heavily medicated, and pointed to a later diagnosis of “brain-injury impaired cognition.”¹⁰ The trial judge denied suppression, finding Camuti had been alert, coherent, and oriented, and had shown rational judgment by refusing to have the interviews recorded and by choosing when to end them.²

On April 26, 2017, the jury convicted Camuti of first-degree murder, improper disposal of human remains, and two counts of misleading a police officer.³¹¹¹²

The 2025 Appeal

Camuti appealed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, arguing that evidence seized from his apartment, car, phone, and records should have been suppressed for lack of probable cause, and renewing the challenge to the voluntariness of his hospital statements.²

On April 9, 2025, the SJC affirmed the conviction on every count. It found the search warrant affidavit, read in a “commonsense and realistic fashion,” established probable cause, citing Camuti’s inconsistent statements and his prior financial crimes. On the confession, the court held that the record showed Camuti remained alert and coherent, and that physical injury and emotional distress do not automatically render statements involuntary.²¹³ Camuti remains in prison serving his life sentence.

Why the Timing Looked Like Bulger

The suspicion of a mob hit was almost automatic given Rakes’ history. In 1984, Rakes and his then-wife Julie invested $100,000 to open a liquor store on Old Colony Avenue in South Boston. Rakes said that shortly after opening, Bulger, Stephen Flemmi, and Kevin Weeks came to his home, placed a loaded gun on the kitchen table in front of his young daughter, and told him to sell the store for $67,000 or his children would be killed.¹⁴¹⁵ In 2003, a judge ordered Bulger to pay Rakes $28 million for the extortion.¹⁶

Rakes had spent the summer of 2013 at the federal courthouse expecting to testify in Bulger’s racketeering trial. On July 16, he learned he had been dropped from the witness list, and at 2:31 p.m. he sent a text message saying he was “furious.”¹⁷ He was already dying by then. The two events had nothing to do with each other; his killer was a debtor with a coffee cup.

1
CBS News. Stephen Rakes Update: Body of Alleged Bulger Extortion Victim Was Moved
2
FindLaw. Commonwealth v. Camuti, SJC-13532
3
Middlesex District Attorney’s Office. William Camuti Convicted of First-Degree Murder
4
New Haven Register. Man on Witness List for Bulger Trial Found Dead
5
WCVB. Charges Upgraded to Murder in Poisoning Death
6
CBS News Boston. Stephen Rakes William Camuti Murder Trial
7
ABC7 News. Authorities Said Rakes Death Not Linked to Bulger Case
8
Boston Herald. DA: Stephen Rakes Poisoned With Potassium Cyanide
9
CNN. Massachusetts Rakes Death Charge
10
Patch. Accused Cyanide-Laced Coffee Killer Claims Confession Coerced
11
CBS News Boston. William Camuti Sentenced to Life in Prison
12
MassLive. 72-Year-Old Man Faces Life in Prison
13
Boston Globe. Whitey Bulger Stephen Rakes Murder SJC Ruling
14
Boston Herald. Stephen Rakes Mourned as Death Probed
15
KGOU. Man Who Hoped to Testify Against Whitey Bulger Is Found Dead
16
CBS News. Whitey Bulger Update: Stephen Rakes, Alleged Bulger Extortion Victim, Found Dead
17
Good Morning America. Bulger Witness Found Dead