Thе defendants Nighelli and Melanson were found guilty, after a six-day trial before a Superior Court judge and a jury, on indictments charging that each conspired with the other on July 3 and 12, 1979, and on other occasions between July 3 and 24, 1979, to murder Vincent Ferrara. Each defendant has appealed. At trial, each defendant rested at the close of the Commonwealth’s case, and filed a motion for a required finding of not guilty. These motions were denied.
1. The evidence most favorable to the Commonwealth was that one or both defendants had been having discussions in June, 1979, with Flemming Budual. Beginning in early July, 1979, further conferences took place.
(a) By arrangement, Budual met both defendants at a Howard Johnson restaurant in Kingston on July 3. After discussion of a separate enterprise, Nighelli asked Budual if he “knew somebody that could make two persons disappear.” When asked what he meant, Nighelli said “something about two people have to be killed,” two elderly males from New Hampshire, because “some big shot in the M.B.T.A. wanted ... it because” his son had been killed, “someone had killed his son.” Budual said he would “see if . . . [he could] find somebody.” Budual was tоld by Nighelli that a proposed victim was “living in New Hampshire . . . that . . . [Nighelli] knew what kind of car he was driving every day, [and] which way he was going back to his home,” and that the victim was not “related to organized crime.” When asked the cost, Budual said he “didn’t know, but . . . [estimated] three to five thousand dollars.” Melanson (known to Budual only as “Mel”) assured Budual that “everything Nighelli told . . . [him] was true.”
(b) On July 12, 1979, Budual went to Friendly’s Restaurant in Plymouth to meet Nighelli but found Melanson there. Melanson told Budual that Nighelli was in Lowell *592 and asked Budual “if . . . [he] ever got a ... hit man to kill the persons from New Hampshire.” Budual told Melanson that he would call and arrange for Melanson and Nighelli to meet the hit man at the Howard Johnson Restaurant in South Boston the next day. The appointment apparently was not kept by Melanson and Nighelli.
(c) On July 20, 1979, Buduаl met Nighelli at Friendly’s Restaurant at Plymouth. Nighelli told Budual “that Mel screwed up and . . . was out of it now,” but that “the hit was still on, was still going on.”
(d) On July 24, Budual, “in the midday hours” met with Nighelli and one Don Cuccinelli (known to Nighelli only as “Pauly”) at the Howard Johnson Restaurant in Kingston. Cuccinelli asked Nighelli for “information about the person that has to be hit.” Nighelli gave Cuccinelli a paper which contained the intended victim’s motоr vehicle license plate number, make of automobile, and road address. Cuccinelli, as the supposed “hit man,” then “asked for some money up front for expenses.” Nighelli said he would go to Boston, “speak with the person [who] wanted the job done and get the money for him.” Nighelli said that the job could not be done as “an accident,” but must be carried out in some manner that would make the victim “an example” so that other people involved would know “that the guy died for a good reason.” They met again at the same place later that day about 5:30 p.m. Nighelli had not obtained any money, but said, “[Y]ou go ahead and do the hit, anyway, because he [Nighelli’s friend] will be good for the money.” Nighelli disclosed the name of the proposеd victim as Vincent Ferrara.
(e) On July 27, Nighelli called Budual by telephone to report that Ferrara “was in prison.” He asked if it could be arranged to “get him hit inside the prison.”
Nighelli and Melanson were unfortunate in their confidants. Budual was an undercover informer for the Drug Enforcement Administration of the Department of Justice, who “knew an awful lot about illegal trafficking in drugs” and had become an informer because he did not like people *593 who used and sold drugs. Cuccinelli was a State police officer, working under cover in the narcotics unit and posing as a “hit man” in respect of the proposal to kill Ferrara. Budual and Officer Cuccinelli each testified. Their testimony, already described, was sufficient to warrant a rational jury in finding beyond a reasоnable doubt that the defendants, as early as July 3, were guilty of the offense of conspiracy to murder one and possibly two unnamed New Hampshire residents. Ferrara’s name was not mentioned to Budual until after Nighelli had told Budual on July 20 that Melanson “screwed up and was out of it now.” Evidence that Ferrara was a resident of New Hampshire was produced in the form of Ferrara’s mоtor vehicle registration and a Massachusetts house of correction record (each showing him to be a resident of Nashua, New Hampshire). Melanson had shown continuing participation in the venture by his inquiry of Budual on July 12 about the “hit man.” Nighelli’s pursuit of the objective was indicated by his later talks with Budual on July 20 and 24, at which he met Officer Cuccinelli. 2
The crime, at least in this simple two-pаrticipant type of conspiracy, under Massachusetts law is complete upon the
*594
formation of an agreement and a combination to commit, or caused to be committed, a crime or an unlawful act.
Commonwealth
v.
Beneficial Fin. Co.,
Originally there were (a) indictments charging the defendants with conspiracy to solicit the commission of murder, as well as (b) indictments charging each of them with conspiracy to murder. The Commonwealth consented to the dismissal of the indictments charging conspiracy to solicit murder and proceeded only on the indictments charging conspiracy to murder Ferrara or (as of the conference of July 3) one or two unspecified residents of New Hampshire. The jury could infer from the conversation of July 3, at which both defendants were present, that each defendant then had in mind the same victim or victims, although no victim was then identified to Budual. The testimony about what each said and did when together on July 3, if believed, constitutеd proof of participation in a combination “directed toward the accomplishment of the same object,” viz. the death of two New Hampshire residents not
*595
then named to Budual. See
Commonwealth
v.
Smith,
2. There is no merit to the defendants’ argument that the judge in some manner usurped the function of the jury in his charge. The judge instructed correctly that, in this case where there were only two alleged conspirators, the acquittal of one of them would require that both be acquitted because one cannot conspire alone. See
United States
v.
Fox,
3. There was no error in the action of the trial judge in charging that Melanson’s possible withdrawal from the conspiracy (as reported by Nighelli to Budual at their conference of July 20, 1979; see part l[c] of this opinion,
supra)
was “not a defense ... as the crime of conspiracy is complete upon the making of the agreement” and the “combination.” The defendants rely on language in
United States
v.
United States Gypsum Co.,
4. The transcript of the trial judge’s charge indicates that he told the jury that “a person becomes a conspirator by
negligently
and intentionally entering into an agreement that creates a combination” (emphasis supplied). The judge was purporting to read from (or follow) written requests by the Commonwealth for instructions, which had asked that the jury be told that “a person becomes a conspirator by
knowingly
and intentionally entering into the agree
*598
ment that creates the combination” (emphasis supplied). On motion by the Commonwealth, the trial judge ordered the transcript corrected and a single justice of this court ordered the papers with respect to the correction reproduced and referred to the panel which has decided this appeal. We regard the trial judge’s correction as essentially conclusive. Mass.R.A.P. 8(e), as appearing in
At the close of the judge’s charge, no defense objection to the alleged use of the word “negligently” was made (at a time when any error could easily have been corrected). This circumstаnce not only supports the probability that no error was in fact made, but provides strong reason for treating the statement, if made, as an immaterial “slip of the tongue,” see
Commonwealth
v.
Wood,
5. The defendants’ discussions with Budual on various dates in July, 1979, dealt not only with the proposed murder of Ferrara, as to whiсh Budual gave testimony, but also dealt with other criminal activities, then discussed, including a bank robbery. Melanson’s counsel had filed a “motion in limine” to prevent reference to the other criminal activities and especially the bank robbery. After an extended bench conference, the prosecuting attorney stated that he would “make every effort to exclude quеstions . . . concerning the bank robbery.” The prosecutor also *599 agreed to caution witnesses called by him to avoid mention of offenses other than those then being prosecuted. The trial judge ruled that “as of . . . [the bench conference], any questions relating to the . . . bank robbery allegedly abandoned . . . [were] to be excluded,” subject to reconsideration as the trial proceeded. This effort to avoid possible prejudice to the defendants was successful, while Budual was being examined by the prosecutor, despite the fact that the subject of the proposed murder of Ferrara was discussed at some of the conferences of one or the other of the defendants with Budual, when there was also discussion of the proposed bank robbery.
During the cross-examination of Budual, Budual was asked by Melanson’s counsel about the detail of the somewhat ambiguous conversation of July 20, when Nighelli reported to Budual that Melanson was “out of the hit” theretofore discussed. When seeking further detail, Melanson’s counsel asked, “Didn’t Nighelli make it clear to you that as a result of screwing it up Mel[anson] wаs out of it now?” To this Budual replied, “He was out of the hit job and the bank job.” Melanson’s counsel asked for a mistrial and immediate instructions to disregard the answer. The judge denied the motion for a mistrial and gave no immediate instructions based on the objection. After the judge’s charge, defense counsel made no request for further instruction on this matter, perhaps some indication that he then thought it would unduly emphasize the answer.
There was no error. There is no fair suggestion that the answer was inaccurate in any respect, or was induced by the prosecutor. Compare
Commonwealth
v.
Banuchi,
Judgments affirmed.
Notes
The conversations with Budual, by Melanson on July 12 and by Nighelli on July 20 and 24, were not the subject of specific objection (by defense counsel) as to their admissibility. Earlier telephone conversations on June 3, June 25, and July 1 between Budual and Nighelli had bеen admitted in evidence only against Nighelli. After testimony about the conversations of July 3 and July 12, at which Melanson was present, and before Budual’s testimony about the July 20 conference, the prosecutor asked the trial judge at a bench conference to rule that there had been sufficient proof that a conspiracy existed, so that conversations with eithеr could be attributed to both defendants. The judge declined so to charge the jury at that stage of the trial but suggested to the prosecutor “that the next time” that the problem arose “and there is an objection,” he could overrule it. Inasmuch as no objections were made to tbe admissibility of Budual’s testimony about the later conferences between Budual and Nighelli, we regard that testimony as admissible against both defendants for all purposes, including the identification of Ferrara as the initial proposed victim. Compare
Commonwealth
v.
White,
For general text authorities concerning criminal conspiracy, see 1 Anderson, Wharton’s Criminal Law аnd Procedure §§ 82-93 (1957 ed. & 1979 supp.); 4 Torcia, Wharton’s Criminal Law §§ 722 et seq. (1981); Perkins, Criminal Law, 612-635 (2d ed. 1969); Williams, Criminal Law The General Part, §§ 2, 127, 212, 221 (2d ed. 1961). The Model Penal Code § 5.03 (Proposed Official Draft, 1962, and see comments to this section, Tent. Draft No. 10, 1960, at 102 et seq.) departs from the present Massachusetts law and common law rules in various respects, as is explained fully in the comments. See the discussion in LaFave & Scott, Criminal Law § 62, at 470 et seq. (1972).
We have been referred to no Massachusetts decisions which suggest that the Federal cases on “inconsistent verdicts” have any application to conspiracy charges (or, indeed, other charges) in the State courts. The only Massachusetts decisions relied upon by the defendants are
Commonwealth
v.
Donovan,
In LaFave & Scott,
supra,
§ 62, at 486-488, some respects are pointed out in which withdrawal from the conspiracy may be significant, e.g. (a) relief from liability for substantive crimes committed, pursuant to the conspiracy, after the date of withdrawal by a conspirator; (b) running of the statute of limitations (see
United States
v.
Panebianco,
On this meager record, even if the Model Penal Code had been applicable, it would seem that Melanson’s action as described by Nighelli on July 20 would not have provided him a defense, for it was not shown that Melanson “thwarted” the conspiracy by whatever he did. The 1962 Proposed Official Drаft of the Model Penal Code, § 5.03(6) reads “(6) Renunciation of Criminal Purpose. It is an affirmative defense that the actor, after conspiring to commit a crime, thwarted the success of the conspiracy, under circumstances manifesting a complete and voluntary renunciation of his criminal purpose” (emphasis in text supplied). See comments on subsection (6), Model Penal Code (Tent. Draft No. 10) at 142-144. See also comments upon renunciation оf other inchoate crimes, at 71-73. Subsection (7) of § 5.03 (Proposed Official Draft, at 85-86) reads in part “For purposes of Section 1.06(4) ...(c) if an individual abandons the agreement, the conspiracy is terminated as to him only if and when he advises those with whom he conspired of his abandonment or he informs the law enforcement authorities of the existence of the conspiracy and of his participation therein.” This language does not purport to deal with renunciation as a defense to a charge of conspiracy but only with “abandonment” of the conspiracy, as it affects the date when the crime occurs and when time starts to run. See for § 1.06(4), Proposed Official Draft at 9-10, and comments on subsection (7) in Tentative Draft No. 10, at 144-155. A proposed rеvision (somewhat based on the Model Penal Code) of our statutes on criminal conspiracy was set out in the Proposed Criminal Code of Massachusetts, c. 263, §§ 48 & 49(3), prepared in 1971 for the Governor’s Committee on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Criminal Justice and the Criminal Law Revision Commission, 1972 Senate Doc. No. 200, reprinted by Lawyers Cooperative Publishing Co. and The Michie Co. in 1972. These provisions have not been enacted.