Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
I’ve lived in the Boston area all my life. I, therefore, have read a lot of news stories about the Bulger brothers—Billy, a once powerful politician, and Whitey, the
fugitive mobster who had been “evading” capture by the FBI since 1995. Both my husband and I were astonished when we heard the news that Whitey Bulger had finally been arrested by the FBI in Santa Monica, California, a few days ago. We have doubted for a long time that the FBI seriously wanted to find Whitey. After all, agents at the Bureau had once looked the other way when the mob boss committed serious crimes–including murder–while he was serving as an informant for them.
Kevin Cullen, who writes for The Boston Globe, put my feelings about the Whitey/FBI story into words in his piece FBI shame casts a long shadow, which appeared in today’s edition of the paper. Quoting Cullen:
Richard DesLauriers, the special agent in charge of the FBI in Boston, could be forgiven for sounding a bit miffed the other day, when he was forced to respond to the inescapable reality that a lot of people don’t necessarily buy the FBI’s version of how Whitey Bulger’s 16 years on the lam came to an end.
After all, DesLauriers has been in town for just about a year, not nearly long enough to be infected with the cynicism that is virulent when it comes to anything involving the FBI and Whitey.
“Any claim that the FBI knew about Mr. Bulger’s whereabouts prior to the FBI’s publicity efforts this week are completely unfounded,’’ DesLauriers said in a remarkable statement issued Friday, just hours before Whitey flew in from the Left Coast. “When we learned his location, he was arrested promptly.’’
OK. If you say so. But then, nothing in this case has ever been as it first appears.
DesLauriers seems like a decent, sincere guy, so I hate to break the news to him, but the FBI has little credibility in these matters with many people, including me, because in this town, the only things that last longer than winters are memories.
The FBI never told the truth about anything involving Whitey Bulger, so it’s not really surprising that so many of us don’t necessarily believe the FBI now.
We love our history in Boston, so maybe I can fill DesLauriers in on some history that might explain the skepticism he finds so exasperating.
In 1988, the Globe’s investigative unit, the Spotlight Team, published a four-part series about the Bulger brothers, Whitey the gangster and Billy the politician, which included the bombshell revelation that Whitey Bulger had a relationship not just with the FBI, but with FBI agent John Connolly, a self-acknowledged Billy Bulger protege.
According to Cullen, the FBI denied that Whitey Bulger was an informant for it when the Spotlight series appeared in The Boston Globe and wanted the paper to publish a retraction. Whitey had actually been an informant for the Bureau since 1975. His FBI handler John Connolly is now serving time in a federal prison. Connolly recently lost an appeal of his conviction in a 1982 Florida murder.
From the 1988 Boston Globe Spotlight Series on the Bulgers:
And the Federal Bureau of Investigation has for years had a special relationship with Bulger that has divided law enforcement bitterly and poisoned relations among many investigators, the Spotlight Team has learned.
“Isn’t he a great guy?” said an FBI agent about Bulger, according to another agent who feels the FBI should bust Bulger, not be beguiled by him.
Some people—including Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr—believe the current generation of FBI agents has wanted to find Whitey “very badly.” I hope that’s true—and that the arrest of this fugitive mob boss is a sign that things have changed for the better in regard to the FBI and its cozy relationship with this criminal—who is allegedly responsible for the murder of nineteen people.
Howie Carr talking about the FBI’s shady relationship with Whitey Bulger on CNN:
Rachel Maddow did an informative segment on Whitey Bulger on her program recently:
Here’s a link to the Globe’s Spotlight Team’s 1988 four-part series The Bulger Mystique and to its 1998 five-part series Whitey and the FBI: http://www.boston.com/news/packages/whitey/special_reports.htm
Videos from The Boston Globe:
Boston Globe Sources
Whitey Bulger arrested: Boston gangster surrenders quietly in Calif. after 16 years on run
Bulger ordered home: Aged mobster faces charges in 19 deaths
Justice, finally, for Boston
16 years on the run: A look at James “Whitey” Bulger’s life on the run
Convicted FBI agent Connolly loses Fla. appeal
Addendum
The Departed Movie Trailer
Beyond the ‘Whitey’ Bulger lore: 19 murder victims
June 27, 2011|By Ann O’Neill, CNN
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-06-27/justice/whitey.bulger.crimes_1_whitey-bulger-tom-foley-john-connolly?_s=PM:CRIME
Excerpt:
James “Whitey” Bulger left Boston 16 years ago in the dark of night, a brash high-echelon FBI snitch one step ahead of a racketeering indictment. He returned last week under the glare of camera lights, a stooped 81-year-old man in shackles.
The reputed Irish mob boss who took Osama bin Laden’s place at the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted list seemed meek, almost harmless, as he stood in a federal courtroom clutching a stack of charges as thick as a small-town phone book. Asked if he was aware of what was in them, Bulger politely responded, “I know them. I know them all. Thank you.”
Don’t be fooled by appearances, warns Tom Foley, the organized crime investigator who spent most of his career with the Massachusetts State Police trying to put Bulger behind bars.
“The guy is a sociopathic killer,” Foley told CNN over the phone from Florida. “He loved that type of life. He’s one of the hardest and cruelest individuals that operated in the Boston area. He’s a bad, bad, bad guy.”
Foley was among the first to question why the FBI was protecting someone who was, as he put it, “out there killing people.” He helped build the case that resulted in the federal grand jury indictments Bulger now faces.Bulger has not yet entered a plea and is due back in court on Wednesday.
Over the years, Foley has testified against Bulger’s main protector — retired FBI agent John Connolly — who is serving 40 years for slipping his prized informant inside information about rivals and witnesses, some of whom wound up dead. Now, Foley expects to be back on the witness stand as the racketeering cases against Bulger proceed.
“I’ll never be retired from this case,” Foley said. “It’s actually been a huge relief to get to this point. It was unfinished business. It’s been a long time coming.”
Foley rose to command the Massachusetts State Police but is retired now and writing a book about the Bulger case. He’s calling it “Betrayal.”
For Foley, the betrayal became obvious in the winter of 1994-’95 when his task force tried to serve arrest warrants against Bulger and his No. 2 man in South Boston’s Winter Hill Gang, Stephen “Rifleman” Flemmi. Under the plan, Foley’s men would take down Flemmi, and the FBI would handle Bulger.
“We caught Flemmi, and they let Bulger go,” Foley said.
AY,
I don’t remember anything about that.
*****
From My Fox Boston:
Affidavits for Whitey Bulger’s brothers
Updated: Tuesday, 28 Jun 2011
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/local/affidavits-for-whitey-bulgers-brothers-20110628
BOSTON (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) – The feds want to know if Whitey Bulger’s two brothers have helped stash his cash over the years.
They’re asking a federal judge for sworn affidavits from both William and Jackie Bulger.
Billy Bulger, the former Senate president, has denied any involvement with his fugitive brother and said last week he will not help fund his defense.
So far, no comment from Jackie Bulger, who was convicted in 2003 of lying to a grand jury and obstruction of justice after he paid for a safe deposit box in his brother’s name.
Elaine M.,
We do know this: brother Jackie Bulger lost his $5,356 monthly pension after lying to a federal grand jury about, among other things, making annual rent payments on a Florida safe deposit box in Whitey Bulger’s name opened in 1992. But when the feds searched it in 2001, it was empty!
What is this about?
AY,
One can’t avoid the story if one lives where I do. Whitey’s brother Billy was the president of the Massachusetts Senate for many years.
Whitey Bulger lawyer on our dime indefensible
By Margery Eagan
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Boston Herald
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1348404
Execerpt:
So now federal prosecutors want sworn affidavits from the two Bulger brothers not in jail to make sure the brother who is in jail — that’s Whitey — is entitled to a taxpayer funded lawyer.
How sweet this news, especially for those still smarting over former Senate President Billy Bulger’s $200,000 annual lifetime pension and million-dollar golden parachute from the University of Massachusetts.
I mean, it’s the final indignity, isn’t it? Taxpayers footing the bill to defend a guy accused of 19 murders and terrorizing South Boston? He’s “indigent”? Yet he’s captured with $822,198 in cash, much of it in small packages of $100 bills.
Thanks Elaine…
The prince of the city
By Kevin Cullen
Globe Columnist / June 28, 2011
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/06/28/the_prince_of_the_city/
Excerpt:
Whitey Bulger has been regaling his captors with tales of crossing the border at Tijuana to get cut-rate medicine in Mexico, making furtive visits home to Boston to settle scores, and living large in Vegas.
Actually, Whitey’s Mexican shopping trips merely confirm something we already knew: For a guy worth millions, he’s cheap.
As for talking wise with G-men, Whitey always considered cops bit players in a movie that’s all about him. Years ago, when he discovered a bug federal drug agents planted in his car, the DEA men rushed in to retrieve the expensive device.
Whitey tried to put the red-faced DEA agents at ease, reminding them they were all good guys.
“You’re the good good guys,’’ he said, “and I’m the good bad guy.’’
That’s the self-serving and completely bogus portrait Whitey and his apologists liked to paint, a benevolent gangster who hurt only the people who had it coming.
The Big Story: Who Will Defend James “Whitey” Bulger?
(A Boston Globe video)
http://www.boston.com/news/video/whitey/?bctid=1027528853001
From today’s Boston Globe:
Bulger tells of armed visits to Hub: Prosecutors describe trips, stashed assets
By Milton Valencia and Shelley Murphy
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/06/28/bulger_told_fbi_he_made_boston_visits/
Excerpt:
James “Whitey’’ Bulger returned to Boston in disguise and “armed to the teeth’’ several times during his 16 years on the run because he had “to take care of some unfinished business,’’ prosecutors said in court documents yesterday.
The notorious gangster, arrested last week in Santa Monica, Calif., refused to say whom he was going to see or when, prosecutors said. But, according to his former associates, Bulger returned to Boston at least twice during his first year on the lam.
Bulger told FBI agents on his return flight to Boston that he traveled frequently while in hiding, visiting not only Boston but Las Vegas and Mexico, and that he stashed money with people he had trusted. He did not identify anyone who might be hiding his assets, according to the document.
Prosecutors said Bulger’s lifestyle showed he clearly has the resources to pay for his defense, the first legal issue to come up in a racketeering trial that includes charges of 19 murders.
“During his more than sixteen years as a fugitive . . . Bulger financed a relatively comfortable lifestyle for himself and his girlfriend,’’ prosecutors said in court documents, describing Bulger’s trips to Las Vegas, where he “won more than he lost,’’ and his ventures into Mexico to purchase medicine.
Anybody with the nickname “Whitey” should be in jail. I can’t believe that anyone would think that the FBI could be corrupt!!? 🙂
Great article Elaine!
Naturally the new FBI agents have no affinity for Whitey so they can bring him in. But I would hardly call that an improvement unless we know they don’t have a Whitey or two under development for the new guys.
Like some of the criminals and creeps we hopped into bed with to fight communism, this passion to ‘beat the bad guys at all cost’ easily allows for bad choices. Like the Patriot Act. We need to remember that the ends don’t justify the means – the means tend to dictate the ends.
Many thanks for this, Elaine M. Well done, as always.
This may really prove the statement”there are two sides to every story”
Another interestingly detailed and fully cited post by Ms. EM…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWmEoAfOV7Y
‘Departed’ makes a killing
http://news.bostonherald.com/entertainment/movies/general/view/2011_0625departedmakes_akilling/srvc=home&position=also
Excerpt:
“The Departed,” the 2006 Oscar-winning Martin Scorsese blockbuster starring Jack Nicholson as a fictional Whitey Bulger, has emerged as a pop culture touchstone for people fascinated with the Southie gangster.
Thanks to Whitey’s arrest this week, the movie sits at No. 5 on Netflix’s top 100 DVD mail service and at No. 37 on the iTunes movie rental charts, surrounded by more recent releases. The number of “Departed” DVDs sold at retailers jumped fourfold the day after the arrest, according to California-based Nash Information Services, which tracks movie sales.
I think its kinda funny that he asked for a court appointed lawyer….the Judge says that he will give him four days to find his own…Whitey says to the Judge, if you’ll give me my money back I could afford to hire my own….he only had 800,000 cash….
“Bulger, wearing jeans and a white unbuttoned shirt, looked tan and fit and walked with a slight hunch at back-to-back hearings on two indictments. He asked that a public defender be appointed to represent him, but the government objected, citing the $800,000 seized from his Southern California apartment and his “family resources.”
“We feel he has access to cash,” said prosecutor Brian Kelly.
At the second hearing, Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler asked Bulger if he could pay for an attorney.
“I could, if you give me my money,” he replied in his unmistakable Boston accent, prompting laughter in the courtroom.”
http://www.wbur.org/2011/06/24/bulger-fed-court-friday
“A spokesman for the Boston FBI did not return calls seeking comment. In the past, the agency has said that a new generation of agents has replaced most or all of the agents who worked in the Boston office while Bulger was an informant.”
Irrelevant.
If they looked the other way for money, retired or not, unless they are dead they need to be in the cell right next to Whitey.
eniobob,
“That seems to be whats tamping down some of the bravado of this capture,who will he bring down with him.”
*******
From the Washington Post:
James ‘Whitey’ Bulger’s capture could cause trouble inside the FBI
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/james-whitey-bulgers-capture-could-cause-trouble-inside-the-fbi/2011/06/24/AGis2cjH_story.html
Excerpts:
BOSTON — James “Whitey” Bulger’s capture could cause a world of trouble inside the FBI.
The ruthless Boston crime boss who spent 16 years on the lam is said to have boasted that he corrupted six FBI agents and more than 20 police officers. If he decides to talk, some of them could rue the day he was caught.
“They are holding their breath, wondering what he could say,” said Robert Fitzpatrick, the former second-in-command of the Boston FBI office.
*****
Bulger, the former boss of the Winter Hill Gang, Boston’s Irish mob, embroiled the FBI in scandal once before, after he disappeared in 1995. It turned out that Bulger had been an FBI informant for decades, feeding the bureau information on the rival New England Mafia, and that he fled after a retired Boston FBI agent tipped him off that he was about to be indicted.
The retired agent, John Connolly Jr., was sent to prison for protecting Bulger. The FBI depicted Connolly as a rogue agent, but Bulger associates described more widespread corruption in testimony at Connolly’s trial and in lawsuits filed by the families of people allegedly killed by Bulger and his gang.
After a series of hearings in the late 1990s, U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf found that more than a dozen FBI agents had broken the law or violated FBI regulations.
Edward J. MacKenzie Jr., a former drug dealer and enforcer for Bulger, predicted that Bulger will disclose new details about FBI corruption and how agents protected him.
“Whitey was no fool. He knew he would get caught. I think he’ll have more fun pulling all those skeletons out of the closet,” MacKenzie said. “I think he’ll start talking and he’ll start taking people down.”
A spokesman for the Boston FBI did not return calls seeking comment. In the past, the agency has said that a new generation of agents has replaced most or all of the agents who worked in the Boston office while Bulger was an informant.
Mrs M.
“things have changed for the better in regard to the FBI and its cozy relationship with this criminal—who is allegedly responsible for the murder of nineteen people.”
That seems to be whats tamping down some of the bravado of this capture,who will he bring down with him.