by Dick Lehr
Bulger advised that he is familiar with name [sic] Graham Gund because of Gund’s architectural work. Bulger does not recall ever speaking with Gund and has had no business dealings with Gund. Bulger advised that Finnerty has mentioned Gund by name but Bulger had no specifics as to why his name was mentioned by Finnerty. Bulger had no information or knowledge regarding Gund’s role in the Kilby Street Development.
Bulger advised that Thomas Finnerty has sworn to him that Finnerty has never used Bulger’s name in order to influence individuals who were dealing with Finnerty. Bulger advised that the first time that he ever heard that his name was used by Finnerty was in documentation filed by Harold Brown in his civil suit with Finnerty on October 27, 1988. Again, Bulger advised that Finnerty has denied he ever used Bulger’s name to influence anyone.
Bulger advised that in regards to the St. Botolph Realty Trust, that he has never been a beneficiary of that trust. He advised that he has never seen any documentation regarding the realty trust. Finnerty has told him that Finnerty is the sole beneficiary of the trust and Finnerty has never disclosed who was on the Schedule of Beneficiaries regarding the trust. Bulger reiterated that the St. Botolph Realty Trust was a separate trust owned by Finnerty and used solely by Finnerty.
The 1991 law enforcement memorandum, prepared by then Massachusetts Assistant Attorney General David Burns, became the basis for a March 2000 story in the Boston Globe. The article examined discrepancies in William Bulger’s public account of his share of money from 75 State Street. It was disputed by Bulger and by his lawyer, R. Robert Popeo, who also represents FBI agent John Connolly. Neither addressed the story’s content but rather criticized the authors and the Globe. Popeo asserted: “What you have here is a recycled old news story by two Globe reporters who are hyping a book.” A statement issued by the University of Massachusetts for president Bulger stated in part: “Periodically, the Globe likes to reconvene its Star Chamber regarding this matter. We may have entered a new century but some things never change at Morrissey Boulevard.”
CHAPTER 15: CONNOLLY TALK
For the sections about the Vanessa’s bugging operation, we relied on the sworn testimony at the Wolf hearings of Stephen Flemmi, August 20, 1998; Jim Ring, June 6, 9, 11, and 15, 1998; and FBI agent Rick Carter, August 17, 1998; government documents and FBI reports either in the authors’ possession or released as part of the Wolf hearings as exhibits 15-18, 61, 116-120, 123, 128-130, 153, 165, 175, 207, and 237; a firsthand encounter between John Connolly and the Boston Globe’s Dick Lehr on February 8, 1988; a Globe article by Lehr and Kevin Cullen, April 17, 1988; numerous articles in the Globe archives reporting on Harry “Doc” Sagansky’s life and the content of the taped exchange between Sagansky and the Mafia; Connolly’s 1998 interviews with the Globe, WBZ-AM Radio, WRKO-AM Radio, Boston magazine, and the Boston Tab; Wolf, “Memorandum and Order.”
For the section on the FBI bugging of the Mafia induction ceremony on October 29, 1989, we relied on the sworn testimony at the Wolf hearings of Stephen Flemmi, September 1, 1998; government documents and FBI reports released as part of the Wolf hearings as exhibits 190-194; and a case that included extensive transcripts of the taped ceremony, United States v Nicholas L. Bianco et al.
For the section on the meeting between Connolly and Brendan Bradley of the Boston Police Department about the murder of Tim Baldwin, we relied on internal government reports prepared between 1992 and 1998 as part of an inquiry into possible misconduct by Connolly; these reports covered FBI and DEA interviews with Bradley, Boston police officer Frank Dewan, and attorneys James Hamrock and John Kiernan.
For the section on John Morris leaking the Baharoian wiretap to Flemmi and Bulger, we relied on the sworn testimony at the Wolf hearings of John Morris, April 22, 23, 28, 29, and 30, 1998; Stephen Flemmi, August 20, 1998; government documents and FBI reports released as part of the Wolf hearings as exhibits 93 and 229; and Globe articles about Baharoian and Puleo.
It is interesting to note that Judge Wolf found that at the time Bulger and Flemmi gave the FBI information about Vanessa’s “the LCN in Boston was diminished and in disarray. This created a vacuum which, according to their plan, Flemmi and Bulger sought to fill by expanding their own criminal activities.” The FBI’s focus on prosecuting the Boston Mafia, the judge ruled, “provided an opportunity for Bulger and Flemmi to take over criminal activities in Boston that had previously been controlled by the LCN. With the protection of the FBI, Bulger and Flemmi could operate very profitably” (“Memorandum and Order,” p. 260).
In the month following the 1989 FBI bugging of the Mafia initiation ceremony in Medford, Massachusetts, a number of Mafia figures were arrested on charges of extorting Sagansky, including Ferrara, Russo, and Carrozza. Mercurio was charged but fled and avoided arrest. Eventually the mafiosi were convicted of this and other charges in federal court and sent to prison.
It is also worth noting that no known action resulted from the internal inquiry the Boston FBI conducted in 1992 into John Connolly’s meeting in 1986 with Brendan Bradley of the Boston Police Department. In February 1992 the special agent in charge of the Boston office, Tom Hughes, notified the investigating agent, John Gamel, that he was concerned that the inquiry into possible misconduct was against a retired agent (Connolly retired in December 1990) and that the “statute of limitations may have run.” After conducting the interviews, Gamel submitted his report to Hughes on February 24, 1992, and that was the apparent end of the matter. In July 1997 FBI agents questioned Bradley again as part of an Office of Professional Responsibility inquiry into Connolly’s activities. Bradley was scheduled to testify at the Wolf hearing during 1998, but he was one of a number of witnesses who were dropped after the judge urged both sides to trim the witness list. In an interview with a DEA agent in May 1998, in anticipation of his court appearance, Bradley apparently pulled back from what he’d reportedly told investigators originally in 1992 and 1997. In 1998 Bradley told the agent that he thought Connolly was just trying to put in a “good word” for a family friend, not trying to squash a subpoena. This change occurred just when Bradley was embroiled in a dispute with his own department. He was facing departmental charges after he was picked up during a department sting involving prostitution in Boston. Bradley said he had done nothing wrong; he resigned from the police department before his case was ever adjudicated. Finally, Mark Estes, the man whom police believed murdered Tim Baldwin outside Triple O’s in 1986, was himself fatally shot early in the morning of June 12, 1995, on a South Boston street.
During a brief interview in January 2000, Connolly denied ever meeting Bradley for coffee to discuss the O’Neil subpoena. “That’s an abject lie, like so many of the other nonsensical fabrications in this whole matter.”
It is also worth noting that earlier in the FBI investigation of bookmaker John Baharoian and Boston police corruption—well before Morris leaked news of a wiretap in early I988—the FBI had already done Bulger and Flemmi a big favor. A Boston police lieutenant, cooperating with federal investigators, was wearing a wire to obtain incriminating statements by Baharoian and others. Flemmi was also a target. The FBI tipped off Bulger about the body wire, and Bulger warned Flemmi. “He [Bulger] told me that I was targeted by Lieutenant Cox,” Flemmi testified on August 20, 1998, “and he was going to be approaching me at some point.” Flemmi testified that the tip to Bulger came from either Morris or Jim Ring. (Ring strongly denied leaking the information.) Flemmi testified that Bulger and Connolly talked about the wire and that he also later discussed the situation with John Connolly. On September 5, 1986, the police lieutenant taped a conversation he had with Flemmi, but Flemmi knew not to say anything beyond small talk. “We was pre-warned, forewarned.” Flemmi testified that later Connolly happily told him that he’d heard at the office that the tape was “unproductive.” (In an example of how many of these events overlapped, Flemmi was tipped off about the wired-up police lieutenant around the same time that Connolly was calling Bradley of the
Boston police to meet about the subpoena to Kevin O’Neil and just as Flemmi was giving information about Vanessa’s.)
In his September 1999 findings of fact, Judge Wolf ruled that Connolly—not Ring or Morris—was the agent leaking information about the Cox wire to Bulger and Flemmi. “Connolly had asked Morris, and perhaps others, whether Cox was ‘wired.’ The court infers that Connolly is the person who told Bulger and Flemmi that Cox was cooperating with the FBI” (p. 297).
Furthermore, the judge ruled, Connolly then tried to cover his tracks by filing false paperwork. At the time Connolly filed an informant “insert” reporting that Flemmi had learned about the Cox wire from a leak at the Boston Police Department. “The court concludes that this insert is another document containing false information in an effort to make it more difficult to discern and demonstrate improper conduct by Connolly” (p. 298).
CHAPTER 16: SECRETS EXPOSED
For the section on the souring relations between Morris and Connolly, we relied on the sworn testimony at the Wolf hearings of John Morris, April 27, 1998; 1998 media interviews by John Connolly; Wolf, “Memorandum and Order.”
For the section on the Globe’s September 1988 article about Bulger and the FBI, Globe interviews with Dennis Condon, Jeremiah T. O’Sullivan, Tom Daly, and Jim Ahearn. During the Wolf hearings, Morris testified extensively about his role in the story (April 27, 28, and 29, 1998). In 1998 Robert Fitzpatrick granted the authors permission to identify him as the second FBI source for the story. We also relied on government documents and FBI reports released during the Wolf hearings as exhibits 42, 85, and 159. The exchange between an undercover DEA agent and dealer Tom Cahill came from a DEA sworn affidavit by DEA agent Bonnie Alexander dated January 17, 1990, and from another sworn Boston police affidavit in February 1989.
For the section on Sue and Joe Murray and the FBI, we relied on the sworn testimony at the Wolf hearings of William Weld, May 22, 1998; and FBI agent Ed Clark, June 3, 1998; government documents and FBI reports released during the Wolf hearings as exhibits 147-152, 156, 157, 159, 160.
For the section on Bulger’s trouble at Logan Airport, we relied on the document released during the Wolf hearings as exhibit 154; a Globe interview with trooper William Johnson on July 27, I988; and numerous Globe and Herald articles about Johnson. Regarding the attendance of two retired New York FBI agents at a dinner at Gianturco’s house, we relied on the sworn testimony at the Wolf hearings of Nick Gianturco, January 15 and April 20, 1998; and reports by the Office of Professional Responsibility of July 1997 interviews with Pistone and Bonavolonta. Regarding the Boston FBI office purchase of Christmas party liquor at Bulger’s liquor mart, we relied on our own interviews and reporting for a Globe article on that subject published in October 1990.
Jim Ahearn’s attack on the DEA and defense of Connolly and Bulger were contained in a letter he wrote to FBI director William Sessions on February 10, 1989 (released during the Wolf hearings as exhibit 126).
In his September 1999 findings of fact, Judge Wolf noted that the Boston FBI office essentially swept Joe Murray’s information under the rug. Murray’s information “implicating Bulger and Flemmi in the Halloran and Barrett murders was not provided to any agents responsible for investigating those matters or indexed so that it could be accessed by such agents. . . . Accordingly, Murray was effectively eliminated as a threat to the symbiotic relationship between the FBI and Bulger and Flemmi” (p. 296). The judge said that even though the FBI characterized Murray’s charge that Connolly and John Newton leaked information as “unsubstantiated . . . [t]he evidence presented in the instant case, however, demonstrates that Murray’s claim was correct” (p. 292).
Trooper Billy Johnson’s career and life spiraled downward in the years following his run-in at Logan Airport with Whitey Bulger. In interviews Johnson blamed Bulger and his politician brother Billy for many of his troubles. Billy Bulger declined comment in articles written about Johnson. But following the incident, airport officials were out to get Johnson’s report, which Johnson viewed as political meddling and payback. Johnson, a Green Beret veteran of Vietnam and decorated state trooper who twice was awarded the Medal of Merit and the Trooper of the Year Award, spoke his mind. Eventually he was reassigned from his plainclothes, anti-drug work inside the terminals to cruising the airport parking lots. Johnson had run-ins with superiors, and he was court-martialed, suspended, and then transferred from Logan. He retired early, a broken man. In the woods of southern New Hampshire, at the age of fifty, he shot and killed himself on September 25, 1998. “Exactly 11 years ago, Billy Johnson’s sense of purpose became entangled in the political riptide of the state police,” wrote columnist Peter Gelzinis in the Boston Herald on September 29, 1988, referring to the Logan run-in with Bulger as the beginning of the end of Johnson’s distinguished career. “Outside the Delta terminal, he encountered the foul-mouthed czar of all local thugs, James J. ‘Whitey’ Bulger.”
The book that retired New York FBI agent Jules Bonavolonta eventually wrote, with Brian Duffy, is entitled The Good Guys: How We Turned the FBI ’Round and Finally Broke the Mob (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).
It is worth noting that although Jim Ahearn was shocked and angered about being formally notified of a DEA drug probe of Bulger that had been under way since 1987, the investigation was old news to Connolly, Bulger, and Flemmi. Flemmi testified that the three had been trading notes and information for some time—just as they did in a number of other investigations targeting the gangsters. In testimony Flemmi gave on August 20, 1998, he was asked, “Do you remember having a conversation with Mr. Connolly that related to the DEA investigation?”
FLEMMI: Jim Bulger and I were both present when we discussed that.
QUESTIONER: What was the discussion that you had?
FLEMMI: The ongoing DEA investigation.
QUESTIONER: Did he confirm that there was an investigation?
FLEMMI: No doubt about that.
QUESTIONER: What did Mr. Connolly say?
FLEMMI: He said the investigation was ongoing, Your Honor.
CHAPTER 17: FRED WYSHAK
Interviews: Several federal and state prosecutors and Massachusetts State Police officials about assistant U.S. attorneys Fred Wyshak and Brian Kelly; former U.S. attorney A. John Pappalardo about his handling of FBI informant Timothy Connolly; former head of the Massachusetts State Police Charles Henderson on the strategy for targeting James Bulger and Stephen Flemmi.
Court records: A 1995 court affidavit by FBI agent Edward Quinn on 98 Prince Street tapes concerning the activities of James Bulger and Stephen Flemmi; the government’s post-hearing brief in opposition to defendant’s motion to dismiss indictments and to suppress electronic surveillance evidence, January 29, 1999; United States v Kevin P. Weeks and Kevin P. O’Neil; affidavit of Thomas B. Duffy in support of pretrial detention of the defendants Kevin P. Weeks and Kevin P. O’Neil, submitted in November 1999 (see pp. 44-48 for details on the secretly recorded conversation between Weeks and Timothy Connolly about his prospective testimony before a federal grand jury); Suffolk County Registry of Deeds, mortgages on Thomas Cahill’s South Boston property from 1986 to 1994, and the trusts and transactions involved in Stephen Flemmi’s 1992 acquisition of $1.5 million in property; Wolf, “Memorandum and Order.”
Judge Wolf addressed the warning given to James Bulger about Timothy Connolly: “[I]n 1988 or 1989, [John] Connolly told Bulger that Timothy Connolly, who is alleged to have been a victim of extortion in the instant case, was cooperating with the FBI and would attempt to record conversations with Bulger and Flemmi. Bulger shared this warning with Flemmi” (“Memorandum and Order,” p. 310).
News articles: Boston Globe and Boston Herald articles in 1991 and 1995 on Bulger’s share of a $14.3 million lottery ticket; Globe and Herald articles in 1991, 1992, 1997, and 1998 on the 1989 induction of new Mafia members that was secretly recorded by the FBI; Globe and Herald articles in 1990 about the arrest of fifty-one men in South Bost
on on drug charges; a 1993 Globe article on Flemmi’s purchase of residential property in and around Boston; Globe and Herald articles in 1993 and 1994 on Howie Winter’s conviction on cocaine charges; Newark Star Ledger articles in 1990 on the successful prosecution of Mafia boss John Riggi.
CHAPTER 18: HELLER’S CAFÉ
Interviews: Former federal prosecutor Michael Kendall about the Michael London case; former Massachusetts State Police detective Joseph Saccardo about the surveillance and investigation of Heller’s Café; former head of the Massachusetts State Police Charles Henderson on strategy and cases against Burton “Chico” Krantz; criminal defense attorney Robert Sheketoff on the use of money-laundering charges against bookmakers; several background interviews with Massachusetts State Police and DEA investigators and FBI agents for a 1995 Boston Globe article about the arrest of Stephen Flemmi; federal courthouse sources about the split between Stephen Flemmi and Frank Salemme.
News articles: A 1995 Boston Globe article on how the Bulger and Flemmi investigation came together from 1991 to 1995 and how it came to focus on the extortion of bookmakers; Globe and Herald articles in 1993, 1994, and 1995 on the indictment, arrest, and conviction of Joseph Yerardi; Globe and Herald articles in 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994 on the state and federal prosecutions of Burton Krantz, James Katz, and George Kaufman; Globe and Herald articles in 1993 and 1994 in which FBI officials and unnamed officials gave updates on the case building against James Bulger; Globe and Herald articles on the indictment, escape, and arrest of Frank Salemme.