To try to ascertain how Father Drinan and the Bulger family may have got to know each other in the 1953 to 1954 period I looked at what the family was doing around that time. Whitey’s next younger brother was Bill. He finished up his first year at Boston College in 1953. He then volunteered for the draft. He served in the Army from September 1953 to August 1955. He was stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey and the last eighteen months at Fort Bliss, Texas. It is difficult to see any relationship developing between him and Drinan in the months July and August of 1953.

The matriarch of the family was Jean Bulger. She and the children were actively involved in St. Monica’s Catholic Church across from the John A. Andrew School in South Boston. The oldest of her children was a girl named Jean. Whitey was the second oldest. It seems to me that because of the tragedy suffered by Jean who was born in May 1928 Father Drinan became close with the family. As noted earlier, Father Drinan included in his ministry during this time period “military bases.”

The Whitey Myth arises because of the failure to put events into their proper place in time. We know much about James “Whitey” Bulger today because of all the books, the overtop media coverage of him, as well as all the all the gangster testimony telling of his exploits. Too many take what we know today about him and assume that was known back when he began his criminal career. In doing that they attribute to people knowledge that they could not possibly have possessed at the time they acted.

With Whitey there was no limit to ascribing evil motives to those who interacted with him in his past. A prime example of this is the involvement of Father Robert Drinan, S.J. with Whitey back around 1956. To put things in context, it is necessary to know a little about Father Drinan. He was born in 1920, grew up in Hyde Park and graduated from Hyde Park High School in 1938. The year he graduated the favorite movie stars of his class were Bette Davis and Spencer Tracey, Tommy Dorsey was their favorite band leader, and Gone with the Wind their favorite book. Father Drinan was voted the most likely to succeed.

The news out of Pennsylvania was quite shocking. The records of six dioceses show that over 300 priests abused over a thousand youngsters. Here’s what a grand jury said: “Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades. Monsignors, auxiliary bishops, bishops, archbishops, cardinals have mostly been protected; many, including some named in this report, have been promoted.”

We know it is not limited to these six diocese in Pennsylvania. It has happened in every other state in our nation. It was first exposed in the Boston Archdiocese by the Boston Globe. How astonished I was at that time thinking that one priest would have abused children? I looked for reasons not to believe it . I attributed to the long-term animus of the Globe to the Catholic Church.

But like the broomstick in Disney’s Fantasia brought to life by the Sorcerer’s Apprentice the buckets of bad news kept coming. Each one containing more and more revelations of pedophilia by priests.  This plague was not limited to the United States but was world-wide tearing apart the Catholic Church in Ireland and other countries as is happening today in Chile. It bankrupted dioceses, it cast a black pall over the Church, and sadly its teachings itself were looked upon as bankrupt as people thought “your actions thunder so loud I can hardly hear what you are saying.”

I began writing this week about John Connolly suggesting he is wrongfully incarcerated in Florida. After doing that I wrote about the problems I have with him. The first was his attempt to subvert a federal case pending against Stephen Flemmi and other gangsters; the other was his involvement in the John Naimovich prosecution.

Those who commented on my posts did not address the matters I wrote about. I heard lots of things about how Connolly was doing his job and the evils of the federal prosecutors. I even heard about the FBI and Justice Department regulations that were in force. Nothing I read changed my mind that Connolly’s actions were justifiable. I strongly believe that an FBI agent should not befriend gangsters nor should he or she continue associations with them, if they did because the job required it, after they left. I agree that Connolly had a First Amendment right to write an anonymous letter to Judge Wolf on Boston Police stationery making false allegations about other law enforcement officers that interfered with Judge Wolf’s hearings on motions;  but I would suggest that exercising a First Amendment right does not shield you from repercussions having done so.

The trooper a straight shooter was flabbergasted. Under pressure knowing he had nothing to do with this false accusation he sweated a bit. After getting him thoroughly upset he was asked if he told anyone else about the information. This, of course, the FBI agents knew all along because they had arranged through the state police captain for him to tell this trooper to give Naimovich the same information. Asked who he might have told, the trooper  remembered that the captain had told him to tell Naimovich.

The finger was then on pointed at Naimovich. The trooper happy to be relieved of being under suspicion was determined to nail him. The state police started their investigation.

The were coming up with nothing.  Naimovich was working with me at the time. Some time later Agent Ring would tell them they found the leak. It was a secretary in their office. They insisted however that the investigation against Naimovich continue. Surprisingly, without having a reason to do so, the state police followed the FBI dictates. Never had I heard of starting an investigation of a person for a specific crime, discovering the person did not do it, but continuing the investigation to find something the person may have done.

There was another thing. This one is the thing that first got me interested in this case. It is the FBI investigation and Federal prosecution of MA State trooper John Naimovich. The FBI investigation was done by the group in the Boston FBI office where Connolly was assigned. It was headed by a supervisor James Ring. He was nicknamed “The Pipe” by Whitey and his buddies. Ring was alleged to have received expensive gifts from Whitey.

Naimovich, the State Police Special Services Unit under the command of Sergeant Bob Haley, and I had been doing wiretap interception of bookie offices in Norfolk County during the spring into fall of 1987. We were following our traditional approach. We started at a lower level and moved up to bigger and bigger bookie offices. This operation was showing itself to be particularly successful because we had already made a couple of raids gathering evidence against people. We were calling people into the grand jury. I would ask them if they knew certain people. They would take the Fifth but go out and tell others who I was inquiring about. Meanwhile we were still up on the intercepts listening in gathering in the intelligence.

Kevin Weeks told of a couple of meetings with Connolly when he was with the FBI in 1978 and 1984. They were no more than greeting each other and had no substance to them. He said in 1996 Flemmi  who was in the Plymouth jail gave him a number and told him to reach out for Connolly to find out what was going on with the federal investigation against him. You have to keep in mind Connolly had been protecting Flemmi since he returned to Boston and took over as his FBI handler back in 1973 or 1974 up until he left the FBI in 1990. What was it that made Flemmi think Connolly was still interested in protecting him?

Weeks met with Connolly in Harvard Square. He told him of Flemmi’s request. Connolly said he would see what he could find out and let him know. Why?

The next meetings were at a Cambridge restaurant, Finnegan’s Wake. Connolly told him the government’s case was weak and was breaking down. They discussed the witnesses and what Connolly knew about them. The understanding was that Weeks would carry that information to Flemmi.

You all know Steve Flemmi. He is the worst person who ever walked the streets of Boston. Truly, he is even worse than even John Martorano by many degrees. He murdered his girlfriend of many years because she tired of him; he murdered the daughter who called him Dad after she fell apart because he molested her as a child. He cavalierly suggested he many have murdered up to fifty people.

One of the most shocking things I heard about 84-year-old Flemmi was what he said during the trial a month or so ago where he was put on the stand to testify against his one time best friend, Frank Salemme.  According to a report Salemme’s lawyer “pushed him. He leaned into the microphone and slowly asked him, “You’re hoping to leave prison before you die?” “Where there’s life, there’s hope,” Flemmi finally said. “Anything can happen in this world.”

Yes, that is shocking. How can a man who admits to murdering up to fifty people think he can get our of prison? Has he been promised some unconscionable deal by the man who has had him as his star witness, Fred Wyshak? Has Wyshak befriended Flemmi? Is there a judge on this good earth who will reduce his sentence so that he can get out?