My source who is vacationing in the land where people allege they have a connection to the Almighty informed me that the Devil is supporting the Rams.

I’m not sure how he found this out but he may have attended a church where the preacher has discussions with the Lord. Remember not one team in Super Bowl history that the Devil has backed has won.

So all I can say is it is now a sure thing the Patriots will win. I probably didn’t need the information on the Devil because earlier I read that the football genius Charlie Weiss predicted it would be a Patriot blow out. As you know he knows is stuff.

Enjoy the game.

Do you believe there is a fallen angel the Devil? When was the last time you thought of the Devil? Do you believe the Devil may have an influence in your life? Do you believe the Devil is interested in tearing down that which is good?

I asked these questions because I recently tweeted a suggestion that the questioning of a judicial candidate by Kamela Harris seemed to imply an anti-Catholic bias. She asked a candidate for a judgeship who had joined what she called “an all-male society” the Knights of Columbus at age 18: “Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed a woman’s right to choose when you joined the organization?” She also mentioned the Knights were against “marriage equality.”  She well know that the Knights are a Catholic group of men who follow the teachings of the Catholic Church which holds the same position. Wasn’t her question little more than asking the judge was he aware his religion held the same position? But she was cute enough not to attack the religion because there is to be no religious tests for federal office holders, even though Dianne Feinstein seems to think there should be one when it came to a devout Catholic.

There’s this guy I’ve known for a long time. He believes in such things as the Deep State. So take his opinion on this for what it is worth coming from him.

He asked me if I ever watched professional wrestling. Yes, I admitted, “on TV when I just did not want to do or think of anything but zombie out.”

He asked me if I thought it was on the level. I laughed and said the matches were obviously scripted. He asked why I thought that. I said “they’re all somewhat predictable. The good guy wins in the end.”  He asked, “how do they decide who is the good guy?” I responded “I’d guess it is based on who draws the best crowd, you know, who has the best following.”  

You all know by now that four guys who were convicted of murdering Teddy Deegan were sent to prison for life. After a well orchestrated publicity plan two of them who were still alive were released; the other two had died in prison. All  of them by the way were Mafia guys or hung around with them. They were not four guys who just happened to be walking down the street or were picked up out of lineup; they all knew the guys involved in the murder of Teddy Deegan. Long after the murder happened they or their estates sued for damages in federal district court where they were awarded in total over 100 million dollars by Judge Nancy Gertner, a former defense lawyer.

Her basis for overturning their convictions was that the main witness in the case, which was tried in the Suffolk County Superior Court and not the federal court, was Joseph “The Animal” Barboza (he went by the name Baron which is used in the quotes from the court decision  and who is shown above) may have given some false testimony. Also, that some FBI agents knew about it and should have done something about it even though Barboza said he never told the FBI agents the full story.

I’m trying to figure out why there is so much dislike among some in Boston for the Irish. It’s not that we are some homogeneous group always sticking together and fighting off others. We may actually be the worst group for that. Didn’t that book about Gypo Nolan take place in Ireland?

I never had many talks with my grandfather, James Connolly, who immigrated from Ireland. I sometimes think it was because he was like the old lady who lived in the shoe. He had so many grandchildren he didn’t know what to do. Or, was it just that he was a taciturn man having come from a land of story tellers that required there be some listeners.

One day I recall suggesting to him that the Irish never got a break in Boston because of the Yankees. He said to me: “From what I could see the worst people to the Irish were the Irish.” The only other words I remember from him was when I visited him a short time before his death. He said, “I wish to live to see one more St. Patrick’s Day.”  Unfortunately the good Lord called him home before that time.

The caption for the photograph that appeared in the Boston Globe read in part:

“IN HIS HOME SURROUNDINGS — Tommy Sullivan meets Red Priest at the Garden Tuesday. Here he is shown, . . . at the South Boston Boys’s Club giving some pointers, etc., to Kenney Healy, Cornelius Lynch, William Kilroy, Matthew Connolly and Jim Concannon, while Patrick O’Toole and Roger Concannon demonstrate.

This was taken at the local Boy’s Club down on West 6th St. It still is there.

Roger Concannon my first cousin is show in the photograph of December 15, 1946, with the gloves on the right with a smile on his face. He’d grow up to become a good fighter but not necessary in the ring. He is missed. I’m still wearing glasses which I had thought I no longer needed at that time. My cousin Jimmy stands to my left.

That photo at the Boy’s Club brought back lots of good memories. It was the first time I had a card that let me into some place. I still remember that it was very smooth about the size of a credit card but thicker and made of a hard cardboard substance that could not be bent.

I spent many years in a district attorneys office as the deputy district attorney. I was involved in hundreds of cases by myself and with others that resulted in indictments and arrest warrants.  One of my main functions was overseeing electronic surveillance operations into organized crime and illegal drug activities which usually ended up in raids and indictments. My philosophy,  that of my fellow assistant district attorneys, the state police officers assigned to our office, and the local police officers we worked with was that our job was to investigate crimes and then prosecute them. We were to do it in a professional manner considering the rights of all the citizens of Massachusetts including those we arrested.

We did not believe our job was to punish the person who committed the crime other than making a recommendation to a judge as to what we believed the judge should impose as an appropriate punishment in either plea negotiations or after the trial. The punishment was to be left up to the judges. We did not harass or beat people. When we executed search warrants we analyzed the threat to the police officers who would execute the search and used as much force as we thought necessary for their protection. In the hundreds of raids conducted by detectives assisted by uniform police the normal side arm carried everyday by the men or women was the weapon used. Fortunately in my more than twenty years doing this no law enforcement officer was injured and the raid was carried off successfully and cleanly. By cleanly I meant we left the premises pretty much the way we found it.