The Mystery Teddy Deegan Informant: Did He Exist? Or, Was It Wimpy

Reading Judge Gertner’s findings in the Teddy Deegan case again in part because I was chastised for not spelling Louis Greco’s last name correctly and told I was writing “jibber jabber” when it came to that case I have to agree with her that Barboa added Louis Greco and Joseph Salvati into the murder of Deegan when the great preponderance of the evidence shows they were not there. My apologies to the friends of Greco if I suggested otherwise.

While doing this I came across a couple of things that piqued my interest. Gertner wrote that on March 6, 1962, the FBI installed electronic surveillance at the office of Raymond Patriarca. This wiretap was not authorized by court order or warrant. As a result anything the FBI learned over the wiretap could not be used in court as evidence by the government.

But the FBI was cute.  It gave the wiretap an informant identification number. As a result, “FBI reports describing conversations heard on the wire referred to it as if it were a human source, an informant just like any other.”  Normal information obtained from informants can be used in any manner. For instance, it can be put in an affidavit as a basis for a search warrant. Information obtained illegally, cannot be used in that manner. In other words once it is illegally obtained, anything that flows from it has the taint of the original. I had to wonder how many times the FBI used illegally obtained evidence, described it as being legally obtained, and used it. It is pretty corrupt if it did it especially if it deceived a judge into getting a warrant based on misidentifying its source.

I suppose I already figure that out so I should not have been so surprised. A couple of things though did surprise me. The first was how many times FBI Agents Rico and Condon lied in their testimony. Time after time Gertner showed that records totally contradicted their testimony. For instance, Condon said he never read an FBI report in January 1966 entitled, “Boston Gangland Murders: Criminal Intelligence Program.” At the time he was in the Boston office doing investigations of criminal gangs. It defies belief he would not have read it. Especially, when his initials are on the cover of the report indicating he had read it.

The other surprise was a really BIG ONE. Gertner wrote: “The informant said that [Jimmy] Flemmi suggested he have an alibi for “the next few evenings,” in case he was suspected of the murder. The footnote read: “This information — though not from the wire — was especially reliable. It was reported by one of the FBI’s most valued Top Echelon informants. Although his identity was not disclosed, the record reflects he was developed by Rico, used by Rico to develop Stephen Flemmi, and credited by the FBI with providing hem with “a wealth of information regarding high-level organized crime,” and “accurate and authentic data regarding gangland strife.” 

If such person existed, who could it have been. He had to be at a high level. He had to be someone who spoke with Jimmy Flemmi within days of the murder of Teddy Deegan on March 12, 1965. He could not have been Barboza who was not an informant at the time. Jimmy Flemmi had to trust him. He also had to be trusted by Stephen Flemmi who he assisted the FBI in opening on November 27, 1965.

He could not have been any of the high level guys in the Boston Mafia. The group that Jimmy Flemmi hung around with was the Roxbury gang. That gang was composed primarily of John and Jimmy Martorano, Frank Salemme, Stevie and Jimmy Flemmi, and the Bennett brothers. Edward “Wimpy” Bennett was ostensibly the leader of that group.

Wimpy was also a friend of Raymond Patriarca. He was murdered on January 18, 1967, by John Martorano, Stevie Flemmi, and Frankie Salemme. His brothers were murdered in April and December of that year by the same group. Have to think Wimpy is high up on the small list of people who could fit into that category.