Was Whitey Worse That Bonnie And Clyde? Boston’s Follies

As all of you know it brings out a smile in my face when I recall the line in the O’Neill and Lehr book that said Whitey Bulger stood at the front of the line of all the criminals in the the United States. Whatever the purpose was in making that ludicrous statement is beyond me. It goes along with the other statements attributed to him that he terrorized Boston for 25 years (even though almost no one knew they were terrorized). Maybe the the terror was like Covid-19 that people catch and never show symptoms and do not know they had it.

He was said to be a greater criminal than John Gotti and even the notorious Bonny  and Clyde. When I read about the latter two I understood they had no idea what was going on in the world of gangsters.

Bonnie Parker was 19 years old when she met and Clyde Barrows was 21 in 1930. Bonnie died at age 23 and Clyde at age 25 on May 23, 1934, in Louisiana.  They began their viscous life of crime in 1931 and over their two years of crime they had murdered nine law enforcement officers, murdered five civilians, and robbed a countless number of gas stations, grocery stores, and banks. Clyde’s weapon of choice were Browning automatic rifles stolen from armories. Their exploits were followed all across America.

Whitey’s exploits during his time of crime were not known by anyone in the public. He achieved his fame when he was not longer in the criminal business. Can you tell of any other criminal who was not notorious but only became so after he was not longer around?

Comparing Whitey to either Gotti or Bonnie and Clyde or any other real gangster is also absurd because of one other significant item: Whitey was protected by the FBI. What kind of top criminal aligns himself with the FBI; on the other hand what type of law enforcement outfit aligns itself with a run of the mill criminal.

Whitey was sentenced to prison for twenty years in 1956. Others who had been involved in the three other robberies he committed were also sentenced around that time. There are reports that Whitey cooperated with the FBI by disclosing the identities of those who were with him. Some suggest he did it outright and others said he used his girlfriend Jackie McAuliffe to give the information so that it would not look like it came from him. I excused this saying even if it was true Whitey took the rap to save his girlfriend, I still wondered whether he had cooperated.

All doubts were put aside when his attorney told the federal judge who sentenced him that Whitey had cooperated.  Further, Whitey had a guy who had cooperated and named him as an accomplice. He does not come out of that episode at age 25 looking like a Bonnie and Clyde.

Whitey served some time at Alcatraz and two other federal prisons. He got out after nine years. Some suggest that he was released early because of influence exerted by others but that was not the case. The amount of time he served was consistent with those who received similar sentences. When he was released in 1965 he would be on parole for another ten years. It is unlikely that while he was in this status he would put himself in the position to have to go back to prison.

That is another reason why I doubt, like the Boston jury, that he was involved in the murders of the Al Angeli gang back in the early 1970s as alleged by John Martorano. He admitted he and Howie Winters did the murders but Whitey was in a crash car somewhere nearby. Obviously John knew anything he could implicate Whitey in would help him out with his deal with the federal prosecutors so he added him in whenever he could.

Speaking of John Martorano, were you aware that he murdered more Black Americans in the Boston area than anyone else. That’s another record that he shares along with getting the least sentence of any person who was convicted of murdering twenty people of anyone in the history of America. As I’ve pointed out, it could only have happened in Boston.

11 Comments

  1. william m. connolly

    Matt pathetically denies the facts. Who confirms Joe Pistone’s opinion? Judge Harrington repeatedly testified John Connolly helped gut the Patriarca Crime Family.
    U.S. Attorney and Federal Judge Edward Harrington twice testified that John Connolly was substantially responsible for taking down the New England Mafia. Why can’t Matt admit this? FBI agent Joe Pistone has repeatedly said John Connolly was primarily responsible for taking down the Patriarch crime family. Why does Matt doubt this? Why Matt cannot accept Harrington’s opinions and Pistone’s opinions? Why can’t Matt give credit to John Connolly? Why does Matt begrudge? Why continue to demean and belittle?

    • william m. connolly

      In both Connolly cases (2002, 2008), Harrington testified that John Connolly substantially contributed to the decimation of the New England Mafia.

      Harrington described Connolly’s contributions as “without parallel” in prosecuting the Patriarca Family. Judge Edward Harrington was again effusive in his description of Connolly as one of the nation’s top mob busters. When asked to describe Connolly’s contribution to the national fight against organized crime, Harrington said: “It was substantial. It was without parallel.”

      Harrington, a former U.S. Attorney from Boston who spent most of his career prosecuting gangsters, said Connolly had an uncanny ability to recruit informants from within the decision-making circles of organized crime.
      “John Connolly had a great ability,” Harrington testified, “And he had a certain flair that created a confidence and trust with underworld figures”

      Harrington said the flair enabled Connolly to collect “enormous and critical intelligence that was the basis for substantial and successful prosecutions.”

      • William:

        you are banging your head up against facts with an alternative version of history. Harrington went out to California and testified that Joe “the Animal” Barboza was a good guy and should be given a break. The facts are the facts. Bulger did nothing against the Mafia. He did not have any connections with it. You confuse Connolly’s use of Flemmi and others with Mafia connections with Bulger. Connolly got too, too close to Bulger for his own good.

    • William:

      Pistone did not work in Boston. He did not know what Connolly did in relation to Bulger. Stick to the issue. It is, and I spell it out agains, that Whitey Bulger had no information on the Mafia that should have allowed him to become a Top Echelon informant. Flemmi could give the information to Connolly, so could some others. The issue is not what the FBI did to the Mafia – the issue is not whether Connolly had information that helped the FBI contribute – it is that he did not need to protect Whitey.

  2. william m. connolly

    I believe Joe Pistone. Pistone had confirmed his opinions in writing. John Connolly was a highly decorated FBI agent. You cannot give any credit to John Connolly, nor can you give credit to the FBI. Too bad you are not able to write positive statements.

    • William:

      Why do you not understand the issue and run afield with all these other issues. I have discussed the Whitey Bulger matters. You want to discuss everything but them. Whitey played no role and Connolly as a matter of fact played very little in taking down the Angiulo crime family. That was taken down because of bugs planted by the FBI pursuant to a warrant of which Connolly had no part. These are facts. Point out where I am wrong and don’t talk about everything else.

  3. O’Neill and Lehr were the harbingers of what the press has become, the absence
    of any semblance of truth in favor of a narrative that sells their sordid tales to
    a public that once thought newspapers would inform them of the news in a candid,
    professional manner.They are no different than any other business for profit except for
    one very important ace up their sleeve, the first amendment without which they
    would be out of business.

  4. You are right about Dershowitz. A totally amoral person. He claimed all Boston Police were liars. He lied about his confrontation at the State House with Sen. Bulger. He framed John Connolly to get even with Bulger. He appeared on CNN with Larry King who introduced him as a great trial lawyer. Dershowitz never tried a trespass case let alone a felony. He never corrected King. He was always only an appellate lawyer. He recently appeared on Fox and said he wasn’t friends with Epstein. He was only his lawyer. Carlson and Pirro laughed at his bogus claim. He stayed at Epstein’s houses where he received massages. Lock him up! 2. The FBI did deal with gangsters, But they put the top 50 or so Mafia Dons in NY, Boston, Providence, New Jersey et al. in prison. The DEA, Customs and State Police did not. The DEA, Customs and State Police fell for the myth of Whitey the top gangster. They became the useful idiots of the Mafia’s disinformation campaign. Along with some moronic prosecutors and judges who concocted the Martorano deal. Trump should defund the Federal Court in Massachusetts. It is a totally lawless institution.

    • NC:

      As you well know the FBI fell for the myth that Whitey was a top gangster. You want proof. He was put into their Top Echelon Informant Program that was for top gangsters. The truth is he never had any information for the FBI. He had no connections with the Mafia. He did nothing to bring the Mafia down. Zero. Nada. John Connolly who was assigned to protect Whitey did a good job protecting him from the other groups that were investigating bookies and drug dealers. Why do you think the DEA would not allow the FBI to know what it was doing?

      • william m. connolly

        The FBI TEI program resulted in the arrest of hundreds of top gangsters.

        FBI Special Agent Joe Pistone repeatedly credited John Connolly primarily responsible for taking down the New England Mafia. Former Special Agent Pistone wrote; “The reign of the Patriarca Family is virtually ended. A substantial amount of the credit for the demise of that Mob Family must be given to one man, Special Agent John Connolly.”
        Connolly had many TEIs, including Flemmi.

        Give credit to the FBI. Give credit to John Connolly.

        In 2011, FBI agents and partner law enforcement officers arrested nearly 130 members of the Mafia . . . members of New York’s infamous Five Families—the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Luchese crime organizations—were rounded up along with members of the New Jersery-based DeCavalcante family and New England Mafia to face charges including murder, drug trafficking, extortion etcetera

        Give credit to the FBI.

        • Bill:

          Whitey had no information on the Mafia. Shake and dance all you want he just did not have any. He did not give Connolly anything on the Mafia for the simple reason he had no information on it. Connolly and Whitey had nothing to do with the evidence for the wiretap on both Angiulo and Baione which wiped out the Angiulo and Baione group other than Flemmi giving the FBI a sketch of the Dog House. That wiretap application was written by others without input from him. Connolly and Whitey had nothing to do with putting Patriarca in the can.

          What the hell did Pistone know except what Connolly told him? What do you know about this to suggest Connolly gave any information that helped take down the Mafia? The question is who bloated up Whitey’s reputation besides the Globe, Howie Carr and others in the Boston media. It was Connolly and the FBI. He never should have been a top echelon informant. He should have never been protected by Connolly.

          We are talking about whether Whitey contributed to anything relating to the Mafia take down and the answer is no. Even Connolly if he told the truth would acknowledge that. The North End guys did not trust Whitey – he was Irish so they told him nothing.

          We are not talking about whether the FBI took down the Mafia. It did after denying it existed for many years and then being embarrassed by it when it had its Apalachin meeting. No one is suggesting the FBI did not do it and that is not the issue.