Who is worse? Whitey Bulger or Joker Tsarnaev.

EvilThis is today’s quiz: Is the most evil person ever to walk the streets of Boston Whitey (James J. Bulger, Jr.) or Joker (Dzhokhar Tsarnaev)?

I ask this on the eve of the sentencing of Whitey when he is to be told, something he already knows, that he will not spend Thanksgiving at the Plymouth Plantation Jail but rather will be quite a distant from Plymouth Rock. He’ll either be in Colorado, Florida or Oklahoma.

Joker (by the way did Howie Carr steal that name from me?) will spend his Thanksgiving in Fort Devens. But Joker is not happy. He doesn’t have a radio or television and cannot get out and pray with the other inmates. (Who is he praying to and for what?)

Whitey also was unhappy when he faced the same conditions. We heard about them from the many missives that he sent out. Whitey’s complaints were met with a big yawn as they should have been.

But Joker’s have fallen on a  receptive ear. Joker’s complaints have been heard by the ACLU. That’s right, the American Civil Liberty Union which never seems to miss an opportunity to stick its nose into a high publicity case unless it involves a POOF.

Joker’s being treated in the same manner if not better than Whitey (who was stripped search three to five times a day even though he hadn’t left his cell). The ACLU had little concern for Whitey’s plight but suddenly it rears itself up to protest the manner in which Joker is being incarcerated. The ACLU alleges that Joker’s right to a fair trial under the Sixth Amendment is being threatened by the conditions of his solitary confinement at the federal lockup at Fort Devens.

How is it that what’s good for the goose is not good for the gander? Or, are we to assume the ACLU didn’t know about Whitey’s situation despite its numbing media coverage; or if it did, it had no concern that his rights were being violated. Why is it that the difficulties of a guy who is charge with terrorism seem to tug at the heart-strings of the ACLU while a gangster’s problems raise nary a concern?

But I’ve digressed. Back to the question. Who is badder?

Counting by the number dead, Whitey is far and away the leader. As to premeditated murder, if the charges are proven they both come off as equals. Which reminds me, why hasn’t the Suffolk DA charged Whitey with any of these murders? I know it would be somewhat academic like the murder charge brought against Amy Bishop but it’d be nice to have another jury have a chance to hold Whitey accountable especially for his involvement in throttling that young attractive woman Debra Davis.

As to the heinousness of the act, setting a bomb in a crowd comes out a mile ahead. I hope the federals are going to ask for the death penalty for Joker if he’s convicted of doing what is pretty much the worst possible act of detonating an explosive device in a crowd full of innocent children, mothers and others with the callous disregard of the terror and horror it will bring.

Whitey may have participate in the murder of two women but he never murdered a young child which Joker is alleged to have done.

For my money the action Joker is said to have committed is far and away more evil. Yet I sense a groundswell of support coming for this man. It alludes me how anyone can have a smidgen of sympathy for him. Is it because of his youth? Then that is better saved for the many men and women of his age who have died in combat in order to protect us and to provide people like him safe haven from dire circumstances.

His action if proven was an act of war against the people of the United States and should have been treated as such. Had I had my way he would have been shuffled off to Guantanamo and tried in front of a military tribunal. For some reason the president backed off from doing this and is letting the matter proceed as if it is an ordinary criminal act. This is a mistake when people do an act of war.

At times I’ve referred to Whitey’s trial as a circus. In thinking of Joker’s case, I have to suggest that it will make Whitey’s case look like a little side-show at a travelling carnival. Whereas few in the world cared about Whitey, there will be multitudes who will come out to support Joker. Look what happened when Rolling Stone came out with its story on him.The trial will bring about much disorder since it will attract all those with a grudge against Capitalism who will be opposed by those in its employ.

It may be a long, hot summer of 2014 in Boston.

7 Comments

  1. Matt: Saw that ticklethewire picked up your story.
    Want to share with you my primary tool for FBI news.
    Pay attention: Google fbi agent in the news
    When the page opens you will see a small tool bar just above the search
    results with names like web images maps news etc.
    Click on news.When that opens you will see the same tool bar again.
    This time click on search tools That will expand out and ask you if
    you want to sort by date or relevance. I usually do both. There is also a tool to the left of search tools that allows you to sort the material by days and hours. I usually click on last 24 hours
    The page will now fill with stories about FBI agents in the news

    I repeat the same process over again but this time remove the word
    agent keeping the phrase fbi in the news then follow the instructions above.

    If you find yourself freed up and have some time call attorney Jesse Trentadue in Salt Lake City. He successfully sued the FBI and during the discovery process obtained FBI documents showing Timothy McVeigh of the Oklahoma City bombing was a FBI informant. see link for full story

    http://bobmccarty.com/?cat=22719

    Memo Filed in Advance of 2014 Oklahoma City Bombing Trial
    Posted on November 6, 2013 by BobMcCarty
    1

    Today, almost two months after sharing news about a new Oklahoma City Bombing trial being set for Spring 2014, I received copies of Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue’s proposed Trial Memorandum in which he outlines the case he hopes will result in FBI officials handing over copies of videotapes they have, thusfar, refused to produce.

    Untold Stories of the OKC BombingVia the Freedom of Information Act, Trentadue has spent most of the past five years trying to obtain copies of videotape images captured by more than 20 surveillance cameras operating in the vicinity of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City prior to 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995.

    While the FBI did produce tapes from the buildings around the Murrah Building, the tapes had been edited, Trentadue said. As for the tapes from the cameras on the Murrah Building, the contents of which are described in a timeline prepared by the Secret Service, the FBI does not dispute the existence of the unedited versions of the surveillance tapes recorded prior to the blast; instead, they say they cannot find them. In addition, FBI officials have refused to provided the one-time star athlete at the University of Southern California with a copy of the original videotape showing the arrest of Timothy McVeigh as recorded on the dashboard camera of Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Charles Hanger’s vehicle the day of the bombing.

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Below, I offer an excerpt from the document shared with me today. Please note that I have removed footnotes and, in a few cases, added links for downloading other referenced documents and graphics to lead you to related articles.

    Trentadue Proposed Pre-Trial 11-05-13In the Order of September 9, 2013, the Court announced its intention to conduct a bench trial with respect to Defendants Motion for Summary Judgment. The Court also ordered the parties to submit a Trial Memorandum. In response to that Order, Plaintiff hereby submits his proposed Trial Memorandum.
    OKC Bombing Interviews

    Click to read interviews.

    This suit arises under the Freedom 0f Information Act (“FOIA”). Plaintiff requested the Defendants to produce a number of videotapes: (1) the original Videotape taken by the dashboard camera on Oklahoma Highway Patrolman Charles Hanger’s vehicle showing the arrest of Timothy McVeigh on the morning of April 19, 1995; and (2) surveillance videotapes taken on the morning of April 19, 1995 by exterior cameras mounted on the following, among other, Buildings: (a) Murrah Federal Building; (b) Journal Record Building; (c) Regency Tower Apartment Building; Southwestern Bell Building, (e) YMCA Building, and (f), as described by a contemporaneous government records, a “security camera” videotape showing “the Ryder truck pulling up to the Federal Building and then pausing (7-10 seconds) before resuming into a slot in the front of the building” and “the truck detonation 3 minutes and 6 seconds after the suspects exited the truck.” Plaintiff also requested copies of all reports, including 302′s, that described and/or referenced Defendants having possession of these videotapes.
    Hussain Al-Hussaini (Quincy P.D. Photo)

    Author: ‘Third Terrorist’ Arrested in Quincy, Mass.

    In response, Defendants produced 160 pages of documents related to the videotapes but only very few of these documents concerned the videotapes requested by Plaintiff; whereas most of these documents were irrelevant in that they related to videotapes from other locations and even other states, including videotapes of television news casts about the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. However, Defendants did not produce several key documents related to their having possession of the videotapes requested by Plaintiff. Defendants, for example, did not produced to Plaintiff a report that the Operations Manager at the Journal Record Building had handed over a videotape to the FBI taken from an exterior camera on the building that had “been blown off the wall” by the explosion and might show the “persons responsible;” a document reporting that the FBI had reviewed videotapes from the Journal Record Building and Southwestern Bell surveillance cameras which were “positive” for images of the “suspects” and/or “explosion” a document showing that on November 25, 1995 two surveillance tapes were being held in the FBI’s “Washington Metropolitan Field Office” or a document stating that certain videotapes were being kept in the “valuable evidence vault.”
    Trentadue Motion for Limited Disc 2-27-13

    Are FBI Informants Working Inside Churches?

    Defendants also produced what appeared to be an edited version of the Hanger videotape, but claimed not to be able to locate the original videotape, which they took into evidence on April 27, 1995. With respect to the videotapes from surveillance cameras that Plaintiff had requested, Defendants provided no tapes from the Murrah Building surveillance cameras nor any records related to those tapes. While Defendants did produce tapes from cameras at the Journal Record Building, Southwestern Bell Building and Regency Towers, they produced none from the exterior cameras directed at the Murrah Building even though they took those tapes in to evidence; and Defendants also did not produce tapes from the YMCA Building or a videotape showing “the Ryder truck pulling up to the Federal Building and then pausing (7-10 seconds) before resuming into a slot in the front of the building” and “the truck detonation 3 minutes and 6 seconds after the suspects exited the truck.”

    On May 5, 2011, the Court entered an Order requiring Defendants to conduct additional searches for the videotapes and related records. The Order further provided that if Defendants did not conduct those searches, they were to explain to the Court Why such searches would not be reasonably calculated to locate the videotapes and documents. Defendants did not conduct the additional searches. Neither did they submit a credible explanation to the Court for not having done so.

    ‘Operation Fast and Furious’ Coverup Not Unique

    Nevertheless, Defendants have moved for summary judgment contending that they have only an edited version of the Hanger videotape, not the original; and that they can not find the Murrah Building surveillance tapes. Defendants offer no explanation for not producing the other videotapes referenced above. Instead, Defendants insist that they did adequate, but limited, computerized searches of their ZyIndex and ACS data bases for the videotapes and documents which failed to locate additional videotapes or related records, and that is supposedly all that is required of them under the FOIA.

  2. Dear Matt,

    This name does have some appropriately potent alliteration. I think it works! Perhaps it shall be my new pseudonym. Just trying it on for size at the moment.

    Sincerely,
    Howie Hoar

  3. Speaking of Howie, he was just now on a radio interview with Pat Kenny in Dublin (Newstalk). Howie told the folks how he was marked for death by Whitey, and how Kevin weeks refused to kill him when he saw Howie with his daughter — just like in countless B movies and on bad TV.

    As a parting gift to the Irish, Howie told us to buy his latest book about Whitey, Ratman, now on Amazon.

    http://www.newstalk.ie/player/podcasts/The_Pat_Kenny_Show/The_Pat_Kenny_Show_Highlights/38012/2/%22Whitey_tried_to_have_me_killed%22

    • Henry:

      My father had a good friend who was named Charlie Hoar. He was a real good guy with a gift for gab, nice smile and a person it was comfortable to be around. I always felt bad that he was stuck with such a last name and glad that it wasn’t mine.

      Why I mention Charlie is that I think his last name would be more appropriate attached to Howie, although to proper represent the man we’d have to spell it in the common manner.

      It’s snowing here – I’m sure you Irishers are enjoying a delightful sunny day. Take care of yourself.

      • No snow here, Matt, but no sun either. Rain, rain and rain.

        Hoar is an old Yankee name. Last I knew were people from Concord.
        And of course there is Goodwin, Proctor & Hoar.

        Not to forget the school in Southie, George Frisbie Hoar School.