The end of the Pre-Flemmi Years is a good time to stop to reflect upon a shockingly erroneous belief that has come to the fore in these matters. I pause now because I suggest I’ve just clearly shown that Murderman John Martorano has played, to put it mildly, very loosely with the truth. I pointed out in my book, Don’t Embarrass The Family, and here, the obvious lies Flemmi, Salemme, Morris and Weeks have told. It’s so bad that I’ve questioned how a prosecutor can justify using them as witnesses or how we have a system that requires a jury to guess when a life-long admitted liar is telling the truth.
Our whole belief system about what happened as it involves Whitey is based upon these lies with very little independent verification. An industry has been built upon these religious-like beliefs. Books, without footnotes or support relative to the critical issues, have been written allegedly containing facts but have so much made-up stuff in them that we’re left guessing at the truth. Findings have been made by judges in the federal district court and court of appeals awarding large sums of money based on this. So many people are invested in it that suggesting they are all wrong is like telling an Orthodox Jew, Strict Muslim, Conservative Catholic, Fundamentalist Christian or anyone with hard-core beliefs she is wrong in what she believes. I know no one will change her mind but I offer this one bit of evidence for her to consider.
I’ll discuss Whitey’s involvement in two murders that are associated with FBI Agent John Connolly during The Boss Years, those of Brian Halloran and John Callahan. These have been attributed to Agent Connolly through the reasoning that he told Whitey that Halloran was cooperating against him with the FBI. And later, that he told Whitey that Callahan would not stand up under FBI pressure if questioned. By the way, Connolly’s been in prison for ten years and will spend the rest of his life in prison based on these suppositions.
Thinking of the murder of Spike O’Keefe which I just set out made my thoughts slip over from his murder to one that is associated with his murder, that of Eddie Connors, the owner of Bulldog’s in Savin Hill. Whoever killed Eddie, the reason commonly asserted is that it that his gangster buddies believed he was talking too much which meant he would end up cooperating with law enforcement against them. He was murdered without any leak from the FBI. It was just an underworld thing where potential threats are erased or as Frankie Salemme would say taken care of “in a disposal operation.”
Murderman Martorano in his book tells of his early killings. Some of these are done because the word among the hoodlums is that someone might be cooperating. There is not even a hint it was done because an FBI agent is tipping them off. These guys live by eradicating threats. For some of them shooting someone is like getting out of bed. I’ve learned from one of the persons who has filed a comment here and who I know is from Savin Hill that after Spike O’Keefe shot Bobby Noonan six times he visited Noonan at the hospital. The doctor said it was a miracle Noonan survived. He asked Noonan why Spike shot him. Bobby replied, “Because I insulted his dog.”
To understand this gangster world it is important to know it does not take much more than that in some instances to be shot. Much depends on the mindset of the person at the time you encounter him. If he’s having a bad day, then you’d best walk gingerly. If you haven’t hung around the street and gotten in a serious fist fight with a guy you’d been friendly with for years over practically nothing you don’t know this. If you haven’t gone to a football game and ended up in a brawl with your cousin leading the group you are fighting with you won’t understand.
You have to grow up in this world, feel it on your skin, know how to live in it to survive and to have associated with some of these characters to understand how they operate. You don’t learn it from books. You learn it from everyday associations rubbing shoulders with the worst of the worst and some of the best of the best all mixed in together. That’s what it’s like growing up on city streets or as it is now commonly called, “the hood.”
You don’t need FBI agents to tell you when you are at risk. You know it and feel it. That’s how you survive. I’ll go on with this tomorrow.
Matt, a clerical error: Bobby replied, not “Spike replied.”
Corrected, thanks. My proof readers and editors found that it was too cold for them to come to work.