Whitey and Stevie’s relationship would not be put asunder until Stevie testified in 1997. It had lasted over 22 years, the last three were years of separation: Whitey was hiding out, Stevie was in prison. Connolly kept up his role in the trio all through that time.
Of the three, Connolly was brought along for the ride. He was always the junior man, a young kid gofer hanging around with the guys with the rep, sort of a valet, a gentleman’s gentleman, or in this case a gangster’s gentleman. He really was no match for either of these hardened men: Flemmi by combat and prior murders; Whitey by prison and innate toughness. Both by daily living in the jungle of the depraved and cruel gunmen.
Remember Connolly has had no prior experience dealing with informants. Flemmi is his first and Whitey is his second. He’s a new-born lamb being circled by two wolves who played with him as a cat with a mouse. The FBI provided no guidance to him. He had no checks and balances. He was given a tabula rasa and told to fill it in. There were rules but everyone knew they were fake. They were to protect the job from embarrassment but otherwise to be ignored.
His FBI supervisor was the corrupt friendless man John Morris who likewise had no experience dealing with the hard criminal types. He testified, as set out in my book, Don’t Embarrass The Family, he didn’t fit into either group in the Boston FBI office which is pretty pathetic considering the type of agents there who were very open and friendly. Morris, an oddball like Robert Hanssen, wanted to be liked. Whitey and Stevie were very willing to like him, and since they were in the corruption business, to welcome him in.
Of the threesome Flemmi was the most despicable and what would go along with that, the most cowardly. Despicable, not because of the many murders he committed, but because he killed two young women he had known in the Biblical sense. Even if one believes his invented story that Whitey murdered them, Flemmi stood by and let it happen.
Cowardly because he had never done time and to avoid that he turned on everyone he could to extricate himself from his self-made situation; because he murdered two young women or worse stood by while it happened; and was an FBI informant all of his adult life. It’s hard to think of a worse person. Since his decision to turn on others he has continually perjured himself in his testimony. Yet, he’s the main witness of the prosecution. Imagine asking us or a jury to believe this man!
Whitey likewise has become diminished in stature. He is no longer keeping his mouth shut, accepting the blame for his life of evil, and walking off with his head held high. He’s whining about the food in prison. He’s now saying, whether true or not, that he paid Connolly for information. He is undermining the guy that helped him enjoy the good life. He does not seem to understand that this makes him an informant against Connolly, something he avers he would never be.
Whitey had a mirror that always told him he was the fairest of them all and all that mattered was what he wanted. He somehow still fails to see it lied to him. He must accept that he can never get out of jail and his future life will be for the most part intolerable, bordering on cruel and unusual treatment without recourse to the courts, for in the eyes of the judiciary he belongs among the damned.
Yet he still has it in his power to act wisely and alleviate any harm he has brought to his family and those who stuck by him. That is all that should matter to him now. He should look beyond the mirror at the lives of others. He must now decide how he wants his final chapter to be written. He might think he’s getting a raw deal and people are lying about him but he should think of the raw deals he has given other people and accept his cup.
And as we’ve heard a wise man say, the last shall be first. Paradoxically it turns out that the lowliest member of this threesome is the highest. John Connolly now seems to be the only stand up guy. The guy told by his bosses to get into this group has been harshly sentenced for his Boston conviction and wrongfully convicted in Florida.
He does his hard time in a Florida prison refusing to be lured into freedom by perjuring himself. Rejecting the prosecutors blandishments to give them something about Billy Bulger, even lies since he has repeated said Billy is a man of integrity, he will be imprisoned for life, unless this cruel injustice is reversed.
Unlike all the others, including all the witnesses against him he did not set out to live a life of crime; nor did he put a bullet in another person’s head or watch while it happened; nor did he lie to save himself from the likelihood of dying in prison.
Only in this confederacy of liars could truthfulness be so severely punished and villainy rewarded..
Matt, P.S. I don’t have all the answers and I want all the facts and opinions as much as possible to come out. Your blog is unique in presenting excellent commentary from many experienced, intelligent people. By the way, my friend State Trooper Bob Cerra has an excellent letter to the editor in the Herald today. He wants to see what Stearns, the judges, the prosecutors, the press people, and Whitey has to say; he wants all the facts out. He’s furious, too, the feds protected Whitey and Flemmi so long. I’m furious the Feds (Wyshak and Sterns) cut deals with Martorano et al, allowing serial killers and mob leaders not to fully disclose all they knew about murders and heroin trafficking. Cerra says lets hear from everyone. I want Martorano to admit that his brother or others were with him when they murdered Tony Veranis. You know the two different contradictory accounts Howie Carr presents on his web site and in his book Hitman are both lies. We know Martorano’s modus operandum. He shot people in the back; he snuck up on them and ambushed them. And that’s most likely what he did to Tony Veranis who would have knocked the fat slob silly in a fistfight. Veranis as a professional boxer had a fifty percent knock out record. Martorano snuck up and shot Tony Veranis in the back of the head. Then he and his associates drove his perhaps still breathing body (think of Congresswomen Giffords who survived a head wound) to the Blue Hills. There they dumped the body and then grotesquely desecrated the body by beating it to a pulp. Read the medical examiners’ report; the ME called it a vicious “professional hit.”, not a barroom brawl and shootout. The ME knew it was premeditated and savage and done by cowards like Martorano. Martorano shot Tony Veranis in the back of the head and he said he shot him in Dorchester, then Martorano drove his still breathing body to the Blue Hills and killed him with the savage beating there. That’s what most likely happened. Milton’s Blue Hills are in Norfolk County. Since the Norfolk DA never granted immunity to Martorano (we think), he should immediately arrest him and prosecute him for the murder of Tony Veranis. Remember Martorano claimed he outdrew Veranis, a professional fighter with lightning fast hands. Remember Martorano said Billy O’Sullivan helped him carry Veranis’s body to the car? Well, Billy O’Sullivan lived in Savin Hill and was raising his family there as was Billy’s brother Bobby. We knew them; we knew their sons (our age) Bobby and Danny. We knew that three of the O’Sullivan brother had fought together on Guadalcanal. Three O’Sullivans from Boston on Guadalcanal; the Japanese didn’t have a chance. We knew that if Johnny Martorano came in Billy O’Sullivan’s bar and pulled a gun on Tony Veranis, Billy would have shot Martorano dead. The O’Sullivans all knew, liked, admired Tony Veranis: he was our neighborhood boxing champ; we all went to see him box. Here’s the end of this story: Martorano is a stone cold killer and stone cold liar. Who was with him when he murdered Tony Veranis? Like Bob Cerra who demands to know all the facts, we want all the facts about why Martorano who killed 20 people is allowed to lie about murders and cover up for other murderers. Who really was with Martorano when he killed Eddie Connors and all those other people? Who did his brother murder or help murder or attempt to murder, if anyone? Was his brother an accessory before or after the fact to any murders. The Martoranos lived in Milton, a short drive from the Blue Hills. Who were those other gangsters Carr said he met with at Martorano’s house? Did any of them tell tales of murder? Carr said he’d never disclose who they were or what they said. The Court must order him to disclose everything he knows. Aren’t we entitled to ask these questions and get answers? We’re talking about murderers here!!! Why were the federal judges and federal prosecutors so quick to cut lenient deals with serial killers and serial perjurers (Flemmi, Salemme, Martorano, Weeks are proven liars)? What is Wyshak covering up? I read in RICO that Wyshak never gave lie detector tests to any of these serial killers and perjurers. Like Howie Carr, he apparently accepted the sordid,self-serving tales of all the serial killers with little scrutiny of whether they were true or false. Let’s get to the real bottom of the corruption that still exists in our FBI (Why isn’t Martorano in prison?), federal courts, federal justice department and federal prosecutors office. And let’s see if we can plumb the depths of the “Fast and Furious” programs and assassination programs within our Federal Government, and why did heroin trafficking increase in Afghanistan after we invaded. Whose profiting from all these murders, drug trafficking, gun-running and coverups. Honest FBI agents, State Cops and ordinary citizens would like answers. And let’s not spare Congressman and other pols from scrutiny, like Tierney! How did his wife get one month in jail for laundering six million dollars and filing false tax returns? Were’nt those the charges against her? Let’s clean house! “Time to set the night on fire” as Jim Morrison sang in “Light my fire!” Finally, Justice Souter who has criticized Judge Stearns and Judge Wolfe for their failures to recuse themselves, hopefully will get to the bottom of who among the judges, law clerks, or clerks of courts fed him the false information that john connolly was convicted of accepting “bribes” and of leaking information that led to snitches’ deaths.
The truth shall set us free!
One last thought about Tony Veranis’s murder. Which human being is most foul: the man who murdered him or the man who mocks his murder and mocks him in death. We know Tony Veranis and know he was an honorable man, who, as Father Hart and Bob Coyne both said, “was trying to turn his life around” and “was hanging out with” a good group of friends from Dorchester, when Martorano brutally, savagely, cowardly took his life. Howie Carr mocks murder victims and laughs at the wounds he inflicts on the family and friends of Tony Veranis. Howie Carr said, “This is the happiest day of my life” when he heard Sal DiMasi and Dick McDonough were convicted of bribery. Howie Carr runs a death poll on his radio show and celebrates when someone famous dies by giving his callers prizes. Howie Carr calls “Johnny” Martorano his good friend and invites him on his radio shows and t.v. shows. Howie Carr mocks persons’ scars. “They mock scars who never felt wounds!” So who is worse: the man who murders, or the man who mocks the murdered?
Bill:
There are lots of problems with the criminal justice system and lots of good things about it. I suggest 99% of the judges, prosecutors and people assisting them are good honest hard working people trying to do their best. There is no conspiracy out there that is undermining things. Howie Carr is an entertainer. He’s made a good living from attacking the Bulgers and cuddling up to Martorano but its how he keeps his audience. If you keep in mind it is all an act — look upon him as being on the stage at the Old Howard in front of a group of begrudgers — then you’ll understand that’s his way of making a living. It’s not that he’s to blame it’s that what he pushes there is a demand for it. You might as well condemn all his listeners as him, for without them he’d have gone off to the Maine woods a long time ago.
Tierney’s wife got a break because Tierney was a Congressman. What’s so surprising about that? Rich people don’t get sent to the death chamber as often a poor people. Things aren’t ever going to be fair.
Matt, I heard John Connolly under oath in Miami state that if he knew any of the gangsters had committed a murder he would have arrested them. He said that in response to a question from Wyshak. As far as the statement, “Connolly did nothing”, I’ve previously responded to that. We don’t know how extensively John interviewed people, discussed issues with contacts on teh street, discussed issues with other agents, raise the issues in meetings inside the FBI. It may be so simple: He conducted a preliminary investigation and found the Tulsa man’s allegations preposterous. Certainly, the book RICO indicates the guy was obsessed almost to the point of mania in indicting not only everyone iin the FBI at every level, but also the CIA. They were all interfering with his investigations; they all were threatening his family. You know it reminds me of Cardinal Law. No question: negligent supervision: but no one ever condemns the psychiatrist who advised the Church for 20 years that predators could be “cured” nor does anyone condemn the Church’s many lawyers who advised that deals be struck to cover up the allegations of sexual abuse. Did Connolly make some bad decisions? Perhaps, yes. He should have been more vigilant, more questioning, more skeptical about the murderous impulses of his TE informants. That’s easy to say 20 years after the fact. But did John Connolly intend anyone be murdered or physically harmed? To me, that’s absurd. To those who know John it would be like saying one of the O’Leary’s or Callahane’s intended someone be murdered or maimed. And believe me, there are plenty of my friends who you know who I wouldn’t put anything past. We’ve all known some felons and some very violent men, including gunmen. John Connolly was one of the good guys; not an alcoholic, not a drug addict, not a philanderer like Morris, not a gambler, just an ordinary decent guy from Southie or Savie. The only modification I’d make to your analogy is this: John was not a lamb among two wolves, Bulger and Flemmi; John was a 200 pound American mountain dealing with two 250 pound jaguars. John was a tough man, morally, physically and intellectually (BC, Harvard, Suffolk Law) but he was no match for the sadistic hardened criminals made harder by long prison sentences and long stretches in solitary confinement (Whitey)and the hardened combat veteran made harder by multiple murders (Flemmi). John additionally was entrapped by the admittedly corrupt Morris, his supervisor, who had sold his soul for pieces of eight he accepted as bribes from bookies, drug dealers and men he may have suspected of murder. Morris himself admitted he tried to get Whitey and Flemmi killed. Finally, the Rakes boys have their own criminal past, which Gerard O’Neil and Richard Lehr (rhymes with Howie Cur)failed to even mention. Yes, it was a swamp. And John Connolly, a good and honest cop who never intended to hurt anyone, got sucked into it. Like his lawyer, Casiabelle, in Miami said, “Wyshak through a ton of dirt from serial killers at John Connolly hoping some would stick.” The villains in this sordid affair are the judges adn federal prosecutors, in my book. I think Justice Souter is inclined to agree with that view.
Bill:
John Connolly never testified anywhere. I’m quite sure he was never under oath. He may have made a statement at his sentencing hearing but he was not sworn in before doing that. Even if he had been, he was never on a witness stand subject to cross-examination.
How could he find the Tulsa request preposterous when it turned out to be right on the money? If Connolly did as you suggest, he filed no report about anything. AS far as Rakes is concerned, the law doesn’t say extortion is wrong unless it is committed against bad guys.
Matt, John asked the Rakes to wear a wire and they refused. Rakes’ two sisters said he sold the store because he needed the money and he did it voluntarily. As far as John knowing who killed Halloran, remember his testimony in Miami: “If I knew the gangsters had killed anyone, I would have arrested them.” Remember, Flemmi’s 2006 sworn testimony (deposition)”John Connolly never did or said anything intending anyone be killed.” Remember Halloran’s dying words; was it Sgt Mullane who asked Brian who did this and Brian said, “Jimmy Flynn.” Remember, too, that no one in the press and no one in law enforcement pointed a finger at Whitey for a murder until 1995; in the excellent RICO book (it has a few minor mistakes) they point out the first indictment against Bulger, Flemmi, Salemme, Martorano was for “racketeering”. A week after Flemmi’s and others’ arrest, according to the book ( a week after Flemmi’s arrest) a superceding indictment came down charging the gangsters for the first time with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, etc. Morris testfied in about 1999 that he “suspected” Bulger and Flemmi killed Halloran. Should Connolly have made the connection in 1984? Who knows? He was their handler. But did he know? It’s pure speculation. But the fact is no one had substantial evidence leaking Flemmi or Bulger to the 1980s murders. Matt, you’ve pointed all this out before. It’s easy to look back ten or twenty years and say Billy Connolly should have known this or that or John Connolly should have known this or that. But when no one else 20 years ago knew something, it’s wrong to single out one person and impute knowledge to him and only to him. If it was known Whitey committed the Halloran murder, why did the Suffolk D.A. prosecuted only Jimmy Flynn for it? No one knew back then.
Bill:
John Connolly admitted to two newspaper reporters he was told by Joe Lundbohm that the Rakes complained to him that Whitey, Stevie and Weeks had extorted the store from him. He stipulated to that in court. He filed no report of the Rakes allegations with the FBI. He never spoke to Rakes’s two sisters. I say that is indicative of his knowledge that his two informants were engaged in strong arming people.
John never testified anywhere but did make that statement to a reporter that if he had known his informants had killed anyone he would have arrested someone. But remember there are levels of knowledge ranging from guessing to absolute certainty, the latter almost never achieved except by true believers. We don’t know what level John was speaking of.
Everyone knows now it was not Jimmy Flynn who killed Halloran. Halloran thought it was him but Flynn had an iron clad alibi that put him far away from the scene and he was quickly acquitted of those charges. The Suffolk DA had no evidence anyone else did it. The witnesses to the crime were shown a photo array that did not include Whitey. No one knew Whitey murdered Halloran until Weeks told about it in 1998. I’m pretty convinced now that Whitey and Weeks killed Halloran? Back in the early 1980s it was not public knowledge who did it.
The first indictment was for racketeering. It wasn’t until the gangsters started squealing that we knew about the murders. The indictments on the murders came down after Martorano, Salemme and Weeks cooperated. The police could do nothing abut it until they had the evidence of it. The book RICO is confusing on that issue.
The FBI in Boston was asked to by the FBI in Tulsa to cooperate on the Wheeler murder. FBI records show it was assigned to Connolly by Morris and he did nothing. It asked again and nothing happened. Why? Halloran was implicating Whitey in the Wheeler murder according to FBI reports. Halloran was wired and sent int to talk to Callahan in an attempt to get corroboration. Morris’s team which included Connolly was part of this operation. The knowledge was widespread among the agents. Halloran gets murdered. Then a couple or so months later Callahan gets murdered. Nothing is done about any of them by the Boston FBI office. You can’t equate the general public knowledge with what was known inside the walls of the FBI office back at those times. Those events certainly are far byond pure speculation.
You can’t know more than the knowledge available to one. John Connolly had an enormous amount of information that was not available to the public. I’ve suggested as it relates to the public Whitey Bulger was not known to have murdered anyone. I’ve pointed this out with respect to the smearing of Billy Bulger who authors have suggested he should have known about them when it was impossible for him to have known. That does not carry over to the FBI in Boston and higher up. There are reports that the heads of the OC division in DC were worried about the Wheeler-Halloran-Callahan trio of murders and the Boston office’s connection to them.
I can tell you the FBI knew as early as 1988 that Ed MacKenzie was raping girls in South Boston AND the FBI assisted in derailing one of the reports one of the victims tried to file with the Boston Police in 1988 after she was brutally raped by MacKenzie. Currently, people try to minimize MacKenzie’s association with Bulger because MacKenzie’s rape victims are still alive and can verify that the FBI together with other law enforcement agencies were aware of and were letting Bulger and his crew take a pass on murder, rape etc., etc.
i do not agree that john connolly is a stand up guy. john connolly made a choice years ago to do what he had to to keep whitey and stevi free men. i will leave it to others to write about uncashed paychecks and possible cash payoffs. the bottom line is john connoly and john morris knew like at least with brian hallaren that whitey and stevi were killing people. bucky barrett. the guy from the vahala ship. john connoly looked the other way to further his his own fbi standing. as always best regards,
Norwood:
John Connolly was put into a corrupt program that still exists today. His job was to work Whitey and Stevie as informants. He has never been convicted of taking anything and the government’s attempt to prove he got a ring from the gangsters was rejected by a Boston jury. There as much likelihood that Whitey knew Halloran was informing from what was known on the street as needing Connolly to tell him.
When I said Connolly was stand up I meant from the point of view of not coming up with lies to get himself out of a jam like the other guys did. I’m not saying Connolly is a good guy. There’s no question he was told that Whitey had extorted the Southie liquor store from Stippo Rakes and let it pass. He’s done other things you and I would consider wrong. But the FBI has an official program to do this, everyone knows about it, but nothing is done about stopping it. I always like your input especially when you give another point of view. Thanks.
Great post. 100% true. Innocents in prison. Serial killers at liberty.
Neal:
Thanks. I’m at the bottom of the charts in the March Madness stuff. It shows how smart I am that I didn’t pick Harvard.
That’s really sad. Can’t you help him? You seem to be the most knowledgeable, honest, and able? However, I am getting the feeling that honesty and the law/courts don’t necessarily go together. How come his lawyers aren’t helping him?
Question:
I’m not interested in helping Whitey. He has good lawyers who are doing that. I’m trying to tell a story based on facts I’ve gathered. This contradicts much that has been written about Whitey. I do believe Whitey did murder some people and belongs in prison if he did.
Sorry I meant help Mr. Connolly. I believe I read some of your comments which said his lawyers weren’t really doing enough for him? I may be mistaken?
Question:
My mistake. I thought you meant Whitey. I think Connolly’s lawyers have dropped ball as has everyone else around him. Right now he is represented by a public defender who is handling his appeal and an ex-FBI agent who is a retired civil lawyer. He apparently has some lawyers up in Boston who are little more than kibitzers. He has some little support in the FBI. A paper came out called White Mass that was critical of the O’Neill and Lehr book, “Black Mass.” It was written by “friend of John Connolly” — people afraid to put their names to their thoughts.
Imagine a situation where an obviously false conviction was upheld by an Appeals Court without a decision and the lawyers are afraid to push for a decision because it might no t go their way so they let things stand as they are.a
Connolly did some stupid things after he retired. He may or may not have been given gifts by the gangsters. He denies receiving anything and he has not been convicted of having done so.
He was wrongly convicted in Florida of being an accessory to a murder for allegedly telling the gangsters something that they well knew before he told them. There was a vendetta against him by an over zealous prosecutor who used gangster witnesses who had a history of lying against him.
I am trying to help him by bringing this to light. I’m doing some things beyond blogging about it to try to bring the situation to light. It really is a tragedy that he is still in jail and all the guys who actually murdered people are walking the streets. As long as the accepted story by biased media people is not challenged Connolly will never get out of prison. He does need some good legal help. Right now he has none.
Matt, Excellent incisive post!