We have considered two of the nineteen murders that James “Whitey” Bulger has been accused of committing. I have set forth my reasons to believe he did not do them. At a minimum I suggest there is substantial doubt, that is doubt far beyond a reasonable doubt, of his involvement in the murders of the two women victims of Stephen Flemmi.
I understand that some are not going to accept this. They might agree that logically I am correct and under other circumstances they might give me a fair hearing, but here we are dealing with Whitey Bulger so he must have committed those murders. They do not want to look at any evidence concerning the matters. They know the news media has suggested he did all these murders so he must have done them.
I have had people who have been reading this blog for a while who wrote to me recently. They believe Whitey committed more murders than he has been charged with. They have no facts upon which to base this belief but they strongly believe it. That is because the Boston media has so warped everyone’s mind when it comes to Whitey and the matters around him that anything that runs contrary to what the media has taught us is rejected out of hand even though they should know better.
Kevin Weeks who was Whitey’s enforcer from 1979 to 1995 tells us that he believes Whitey murdered over forty people. He gives us no reason why he believes that. He did not get the figure from Whitey nor can he name any others than those attributed to Whitey by the street talk. He just throws a figure out of the air but on closer examination it makes no sense. Nor does anyone who has done a study of Whitey’s life suggest any such thing. And, keep this in mind, Whitey has been so thoroughly vetted that those who have written books about him have scrapped together every conceivable bit of information about him even going back to tell us the identity of a girl he dated while in the Air Force. So we see that even his amanuensis Weeks is caught up in the Whitey mythology.
John Martorano’s book Hitman has as a subtitle; “Whitey Bulger’s Enforcer and the Most Feared Gangster in the Underworld.” Neither Martorano nor Howie Carr the authors of the book seem to understand how that statement is self-contradictory. No one who is the most feared man would be working for someone else. The truth is Martorano did nothing for Whitey; not one of his twenty murders can be said to have been done for Whitey. Martorano, or as he is sometimes called Murderman, was an evil force in and of himself having murdered over ten people before he ever met Whitey. His alleged subservience is a creation of his clever attorney and the zealot prosecutor who knew that for him to get the sweetheart deal that he did he would have to pretend that somehow he worked for Whitey when he was in fact an independent force.
I’ve told how the homicidal maniac Stephen Flemmi too had to pretend he was somehow in a subservient position to Whitey. Compared to Flemmi Whitey was a choir boy. Weeks again, who worked with Whitey and Flemmi never put Flemmi in a subservient position to Whitey. Weeks tells us that both men were so dangerous that they always treated each other with respect; either through fear or necessity. Weeks also told how Whitey usually operated only in Southie while Flemmi was all over the city. In the years after Frank Salemme, as dangerous as the other two Italians, got out of prison Flemmi spent much time hanging around with him. Whitey complained about it. As we saw from Detective Billy McDermott’s photographs of Flemmi he hung around with him in Brookline often. Whitey was not in any of McDermott’s photographs.
It is an amazing feat of media and Mafia and federal government legerdemain that made him the boss. But looking back we see how easily it was done.
The real bosses – Martorano, Flemmi, and Salemme — were used by the federal prosecutors and the FBI to put him on top. The media, described as cheerleaders for the prosecutors with grudges, and remnants of the Mafia along with their attorneys, lusting for revenge against him and unable to comprehend how an Irishman destroyed them, perhaps for the 1930s murder of the Gustin Gang leaders from South Boston, abetted them wanting its pound of flesh.
The tragedy is how few understand the truth. Highlighting the tragedy is how Whitey played into the hands of his enemies. He began to fool himself into believe that he was what he wasn’t. The sordidness of the whole story oozes out onto the streets of Boston and infects all. It assures almost no one will dare lift a hand to tell the truth.
As one female reporter from Globe lectured a woman who saw that all wasn’t as portrayed and had the audacity to raise questions about the agreed upon version, “You don’t know what you are talking about. The media in Boston has been covering this story for twenty years and doing a great job.” Yes, our Boston media praising itself for its ability to pull off one of the greatest swindles in American history.
Matt
You can watch the Berlinger documentary by grabbing a copy form the library. Its also been on NetFlix (have to be a paid member)
Jerome:
I will track down the Berlinger documentary. Thanks.
Jerome:
Just ordered it from local library.
Is it a stretch to call Salemme, Martorano, and Flemmi the real bosses? I would consider Flemmi and Martorano equals to Whitey, while Salemme was an equal to Whitey, but not a direct criminal partner to him. It seems like the media tries to make it an Irish vs. Italian thing, when like in all major areas where ethnic tensions lie (syria, iraq,the balkans), the situation is much more nuanced. Winter Hill was a mix of Italians and Irish, and Salemme was a made Mafia figure who hung around with the Italian element of Winter Hill. Strangely enough, Jimmy Martorano was also a made man. I wonder why Flemmi and John didn’t just become full fledge LCN members,? My best guess is being a part of LCN gave them less freedom to operate how they saw fit, as they would have to take orders from a boss, rather than operate as a “commune” style organized crime organization.
I find Martorano’s criminal career the most interesting of the “big 3” of the 1980s-90s Winter Hill. How was he earning while on the lam for almost 2 decades? He did hits, (wheeler, callahan) but almost certainly didn’t get paid enough to survive for that long. Also, he wouldn’t have gotten paid for callahan since that was his own doing. Most of the murders he committed happened prior to the ’79 race fixing indictment, so it seems like he ingratiated himself into the underworld of Florida, was on some sort of stipend situation with Winter Hill.
I think the best way to combat the misinformation provided by the Boston media would be to come out with a documentary about the true origins and organizational structure of the Winter Hill Gang/Bulger Group (really 2 separate groups). You could also get tons of free publicity when the Boston Globe Spotlight team runs all sorts of negative press about it. Just a thought.
Dave:
You are right about lots of stuff. The Italian/Irish split was mostly the Angiulo/Baione attitude a long time product of the North End’s animosity to Irish gangsters. Outside the Mafia bosses the tensions were a lot less. The Roxbury group (Martorano, Flemmi, Salemme, Kaufman, etc.) was originally an Irish group under Wimpy Bennett but it reflected Roxbury itself which was a mixture of many ethnic groups
. IMartorano was his own man; Flemmi and Whitey were partners of sorts; each one was his own boss; none of them was the boss of the other. It is the media creation that put Whitey in charge of everything.
Salemme was not a made man until Raymond Jr., made him after he got out of prison in the late 1980s. He wasn’t because he was of mixed blood, his mother was Irish. Jr. relaxed the standards and Frankie got in. He hung around with Flemmi and not Winter Hill. Whitey and he had nothing to do with each other.
You are right about John’s brother. I believe their father was a member. John was his own boss and liked it that way. Martorano has his fingers in the rackets back here. Joey Yerardi ran his gaming operation. He said Whitey and Stevie sent him money but that he was often short changed by them; What we know about Martorano was what he told us. You do bring up an interesting question as to how he survived. He would not have to tell us anything about what he did in Florida because no one up here would have known about it. The only reason he told us about the murders he committed here is others knew about them and he did not want them offering him up. I have difficulty believing that Wheeler and Callahan were his last hits.
You are probably right about the way to get the truth out but the Globe would never do anything to highlight it since rather than combating other opinions it ignores them.
Matt,
In Joel Berlinger’s documentary, Brian Kelly explains away the deal Martorano got by saying “he made cooperation fashionable”.
Jon:
I suppose I will have to find out how to view that documentary since it seems a lot of other people have. TJ English in his book also refers to it. Kelly may be partially right in saying that — at least it did for Weeks because he pointed to Martorano’s cooperation as the basis for his but Weeks was going to do anything he could to get out of prison as early as he could so maybe Kelly is delusional. Who else does he point to the made it fashionable? Perhaps it would be a more accurate statement if Kelly said the great deal we gave Martorano made others realize we were giving away the house for anything we could get on Whitey so they came flocking through the doors bringing their pennies worth of information and getting a dollars worth of deals.
Matt
In a short reply please explain what were the charges that Martorano, Weeks, and Flemmi each faced BEFORE they made their deals. I understand the motive behind Wyshak and Kelly making the deals but wasnt there plenty of evidence to not cut deals with these 3 thugs? Also, wasnt there enough evidence to convict Bulger without any of these 3 thugs testimony?
If Wyshak/Kelly did not have a hidden agenda to get Billy Bulger how would it have played out or I should ask you Matt, what SHOULD Whyshak/Kelly have done to convict Weeks, Martorano,Flemmi, and Bulger. The media seems to say that the deal with Martorano was the most informative because without it so many murders would have been cold cases.
Trading years off Martorano, Flemmi, and Weeks to “guarantee” Bulger spent the rest of his life in prison seems like we the public were Bamboozled. Especially given that Bulger was finally captured in his 80s for petes sake
Jerome:
I don’t have my files with me but I know this. All were facing RICO charges that would have given each of them at least 20 years minimums. Weeks has said his charges could put him away for life. They also had charges against Whitey that could put him in the can for over 20 years. They never needed anyone of those people to cooperate when you consider Whitey was not caught until 2011 and if he got 20 years he’d be in the same place as he is today. All could have been convicted and incarcerated for the rest of their lives without one becoming a rat.
They had the evidence against all four of them before making a deal. That was how they got the 1995 indictments that sent Whitey fleeing. Martorano also faced the race fixing charges, the charges for fleeing, and money laundering charges. Weeks was gone on lots of drug charges with willing witnesses ready to bury him.
Wyshak’s excuse that we would know about the murders is nonsense. Suppose I kill a guy named Ike and bury his body. A couple of weeks from now I send my lawyer int to the cops who says I know who killed Ike and where the body is buried. The guy who did it will make a deal. He’ll admit doing it and show you the body. He’ll take two years in prison for doing it. Do we have a deal?
In other words what good is knowing how the guy got murdered unless you can punish properly the person who did it. It is better to have a cold case than have a guy do a year for a murder or 12 for 20.
Of course we were bamboozled. His capture under the original indictment would have put him away for life, it that wasn’t enough they had the gun charges in California that would have given him another life. Sort through it all and you have to conclude getting Whitey was not the goal.
Matt
Ok. Thanks for the explanation. But why did Whyshak and Kelly (Batman and Robin) make the deals with Martorano, Weeks, and Flemmi if they had enough to send these guys each away to prison for 20 years to life? Also, they had such a strong case against Bulger they wouldnt really need these guys to corrobate and turn co-operating witnesses, no?
I sense something missing from this puzzle that I cant quite put my finger on yet despite all my reading and research. Did you read Edward MacKenzie book STREET SOLDIER? Did you know he is back in jail serving another 10 year sentence in relation to his church?
Matt and Patty
I am almost finished reading the book by Halloran called IMPACT STATEMENT. I think its a very well written book. This is the book by Steve Davis. Its a very quick read and you end up skimming through a lot of stuff that’s been repeated all the other books.
Whats interesting is that it mentions a lot of the crimes by Steve Davis, how he sold drugs, did drugs etc. There’s also some insight into who may have murdered his father. I didn’t realize that Steve Davis lost a brother and 2 sisters. In the book it claims Steve Flemmi molested his own daughter, his step daughter (Hussey), and even ended up sleeping with one of the Davis daughters besides Debra. The book doesn’t paint Olga Davis in a good light.
Book really seems to weigh more on Flemmi having killed Debar Davis. Steve Davis mentions he was shook down and threatened to be killed by Whitey Bulger because one of the Davis brothers was selling drugs in Bulger’s territory.
Matt looking forward to the analysis on the other 17 murders connected to Bulger. Steve Flemmi is/was one scary dude. He murdered so many people its amazing the media hasn’t made more of a story about his life.
Bruce,
FYI only, the organizer of the Wyshak and Kelly event just told me it was not videoed or recorded. Kelly has made many similar appearances, including at his local library. I’ve tried to get any such recordings or video, but apparently he does not allow himself to be recorded.
They are doing a Q&A? damn i’d love to watch that. If you go back from the origin Steve Flemmi is never made a member of LCN, they all say he declined and wanted to be an independant, I would conclude that he was a rat from day 1 with Wimpy Bennett and no real Italians trusted him. Great call by Matt “The most feared Gangster in the underworld” would not be working for anyone, they would be in the upper crust of LCN and not killing innocent black citizens in cars during snowstorms killing the wrong target. Howie says in Brothers Bulger “John Martorano not the brightest guy”; proceeds to write a book with him calling him the best thing since sliced bread. The Foolish Fiction of it all.
Well he did commit at least one murder he wasn’t charged with, Louie Litif.
Today, Wednesday, Oct 28, 2015 @ 12PM AUSAs Fred Wyshak and Brian Kelly are doing a “Black Mass” Harvard Law School Public Speaking Event with Q&A. Don’t miss this opportunity to get some real answers.
Hi Matt and thanks for an insightful article as I think that you raised some good points for us to consider.
Were the leaders of the Gustin Gang murdered by the Mafia in Boston?
Do you think that Stevie Flemmi was recruited by his brother Jimmy the Bear flemmi to become a Top Echelon Informant?
Was Murderman connected to the Mafia through his brother?