Tom Foley in his book “Most Wanted” elides over many uncomfortable facts.
He does this because like Macbeth he is haunted by a ghost. His Banquo is Ivan.
Foley became a trooper in 1979. In 1984 he joined a unit headed by Lt. Dave Matioli who he described as “a real up-and-comer, smart and well liked.” I may have met or talked to Matioli once or twice. He did not strike me that way. When I think of him I think of a guy who gave me the impression he was not leveling with me. In retrospect my instinct was right. Matioli was working against me.
Foley said his response when asked to join Mattioli’s unit was, “Absolutely.” He said “It was no decision at all. Working with Mattioli and with the FBI on serious stuff like the mob? Count me in?”
As P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
Mattioli’s unit was to be an Intelligence Unit. It was going “to strike at the OC hierarchy”, according to Foley. He mentions the state police had a Special Services Unit (SSU) under Lt. Charlie Henderson which he said, “concentrated more on gaming than on more serious mob crimes.” Yes and no.
It did concentrate on gaming. It also went after the higher ups in the OC groups. At the time Foley decided to spy on fellow state trooper Ivan for the FBI, that is exactly what the SSU was doing. It was bugging and wiretapping the highest level of an OC group. Ivan was the brains behind that effort. I was working with him. He started the investigation at the lowest level book maker and slowly climbed the ladder up the side of the pyramid with a handful of state troopers from the SSU unit.
Foley in his book tells how around 1990 he decided to do the same thing. He tells it like it was his original idea when Ivan had been doing it all along.
Ivan? You’ll hear a lot about him. But for now I must go on.
Foley writes that the unit he was joining was “the FBI’s idea.” Yes, the same FBI that had Whitey and Stevie as informants. It had undermined serious state police investigations in the past. This was a brilliant gambit by the FBI. It no longer would face the possibility of being outdone by the state police as almost happened in 1980 (not 1983 as Foley suggests) at Lancaster Street.
Lancaster Street? To learn about that read, “Don’t Embarrass The Family – The Trial of Whitey Bulger’s FBI Handler.” There’s a whole section in the appendix on it. Surprisingly Foley knew little or nothing about it. I don’t suppose anyone in this newly formed intelligence unit did.
Foley knocks his fellow troopers Lancaster Street investigation even though he knew little about it. He says it failed because “it was too ambitious, and the investigators were too impatient.” That is far from the truth.
Once the FBI co-opted the state police, it would know what the state police was doing in the OC area and would be able to control it. In doing that, it would also be better able to protect its informants.
Foley worked with the FBI team that included John Connolly.
I wonder where O’D was that he allowed this to happen. O’D is Colonel John O’Donovan who headed the state police detective unit. O’D was a gutsy and crusty former Marine, who joined the state police in 1956 and rose to become chief of detectives, a real old time cop from the old school who was always fighting for his men. In doing that it let to battles with me. I’ll tell of some of the battles. For now let it be that I highly respected him and knew I’d see his like pass this way only once.
O’D knew the FBI undermined him in the past yet somehow he allowed them to take over one of his groups. I can’t figure that. I’m sure it wasn’t something he wanted.