We’ve been inundated with so-called experts telling us the tale of Whitey. Most following the leader assuming things based on tales of others without a first hand sense of the matter. They’ve run past obstacles as if they didn’t exist. They buy into far-flung theories of others who are like themselves far removed from the world of the actors about whom they write. One even considers himself the official biographer of Whitey having never met him. What they all have in common is it appears they have been totally wrong.
How then to eat their words? Do they have the courage to stand up and say all that they have written was wrong? That without knowing the full story they jumped the gun and the egg dripping down their faces is well deserved. That they sowed from the files and words of liars which allowed them to reap lies and made books and articles of lies!
Where was the thought process that went into cheering for the conviction of Connolly who they believed was a corrupt agent yet relied upon him for their stories? Where was the little voice in their minds telling them if he was corrupt in one thing he would be corrupt in other things and his words should not be relied upon to weave the fabric of their tales? Are they so divorced from the world of the street that they did not understand people who were eleven years apart in a city neighborhood did not hang around with each other; or that even if six years apart it was the same thing?
Why did they not question anything this corrupt agent told them when writing their stories? Was it because to question was to find out that the stories had as much substance as a the foul breath of a liar? Better to turn a blind eye to the deceiver as long as you can use his deceit to your own end.
Were they so uninformed that they thought the FBI files were on the level? Did anyone ever check to see that the FBI file designating someone as an informant means nothing? Didn’t they know that people were called informants who never knew they were informants and that the FBI agents played a little game among themselves opening up as informants the people they talked to?
Mikola Hohol, to my Ukrainian wife Maria, Nikolai Gogol, to non-Ukrainians, would have loved it. In Dead Souls he writes how Chichikov set about to buy dead souls (serfs who had died but were still listed on the census register) so that he would look like the owner of many serfs which would increase his social standing.
A present day Hohol could tell us of an FBI agent seeking to add to number of informants he was handling, which increases one’s prestige in the FBI, by buying from other agents the informants that didn’t know they were informants. Not only that, he could make up names for informants who did not exist thus accumulating a vast number and enormous reputation. He could fill each informant’s file with reports stolen from other informants files which Hank Brennan, Whitey’s lawyer, has shown that Connolly was doing.
As we’ve seen, no one would check on him. No one would know since we in the other world can’t gain access to informant files. When he retired he could close them out and no one would be the wiser.
It sounds as outrageous as Hohol’s story. But that’s exactly what happened in Whitey’s case. In 1971 Dennis Condon opened him as an informant. He carried him for three or four months and closed him out only because headquarters wanted a follow-up on him. Other than that he’d have carried him much longer. Whitey had no idea this was happening on the books of the FBI.
While all those who will have to eat their words gleefully reported Whitey was an informant in 1971, I noted back in February it was not true. It made no sense.
Most of these are the same people who made Whitey an informant at the time of his arrest in 1956. They do that because they don’t know how things really work. I’ve pointed out that Whitey wasn’t informing he was confessing. He was doing it to save his 20-year-old girl friend. The FBI was squeezing him, as only the FBI can, by telling him that his girlfriend who served as a lookout for the robbery was going to do heavy time unless he confessed. He did. The FBI squeezed the girlfriend a little, she gave up the others, and she walked. Whitey took a 20 year bit. Yet those so-called experts called him an informant.
They’re wrong twice about Whitey. Now what’s left of their stories and friends when it starts to appear that Whitey was never an informant after all? How do they eat all those silly words they wrote? What does it tell us about them that they were so wrong? Does being a reporter mean you never have to say you are sorry?
It’s beginning to look like we’ve been led astray by willful writers seeking a buck over the truth. The red light blaring at them, a light as bright as Morris’s blush, telling them that things don’t make sense they ran right through. The basic story was built upon the tales of three men, Morris, shown to be an inveterate liar; Robert Fitzpatrick, called by the prosecutor’s witness “not credible and a serious revisionist of history;” and John Connolly, a shanachie, telling whoppers about banshees, fairies,leprechauns and informants. What it amount to is they built their tales on a foundation of sand.
How does it feel? How does it feel being so wrong? How does it taste eating your words that were lies? It’s not Whitey’s whose fate is being decided by this trial but those who built their careers on make-believe stories.
Who would of thunk that would be the outcome of this macabre tale? Send in the clowns!
Is that the same Chichikov that ran the Uke wards for the Chicago Democratic Organization?
Be careful of the 5ths on the 4th.
Thanks for working so hard to be a good American citizen
Hopalong:
Thanks to you for your imput – happy 4th
MY opinion on freddy weichel is that. like many other younger tougher hoods whitey viewed them as a danger or as enemys. giving them tasks to see their value or loyalty. once he knew freddy was smart tough and loyal he then viewed him as a threat. i dont know if it was whitey or weeks but one of them were after him. remember shea wasnt in bed with wb out of love but out of respect. on another note im curiouss to see weeks squirm like the snake he is. i bet the other gunmen was him, he knows too much to be on a walky talky and i presume they shread his credibility on day one or 2weeks lol
Pat2e
That’s why I asked the question – my take would be that he was too dangerous for Whitey to bide – it would fit into the pattern – Billy went with Whitey since he needed an umbrella – never love him but as you say did respect him – I’ve thoght he was the guy in the back seat – he’s a tough witness – Carney’s has to do him in if he can.
Wyshak’s Moby Dicks are John Connolly and Bill Bulger; both also are heavy albatrosses hung around his neck. His irrational resentments run deep!
William:
If Connolly is as corrupt as Whitey would have us believe then Wyshak was right to go after him.
Matt,
It’s still the case that he never pulled a trigger and 40 years seems quite excessive. But if he took as much money as Whitey is saying, and did all the things that seems to be coming out in the open, like falsifying all the files and deflecting investigations away from Whitey, then yes, the 10 years for racketeering doesn’t seem without justice.
Jon:
I never had a problem with Tauro’s sentence in 2002 other than suggesting I thought it was on the harsh side. The Florida case I believe is wrong for many reasons as I’ve spelled out.
Assume John never took any bribes, then ask what was his job in handling top level informants. In 2011 a Boston FBI agent was intercepted by the state police saying to is top echelon informant, “my job is to keep you safe.” If that was Connolly’s job with Whitey, isn’t part of that job, assuming Whitey was an informant and the FBI files being the things that matter from the FBI point of view show he was, to tell keep Whitey safe by warning him to stay away from Callahan.
Assume he is on the take, its still part of his job to do the same thing. The Connolly case is one big injustice in Florida; not so in Boston.
also befor i forget, the freddy weichel case, conolly was the fbi agent who fingered him in that lamonica murder, any suggestions? he has served 30 plus years and is innocent!! ~~
PAT2E
My office prosecuted Freddy. We thought he did it. I didn’t know much about the case ~ another ADA handled it — if Connolly fingered him then I’d want to know more about it. Shea said he was a very dangerous guy with a rep for being dangerous. He worked with Shea and Whitey knew that.
Pat2e
If Connolly was involved that means Whitey was involved. Why would Whitey want to frame Weichel?
Matt, You’re linking Connolly to murders via Bulger, and treating both as partners. John Connolly is a friend who would no more murder someone or plan or intend someone be murdered than s. But maybe I should say, our view of John Connolly is diametrically opposed to yours: and all four of us have now considered all the same evidence, exhaustively examined here and elsewhere. On a smaller scale it’s like one of us insisting B.C,’s former athletic director was a corrupt inept selfish egomaniac and the other insisting he was a very capable generous selfless family-oriented guy. It’s like the pro-life view (my strong position)versus the pro-abortion view (the Globe’s pro-Roe v Wade position): the opinions seem to be set in concrete and are irreconcilable.
William:
I think there’s a guy named Whitey who knows him better. He dealt with him for many years. He is calling Connolly corrupt.
@ n connolly….one thing limone went to prison for 30 years for a crime he didnt do!!!!! serial murder ~~
Matt- just wondering if Limone or his family got to see any of the money that was awarded? Considering none of the victims families have seen a red cent. ~~
Doubting,
Not sure. I believe it was supposed to be paid by the government, so presumably he might have seen the money. But I wonder how much it matters. Not too long after he got out he became boss of NELCN after Louie Mannochio stepped down in 2009. He lasted about a year because he was arrested/indicted for running a gambling ring.
PAT2E: it is true Limone and three others were found to be not guilty of the Deegan murder. I’m still wondering about that case. The court discoveries indicate that he warned Deegan that he might be killed, but Barboza said he was given a $5000 payment (or in that range) to carry out the murder, though Barboza then said he wouldn’t do it without ok from Raymond, which he said he got from Tameleo. The history says this was perjured testimony, but I still wonder and am investigating. Vinny Teresa in his book on the mafia indicates that Barboza got the order from Limone, and says as far as he could tell Tameleo didn’t know about it, but then Vinny says “but who knows what Tameleo really knew”. Of course, one does not want to pin a conclusion on the word of Fat Vinny. But his book was written in 1971 or 1972 and it was based on what he remembered from his life in the underworld. He did not say it was Limone because Limone was convicted. He was basing his account on his underworld knowledge. Or so we are led to believe.
Also, Limone was close to Angiulo and Angiulo wanted Deegan murdered. So it is within the realm of possibility that Limone gave a contract to Barboza.
Who knows? All I’m saying is I still wonder about that case. Haven’t had the time lately to continue my research, but I will. The guy that really got screwed was Joe Salvati. Tameleo, Grieco, and Limone were bad dudes though. If they were innocent they were innocent, but one is tempted to say they didn’t belong on the streets anyway.
One reason I’m intrigued by Fat Vinny’s account is that he’s telling us in 1972 what it took the government 30 years to figure out: that Tameleo and Salvati were innocent. But says Grieco was one of the shooters and Limone gave the order. He doesn’t say they were all guilty or all innocent. In other words, he seems to be conveying what he truly believes, and given that he was an major insider, what he believes is a reflection of word being passed around in the underworld. He says Tameleo learned about the Deegan murder in the newspaper the next day. He also says “I don’t know if [Tameleo] was telling the truth, but I guess in a way it’s justice. Tameleo set up a lot of other people and got away with it.”
That said, I’d be a fool to say that because Fat Vinny said it, it is so.
Jon:
I represented Fat Vinny for one day and almost had to try his case. He wasn’t as connected as he pretended I was told a long time ago.
Doubting:
My understanding is his family got 25 million plus interest.
Matt,
Very interesting that you represented Fat Vinny. I wouldn’t be surprised if what you say is true about his connectedness. And I think he tried to prove that he laundered money for Meyer Lansky and was found to be not credible as a witness.
Jon:
I wrote about that a while ago: https://mattofboston.com/my-big-day-representing-the-author-of-my-life-in-the-mafia/
Matt, I apologize if I offended you with the “chop wood” comment. I only meant to advise you to keep staying the course, and keep being the single most informative, insightful, local-flavored coverage in existence of this “trial.” Please answer my question if you have time, I don’t think I’m the only Bostonian wondering your feelings on whether HE will testify. I’m assuming your opinion must be shifting day-to-day, I just want your up-to-date opinion. Thanks. ~~
Rather:
If you offended me I missed it. Should I go back and see if I’m offended? Just kidding about going back but I don’t remember anything that offended me.
Whitey has two goals: the Irish one not to be an informant and he has pretty much accomplished that by raising the doubt that he was one; the other goal is not to be known as a guy to murder women – so we wait to next week and see Weeks and Carney duke it out – if Weeks backs off on the killing of Deborah Hussey – he wasn’t there for Debby Davis’s killing – then Whitey may not testify if it looks like he did not kill the women ~ seriously, if he grew up in the same type of environment and household as I did one thing you had drilled in you was never hurt a woman ~ don’t know if it’s an Irish thing or not but you know the Irish with “A Mother’s Love’s A Blessing” and all that so to be part of a killing of two young women is something he wants to get off his record.
In a jury nullification case you have to walk off the stage when you are ahead which means Carney won’t present a defense if all the ducks are in line.
Matt
Can you read the mood of the jury? ~~
Khalid:
I’m not in the jury room – can’t do it – not too good at that anyway – can’t tell what’s goiing on in a person’s mind – will try though next week if I can get into the court room – I’m not on the list of favored media people and I don’t want to take one of the ten public seats.
The clowns in the press are already there. The horse race fix case is around 1980 and not one of the geniuses in the media could figure out something was up when Flemmi and Bulger escaped indictment. Could Morris be considered a whistle blower when he leaked WB’s status to the Globe? Would he be like Snowden? Or was that a false plant to get the Mafia after WB? Will the jury be happy to know that Morris goes unpunished for a life of crime, gets an FBI promotion and keeps his fat pension? Will they be pleased to pay for that swine’s retirement? 2. Shouldn’t C and B ask Ring if he took the FBI oath and if he complied with it? Have him testify that Connolly also complied with it and that Morris and Wyshak broke the oath. Connolly seems to haunt all of Wyshak’s thoghts. 3. When TR headed the U. S. civil service commission he interviewed several applicants for the NYC Police. One aspirant when inquired as to why he sought that job replied that ” he had a grievous drinking problem and was unfit for any other work”. Is that the standard the FBI used in hiring Morris? 4. Should Aaron Hernandez’ fiancé be arrested and sent to jail? She seems to have as much to do with his crimes as Grieg had to do with WB. Double standard? 5. The press has easily accepted the nonsense that the Feds have fed them. Releasing eight serial killers from jail ( Salemmi, Limone, Gucci, Jim Martorano, Boucias, Weeks, Winter and Nee) is proper as long as you try to catch one. If the morons in the Boston DOJ were doing the Nuremberg trials Goering, Hess, Doernitz et al would be released as long as they testified against their one target Spear. Release nineteen prosecute one. Doesn’t compute. No one at the DOJ can count. 6. Connolly is only guilty of poor record keeping nothing more.
N.
1. Fat Tony in New Jersey said Whitey and Stevie were part of the crew – Doherty wrote it in the Globe – when O’Dullivision made them unidicted co-conspirators the local media missed it. That’s how much they knew about organized crime.
2.Wyshak’s last question to Morris was to ask him if Connolly violated his oath. I ran upstairs to the courtroom to see if Connolly was on trial. Wyshak is still trying Connolly – maybe that he’s 1 for 2 he wants this to be the rubber match.
3. Morris told J. Edgar he like wine, Hoover was old and thought he said he liked to whine, that’s a good FBI quality so Morris got hired.
4. Herandez is being interviewed by the federals right now – he has information that Billy Bulger sat in the wrong seat at one of the games – he made a proffer and they’re working out a deal. Bob Kraft will back up Hernandez with video of the crowd if Hernandez returns the signing bonus.
5. If the Boston DOJ tried the Nuremberg case everyone would have got a deal to testify against Hitler,
6. Connolly has trouble on the mind – he’s gone forever now – Whitey sunk him.
(1) Matt, your post today was great. One comment though: “let’s wait until Whitey testifies” What if Whitey says, “I gave $200,000 to Morris to split with Connolly.” What if, innocent until PROVEN guilty, Connolly never took a dime? and MOrris again has been lying through his teeth about how much $ he got. We know multiple guys (bookies, druggies, other gangsters) have paid off Morris. In Connolly’s 23 years as an FBI agent, during which he handled hundreds of criminals, major, minor & petty bookies/thieves, we have no one else saying he took anything. Remember, too, everyone in the press and that Temple of Iniquity Moakley Courthouse, e.g. lawyers like Cardinale, in 1999-2000 were trumpeting Connolly’s demise because of Salemme’s, Martorano’s, Weeks and Flemmi’s testimony before Wolf. But lo and behold, the Federal jury in Boston acquitted John Connolly of all the serious crimes (leaking info that led to deaths; taking anything of value for himself, and he was acquitted of 2 counts of transmitting money to Morris, but found guilty of just 1 count: his only conviction during his 23 years as an FBI agent. So, I caution all of us to wait and see what is “testified” to under oath and then decide, not before, after.
(2) P.S. N.’s post too is great: the FEDS would have released Himmler, Goering, Colditz, Eichman, Yodl etc., to get Herr Hitler and his girlfriend Eva. Such a deal in Boston: eight killers involved in, let’s say, 50 killings (Martorano 20 by himself) are set free to get a guy alleged to be involved in 19, of which at least half or more are highly doubtful. Hold your breath, but what if Whitey killed no one, except in self-defense (other gunmen gunning for him.) The judge instructs the jury to “presume innocence” until “proven” guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. There are doubts!!! ~~
William:
1. Whitey may not testify. He’ll never say he dealt with Morris. His attorney already told the jury Whitey gave $50,000 and other sums to “Greedy Connolly.” There is only one other guy who gave Morris money and that is Berkowitz from Chelsea. The problem with the FBI and Connolly is part of that bunch is that for all we know they had no informants. There is nothing in their files to verify that a person knows he is an informant. On Flemmi testified before Wolf.
2. Wait until next week for Weeks.
Matt, What does “Carney is going for jury-nullification” mean in laymen’s terms? And do you think this is leading up to him taking the stand? Thanks. &
Rather:
Jury nullification is simply a jury getting so sick of the type of witnesses the government is using to prosecute the defendant and even though it knows he committed the crime but it decides its can’t find the guy guilty because if it does that it will endorse the government’s use of that type witness so the only way to send a message to the government that it is disgusted with its case is to find the guy not guilty even though it believes he is guilty.
Carney probably knows he’ll never get all 12 to come to that conclusion but if he can get one or two that will give him a hung jury and for him that is as good as a win because it keeps Whitey in Plymouth. My guess is we’ll know better after we see what Carney can do with Weeks, and maybe Flemmi, relative to Whitey being involved with the women. If he raises doubt on that issue, Carney may not put in any evidence.
Its amazing too while on the run WB underlings all ratted except RED S. but when they raided WB home he had all those works of fiction on his book shelf! bring out the clowns-sounds perfect
Pat2e
Maybe “Red” is not the only one from Southie who wasn’t a rat.
Red Shea’s book is the worst of the bunch. It reads like he is the king of cocaine, no girl can resist him , can beat anyone to a pulp. He is the Irish Tony Montana. It is actually worse than any of Carr’s fiction.~~
Doubting:
Good summary of the book but that’s also the theme of most gangster books. They lead empty lives and have to pretend there’s something to it.