I see Howie Carr has written another book to make money off the ongoing Whitey saga. It’s called: “Rifleman: The Untold Story of Stevie Flemmi, Whitey Bulger’s Partner.”
Reading the title of his book there’s a big lie right there. Flemmi’s story is not untold. It has been told over and over again in court. What Howie pretends is new is the statement Frankie Salemme gave under immunity on April 10, 2003 to the Committee on Government Reform. If you want to read that you can do it for free here.
Speaking of that, put this in your wallet or purse. Salemme would not testify without immunity. Neither would Martorano or Flemmi or any other gangsters. But Rico who is much maligned by Howie did. He went before the House Committee that was out to get him.
After he had testified a few minutes Congressman Burton asked him if he knew he’d be violating federal law if he provided false testimony. Rico said he did. Burton asked him what his lawyer advised him. Rico said his “counsel advised him to take the fifth amendment until you people agree to give me immunity. I have decided that I have been in law enforcement for all those years and I’m interested in answering any and all questions.”
So who do you believe in all this? The guys with deals to save themselves hiding behind immunity grants or a guy who steps up and says fire away, I don’t need protection. His rectitude is shown because he was in a situation where he knew the knives were on the laps of the Congressmen who were salivating over the idea they could trip him up and hit him for a perjury rap. None ever came.
Howie in his column doesn’t tell us Rico was married fifty years and had five very successful children. This has to be hidden. It goes against the gangsters slander. Howie, as is his want, squeezes out every rumor available to besmirch the reputation of Rico who dedicated his life to enforcing the law.
He’s again repeating the really, I don’t know the right word for it, nonsensical, outrageous, vile, revolting statement that Rico wanted to kill the McLaughlins because he heard they suggested he, J.Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson were involved in a homosexual affair.
I pointed out in a prior post who Rico was which you will never learn from Howie Carr. I wrote he “ dropped out of high school and volunteered to fight in WWII. He saw combat in Italy and earned three bronze stars. He returned went to college and played three years of semi-pro football while at college. He married his high school sweetheart Connie on the day he graduated from the FBI academy. They were married over fifty years. They had five children.” I should note each child became a successful professional.
Use your God-given common sense. Even if it happened which is unlikely. There is no evidence the FBI ever did a wiretap on the parties who allegedly made those comments.
Ask yourself is a man with that background and family going to be so upset that some hoodlums called him gay in the early Sixties that he’d want to murder them. Does an FBI agent who is 40 years old with five young kids jeopardize his family and future because some low life gangsters make the ludicrous assertion that he is involved in a gay relationship with his 70-year-old boss and the boss’s 65-year-old friend. Yet that is the trite and vicious nonsense that Howie Carr is spinning and repeating.
To say Carr is disgusting is an understatement. To think that people will pay to read such lies is depressing. To know a major media outlet struggling to survive sanctions such libel speaks poorly about its commitment to truth. To notice the silence of the people, and the FBI, in the face of these highly inane statements is truly astounding.
What could be more vile than spreading salacious gangster gossip about an FBI agent? Rico can’t be hurt, he’s passed on. His five children and their children suffer defenselessly under these noxious lies about their father and grandfather.
I’ve show before that Howie’s stock-in-trade is fabrications especially when it comes to Rico. How about this from his column which he’s repeated before: “RICO asked FLEMMI for a throwdown handgun. Rico explained that the agents were about to arrest MCLAUGHLIN (and were) planning on shooting MCLAUGHLIN as they took him into custody. The agents were going to plant the gun on a dresser next to MCLAUGHLIN and claim that he had reached for the weapon (and they had fired back) in self-defense. ,. . . Flemmi gave Rico an untraceable .38 caliber revolver. The next day, McLaughlin was arrested, without any fanfare. Flemmi was puzzled. RICO explained to FLEMMI that there were five agents involved in the arrest, but that while four were in agreement to kill MCLAUGHLIN, the group was uncertain about a fifth agent … and the plan was dropped.”
Do you believe four FBI agents planned to kill a Boston hoodlum because he called Rico gay?
If you do, I’ll let you in on a secret. Howie told me his next book on Whitey will be a blockbuster. It comes from information provided by the two beings, pictured above, who escaped from that UFO which crash in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. They live in the basement in his Wellesley home. They really know the truth because they lived in Whitey’s condo in Quincy before that. Click here or here to preorder Howie’s new book, “Aliens: The Untold Story Of The True Powers Behind the Bulger Brothers.”
Howard the Coward issis one thing, but how about these two South Boston and Dorchester natives Cullen and Murphy, and their new book? Ridiculous…….I didn’t buy it, but while perusing the free sample on Google Books, I had occasion for pause, and chuckled to myself. Before even getting to the actual story, I noticed that in the map of South Boston, that they have St Monicas down by Andrew Sq. How can we believe anything, if they cant get a simple map right?
Rather Not:
I hate to be in Cullen and Murphy’s corner on this but facts are facts. St. Monica’s was located near Andrew Square when the Bulgers lived in the project. It was some what kitty corner across the street from the John A. Andrew school. I made my First Communion there. It was a gray wooden building and to get into the church you had to walk up a long flight of stairs, at least it seemed like that to me as a kid.
Howie Carr, an inveterate character assassin, likes inflicting psychic/emotional pain on public figures and their families. He’s a sadist, a pseudo-intellectual bully, a mean misanthrope, a hate-monger. He stinks. Cowboys’d call him a varmint or “a no-good, low-down, yellow-bellied, lily-livered, Yankee dog.” Biological metaphors apply: he’s a lowlife, forked-tongued, vermin, scum, dirt, a corrupt fatso with a bloated ego. Carr, like Martorano, shoots in the back. His female radio side-kick recently said, “Howie aims for the head-shot.” He snipes; he ambushes. The foul-mouth is all mouth. My friend, the boxer-engineer, said, “He kisses up and kicks down.” He likes kicking people when they’re down. He glamorizes kickers and killers. He thinks killing’s a prep-school game. He mocks murder victims and mourners. He mocks scars. (“They mock scars who never felt wounds.”) His mind’s in the gutter. He’s a poison pen! Don’t seek truth from him or his mendacious cohorts at the Boston Globe. I too hope honest historians hone in on this. Matt’s second book, post-trial, should be titled: “The Summing Up”; it’d help historians. For the backdrop, the gestalt, the big picture, I humbly recommend “From Trial Court . . .” Search under Paul J. Walkowski! History is repeating itself in the form of governmental, judicial, mass-media malfeasance.
Wasn’t Goebbels a newspaper man? The malign Goebbels and the benign Bernays (See “The Father of Spin”, by Larry Tye, an honest writer and former L-Street jogging mate) are putative fathers of propaganda, disinformation, and mass advertising. Satan is the Father of Lies! Fight lies with true light; fight fire with fire; return fire at the potshot artists; sling shot the mudslingers; bloody the brows of the pseudo-intellectual bully boys; beat ‘em down, if not to a pulp ,at least ‘till they cry out loud, “Uncle!” Like our football cheerleaders, cousin Kate included, used to sing, “Hit em again . . . harder!”
Billy:
Your April 12 post indicates to me you don’t have much fondness for Howie Carr.Your statement “He thinks killing’s a prep-school game.” is similar to what people are saying about Kim Jong Un. Do you think they could trade places?
Keep punching.
Some buy the Herald because the thought that we would only have the alternative would make the situation even worse for truthseekers.
Hopalong:
I understand the thinking and in some sense it’s good to have another opinion. In the case of Whitey, however, both papers play the same tune. It’s because truth be told the Herald lives in mortal fear that Howie will pack up and leave. What then will be left?
GOOD ONE, Matt! Depressing indeed! How in the world Howie has such an audience befuddles me, particularly when based on LIES. Without remorse. I think there’s a clinical term for that, isn’t there?
I find it reprehensible, self-serving, & insulting that Howie Carr has chosen to fill his column for the past three days with excerpts from his latest book. I assume he has done so with the approval of the Boston Herald; which, by extension, does not say much about this newspaper either. I’m not a fan of Mr. Carr. His columns are overflowing with vitriolic diatribes that only serve to further divide the citizens and create more anger and hate. He rarely has anything good or positive to say about anything. He must live a horrible existence. Beyond that, the three-day regurgitation of his book-clearly done to generate sales of same-does nothing to advance the story of Whitey Bulger et al. It is nothing more than “leftovers” thrown together haphazardly and served on paper plates with not so much as a sprig of parsley for a garnish.
However, it does-or should-give one pause to wonder: with the plethora of books, articles and videos available presented by so many and from a kaleidoscope of vantage points, just who and what are the readers to believe? Each presenter insists he or she is an authority; until another one comes along and pokes holes in the previous authors’ claims and the next one comes along and the then next one…..ad nauseam. Just who knows what’s real and what is not anymore? Specific to the Whitey Bulger debacle, the cast of characters reads like a who’s who of the underbelly of society! The depth and breadth of deceit, deception, lies, error of omission, murder, and mayhem are light years beyond the pale! It gives new meaning to the homily: “Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.” The paths of truth and fact do not always run parallel. Know what I’d like to see? Someone present a “family tree” with ALL the players and where they fit into the picture. The back-stories make for interesting and provocative reading, to be sure. Nevertheless, it can easily get overwhelming. Who killed whom? Who said what to whom? When did this happen? Having such a chart would prove enormously helpful and useful to the readers. Without such a guide, it’s almost impossible to tell the “good guys from the bad guys.” Ultimately, isn’t that what the presenters want most from the readers?
To that end, there is one additional name I would be interested in learning more about; Attorney John Fitzgerald. He was the lawyer who, in the 1960’s, had his leg blown off as a result of his efforts as defense attorney for Joseph “The Animal” Barboza. In the 1980’s I had the occasion to have coffee and visit with Attorney Fitzgerald; in, of all places, his law office in South Dakota. As I waited for him in the reception area, I could not help but notice a series of Record-American (Boston Herald) articles, matted, and framed, hanging on the walls. (At this time, I knew next to nothing about the Mafia wars or investigations that had happened back in the 1960’s.) I was reading the third article when Mr. Fitzgerald walked out to greet me, with the aid of a beautifully handcrafted shillelagh. He knew I was, originally, from the Boston area when I introduced myself. (My Boston accent was a dead giveaway!). After conducting business that was the reason for my visit, I professed my ignorance and summoned the courage to ask about the articles. He didn’t say much except to mention that it had always been his habit to leave the driver’s door open when starting any car he drove. The same was true that fateful morning when he turned the key in the ignition of the Olds Delta 88. When the bomb exploded, it blew him out of the car resulting in only the loss of his leg. Later that evening I called my mother back in Boston. I told her about my visit earlier that day. Her response? “So that’s where he ended up. Guess no one would think to look for him there.” Anyone know anything more?
Reggie:
Good comment. A couple of points. Most of the people who have written about Bulger have taken the slant first put out by reporters from the Boston Globe in 2000. They wrote another book just recently. Aside from some of the gangsters who hung around in South Boston and wrote books of their adventures with Whitey, each book telling us how tough the author is, the other books have been by newspaper reporters. The fictions invented by the original authors were repeated over and over again with some new tidbits thrown in here and there. Howie Carr just blatantly lies. There is no one to call him on it so he’s running down the street like a bull in Pamplona goring anyone he thinks will enrich him. He is truly a sad specimen of humanity who bathes in hate.
I wrote a book about the John Connolly (no relation) trial right after it happened. I sat on it for ten years because my reason for going to his trial had little to do with Whitey. I read the books about Whitey and Billy Bulger and the gang wars and accepted them as basically true. When Whitey was arrested I saw that the people writing articles about him were spinning out wrong facts so I decided to put out my book so that there would be at least one record of what I thought really happened.
Then it was suggested that I follow the Whitey saga by starting this blog which I did. I started off telling people of the good books to read and the the bad ones. As I went on with this blog, I try to post on something every day, I learned more and more about the events. It then it became clear that most of the books were wrong about many of the things that were written and which are accepted as true.
For me its been a real learning process.
I had two or three cases where John Fitzgerald’s law partner Al Farese represented the defendant. All usually represented minor hoodlums but not Mafia guys. Al was a legend who’d say when he didn’t like something or other, “All right, Now I’m taking the gloves off.” I saw Fitzgerald for a few minutes once in court in Norfolk after his was released from the hospital. At the time I knew little about his background. There is a story about him at: http://www.ndcourts.gov/court/news/fitzgerald.htm
It reads: “When South Dakota Circuit Judge John E. Fitzgerald died unexpectedly following heart surgery in July, his death was bigger news in Boston than here.
The Boston Globe carried the story prominently on the front page of its second section. It is a surprising story to North Dakota judges who had spent several days with Judge Fitzgerald, his wife, and granddaughter shortly before his death.
The Boston Globe reported, “John E. Fitzgerald, Jr., a former Everett [Mass.] lawyer who lost a leg but survived an underworld car bombing in 1968, died Tuesday in South Dakota, where he moved after the attempt on his life and became a noted judge. He was 69.”
Justice Dale Sandstrom said, “We got to know him through the Five-State Judicial Conferences. We knew him as respected judge and as president of the South Dakota Judges Association. And because he and his wife were usually accompanied by their granddaughter, who was my children’s age, we got to know him as a grandfather as well.”
Judge Fitzgerald’s life had not always been so peaceful. According to the Globe, “in the 1960s, when Massachusetts was in the midst of gangland violence, Mr. Fitzgerald became a symbol of the brazenness of shootouts between warring underworld factions. His injury sparked outrage that an attack had been made on a lawyer.”
Fitzgerald had been targeted for death because he was the lawyer for “famed Cosa Nostra soldier-turned-informer, Joseph Barboza Baron.”
After Fitzgerald survived the attempt on his life, his client was not so fortunate. Baron was shot to death shortly before he was to testify in murder cases.
John Fitzgerald came to South Dakota in 1972 as supervising attorney for the Small Business Administration, following the Rapid City flood. He was active in South Dakota civic life.
In 1992, after 32 years as a practicing attorney in Massachusetts and South Dakota, Gov. George Mickelson appointed him a Circuit Court Judge.
He became the presiding judge for South Dakota’s 7th Judicial Circuit. He was an adjunct professor at two South Dakota universities
I am certain this saga has been a learning process for you, sir. The same can be said, for sure, about the multitude of readers as well. However, unlike the casual/interested reader, your professional background within the judicial system -coupled with your knowledge and contacts in law enforcement-gives you a distinct “edge” into the twists and turns, dead ends and access to the “history” of the players.
Over the past few years, I have found myself increasingly intrigued with what I have labeled the “Whitey Bulger et al. saga.” I’m not certain as to why except to admit I thoroughly enjoy non-fiction mysteries; the more convoluted the better! Admittedly, this one has given “convoluted” a whole new meaning. Over the years I have “surfed” the internet (no I don’t believe everything that I find there), visited my local library and read several newspapers and articles regularly. All this in my efforts to find information that adds to the basic story. There didn’t seem to be too much available after a while. Then I came across “Don’t Embarrass The Family.” I was able to read the “teaser” online. Regrettably, since it is a self-published book, it is not available through my public library. However, I do plan to save my pennies and, eventually, purchase it to add to my repertoire. In the meantime, I am glad I found your blog and plan to return to it regularly.
As for Howie Carr’s continual and pathetic hallucinations I, for one, would gleefully and fully enjoy seeing someone-with real knowledge-take him to task, publicly; maybe in the form of a rebuttal to one of his-far too many- Bulger/The Mob columns. ( You up for it?) I guess that, as a columnist and not a journalist, he never felt obliged to follow Edward R. Murrow’s mantra to “inform and educate the public.” Although in Mr. Carr’s case, Mr. Morrow’s following quote just might be more appropriate:
“To be persuasive, we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible, we must be truthful.”
By the way, thank you for the additional information about Mr. Fitzgerald. He was a good and decent man who was of great help to me in my time of need.
Reeggie:
You wrote on 4/11. Sorry for the delayed response. Other duties often rear their ugly heads. I appreciate your kind words and thank you for your insight. You are correct in your analysis that Whitey’s saga “has given “convoluted” a whole new meaning.” Yet we have been fed a straight story:”born bad, went to prison; turned informant; rose to become top murderer and gang leader with help of corrupt FBI agent and equally corrupt brother.”
As for Howie he refuses to take responsibility for his lies suggesting he’s in the entertainment business and like a stand-up comedian can toss out whatever he wants to titillate his audience or stir their inner fears, especially of Latinos, gays and other down-and-outers. The problem is he also wants to be taken serious as an author but his book material is little different than his stage act.
You would have to be a half wit to believe Carr’s claims. They are demonstrably false and totally preposterous. All should read the book on Rico by Kerr and Wolfinger which refutes every smear. We only hear that Rico was a bad cop thirty years after he retires. How credible is that? Look at the sources for the claim. Flemmi and Martorano. Two serial killers with Nazi and KGB ethics. The first delights in killing little girls and the other revels in killing unarmed Blacks. Reagan noted that the Soviets would lie, cheat, steal and commit any crime to advance their cause, He said they were the FOCUS of EVIL in the modern world. The same can be said about the Mafia and their assassins ( Flemmi and Martorano). Fellow travelers, useful idiots and Mafia propagandists like Carr are no better. 2. Carr delights in making fun of Latinos who get arrested. Is he a Nativist or a new Know Nothing? One has to remember Rico is of Latino background. Maybe his hallucinatory charges against a great family man, veteran and great cop reflect his visceral dislike of Latinos.3. Great post. Very insightful. If Charles Manson said Gov. Dukakis and Mayor Flynn gave him a throwaway knife for his murders would the Herald run the story? Would Wyshak indict?
Ishneal:
1. Watch what you say about Carr, he’s a member of the national broadcasters hall of fame. If the others are like him it should be called the hall of shame. Teh thing that always got me about Carr were the people who delighted in his mean talk without seeing how much he hated them also.
2. I don’t get how the Latinos fear speaking up against him. Are all the Latinos so cowed they have to be libeled as a group. What about all the other ethnic groups or African Americans who have been made fun of in the past, do they remain silent because it is not them he is ridiculing. If every time a person with an Irish name got arrested he played an Irish jig I’d hope there’d be an uproar. If he read a name of a person and played a song like “Summertime” with its relationship to African Americans he’d be off the station in a New York minute. It’s also significant that he’s still offering an anti-gay message to his audience of begrudgers with him having Whitey cruising gay bars and his suggesting that there was something wrong with Hoover and Tolson if they had a gay relationship.
Add to Rico being Latino and putting in a gay relationship with Hoover and Tolson was just the type of invective Howie wallows in. I was hoping the time for hate in America passed but with someone like Howie it will remain live and well, so much the worse off we all are. people should stop tolerating his anti-Latino and anti-gay rhetoric by boycotting his sponsors. Watch how quickly he’d stop doing that if it affected his pocket book.
In the hypothetical you presented I don’t think Wyshak would indict but if Charles Manson said Mayor Ray Flynn asked him for a throwaway gun so he could kill Governor Dukakis then the chances are pretty good Flynn, from South Boston, would be targeted by Wyshak. After all, who is more loyal to Southie than Ray and Wyshak said that was Connolly’s downfall. It’d be on Flynn to prove his innocence in federal court.
N. Connolly, I don’t know whether or not Martarano was a racist, however, I lean towards he was not because I believe his good friend was the late 60 minutes host who was black. As far as Martarano being called sickle cell anemia, this reference very well may have been created by other Bostonians who may have came up with this derogatory reference (especially to those killed) based on their own thoughts having nothing to do with input from Martarano himself. Outsiders and onlookers can often add to the fire and weirdly often get a kick out of themselves when they do.
One robin does not a Spring make!
Does this mean that ONE murder incident of black people vs. about TWENTY murder incidents of white people mean that you agree that Martarano is NOT a racist.
Msrtorano is a vicious serial killer, a psycopath, a pathological liar, who killed three blacks including two teenagers, a boy and girl, who just happened to be sitting in a vehicle beside his intended hit; that the killing was done at close range, indicates he did it knowing they were young black persons, male and female; that he did it with such viciousness, cowardliness and cold bloodily, exacerbates the offense. Martorano also admitted that he drugged young B.U. co-eds with free cocaine and then preyed on them. He brags about that. The fact that this lifelong predatory craven hater killer played football with Ed Bradley, a black, is the robin that makes no Spring. As to his 20 other murders: How many involved the intentional execution of young white bystanders? There’s some evidence in his killing of three blacks, two innocents, that his pathological misanthropy embraced pathological racism and pathological sexism; there’s much stronger evidence of his sexism in his admitted years of casing bars in Boston, stalking innocents, plying young coeds with hard drugs and then preying on them. Haters like him don’t have friends: Martorano said John Callahan was “a friend”, who he shot in the back of the head without blinking and without remorse. The coward enjoyed killing and hurting people. Racism was the least of his character defects. There’s evidence he was a racist; no evidence he was not! The abscence of evidence proves nothing! No evidence: not guilty. Some evidence: you may be guilty!
N Connolly:
First let me say nice reference to Reagan.
On the Rico point, I’m reposting here a post I put on the “Masterful Strokes” entry a few days ago. The main thing for me is the Limone/Tameleo/Grieco/Salvati wrongful convictions in 1967 or 1968 due to Barboza’s apparently perjured testimony. I’ve been reading over the July 26, 2007 memorandum and order re: bench trial in Limone vs. U.S. I really urge you to read thru pp. 25-50 of this memorandum. Long story short, the wrongful convictions were gotten after Barboza apparently lied about these guys’ involvement in the Deegan murder, and the allegations that came out of the Durham documents is that Rico, Condon, and maybe others deliberately suborned perjury from Barboza, leading to the wrongful convictions. I don’t know enough right now, but I do think one must grapple with the Limone/Salvati case and the allegations that Rico, Condon and maybe others deliberately suborned perjury. If this is true, it does not speak well of the integrity of Rico, Condon, and anyone else involved. Unless, of course, you want to say the end justifies the means and three mob guys (i.e. not Salvati) got was coming to them anyway, even if through wrongful convictions.
The book “RICO” covers all this.
Thank you for this reference. Just bought it for my Kindle.
I read the chapter on the Deegan murder. Does not seem to resolve this matter. At best, it seems to argue: sure, Rico knew before and after the Deegan murder, through wiretaps and informants, who was behind the Deegan murder and dutifully reported this information to the FBI. But the investigation was a matter for local district attorney and police and not the FBI. The chapter does not delve too deeply into the 30 or so debriefings of Barboza of which Rico and Condon were a part. It does not, in my view, sufficiently address the contention that Rico and Condon knew Barboza was going to lie on the stand, leading to the wrongful convictions of Limone et. al. I’m going back to study the Limone memorandum. I have not drawn any conclusions on this matter, except that the Rico book (at least the chapter on the Deegan murder) does not resolve the allegations that Rico and Condon suborned perjury of Barboza.
I’m more than willing to hear the argument that Rico and Condon did not suborn perjury. What is it? Where are the facts?
Read the whole book, consider all the other sources including this blog, and then decide for yourself. Whose accounts ring true or more true?
If Rico is innocent because he didn’t take the fifth, I guess that means Billy Bulger is not innocent because he did.
asmithee:
Good point. Except, there’s always an exception, taking the Fifth does not equate with guilt. The other guys we know were guilty because they told us of their crimes. Billy took the advice of counsel unlike Rico. That doesn’t mean he was not innocent, it does mean in that case he was not wise. You may recall that Billy Bulger asked that the hearing be postponed which was denied. Billy then noted Rule 11K5 of the HOuse and asked for the proceeding to be held in closed session. Billy knew it was going to be a circus. Burton denied his motion.
without the continuance and the assurance of not being degraded he took the Fifth. He would eventually testify under a grant of immunity. I see no compariaon in the situations of the gangsters and Billy, but it does point again to Rico’s belief in his rectitude. Thanks for bringing that up. As I said it was a good point.
I have no idea if Rico was ever involved in a homosexual affair, however, a guy with a solid familial background regarding his wife and children is exactly the kind of guy that would want to conceal that if it were true, especially years ago when homosexuality was not accepted like it is today and respected, powerful people have various avenues at their disposal to silence others.
To touch on the core of what has brought us this current chapter in the Bulger saga…..what broadcast medium in Iceland do you think was available in Iceland to Anna Bjorn, the Icelandic tipster….if she was watching CNN via satellite t.v., I would think she was watching the international broadcast ….and I don’t think they broadcast the Bulger fugitive PSA on CNN international broadcasts, or was it?? Or, was an American broadcast of CNN available to her via the Internet??- which would sow up in her Internet history. Inquiring minds want to know. This is THE core issue to all things current in the Whitey Bulger saga.
Jan:
Your suggestion that “a guy with a solid familial background regarding his wife and children is exactly the kind of guy that would want to conceal that if it were true” makes any allegation about any man with a long term marriage and a few kids suspect. I don’t buy it.
I don’t see whether Miss Iceland was an FBI cover or a legitimate tipster reflects much on the issues. Whatever she was we’ll never find out since it is hidden in the FBI vaults.
“Any man suspect”……my explanation, does not make any many with a long term marriage suspect (your assertion is almost comical)….. Rico was in the company of 2 single men who were thought to be gay. Back then gay men either stayed single and discreet about their homosexuality or married and had a family thereby living a lie. If a gay man was outwardly living a happily married with children, heterosexual lie as is alleged about Rico….yes, this is the type of man/situation that would fight fervently to conceal the truth, especially back then. Alleged gay men like Hoover and his friend don’t have as much explaining to do to without wives and children at their side if they were proven to be gay. These issue have dramatically changed though and same sex marriage (btw, i think it should be called same gender marriage) is legal and these couples have children also – no lies to hide.
Your lack of concern regarding whether or not the FBI is lying about Anna Bjorn, the Icelandic tipster, is interesting.
Jan:
Wnat is your source that Rico was in the company with two single men believed to be gay? There is no record of that ever happening. It is another Howie Carr lie that you are now basing your argument on.
I recall back at those times going into gay bars in Boston and there were a good number of gays who were hardly discreet. Sure there were some married men with families who might have been gay and hid that but your suggestion that because Rico was happily married and had five kids then that is indicative that he might have been gay especially had he ever gone to Washington DC to visit with Hoover and Tolson is strange.
Lol….OMG, you are twisting what I said…I said….IF Rico were gay, the fact that he was married with children (lived a lie) would cause him to want to hide his true sexuality…?…IF……he were gay. When you twist words like that, it makes one lean more strongly towards Carr having the correct info. Are you gay or were just hanging in the gay bars, ever see Whitey in there, there were rumors about him too. Today, people don’t have to live a lie as they did in the past….IF….they were gay.
This is getting too funny! It’s probably a rumor that he was gay. Who cares? A criminal is a criminal, gay or not, and I highly doubt mobsters would kill someone because they spread a rumor about him.
Matt I do have a question for you. I was told by someone I know that Salemme was the chosen Godfather for a child who’s last name is Stivaletta.
(One of the Stivalettas sons was shot by some guys in the North End who are related to the Luisi family. The Luisi’s were the nephews and housemates of Robert Luisi Sr., a reputed mobster gunned down in the 99 Restaurant shooting in Charlestown in 1995.)
Today Stivaletta would be around the same age as Whitey and I was wondering if you knew anything about him or his ties to Salemme from back then?
I apologize for tying in todays mobsters with Whitey’s era but since I see many posts about homosexuality I figured this may be the right spot to ask. LOL
Question:
The Stivelettas that I have heard about come from Dedham. I only knew one of them — Johnny who owned a gym where I used to work out. He was a nice kid. There were all sorts of rumors about the family and one or two got into a jam but as best I could tell they weren’t gangsters. One, Paul I think, started the nationwide program Wake Up America.
Jan,
I live in Cambodia and we get plenty of American news on CNN and other news outlets here. If we get it in Cambodia rest assured they have it in Iceland as well.
I’m sure they have American news on CNN’s International broadcasts, however, the PSA’s were paid t.v. spots that were not merely part of the news hour nor were they advertised in all u.s. markets nor had I heard of the PSA buying a spot on the Iceland CNN broadcast either…….
Scott, a question answer dialogue could go like this regarding Anna Bjorn and her alleged viewing of the t.v. ad that led to the tip she called in – was the FBI funded PSA formatted ad broadcast on CNN international, was any ad time at all purchased by the FBI in the CNN international market or on any international network, if the answer is no, it sounds as though the FBI knew Bulger was in the U.S. prior to purchasing their ad time on despite the 16 year manhunt having brought the authorities investigation over seas on numerous occasions. Now since it may not have been a CNN International paid for spot that Bjorn viewed the Bulger fugitive info., did Bjorn catch a One of the U.S. networks broadcast of the ad while she was in Iceland or did Bjorn allegedly watch an Icelandic CNN international news broadcast that depicted a news story of the ad for the fugitive Bulger and if so, the bews clip could ve easily verified or debunked AND it is interesting that CNN international would have considered showing this news story in their news broadcast as it seems the FBI had not considered the international networks worth their time and money to broadcast there and had only purchased ad time in 14 U.S. broadcasting markets….sounds like the FBI knew Bulger was in the U,S. and already discovered where Bulger was….Bjorn was a FBI ruse.