Yesterday I ended by asking: If Whitey was not a rat, then where does that leave Murderman and Brutalman?
Murderman Martorano testified against FBI agent John Connolly in 2002 believing Whitey would never be captured. At trial he came up with a cock and bull story that Whitey was not really an informant for the FBI. His story at that time was that Whitey had been approached by Connolly. Connolly told him that he was going to give Whitey information from time to time from the FBI so that Whitey would be protected. Murderman said Whitey said Connolly said he was doing this as favor to Whitey’s brother Billy who said keep Whitey out of trouble. (You see the evidence in the federal court in these trials lets in quadruple hearsay – A said B said C said D said – it’s totally unreliable and impossible to cross-examine but good for the prosecutors. It also brought joy to the media bringing Billy’s name into the trial producing a flourish of headlines.)
Murderman testified it was necessary for Whitey to tell his associates in the Winter Hill Gang this story because if any of them saw him meeting with an FBI agent then that would be the end of Whitey. Murderman after getting out of prison wrote a book called Hitman bragging about his life as a murderer. He did it in conjunction with gangster groupie Howie Carr. In his book he tells a different story. He writes he didn’t know Whitey was talking to the FBI.
Here’s Murderman’s problem, he has to present himself as a tough guy, after all his one rationale for his existence and claim to fame is as a tough guy. Take that away from him and what is he? He believes having killed nineteen unarmed men and one woman, most shot in the head from behind or the side, that makes him tough. But the real test of being tough is not being a rat.
Do the crime do the time is what tough guys say and do. That’s what John “Red” Shea of Southie preaches. Tough guys don’t go around ratting other people out.
Murderman never could do time. He did three months in the Plymouth jail and found it hard to do. When he heard the race fixing indictment was coming down in 1979 he fled to avoid going back to prison. He’d hide out for sixteen years, the same number of years Whitey hid out.
When he got caught in 1995 he made known his desire to turn state’s evidence against Whitey. Doing that he got a deal of six months in prison for each person he murdered. So Murderman became a rat.
His only way to extract himself from being seen in the true light was to try to twist things around to say Whitey was a rat first. Now get this. Murderman says if you rat on a rat you are not a rat. But of course you are because no matter how you slice it you are still giving information on another to get a deal for yourself. That’s why when Whitey helped Jacqui McAuliffe he was not a rat because he was giving information on himself to help another.
Murderman then pushes things a little too much. He thinks of himself as some kind of deity. He suggests that the worst person in the Bible was Judas because he betrayed Christ. He said Whitey having betrayed him is as bad a Judas.
His big problem is he can’t point to anything Whitey did to betray him. He lived in Florida from 1979 to 1995 and Whitey knew where he was living. Whitey knew he killed Roger Wheeler and John Callahan. Whitey never ratted him out.
We’re supposed to ignore that. He suggests, as does the media, that because Whitey was in the FBI files as an informant he must have been one even though he can point to no one he informed against.
Murderman told us at Connolly’s trial he knew Whitey had a relationship with Connolly. In his book he pretends that he did not know this. But the bottom line is he did know it, he knew Whitey had ratted out no one, and that he was ratting out Whitey to get himself a good deal.
The FBI allegedly recovered a manuscript from Whitey’s apartment in Santa Monica. Whitey was apparently going to write out his story. He was motivated to do this by Martorano’s appearance on 60 Minutes which he suggested was nothing but lies. I never watched the 60 Minute program it nor do I intend to. I don’t want to make myself sick having already been affected in that manner watching Murderman testify in Connolly’s trial as I said in my book, Don’t Embarrass The Family.
I assume what most bothers Whitey is that he is labeled as a rat and that is the reason he was going to tell his version of the truth. We read how Billy in his autobiography While The Music Lasts told how much the Irish hated rats. Whitey does not believe he was ever a rat. He believes he gave Connolly nothing of value that could be used against anyone else.
Nothing in the gangster world justifies Murderman’s actions. Whitey stood by him all those years. He turned against Whitey who protected him and gave him money to live a good life. Murderman must accept he is a big rat.
i think it was in whiteys best interest to keep the murderman free. this is because i believe he had john m as a kind of ace in the hole dealing with the mafia brothers from the north end. so many books written about the whitey bulger saga and players in it with their own personal agenda. it is hard to find any kind of truth in most aspects of it. your blog helps clear the fog but in the end so much is hard to see
Hawaii:
Whitey’s contact with the Mafia was through Stevie Flemmi. Stevie was best buddies with Frankie Salemme who was closely connected with In Town. Martorano also was connected through his brother but Flemmi was the best source and the Mafia guys mistakenly trusted him.
It is hard to find the truth. Everyone slants things one way or the other to suit his interest. Even when Whitey testifies we’ll be getting his side of the story which we should believe as much as any other gangster’s testimony. All I hope to do is closely examine what we’re supposed to believe and hold it up to a common sense test based on my experience growing up in the same neighborhoods as these guys and having chased after them as prosecutor.
Have to respectfully disagree with your take on Mr. Bulger.
Whitey informed on numerous people including his own when he gave up an IRA arms shipment he put together for the Irish and then tipped Connolly of so the English could seize the ship and weapons before the IRA received it and after Whitey got paid!
http://mafiatoday.com/general-breaking-news/whitey-bulger-%E2%80%9Cthat%E2%80%99s-our-shipment-that%E2%80%99s-ours%E2%80%9D/
Many of the weapons and bulletproof vests that were seized had been bought by Massachusetts cops who were never charged.
Trying to portray Whitey as a standup guy is what the media did for years.
He ratted on the real Irish, gave up the Depositors Trust bank robbers after he tortured Bucky Barrett and via Flemmi tried to give info on the Italians.
Whitey was out simply for Whitey and would do whatever he could for that end.
Notboyo:
We do disagree which is our right. Whitey did not give up the Valhalla. It is pretty common knowledge among the IRA and law enforcement, that the informant on the Valhalla was Sean O’Callaghan. See: Pat Nee’s book and also
http://books.google.com/books?id=Fe7683ZSKygC&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=valhalla+informant+for+british&source=bl&ots=bhDO1oQnXk&sig=S-X1txPtT5dnsav9-ffwUiLjKzk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=nSG9UOCoCrLO0QGx04HgBg&sqi=2&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=valhalla%20informant%20for%20british&f=false
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_O'Callaghan.
Nee spells out in his book how they got most of the weapons and other equipment through legal means. This is America so guns flow freely as you know especially if you know how to do this. If it is legal, no one can be charged.
The media never portrayed Whitey as a stand up guy. The Globe suggested he was an informant in 1988 and it has been relentless in keeping up that mantra. So has the Herald with Howie Carr.
I don’t know about his role in Depositor’s Trust.
Flemmi was the stool pigeon on the Italians. The Italian leadership never trusted Whitey. The only Irishmen they seemed to have anything to do with were Buddy McLean and Howie Winter but they’d never come within a mile of the Southie Irish especially with their long history of warring with them. I agree that Whitey was out for Whitey but it made sense for him to use Connolly as a puppet and give him garbage for gold as Flemmi said.
Excuse me, everyone relevant to this has talked to the media except for Steve Flemmi. There’s even some jail house footage of an interview with Connolly online, there was also a recent Playboy.com article on Whitey where they interviewed Connolly where he drops this piece of information regarding some of the potential defense game plan for the trial:
As Connolly says from prison, “It is my understanding that the many FBI agents who have been fighting to prove my innocence have been alerted by FBI officials in Washington, D.C. to evidence indicating Whitey Bulger has exonerated me and confirmed I was framed. I was also told he has implicated my admittedly corrupt former FBI supervisor, John Morris, in additional criminal wrongdoing, which proves Morris perjured himself both in his plea agreement and at both my trials. It is my further understanding these statements by Bulger have been documented in official FBI reports, but the reports are placed under seal by the Department of Justice and have not been provided to my attorneys. This comes as no surprise in light of all the other exculpatory evidence they concealed. Bulger has always kept his own counsel, for only he knows what he intends to do. Obviously it is my fervent hope that he will be allowed to take the stand and tell the truth and exonerate me.”
http://www.playboy.com/playground/view/the-secret-life-of-whitey-bulger
Which to me seems like he’s going to do anything he can to spring Connolly and make sure Morris gets a perjury charge regarding his testimony and goes down with him, as he promised to him on that phone call to Quantico, interesting to see if he’ll implicate Weeks in any additional wrong doing or identifying and putting further information on “The Guy in the Ski Mask”.
I feel bad in one sense for Connolly who thinks there are FBI agents fighting to prove his innocence. As far as I can see they are a little talk and less action. Some may feel bad for him but their efforts on his behalf are mostly unnoticed. I’ll look at the Playboy article and thanks for the reference. But the bottom line is, and again I feel bad for Connolly that he doesn’t see this, that no one will believe anything Whitey testifies to and nothing will change because of his testimony. The people who would have to act on it are the federal prosecutors and they’re not going to use anything he says to embarrass their own witnesses.
Connolly also shows a confusion when he says he hopes “that he will be allowed to take the stand.” If Whitey want to take the stand no one is going to be able to stop him. He will do this but as I said his testimony won’t amount to anything and the only interesting part of it will be seeing him and Wyshak battling each other in cross-examination.
The more I think of this case is if this is the sentiments of Connolly then allowing him to have Whitey as an informant was a huge mistake. There is no way he could have controlled such a street wise hoodlum. I hope Connolly knows that Whitey wants to use him one last time. He wants him to testify on his behalf that O’Sullivan gave him immunity.
‘Murderman’s’ 60 Minutes piece is worth a watch in regards to a journalism piece as “insane” as the interview may be, if you ever want to watch it, here is a link http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4297938n
60 minutes has gone in depth with a lot of the people involved in this ordeal.
Billy: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20026532-10391709.html
Weeks: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7371158n
Even “Eddie Mac”: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20073827-10391709.html
The clincher would be to get Whitey to sit down for one (It’d be full circle if he got a chance to sit down with Morley Safer like Billy did in ’92 I believe his piece was shot in)
The media’s gotten pretty much everyone else to sit down and discuss a wide array of his life, both in the business and personal aspects, I don’t see why he wouldn’t want to get his side of the story out in one form or another.
Jim: Thanks for the information. If I can summons up enough nerve I may watch them. Don’t hold your breath waiting for Whitey’s TV appearance. The feds won’t let him appear for any interviews and he is going to spend the rest of his life in their custody.