Yesterday, I read an article about a man in Essex County, Ernesto L. Gonzalez, Jr., age 41, who has been declared to be incompetent to stand trial. He is charged with certain offenses involving the disappearance of his 5-year-old son, Giovanni, who went to visit him one weekend back in 2008. He apparently confessed to murdering him but the authorities remain skeptical about his claim even though the son has been missing since then. His lawyer wants the case dismissed saying his client’s mental health will never improve which hardly seems a reason for not keeping the case open. I’d not like to see a quick recovery and Mr. Gonzalez returning to our streets. We’ve got enough like him already running around.
Yet it’s not that which intrigued me about the article. I was struck by the report that Gonzalez had a past history of torturing cats. It reminded me of case I prosecuted of a young man from Braintree who also had a similar past history of killing cats and stuffing them in mail boxes. He murdered a young woman, Julie, in a park near his house and carried her back behind his house and tried to hide her body by covering it with leaves. After a trial before Judge Roger Donahue he was found guilty of second degree murder and he, like Gonzalez, ended up confined to a secure mental hospital.
I wondered whether there is a link between a boy or young man’s torturing and killing of cats to the eventual torturing and killing of people; or, at least to that person’s final denouement in a mental hospital. I also asked myself if there was any evidence that Whitey engaged in this sadistic behavior.
I do know, from personal experience, that Whitey was a bully. This is because I grew up in the Old Harbor Village when he lived there. We kids knew enough from the neighbor scuttlebutt it was best to scatter when Whitey was about. Why? Looking back over those many years I cannot remember exactly why it was we feared him but it surely wasn’t because we though he’d be buying us an ice cream cone because our ancestors came from Ireland.
Speaking of Old Harbor Village, did you know that it had the lowest juvenile delinquency rate in the City of Boston even with Whitey living among us. Check out what was said about it in the book From the Puritans to Projects. I’d suggest that Whitey or any of us who grew up in the projects at that time encountered a totally different world than those who live there today. Whitey can’t pin his dastardly life on any of his experiences there.
Plus, when you see Old Harbor Village is located next to a huge open park as large as the Boston Common and beyond that a fabulous inner-city beach, you can see that the opportunity to live there back then was something sought after by many.
You’d never know that reading about Whitey’s life as told by others. You would if you read what Billy Bulger who grew up there had to say about it. As I’ve pointed out that’s the trouble with people writing about things that they have not experienced. They take their present understanding and seem to think it applies equally to things of the past.
Those outsiders who profess to know what it was like to be inside are called strangers. They are often duped by the seanchaí who live among us; believing the fables of that person as evidence of the truth. Which has led them to believe there was some friendly interactions between Whitey and people 11 years younger.
But I digress, back to cats. Here’s something I found that you can mull over:
“When a cat left footprints on Randy Roth’s newly waxed car, he caught the cat and bound it to the driveshaft of its owner’s car with duct tape. When the car was started, the cat was quickly dismembered, its screams muffled by the sounds of the engine. Roth later murdered his wife by drowning her near Bellevue, WA.
Richard Davis reportedly set fire to cats and used dogs for target practice as a child. He was convicted of murdering 12-year-old Polly Klaas after kidnapping her from her Petaluma, CA home.
Jeffrey Dahmer had an early fascination with dismembering animals. He tortured and cannibalized 11 people.
David Berkowitz shot his neighbor’s dog. He confessed to six murders as the Son of Sam.
Albert DeSalvo put dogs and cats in crates and then shot them with arrows. We know him better as the Boston Strangler.
Luke Woodham… “Kip” Kinkel… Eric Smith…. Russell Weston Jr… Andrew Golden and Mitchell Johnson …the list goes on and on. When and asked how many serial killers had a history of abusing animals, FBI Special Agent Alan Bradley answered, “The real question should be, how many have not?””
This got me thinking that with the list of people who are alleged to be serial killers (or as some prefer to call them a multiple murderers (MUMUs)) we’ve encountered in this saga it’s surprising we have any cats left in Boston.
Do you know, and I’d guess this is a record of sorts even excluding the Mafia, that Boston had during the days of Whitey more people who may have been MUMUs per capita than any place else in the universe. Along with Whitey we had the following government witnesses: Martorano (Murderman), Flemmi (Benji Ditchman), Salemme, and Weeks; as well as Nee, Sperrazza, Winter, McDonald, Sims. From all that was alleged and brought out in the testimony at the trial, these men participated in multiple murders. And, I’m not including those who murdered others during the 1960s such as Buddy McLean, Bucky Barrett and Spike O’Toole who ended up being murdered themselves.
It would be interesting to know how many of our local boys had a hostile relationship with cats. I would note that in Whitey’s apartment the cops found this: “A glossy blue book called “Cats Up Close,” propped open on the TV stand.” I wonder if that is any sort of a clue?
I liked N’s expression: “The Moakley Fixhouse”; most workers at Moakley may be “good” people, but they go along and get along with the corrupt ones; they silently condone the bad decisions. 2. In Savin Hill, it seemed almost everyone boxed: Billy O’Shea and Maughn O’Shea were golden glove champions; Paul O’Shea was a Marine Corps lightweight champion; Billy Madden was reputed to be an even better boxer; Bob Mancini, an excellent all-around athlete, hit like Rocky Marciano; John Bouche and Eddie Bouche had black-belts in judo; Tony Veranis and Eddie Connors were good professional boxers; my high school boxing coaches were Mr. Mitchell, the New England light-heavyweight intercollegiate boxing champion at Boston College (he was also an Army Ranger), and Mr. Murphy, the lightweight boxing champ at Notre Dame (he became an assistant DA as I recall.) We had a lot of good fighters in our neighborhood and some very, very tough customers, like Jenks, Mancini, Rema, BooBoo Feeney, Jack Hutchinson and Bobby Sullivan, and we also had Danny Sullivan who became an all-pro lineman with the Baltimore Colts. They all liked animals, and were good guys; the neighborhood bar Joyce and Keene’s was re-named “Bulldogs” in the early 1970s: Proof that we liked animals. There were good fist-fighters in every neighborhood in the city back then: I think the 170-pound thin wiry Danny Costello was one of the toughest and most courageous young men I ever knew. You can never judge a book by its cover; Danny looked like a mild-mannered bookish young man with his thick glasses and easy ways. Underneath he was a wild cat, strong and quick like a leopard. He used to practice his holds, headlocks, arm-bars, throws and choke-moves on me without my consent but it mad me smarter and hardier. We grew up with a lot of very tough courageous young men who were good guys who could handle themselves and who gladly took care of bullies. As Dan Ryan often said, “If it’s the truth, it ain’t bragging.”
William:
1. The “Moakley Fixhouse” name only applies when the court has to deal with POOFs.
2. Billy Madden was the welterweight champion in the Army in Europe. I boxed him once and lasted 15 seconds before I was all bloodied us looking at his smiling face as he backed off after that quick show. As you point out there were many tough guys in Savin Hill and other areas of the city and the toughest ones were those who never showed it until forced to act.
see what happens when you google FBI AGENT IN THE NEWS
FBI agent says J Edgar Hoover did JFK!
see link for full story
http://tickerreport.com/press-releases/67676/film-star-natalie-wood-and-fbi-agent-romance/
FILM STAR NATALIE WOOD AND FBI AGENT ROMANCE
Nov 13th, 2013
(11/13/2013) – The late actress and film super star Natalie Wood who appeared in many film classics including “Rebel Without A Cause,” and “West Side Story,” to name but a few, and controversial FBI agent Donald Wilson are believed to have had a long running romantic relationship that began in 1973 at a Coeur d’Alene, Idaho resort. Wilson was in Idaho in 1973 in connection with a speaking tour on behalf of the FBI. It was then that he met Wood who was staying alone at the resort in an effort to distance herself from her husband Robert Wagner following an argument between the two. When Wilson and Wood met in 1973, Wood was several months pregnant with Wagner’s child. Wilson, a distant relative of J. Edgar Hoover, recently published the book “Evidence Withheld.” This book is highly critical of not only Hoover, but also the FBI, CIA, U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Justice and implicates those agencies in the assassination and subsequent cover up in the murders of Martin Luther King Jr. and JFK. Wilson and Wood carried on their long distance romance until 1977 when Wood supposedly ended the affair while visiting Wilson in Greensboro, North Carolina. Wood had concerns about the impact that public disclosure of their relationship would have on both her film career and Wilson’s FBI career. The investigation into the mysterious death of Wood, which occurred aboard her boat the “Splendour,” was recently re-opened by California authorities and is continuing.
MS:
One of my favorite persons: Natalie Wood. Her father was Ukrainian originally judging from his name although he identified himself as Russian; her mother was Russian from grew up in Harbin, China. She very well may have been Jewish because many Jews left Russia to escape persecution and ended up in Harbin.
I’ve never accepted that she wasn’t murdered but the difficulty is proving it – so the mystery lingers. Don’t make much of her relationship with Wilson – but may try to get a hold of his book. J. Edgar wasn’t particularly fond of JFK but I don’t think it went beyond that.
where in the psychological profile would cohort Edward MacKenzie fit into this as on the flip side, MacKenzie was enamored with dogs and actually committed acts of beastiality with his pet dogs against young innocent girls, some incidents of which he actually videotaped in his “dog room” which he actually referenced in his published book. Deranged people. I feel so sorry for those young girls MacKenzie victimized like this. Another local story regarding the puppy doe abuser – it was a relief to see his capture, It’s quite possible he has already tortured human beings also.
Jan:
I know little about MacKenzie but did read his books and have learned from that and your comments something about him. I’d definitely say he’s the type that would torture cats as a young man.
Where does agent John Connolly fit into the profile, birds of a feather would suggest J. Connolly then would torture cats also and from what I know, a number of men were watching MacKenzie’s dog room videos.
Jan:
Strangely enough John Connolly was a pretty straight kid growing up who had nothing to do with cats.
Maybe kittens?? They were young ones in the dog room, the videos prove it.
Growing up in the West End and taking the occasional foray into “southie”
to attend the dances at the Gate of Heaven Church I have faint, fond memories of engaging southie kids in fistfights as they vainly tried to protect their turf and southie honor in our version of Blackboard Jungle.
Playing stick ball on the back side of the Peter Faneuil School on Joy street provided me numerous opportunities to deal with the local bullies
whom I can still name.Usually they had Italian sounding name. I quickly earned a reputation as someone who met all the requirements for Intermittent Explosive Disorder in the Physicians DSM manual and the bullies pretty much stayed clear of me. I would later make friends with and hire Richard Allen who was the co-leader of the largest interracial gang in Boston called the Majestics with some 500 members. Richie was an exact clone of Mike Tyson and would later die from Aids. This was when I ran a community based correctional center in Cambridge called Libra.
Of course this is all a lead in to introduce you again to Andrew Vachss
the attorney who ran Libra and hired me to replace him while he took a
job running the Secure Treatment program at DYS called ANDROS . This is the place were kids who murder,torture and are violent are sent. The last stop before Walpole,eh? You may remember me telling you Vachss helped create the Boycott Thailand movement to stop the Child Sex Tourist Industry.This past month Andrew hired his first group of disabled vets that were trained to fight online/internet child abuse.
see link and scroll down http://www.vachss.com/updates_page.html
Attorney Vachss also dedicated his first book THE VIOLENT LIFESTYLE JUVENILE OFFENDER to Richard Allen see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Vachss
That is part of the backstory to this article with the forward written by Andy about animal abuse and child abuse. see link for full article
http://www.vachss.com/media/righteous/ascione.html
Children and Animals: Exploring the Roots of Kindness and Cruelty
by Frank R. Ascione, Ph.D.
FOREWORD BY ANDREW VACHSS
For those of us who have spent our lives on its front lines, the protection of children is the only “holy war” worthy of the name. To us, the great mystery of life is not why some abused children grow up to become abusive adults, but why so many don’t.
Children and Animals: Exploring the Roots of Kindness and Cruelty by Frank R. Ascione, Ph.D.
Purdue University Press; ISBN 1557533776
A cop’s world view might vary radically from a caseworker’s; a prosecutor’s “solution” could be distinctly different than a therapist’s; the academic’s data might be contradicted by the anecdotal experience of the field investigator. But we all share this core belief: abusiveness is not genetically encoded. It has a genesis, a discoverable taproot. And we all agree that if “prevention” is ever to exist as anything more than a grant writer’s buzzword, we have to keep digging.
But, while it is universally agreed that interpersonal violence is the greatest single threat to human civilization, there is nothing resembling a consensus on its etiology. Part of the problem is that people tend to superimpose their personal belief systems over any information presented to them. For example, announcement of a decline in the number of reports of child sexual abuse cases guarantees an instant onslaught of dueling interpretations.
In other news
see link for full story
http://fortheloveofthedogblog.com/news-updates/dog-killing-fbi-agent-gets-a-slap-on-the-wrist-video
Note . This was the second dog he shot. He killed a Lab belonging to a family down the street.
Dog Killing FBI Agent Gets a “Slap on the Wrist” VIDEO
Sunday, July 12th, 2009 at 8:40 am
Lovett Leslie Ledger indicted for shooting dead of neighbor’s dogThere are times when I’m not sure why I ever actually expect more from our justice system. Last February, a Waco, TX FBI agent, a sniper and member of the FBI SWAT team, Lovett Leslie Ledger, Jr. shot and killed a neighbor’s little 3-lb chihuahua named Sassy, with a pellet rifle and although indicted for felony animal cruelty the only ones who paid for this crime were the dog with its life and the family who lost their tiny little furry family member.
Cyndi Mitchell, who lives across the street from FBI agent, Lovett Leslie Ledger, told authorities that she witnessed Ledger shoot the dog in front of her house with a pellet rifle on Feb. 29.
Mitchell has said that her dogs were barking and she went to the door and saw Sassy walking on Estes Road in front of her house.
The dog lurched to one side upon being shot, then rolled into a yard where she died, she has said.
“I’ve never heard a noise like that from an animal,” Mitchell said, describing it as “a screaming sound.”
As neighbors gathered around the fallen dog, Ledger took the pellet gun, turned and walked inside his house with one of his children.
Initially when confronted by authorities about the crime, Ledger lied but changed his story when witnesses came forward.
He was later indicted by a grand jury for cruelty to animals, a state jail felony punishable by up to two years in a state jail and a $10,000 fine.
Pleading no contest, Judge Matt Johnson in 54th District Court sentenced Ledger to two years deferred probation and ordered to perform 300 hours of community service. Not only that, if he completes the term of probation, the conviction will be expunged from his record.
FBI spokesman Erik Vasys said Wednesday the agency will determine whether Ledger faces any sanctions, which could range from suspension to dismissal, after an internal inquiry is completed. Initially it was reported that if convicted of the felony, that would mostly likely be the end of his career, with Ledger getting deferred adjudication probation, the FBI will probably just let him get away with it too. After all, if the justice system doesn’t care, why should they. It was “just a dog” after all!
Yet another injustice from our justice system! Sure, shoot and kill a 3-lb dog for no reason…. who care…. just a dog!
ms:
Nice comment. Thanks – gives me food for thought. I didn’t need “intermittent explosive disorder” to survive in my verson of Blackboard jungle. I happened to have had a fist fight with some others which got blown out of proportion by the scuttlebutt in the neighborhood to the extent that I became a person not to be tinkered with. As you know a reputation no matter how undeserved is a deterent to bullies.
Has a juror recanted? Is there grounds for an appeal? Or is the entire system rigged as the Turner, Swartz, Connolly, Rico, Murphy and Probation families believe? 2. Why are you saying anything positive about Wolf? He falsely found Naimovich guilty and falsely claimed people were killed by leaks. He was an integral part of the disinformation campaign portraying the Mafia as victims and Connolly and Rico as lawless? The Tsars and the Soviets provided fairer trials than can be had at the Moakley Fixhouse. 3. The House of the Dead awaits WB after the freak show of a sentencing hearing. The carnival is leaving town.
N, the thrust of the juror’s complaint was that the FEDs put on so many obvious perjurers that she didn’t know what to believe. That’s how I read it. The corrupt fatso, Howie Carr, is trying to twist her words. Carr has long profited from the serial killers and serial perjurers, perpetuating all their vile falsehoods as gospel.
N:
1. You know any chance Whitey has for post trial relief is the same as a cold beer on a hot day after a pick up basket ball game of not being drunk. The system’s not rigged – Whitey got what he earned.
2. Wolf made some mistakes but had the courage to take on the FBI. He opened this can of worms. I think he deserves lots of praise. He did his job. The disinformation came from media.
3. Whitey left Southie for the last time today – sure it was a carnival but Whitey had a good part in making it so.
Matt, I don’t know about local boys killing cats, but I can tell you that in my family’s personal experience, one of the threat messages that we were sent was to pull out our cat’s tooth, and leave it on the footstool where we could find it. All I can say is that it leaves a very chilling and sadistic message. We immediately knew who left the message because we had been told by his mother that he used to torture cats. Four months ago he brutally stabbed his wife to death, and allegedly hung himself: Leaving a strong message for all those in law enforcement who did not believe our prior complaints.
Jean:
That’s a chilling story. Sometimes it is difficult getting anyone to listen as you well know.
Matt, you are right the facts in our complaints are very chilling. And, it has been extremely difficult to get the attention of those in law enforcement who have jurisdiction, and no conflicts of interest, to take a full and fair look at our complaints. If we are to be successful it will be in a major part due to this blog. I realize that you are winding down at this time, so if I don’t get another chance, please accept the gratitude of my family for your great time and effort that you put forward in creating this blog. We wish you well in your other endeavors. I hope and pray someday to give you a good news story to post. With hugs. Jeanie
Dear Jean,
It is so nice to hear from you!
I am hopeful that you will continue to post here often to keep everyone apprised of any updates involving your own long road of hardships. Your life story parallels so many issues which Matt has presented here. In many ways, you are living proof that even when living as a person out of favor (POOF), you have still found a voice and a forum to share proactively. You have not lost hope, and that is so inspiring after everything you’ve endured. I am so encouraged to hear that you are well and hope that one day the United States will offer a safe haven to which you may return and perhaps even reclaim the valuable property which you believe was stolen from your family.
While you have made many connections about the trials of your own life, I also deeply admire how those personal connections always end up pertaining to the topic at hand. Your anecdotes illustrate many of the points which Matt diligently presents; your contributions help many of his points to hit home. I thoroughly enjoy reading your comments, Jean, because there is always something new to learn about you at every discussion’s twist and turn.
Thank you again and please do not be a stranger in these parts. It is without reservation that I openly note that you are one of my favorite commentators on this blog.
Wishing you the best,
Jay
Jay,
I and my family appreciate your comments of encouragement. We are cautiously optimistic that due to Matt’s blog and the efforts of the webmaster at nhjustice,net, and yours and other commentators words of encouragement, that perhaps our years of efforts will finally result in a full and fair hearing of our complaints. I guess time will tell.
Jean:
Thanks – I’m slowing down a bit in part because of matters on the home front that I have neglected and need my attention and also because I want to see if I can put in writing something that demonstrates what actually happened in these matters. That doesn’t mean I will be going away and I hope to keep going here especially for those who have been loyal followers like yourself over the last year or so. I’m going to stay on this blog site even though its caption is passing into irrelevency but some of you are used to it so I decided best to keep it so we can stay in touch from time to time. I appreciate your kind words but more do I appreciate that you came here and spent the time discussing the issues.
I hope thing will finally work out for you and have often wished there was more I could do. Don’t go too far away.
Matt,
After all the dust settles, it would seem to me that you are in a perfect position to write a case study on the Whitey Bulger/Top Echelon program. A clear concise analysis may assist those in the public policy -law and rule making – business to take a serious look at the collateral damage that their programs have wrought on the public in general, and on the innocent victims, to include my family.
If you do take up that challenge, good luck to you. It may be an endeavor in more frustration, but in the end you will have done a great public service. So, not to worry. I continue to be a very interested reader. And, there is the Appeal yet to come. Stay tuned, as they say.
Even Vlad, the Impaler, had an obsession with impaling all kinds of animals when he was on his way to the top. And like his thousands of victims, they were usually impaled. Live and learn.