Mid Morning Report – July 19, 2013 – Benji Ditchman Still On The Stand

Before the jury came in Wyshak asked the judge not to let the defense cross-examine on the fact that Benji was allowed to keep half of his property when he agreed to cooperate. He says that was not one of the inducements for his cooperation. He said it applied to some matter before Judge Wolf (4-27-2001) and not to the matter before Judge Stearns. The fact that they let him keep the property after he told them about all the other things he did, when he got the big deal to go in the Wit Sec program and avoid the death penalty, seems to me can be exposed. If the judge goes for this they something is wrong – the federals seem to hate the whole truth coming out.

Benji Ditchman got back on the stand. He testifies in two ways. One he is very good at telling what happened when he was actually there, like the time he was involved in the Melo-Tone deal and how they went about trying to get their business into the barrooms. Then there’s the times he seems absolutely obtuse. Wyshak has to carry him through these areas with leading questions.

My sense is he remembers what actually happened but when it comes to things that may or may not have happened, those things that he seems to have rehearsed with Wyshak, his memory seems to fail. In other words, what he has been taught to memorize in rehearsal he forgets, but what he experience in real life he has no trouble with.

We’ve heard from Murderman how Whitey told the whole group that Connolly told Whitey that he was going to give him information because his brother Billy asked him to watch out for Whitey. Benji, who was much closer to Whitey was asked by Wyshak about what was said about Billy. The best he could come up with was that he knew Connolly was friendly with Whitey’s brother Billy. Maybe it is difficult for Benji to go along with what he has rehearsed sitting  there in front of his old partner.

Benji seemed very confused about the first time he met with Connolly. He said Whitey had him come to a meeting at a coffee shop in Newton – he insisted that he come to the meeting.  He said that was the first time he met Connolly – he said he knew Condon from the old days – he said it was just an introductory meeting with not much more than a hello. He said he was suspicious about the meeting. He didn’t say why. Wyshak suggested to him that he was suspicious because he thought they would tell about his prior relationship with the FBI as an informant. He wouldn’t say that. But who would the FBI tell? Whitey? He was already an informant so he’d be happy. I don’t think they’ve thought through the ramifications of this planned testimony too well.

It’s interesting what we heard about Pat Nee. Now Pat Nee has never been charged with any of these things having to do with Whitey. His house, the death house at 799 East Broadway, was used as the burial grounds. He has admitted driving McIntyre to the death house and burying him there. Now we hear he is waiting under the Neponset Expressway waiting to bury Tommy King and how he did the watching of the movements of Michael Kersack as plans with Whitey and Stevie to do a hit on him. The hit failed when Flemmi’s M-1 somehow jammed after he got the first bullet off.

One big omission was the Rico gay allegations. He told us how he gave FBI Agent Rico a throw away gun because Rico wanted to kill George McLaughlin. In the past we were told that Rico wanted to kill McLaughlin because McLaughlin was intercepted in a wiretap saying Rico was gay and was having an affair with J. Edgar Hoover. Aside from the fact there never was a wiretap on McLaughlin, the idea an FBI agent would be so upset at being called gay he would want to murder a person, and besides that he apparently told 5 other agents of his plan and only 4 would go along, is so absurd that it was left out of today’s rendition.

The lies go on.