My friend Brendan B used to say to me: “I was born at night but not last night.” In going along willy-nilly with some of the testimony I’ve heard without properly considering it sometimes I think I was born last night.
Here’s one thing I was bothered by after writing about Murderman Martorano and recalling his testimony. I couldn’t put my finger on it until today. I told how Murderman Martorano testified in a multiple hearsay manner saying that Whitey said John Connolly said Billy Bulger said Connolly should keep Whitey out of trouble. I told how the newspapers sang with glee in their next day headlines about this testimony suggesting that it apparently implicate Billy in Whitey’s criminal enterprise.
One reason offered by Murderman for Connolly wanting to help Whitey was that Billy helped Connolly get into Boston College (BC). Connolly entered BC in 1958. He graduated from a Catholic High school in Boston which back in the ’50s usually meant no one had to help your get into BC. I’ve already pooh poohed the idea of Billy helping him because Billy was just entering law school himself. There is strong reason to believe Billy didn’t even know Connolly back then because from all I know about their neighborhood I can’t see how they would have known each other. If you know anything about Old Harbor Village I wouldn’t have to explain this. But that’s for another day.
Here’s what I want to talk about today. I (and others) have not stopped to consider this. If Whitey was so loosed tongued about his brother Billy being involved in his criminal exploits, why haven’t we heard this from any of other gangsters, or even from Murderman himself who should be able to tell us other things Whitey said about Billy. We’ve heard nothing else from them or him relative to this.
Weeks was Whitey’s constant companion, surely he told him something but neither in his testimony or his book does he suggest any such thing. So too Stevie Flemmi who was Whitey’s partner, he testified in Florida and I’ve heard nothing about him saying Whitey told him anything about Billy. Add in FBI agent John Morris who wined and dined regularly with Whitey who had nothing to add.
In my book Don’t Embarrass The Family I mentioned how I went up to Connolly during the dark days of his trial and suggested that it looked to me like the feds were trying to squeeze him to get something against Billy. Connolly said Billy’s a man of integrity. Think of that, Connolly, a guy who had never been to prison but has been there for ten years and may spend the rest of his life in prison could walk out the door at any time if he had something on Billy. He doesn’t.
Neither have any of the other gangsters. Truth be told there is nothing there but it still does not stop the feds from looking. Not only looking, doing whatever it can to damage Billy’s reputation by leaking grand jury minutes.
That’s why Murderman Martorano’s tale of Whitey saying Connolly said Billy said is absolutely made up. Whitey and Billy had no relationship outside of being brothers. If Billy had ever said something like that to Connolly then Whitey would not be telling his gangster buddies about it. Whitey would not be saying things to put his brother in the jackpot. But this one nonsensical statement is accorded a high level of credence by a media starving to find out something bad on Billy and it is repeated over and over again.
Murderman Martorano said if Whitey didn’t explain why he was meeting with Connolly to the Winter Hill Mob that’d be the end of him if someone saw him talking to an FBI agent. That makes no sense in light of what we know. Murderman didn’t tell us that Stevie Flemmi had to get the clearance to talk to the FBI. He had been doing it since the early Sixties. Stevie wasn’t worried someone might have seen him so why would Whitey have been? By the way, Murderman knew nothing about Stevie talking until Stevie outed himself.
The hearsay evidence given by Murderman explains all you need to know about the problem with hearsay information, there is no reliability to it. Anyone can say X (Billy) told Y (Connolly) who told Z (Whitey) who told me (Murderman). How does one begin to cross-examine such a person about the statement. How do you ever prove it is false other than by putting out how absurd it would be in light of the other things we know, as I have done.
But what I’ve done by noting no other gangster said anything like this or that Connolly himself suggested it never happened is difficult to show at trial because to do it you’d have to bring in a bevy of witnesses and you’d end up trying another issue. Rather than dealing with the case against Connolly you’d be litigating Murderman’s credibility. No judge would let the case get that far away from the issue.
The point is even the most blatant hearsay of Murderman can be shown to be false when it is compared to the big picture. It is also to show how wrong it is for such hearsay to be admissible in court because it is totally unreliable.
i want to clarify a comment i made yesterday. it is my understanding that jerry anguilo never personally killed someone himself with bare hands, gun, knife etc. i brought it up because it is part of a process that helped keep whitey bulger heathy and out of jail and this is what i mean by that.no doubt jerry anguilo was a smart buisnessman and had around him men who were killers.some of his brothers and larry bainone. however jerry anguilo got his power in boston from operating under raymond who was a very respected old time don who died in 1984. i bring that up to reflect the fact that whitey bulgers so called partner steve flemmi was once recruited to join the mafia by raymond patriarca. so whitey and his partner had a very good working relationship with raymond patriarca who jerry anguilo operated under i think that helped whitey and stevie as they dealt with the brothers from the north end. that is my thought process and i thought i would add because so many things that surround whitey bulger and his staying out of prison from 1965 until 2011 deserve a second look as to how that happened, i might also add not shot or stabbed or even arrested in all that time.
Hawaii:
Gerry may not have killed anyone but he was fully capable of doing it. Flemmi was instrumental in keeping Whitey healthy when it came to the Mafia. So was Murderman Martorano. Both were fellow paesanos and were welcome as made men if they wanted to become them. Flemmi was also close to Salemme who became a made man as did Martorano’s brother. Angiulo and Patriarca felt they could get them to do their bidding so they wanted not to cause any problems with them and that is why the accepted Whitey. During 1980 Whitey was seen meeting with Larry and Nick at Lancaster Street. Whitey wasn’t shot or stabbed or arrested because he really knew how to take care of himself, was very disciplined, was protected by the FBI and kept his communications short and secret. Gerry did operate under Raymond L.S. who was the boss of the Patriarca family out of Providence.
Yes! That is why in my earlier comment I asked about the possibility of Bulger not getting hooked on any of the murders. These guys (Martorano and Weeks) are not to be believed. I agree that this quote that got the media so excited won’t be the thing to blow his credibility, but it won’t surprise me if the defense attorney gets this guy’s head spinning on the witness stand. Especially if he is armed with info from his client, Bulger. Is it really a slam dunk, as you say?
Pam:
The gangsters were not believed in the Connolly case except the one instance involving the time Whitey fled. J.W. Carney should be able to work them over pretty well especially since they have written books bragging about their exploits. He’s got a lot to work with. That’s the part of the trial I want to see when he takes on Weeks and Martorano and shows what liars they are. But it still is going to be tough for Whitey to come away from this because of the bodies that were dug up near Neponset Circle. The feds gave Weeks a great deal because it needed those bodies.
Busted!
Jan:
You’d think the prosecutors would have vetted their witnesses better but when you’re depending on gangsters to testify probably you got to expect they’ll say whatever they think will con the listener since that is their instinct.