I’m reading the book One Murder Too Many which should be titled “One Book Too Many.” Most of what is in there the authors, Laurence J. Yadon and Robert Barr Smith, if this book is any example, write their books by copying what others have written. Many of the things they say they get backwards or they just seem to pluck out of the thick fog statements that make no sense. I’ll talk more about that later.
Now I want to discuss one statement they made. It is obviously false. I’ve read it before but never focused on how wrong it would be to anyone conversant with the happenings in Whitey’s life.
They tell how Whitey and Billy O’Sullivan were the muscle for Donald Killeen who ran the South Boston Killeen gang. O’Sullivan is murdered in Savin Hill (they get it wrong how it happened) and Donald Killeen is murdered outside his Framingham house. They then go on to say: “Whitey said his final amen to the war when he stopped his car next to Kenneth, the last surviving Killeen brother, as he was walking down the street. “You’re out,” he told Kenneth, “no more warnings.” “ The footnote attached to it was #26 which referred me to page 164 of Pat Nee’s book. That page had nothing to do with anything the authors had stated.
It shows a great misapprehension of what occurred to write Whitey told Kenneth Killeen to get out of the business. Whitey was working with the Killeens. He’d be the last one to have suddenly tell one of them to get out of business. The only way would have been if Whitey had gone over to the other side which was the Mullens. We know that didn’t happen.
Pat Nee was one of the leaders of the Mullens and he wrote about trying to kill Whitey. In his book , “A Criminal & An Irishman” on page 127 he wrote that after the murder of Donald Killeen “For the next few weeks the atmosphere at the Mullen’s corner was pure elation. The buzz around town had us going for Whitey next. But Whitey went underground . . . .” We know Whitey was in a panic. He needed to make peace with the Mullens. We’d learn that eventually a meeting arranged by Howie Winter at Chandlers in the South End between Whitey and the Mullens brought about a peace deal.
Whitey didn’t tell Kenny Killen he was out. If anyone did, it was the Mullens. Whitey was running scared. Nee said he wasn’t in Southie but was hiding out at Cape Cod.
I figured the authors were just passing on a lie that they read somewhere else. Where did it come from, I wondered?
I traced it back to Howie Carr’s 2006 book, page 66. He talked about Donald Killeen’s killing and wrote: “The next day, Donnie’s sole surviving brother was walking hurriedly along the street in Southie when a car pulled up alongside him. Whitey rolled down the window and told him. “You’re out. No more warnings.” So Yadon and Smith mindlessly followed Carr who as we know backs up nothing with a footnote.
Howie makes up much of his material but I wondered if he got this from another book. The only one I could think of would be Black Mass, by Lehr and O’Neill. I remembered that they often had their facts messed up. In their book (on page 28) they put the Chandlers meeting with Howie Winter before the Donald Killeen murder. It actually took place a year or so later.
Their intent is to do everything possible to blacken Whitey. They decide to pretend that he betrayed Donald. They then suggest that he killed Donald when everyone knew it was the Mullens.
To buttress their make-believe scenario they write: “The finishing flourish occurred a few weeks later when Kenneth, the youngest brother in the Killeen family, jogged past a car parked near city Point with four men in it. A voice called out “Kenny.” He turned to see Bulger’s face filling the open window, a gun tucked under his chin. “It’s over,” the last Killeen bookmaker standing was told. “You’re out of business. No other warnings.”” It is total bull to anyone conversant with the happenings.
A lie made up to make Whitey look worse than he was is followed by another lie which is an invented event that has the words in quotes as if they were recorded somewhere and gives them the veneer of legitimacy. The lie gets repeated in book after book by writers who don’t think. They pass it on as an accepted truth when a moment’s reflection would show its falsity. Is there any doubt Boston was bamboozled?
I really don’t understand this obsession. I have lived my entire life knowing the truth. I lived with the lies about my father. Every single book that has been written is not accurate.
Elana:
I was just finishing up my posts on the Tim Flaherty case in federal court when your email came in. I know very little about what happened involving your father, as I would suggest most people do, other than what I read in books. If I have said something wrong about your father then I regret it since that is not my intent. I try to look beyond what has been written to see what makes sense and what does not. If you wish to write about your father and do anything to set the record straight I will be willing to let you consider doing it and post it on my blog. You can write it to me off my blog address to [email protected]. Right now I will be doing the Tim Flaherty matter for the next two weeks so if you decide you want to post something let me know. It would not happen immediately so take your time. No rush. Think it over. And again, if I offended you by saying something you believe is untrue about your father then accept my apologies.
Matt
Whitey Bulger was moved to a Florida prison. Is it possible he will go on trial in that state and they will ask for the death penalty? Did you ever see or have any run ins with Whitey Bulger when he was operating in Boston in the 70s to 90s? Thanks again Matt
http://wpri.com/2014/09/04/whitey-bulger-moved-to-florida-prison/
Jerome:
Thanks for the information, I did a post on it the transfer. Can’t be any good reason behind it.
I never ran into Whitey – I knew he was around, obviously, and knew the guys who had targeted him directly such as Dave Rowell and Dick Bergeron of the Quincy police and some of the DEA guys. Most of his activity was in South Boston which was outside my county. I picked him up once on a wiretap of people running a drug operation in Randolph talking to Stevie Flemmi but the call was brief and not incriminatory.
I was doing a lot of wiretaps on gaming operations which I would learn much later were operating under him. One of my last taps brought me right to Whitey’s doorstep until the feds indicted the state trooper who was leading the charge.
Thanks also for the news site reference.
Hi Matt
I saw the documentary about Whitey Bulger. I am curious as to what your thoughts are after you have viewed it. I thought it was good but the thing about the Whitey Bulger saga is one is still left with a not knowing everything feeling. The whole gray area of being a Top Echelon Informant and what exactly did law enforcement know and not know is still fascinating to those that follow the history. I know Whitey Bulger is not anywhere near some of La Cosa Nostra crime bosses but the fact he was able to stay alive and profit for what , 25 years and then go on the lam for another 16 is still unique, no? He managed to outsmart and out manuever a lot of other thugs in the crime world.
I also wonder if you would be able to explain in your book on Whitey Bulger as to the process that he went through in prison that made him a colder, more sociopathic, dangerous, and conniving criminal. finally what is the status on him being tried in either Florida or Oklahoma?
Excellent work you are doing and it is appreciated
Jerome:
I haven’t seen the documentary. When I do I’m sure I’ll have some thoughts which I will spell out.
I’ve written before that the Top Echelon Informant program is a corrupt program where the FBI protects murderes and other criminals in exchange for information. Whitey was able to keep from being apprehended because he was protected by the FBI. They gave him protection from everyone in law enforcement; he had no problem from the Mafia because he worked with them when they needed him. He was very disciplined and with the protection he had few worries.
Prison gave Whitey the time to think and read and reflect on his life. He was imprisoned in his mid-twenties and came out in his mid-thirties. He’d done some hard time. I’m not sure it changed him much since he was involved in criminal activities since his youth and was always rebellious. It might have made him more cruel. When he got out he knew that going straight was not for him so he got into the rackets in South Boston which eventually gave him the control of a lot of the non-Mafia criminal enterprises. His rise comes after he becomes an FBI informant. Complaints against him to the FBI were suppressed.
I believe I read somewhere that Oklahoma decided not to try him. With his recent transfer to Florida, it seems that state may be moving to open up its case against him. We should know about that shortly. I posted on that today.
Thanks for answering my questions Matt. I do not have extensive knowledge like some readers but you mentioned that Whitey did “hard time” while in prison. In what way does “hard time” make an individual a better ciminal? Of course that makes him/her more dangerous to society. From what I have read about Whitey Bulger it sounds like he was a kid who got into fist fights a lot and held his own as a fighter. It would seem that Whitey was a violent man at a young age and never outgrew it. I wonder if being in prison caused him to not give up his violent nature as a survival mechanism.
Jerome:
You make a good point. Whitey was bad to the bone when he was kid. Yes he was known as a fighter and had a few bruises from the cops when he engaged them. Hard time in prison comes about because guys like Whitey resent authority so they mouth off and end up being punished for it. His being sent to Alcatraz can be traced back to his wise guy attitude in prison. He had good connections in DC with Speaker McCormick but even he couldn’t stop the prison officials from sending him there.
Eventually he found out that in prison you can’t beat the system for it can always come up with ways to beat you down. One begins to want to make things easier for himself so he develops a method to control one’s natural instincts and start playing by the rules. If not you get hit with all sorts of punishments.
Whitey’s prison days taught him that discipine, self-control and hiding his emotions. To escape the boredom of it he turned to reading. Rather than giving up his violent behavior he just managed to keep it in check and to wisely use it. He went into prison in his mid-20s still a wild kid; he came out nine years later as an adult. He left behind the things of his youth. Some guys never do.
great to see someone continue to call out the lies! black mass is a pure work of fiction and now movie lol
Pat:
I’m amazed, truly amazed, at the lies that book contains. I read it a while ago before I got involve in these matters and fell for it hook, line and sinker. But it and other books have so many apparent fabrications that it is truly shocking no one has ever called any of these authors on what they have written. It shows how lies can become truths because so many authors have followed along with the same lies in their books. I hope to show much of this as I go along and get back to the reason I started the blog. Thanks.
Matt: you are only as high as the people you hang out with.
They can only take you to where their consciousness is.
If I was to write a book on Whitey I would consult with
these people and have them give you their slant on the pathology of Whitey Bulger.
Start with author of Violent Lifestyle Juvenile Offender publisher Lexington Books
attorney Andrew Vachss. He has a law office in NY City and lives in Newport Oregon
with his former prosecutor wife Alice Vachss. Back story 1. if you saw the first episode of True Detective on HBO ,when Woody Haarrelson visits his cop partner
Mathew McConaughey’s apartment the entire room is bare except a small pile of criminology research books on the floor with Alice Vachss’s book on Rape laying
on top of the pile.Andrew Vachss was my thesis advisor in 1972 when I received my M.A. in Criminology Read his resume at his website at andrewvachss.com
2. Call Jerome Miller at the National Center for Institutional Alternatives and pick
his brain.
3.read Caroline Myss’s Contract with the Universe but first watch ALL her YouTube
videos.
4. Read Ian Stevenson’s MD. book Where Biology and Reincarnation Intersect.
As a personal favor to me please watch this video
It is time sensitive it will be taken off Vimeo Sept 1 2014
Ed Tatro sent me this link
of a new documentary that you
can watch for free only during august.
If the link is changed google title with word vimeo
The Zapruder Film Mystery
from E2 Films PRO 3 weeks ago All Audiences
Was the Zapruder Film altered by the CIA in the days after the JFK assassination to hide evidence of a conspiracy? Legendary CIA photo interpreter Dino Brugioni thinks it was.
In this film, Brugioni speaks for the first time about his examination of the film at the CIA’s National Photographic Interpretation Center on the Saturday evening after the assassination. As researcher Doug Horne discovers, Brugioni was not aware of a second examination of the film at NPIC the following evening by a completely different team and believes the Zapruder Film in the archives today is not the film he saw the day after the assassination.
Drawing on Volume 4 of his book Inside the ARRB, Doug Horne, former chief analyst of military records at the Assassination Records Review Board, sets the scene for his interview with Brugioni and presents his disturbing conclusions.
Edited and Produced by Shane O’Sullivan as an extra feature to Killing Oswald: killingoswald.com
2. Read
MS:
Thanks for the suggestions. I watched the video earlier. It is somewhat persuasive. What bothered me was the CIA’s involvement in the first place. I thought they were supposed to operate overseas.
Matt, people who grew up in the neighborhoods and read Carr’s books know he is a bold faced liar. Anyone who read Black Mass knows that piece of fictional junk was written with so many holes in it and misrepresentations that only Hollywood would but into it. Black Mass was written to make money and to curry favor with Hollywood and leftist radicals who hate all things South Boston, so Lehr and O’Neill sold their journalistic souls and not only painted Whitey as black as night, they painted John Connolly in the worst darkest light possible, implying he was corruptible and corrupted by Whitey ever since he was a child. Their book is scurrilous crap and my next book Character Assassins II proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt.
William:
Good luck with your book but I’m hoping mine reaches out to beyond those who already know the things you mentioned into the minds of others who do not believe like the people you refer to. I don’t want to be preaching to the converted but to make new converts.