The Oxford Dictionary defines vendetta as: “1.1 A prolonged bitter quarrel with or campaign against someone.” Merriam-Webster defined it as: “an often prolonged series of retaliatory, vengeful, or hostile acts or exchange of such acts.”
The late James Bulger better known as Whitey complained more than once that the DA’s office where I worked had a vendetta against him according to filings made in his informant files by his handler FBI Agent John Connolly. We didn’t. We were using court ordered electronic surveillance to try to gather evidence against people involved in organized crime activities. His organization was targeted as were others. We were doing our jobs without any animus toward our targets. When we gained the evidence we charged the individual and if proven we recommended a sentence and let the court impose the punishment.
That is how I understood the system should work. Our personal feelings or biases should be put aside. We were not representing ourselves but the people of the Commonwealth. They established the law; our job was to enforce it in an even-handed way. We were not to be avenging crusaders.
Unfortunately when it came to Whitey Bulger not all prosecutors felt that way. Some actually had a vendetta against him These were the federal prosecutors who engaged in a “prolonged series of retaliatory, vengeful, or hostile acts” against him and his associates.
The lead prosecutor is Fred Wyshak. Now I believe his is a good prosecutor as well as a man of integrity. But what befuddles me about his actions is why he acted which such hostility against Whitey as if Whitey had committed a personal injury on him. He went far, far, far, beyond what is normally done in such cases.
He first had John Connolly the retired FBI agent tried. That’s fine, he had reason to try him in federal court in Boston. But did you know who Connolly lived next door to in Lynnfield? His former next-door-neighbor and brother-in-law was Arthur Gianelli.
He was a gangster. He was convicted and is incarcerated at the Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution in New Jersey. He’s due to get out after his 22 year sentence on March 22, 2025. Nothing wrong with that I suppose even though it exceeded the sentences of all the Angiulos other than Gerry and was the same as Mafia leader Vinny “the Animal” Ferrrara.
Here’s where Wyshak shows his personal hostility. I don’t recall that any of the wives or girlfriends of these Mafia people ever were ever charged. Did I miss that? If not, wasn’t it a little unusual to charge Gianelli’s wife, Mary Ann, with 19 counts, including racketeering, money laundering and other charges involving her husband’s illegal gambling activities. Hadn’t all those other gangster wives been involved money laundering? Why just Mary Ann?
Does Wyshak have a little extra meanness in him that makes him do this against a woman? That doesn’t seem so since he only does it to those connected to Whitey/Connolly. It is that connection that brings out his blood lust in doing this extraordinary action.
Then the most egregious case of all times is the prosecution of Catherine Greig. She was Whitey’s girlfriend while he was on the run for 16 years. Her love both blinded and bound her to him She was not shown to have any involvement in his criminal activity yet she was punished as if she were. The judge in her case let Whitey’s victims come in at sentencing to yell at her as if she had murdered their love ones.
Greig is now 67 years old and has been in prison since 2011 at age 60. She went off with Whitey at age 44. She had no criminal record. The sentencing guidelines were that she should do a little more than two years. She got eight. It was the longest sentence ever imposed on a woman without a criminal record who had not engaged in violence or drugs in the history of American justice.
To top it off Wyshak dragged her back before a grand jury to ask her questions about her life with Whitey. She refused to testify. She got an additional 21 months after the judge told her he could put her in prison for life.
Federal prosecutors have great power. The federal judge who should be able to backstop their abuses seem to be witting accomplices. Wyshak clearly did to these women what no other prosecutor would deign to do. Why was it he had this vendetta? How is it that he has never been called on it?
They put him in a cage and shot him !!!
I agree with NC — “There is no evidence that Wyshak is a man of integrity.”
Wyshak’s hatred for Bulger is obsessive. Wyshak is driven by it. He’s defined by it. Perhaps even to the point of taking part in setting him up to be brutally murdered? I do wonder.
Bulger wanted to plead guilty and take a lethal injection. Wyshak refused. Why?
Perhaps because it was too painful for Wyshak to consider having to give up his hatred. After all, hate is as strong an emotion as love!
Perhaps because Wyshak didn’t think Bulger would suffer enough? And, letting Bulger live while tormenting Catherine certainly made Bulger suffer.
Think of the witnesses Wyshak went after — Bob Fitzpatrick and Ralph DeMasi — who dared to put doubt in the minds of some jurors about the scripted and orchestrated trial.
Fitzpatrick is now done with probation.
DeMasi was declared NOT GUILTY today in the cold-case murder — where all witnesses are dead, and, conveniently enough, the witnesses against DeMasi got sweet deals for their testimony against him (so reminiscent of Wyshak’s deals with the fraudulent five: Morris, Martorano, Flemmi, and Weeks — and let’s throw in Nee as well.)
We know Wyshak was behind Fitzpatrick being railroaded. Was he behind DeMasi’s indictment and imprisonment for 2 years for a murder he had no part in?
Obsession and hatred can drive a man to such insane extremes. Power gives him the opportunity.
Bulger is gone. His health was deteriorating. His death was imminent. Why let him die of natural causes when you can have the horror of a beating, gouging of eyes, and cutting out of tongue. What a thrill that would be for someone (like Wyshak maybe?) so filled with hatred.
What will Wyshak focus on now? Certainly Catherine will be tormented until the bitter end of her unjust sentence. Wyshak needs to feed his hatred.
After Catherine’s released — what then? Wyshak must keep his hate for Bulger alive (or is it a love to hate?)….
Will he focus again on Connolly? I heard things aren’t going too well with his attorneys in Florida…?
Perhaps, Matt, he’ll focus on you — or me. Anything to keep his love of Bulger alive. (Did I say love? Oh, my mistake …)
Provocative , Janet …… Provocative Janet !!!
Janet
Excellent post.
thanks nc
There is no evidence that Wyshak is a man of integrity..One could argue he is a flawed man who engaged in evil deeds or he is just evil through and through as some in Savin Hill claim. What standard did he use to prosecute Grieg and not prosecute Martorano’s wife, nor Nee’s, nor Weeks, nor Winter’s. nor any Mafia wife or girlfriend? They never even arrested Bin Laden’s wife let alone charge her. Was he just dumb in falling for the Mafia disinformation campaign that Whitey was the only villain and all the Mafia hitmen were good guys?. 2. He falsely prosecuted the Probation Officers, Turner, Swartz, Connolly, Murphy, Ken Conley and the other Boston Cops. He produced known perjurers to frame Connolly. He along with Mueller withheld Fitzpatrick’s exculpatory evidence from his Florida trial. He framed Tim Flaherty and Fitzpatrick. A very pernicious cabal exists at the Moakley Courthouse. He along with Obama, Comey and Mueller lied to the public about the Boston Marathon bombing while trying to hide the FBI- Tsarnaev connection. 2. The judges are guilty of enabling this wrongdoing. Gen Flynn gets probation for lying to the FBI. Martha Stewart got 90 days. Popandopolous got 14 days. Lying to the FEDS is a minor offense, a process crime. Yet the very corrupt Judge Tauro gives Connolly ten years for that same crime. The Court of Appeals upholds that decision. What a sorry collection of cowards and losers inhabit the local Federal judiciary. They should all be sent to Gitmo for some Constitutional law training.
With Judge Tauro recently deceased, is it really appropriate to call a man “very corrupt” for whom tremendous accolades are pouring in, including from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer?
Does disagreeing with a jurist’s rulings make the jurist himself corrupt?
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https://www.bu.edu/law/2018/12/07/remembering-joseph-l-tauro-federal-judge-whose-landmark-rulings-protected-the-developmentally-disabled/
http://bluemassgroup.com/2018/12/judge-joseph-l-tauro-a-giant-in-the-treatment-of-the-developmentally-disabled-dies-at-87
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THE BOSTON GLOBE
NOVEMBER 30, 2018
Joseph Tauro, first federal judge to strike down Defense of Marriage Act, dies at 87
Federal Judge Joseph Tauro in 2013.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff/File
Federal Judge Joseph Tauro in 2013.
By Travis Andersen and Peter Schworm Globe Staff November 30, 2018
Former US District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro, the first judge to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional, died Friday morning at his Marblehead home, his family said. He was 87.
Tauro, appointed by President Nixon in 1972, had served as chief judge of US District Court in Boston from 1992 to 1999.
In 2010, Tauro ruled that the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as a union exclusively between a man and a woman, was unconstitutional because it violated the right of married same-sex couples to equal protection under the law and was contrary to the federal government’s long history of allowing states to set their own marriage laws.
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The prominent jurist announced in 2013 that he would retire from full-time duties after more than four decades on the Massachusetts bench, the longest active stint in the court’s history. He made the announcement on his 83rd birthday.
On Friday, Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, praised Tauro for his decision in the DOMA case.
“Judge Tauro’s decision in the Defense of Marriage Act case is a crucial reminder of the judiciary’s role in protecting individual liberty,” Rose said in a statement. “It’s also a reminder that sometimes getting it right means being bold.”
Rose’s words were echoed by Mary Bonauto, civil rights project director at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defender, or GLAD, a gay rights organization based in Boston.
“Judge Tauro was a no-nonsense and clear-eyed judge, who was also always willing to listen and learn,” said Bonauto, who argued before Tauro in Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, which challenged DOMA. “He applied our constitution’s promises to include LGBT people and also had the backbone to become the first federal judge to declare invalid the federal ‘Defense of Marriage Act’ in a full-on constitutional challenge to that law. He set the stage for the rulings that followed.”
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Tauro was involved in a number of major cases prior to the DOMA decision.
In the early 1970s, he was assigned to hear a lawsuit alleging abuse at a state-run institution for the developmentally disabled. After reading the complaint, Tauro decided to visit the Belchertown facility to see the conditions for himself.
“It was not fit to live in,” he recalled in a 2013 interview.
It was a case that would come to define Tauro’s legacy. He would go on to preside over the class-action lawsuit for more than two decades, forcing Massachusetts to spend millions of dollars improving care and earning a legacy as a champion for those with disabilities.
“The Massachusetts system became a model, not just for the United States, but for the world,” he told the Globe in 2013. “It was very rewarding to see.”
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On Friday, Philip W. Johnston, a former state health and human services secretary and onetime state Democratic Party chair, remembered Tauro’s tireless efforts on behalf of the developmentally disabled.
“As the state’s Secretary of Health and Human Services during the 1980s, I worked closely with Judge Tauro following his creation of a consent decree, which had the effect of closing the institutions for our developmentally disabled citizens and establishing a strong network of community programs across the state,” Johnston said in a statement.
Tauro, he said, “made sure the state’s political leadership was held accountable, even at one point threatening to jail legislative leaders if they did not produce the funds necessary to reform the system. Judge Tauro was filled with compassion, humor and intelligence and he made a great difference in improving the lives of millions of the most disabled people in our state and around the globe. He will be very much missed.”
Governor Charlie Baker also credited Tauro for helping the disabled.
“We are saddened to hear of the passing of Judge Tauro and are grateful for his many years of unparalleled public service to both the people of Massachusetts and our nation, in his capacity as Governor [John A.] Volpe’s Chief Legal Counsel, a United States Attorney, and as a judge in the Federal District Court,” Baker said in a statement. “In particular, his work over two decades ensuring the proper care for the developmentally disabled demonstrated the wisdom and compassion of this outstanding judge. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this time.”
Martin W. Healy, chief legal counsel for the Massachusetts Bar Association, offered a tribute as well, calling Tauro a “class act.”
“Judge Tauro was a legend in the Massachusetts legal community,” Healy said. “He was held in the highest esteem by attorneys and justices throughout the Commonwealth.”
In 1989, Tauro oversaw an agreement to settle a discrimination suit filed by minority families against the Boston Housing Authority. At the time, Tauro told the Globe his experiences growing up during World War II as a second-generation Italian-American lent the case personal significance.
And in 2012, he rejected a challenge to the state’s abortion clinic buffer zone law, saying the 35-foot buffer zone left “ample alternative means of communication.” In June, the Supreme Court agreed to review the state’s law.
Before being appointed to the bench, he served as the US attorney for Massachusetts and chief legal counsel to Governor John A. Volpe. He graduated from Brown University in 1953 and Cornell University Law School in 1956.
At the time of his retirement from the bench in 2013, Chief Justice Judge Patti B. Saris offered effusive praise.
“Judge Tauro has a lasting legacy as one of the great judges in Massachusetts,” Saris said at the time. “He has ruled in favor of protecting the rights of the mentally disabled and of gays and lesbians. With his common sense, he led this court as a wise chief.”
His decisions sometimes rankled local pols.
In 2009, Tauro rejected a request from then-state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill to block a lawsuit that asserted that he engaged in a ‘‘pay to play” scheme in awarding a $21 million state lottery contract.
Tauro was the son of G. Joseph Tauro, former chief justice of the state Supreme Judicial Court.
Bryan Marquard, Frank Phillips, and Martin Finucane of the Globe Staff contributed to this report. Travis Andersen can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TAGlobe.
Maybe some day Matt can have an exhibit
of all his blogging
at the Boston College Institute for Existential
Paroxysm
As the Master of Word Salad reminds us daily
at the Whitey Bulger buffett take out
blogging is not truth
behavior is truth
in other James Joyce truths
https://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/blog/3/some-reflections-on-the-portrait-exhibit-at-syracuse-university
Some Reflections on the Portrait Exhibit at Syracuse University
Submitted by robert shetterly on 8 December 2018 – 1:28pm
Before coming to Syracuse University for the opening of the Americans Who Tell the Truth portrait exhibit, a number of people asked me what it was going to feel like to see all the portraits at once. In retrospect, this question seems like asking a thirteen year old how it will feel to be married, or a medical student how it will feel to save a life. Until the thing actually happens, you can’t know. There is no precise reference point for an unexperienced event. I speculated anyway and said, “I’m sure it will be overwhelming.” …whatever that means. I assumed I would feel pride, the relief of completion (even though the project is not yet complete), and be excited to bask in the recognition of a large visible project. To answer without having had the experience is in a way surreal, at least unreal. Turns out, to have this experience was also surreal.
also see
https://cleantechnica.com/2018/12/13/bill-mckibben-calls-fbi-tracking-of-environmental-activists-contemptible/
Bill McKibben Calls FBI Tracking Of Environmental Activists “Contemptible”
December 13th, 2018 by Steve Hanley
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fbi-misses-deadline-to-provide-docs-to-judiciary-committee-probing-whistleblower-raid
FBI misses deadline to provide docs to Judiciary Committee probing whistleblower raid
Polygamist !!!
It’s like the old parable of the scorpion and the frog. A scorpion asks a frog to carry it across a river. The frog hesitates, afraid of being stung, but the scorpion argues that if it did so, they would both drown. Considering this, the frog agrees, but midway across the river the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both. With his dying breath the scorpion asks “Why?” The scorpion says, “It’s my nature.”
The Feds are not like state prosecutors. They’re the Feds. It’s their nature.
” IT BECAME A CANNED HUNT;THEY PUT HIM IN A CAGE AND SHOT HIM !!!
Conservative analyst describing the duplicitous McCabe disarming a Four Star General with a stellar career and reputation by playing on his ingrained Patriotism to secure an ” informal interview ” ….Who needs those pesky Counsels after all … And then totally screwing the guy on a disgustingly manufactured Process crime.
But of course as Peter Sucks Strozk said , here we paraphrase for the busy Peter : The General is a good man, but he lacks a certain ingrained sophistication .
THANK GOD FOR THAT !!!!!!!
They, with all the ingrained arrogance of the bourgeois asswipes who love to polish the floors of the Capitol with the wax of your sweat , were going to prosecute his Son . He capitulated .
THEY RUINED THE GUY !!!
Merry Christmas, Khalid !!!