You know Frank Salemme was one of the big hit men during the gang wars of the 1960s in Boston according to both him and his buddy Stevie Flemmi. Both men were indicted for blowing up an attorney’s automobile. They fled the area. Flemmi was caught in New York City by FBI Agent John Connolly, returned to Boston, incarcerated in Walpole prison for 16 years, and finally released in the late 1980s. He eventually became the leader of the New England Mafia. Not a nice guy by any definition of that word.
He testified against Agent Connolly at his trial in 2002. He blamed Connolly for him having been shot at a Pancake House in Saugus. He testified Flemmi told him the gangsters were paying money to Connolly; he testified that he gave Flemmi money to give to Connolly; and he said he got information from Flemmi which Flemmi said came from Connolly. Pretty good information that Connolly is corrupt to any juror who is paying attention.
He said he met Connolly at the Prudential Center in 1994. It was the first time he’d seen him since he arrested him. Connolly who was then working for Boston Edison invited him up to his office. He went there a day or two later. Connolly told him about a book he was writing. He also said Connolly told him the indictments were not yet out but that he would notify Stevie Flemmi when they were coming down. Not only is he corrupt, a juror would think but he is certainly reckless telling the head of the Mafia something like that.
Salemme said he went back to meet him again. He then said he went away for a while in case the indictments came down. W he came back he went to see Flemmi who told him they had still not come down. He then said he was called on January 5, 1995, by his wife who told him to come to his house. When he got there he met Flemmi. He said Flemmi told him the indictments were coming down on January 10th. He then fled.
He also testified that after he was arrested and while in jail hearings were held before Judge Wolf. He said Flemmi testified at those hearings. Flemmi told him he was going to blame FBI Agent Morris for some of the things Agent Connolly had done because Connolly told him to do that. This was the only evidence that Connolly had Flemmi falsely testify.
In deciding whether Salemme’s testimony was important to the case it is necessary to look at the charges on which Connolly stood convicted. One under the RICO charge related to his time as an FBI agent. He was convicted of one count of giving $1,000 in a case of wine from Whitey to Agent Morris. No question Salemme’s testimony suggesting Connolly’s corruptness aided that finding.
Under the RICO charge two of the other four convictions related to obstruction of justice by telling Bulger and Flemmi when the indictments were coming down, one related to having Flemmi testify falsely, and the other to sending a letter to Judge Wolf. One of those relied totally on Salemme’s testimony and two others were supported by it. Even the authorship of the letter was buttressed by Salemme since he said Flemmi told him Connolly was going to help them out.
Of the other three substantive counts on which he was convicted, one related directly to Salemme’s testimony which was causing Flemmi to testify falsely and the other to the letter to Judge Wolf.
There is no way to get away from a determination that Salemme’s testimony played a major role in Connolly’s convictions. It bore directly on one issue and heavily on others. If Connolly is the rogue that Salemme painted, how can it be said that Salemme perjuring himself in any way at Connolly’s trial was an unimportant factor for the jury to consider. That’s what Federal Appeals Court Judge Selya wrote. (to be continued)
NOTE: Starting next week I will keep this blog to issues surrounding the Whitey saga and other criminal related matters. My discussions of foreign affairs and other issues I find important will be on my related site: www.hubgab.com – On Monday the first post there is: We Will Weary of War As Our Real Enemies Strengthen?
Also: My Dad’s birthday is today.
Just a quick question to refresh my memory, what did Salemme say at Connolly’s trial that constituted perjury? I know I read it somewhere but I cannot remember.
Dave:
Salemme was asked whether he murdered anyone when he was the head of the New England Mafia and he said no one was murdered when he was in charge. That was the lie because it was known to the prosecutors he did murder a guy. He was indicted after the trial for perjury and the prosecutors let him plead out to a much lesser offense.
Ms.Freeh, The unsleeping eye of Alan Pinkerton just widened. A drunken wastrel of a Washington D.C. cop named John Frederick Parker was getting drunk in the same bar as Boothe was drinking in earlier that night, and so failed to relieve another member of the four man detail that rotated guarding the President. The four man detail was created by Washington PD in November, 1864. If Parker had manned his post Booth would probably not have been able tp enter the theater box, amd place a derringer to the President’s head.
Matt,
Will you be discussing the Tsarnaev trial? The kid has revealed that he knew of his brother’s activities in Waltham. Will that admission force the Feds into more fulsome disclosure of what went on the night of the murders. How will that effect the case?
Ms.Freeh salts some interesting info into posts regarding a well documented history of FBI shennanigans and generally speaking, law enforcement’s hubris and institutional chutzpah if you will. But we all know that Johnny has been a bad boy . When Johnny comes marching home from Fla he will have a tale to tell. And inevitably he will come marching home. There is a discipline all commenters should more or less adhere to, including certainly the estimable Ms. Freeh, but not excluding others, of responding to the Post @ threads head, in a relevant fashion. Well, here’s Mudd in all of our eyes !!! Slainte 🙂
Let’s try and stay on topic folks.
Here is hoping that Matt will focus
on the Boston Marathon bombing.
in other news
see link for full story
Chat logs reveal FBI informant’s role in hacking of Sun newspaper
US agency faces questions after records show Lulzsec leader, who was informant at time, helped attack that closed UK sites
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/oct/14/fbi-informants-role-hacking-sun-newspaper-lulzsec-chat-logs
Tuesday 14 October 2014 05.00 EDT
The FBI is facing questions over its role in a 2011 hacking attack on Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper in the UK after the publication of chat logs showed that a man acting as an agency informant played a substantial role in the operation.
In my book, Doctor Samuel Mudd was railroaded.
Ms. Freeh’s comments are consistently so irrelevant that I read none of what she posts – except when she reveals the truth about the CIA involvement in the A. Lincoln assassination.
Clarence…you do know the precursor to the FBI was the Pinkerton
Detective Agency?
Yep, the Pinkerton’s were guarding Lincoln
the night he took a bullet at the Ford Theater, eh?
Matt might catch a glimpse of
Paul Rico and John Connolly’ s memos here.
http://www.defendingdissent.org/stopspying/index.php?title=USA%5CGov%5CFed%5CFBI%5CCOINTELPRO%5CMassachusetts%5CBoston
mSFREEH? what the heck does LAPD ghost cars have to do with anything discussed above? Seems someone’s plumbing is getting clogged.
Happy Birthday?
Always trust the police. eh?
Sat Oct 11, 2014 3:17 pm
http://www.latimes.com/local/crime/
LAPD deployed ‘ghost cars’ to meet staffing standards, report finds
see link for full story
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-lapd … story.html
LAPD officers patrol skid row in downtown L.A. in July; a new report by the LAPD inspector general has found the department falsified records to make it appear that it was meeting staffing standards for officers on street patrol. (
Law EnforcementUnionsLos Angeles Police Department
Inspector general finds that the LAPD faked records to make it look like enough patrol officers were on duty
‘This has been going on for years,’ Officer Mark Cronin says of the LAPD’s use of ‘ghost cars’ in records
LAPD inspector general says police officials have responded swiftly to report documenting use of ‘ghost cars’
Los Angeles police deliberately falsified records to make it appear that officers were patrolling city streets when they were not, an investigation by the LAPD’s independent watchdog has found.
The deception occurred in at least five of the department’s 21 patrol divisions, according to the Police Commission’s inspector general, who released a report Friday on the “ghost car” phenomenon. Officers working desk jobs, handing out equipment in stations or performing other duties were logged into squad car computers to make it appear they were on patrol.
The findings bolstered allegations union officials have made in recent months that patrol commanders around the city were using the scheme to mask the fact that they did not have enough officers on patrol to meet staffing levels set by department brass.
There is this intentional misperception being put out there that there are more officers on the street than are actually there.
– Officer Mark Cronin, a director in the Police Protective League
“This has been going on for years,” said veteran Officer Mark Cronin, a director in the Police Protective League, which represents rank-and-file cops. “It is more prevalent in some areas, but it’s happening throughout the city… There is this intentional misperception being put out there that there are more officers on the street than are actually there.”
LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith declined to comment on the findings, citing a meeting Tuesday during which the commission will review the report.
The findings underscore long-running struggles within the department to keep a sufficient portion of the roughly 9,900 officers assigned to traditional patrol duties, while also filling the many specialty units and administrative jobs at the department. With nearly 4 million people in a city that sprawls over more than 500 square miles, the LAPD is widely viewed as significantly undersized.
Alex Bustamante, the inspector general, wrote in his report that the practice of manipulating patrol statistics “occurred during multiple shifts at different times of day, involved officers of differing ranks, and was carried out differently depending on who was involved and where they were assigned.”
The department’s Office of Operations, which oversees patrol deployments, relies on a computer program to analyze various factors and to determine the workload in each division at various times during the day. The program calculates how many patrol cars are needed to allow officers to respond to emergency calls within seven minutes — the department’s long-established standard, Bustamante wrote.
Related: Lack of LAPD civilian staff keeping officers off streets, officials say
Related: Lack of LAPD civilian staff keeping officers off streets, officials say
Soumya Karlamangla
To keep tabs on the deployment levels, department officials require station supervisors to document in a computer database what assignment each officer was given on every shift. And twice every day — at noon and 10 p.m. — a snapshot of deployment statistics for each division and the department’s four bureaus is sent by email to senior officials.
The patrol staffing levels are closely monitored and captains who run each division are held accountable if they fall short, Bustamante wrote.
cComments
@EmmCee really then don’t c
Department officials have always tried to keep secret the number of officers on duty in the city at any given moment and how many of them are assigned to regular patrol work. The Times reviewed one of the department’s daily deployment snapshots from October last year that showed that 190 patrol cars, each with two officers, were in use throughout the entire city at the time. In addition, 43 single-officer cars were on the streets, according to the record — indicating that about 420 officers were assigned to patrol at the time of the snapshot. Roughly another 220 officers were working non-patrol assignments such as gang details
Despite evidence that the problem was more widespread, Bustamante focused on deployments in two divisions, which were not named in the report, during March last year. The report did not specify how often patrol figures were inflated or by how much, but documented several examples of how ghost cars were used.
Times Investigation
Related: LAPD misclassified nearly 1,200 violent crimes as minor offenses
Related: LAPD misclassified nearly 1,200 violent crimes as minor offenses
Ben Poston, Joel Rubin
In one typical case, an officer assigned to assist detectives logged in to a patrol car’s computer but remained at tin each of the divisions’ chain of command ordered the numbers to be fabricated.
Salemme as you know was prosecuted and convicted for perjury at Connolly’s trial. You can’t believe a word these “well rehearsed” career criminals, serial killers and serial perjurers say. Salemme says Flemmi’s going to lie or is lying about Morris: each killer accuses the other of lying. Their correct. All glibly perjure themselves. For eight years while in federal custody, from 1995-2003, Flemmi testified then stuck to his guns that John Connolly was an honest cop and Morris was corrupt and Morris was the source of the leaks. Flemmi testified thusly before Wolfe, who picked and chose what he wanted to believe and disbelieve. Wolfe decided Connolly was bad because Flemmi said he was good. Flemmi in about 2002 or 2003, on the verge of his trial and likely eventual execution in Florida or Oklahoma, suddenly sang a new tune while in a headlock by federal prosecutors for eight years who wanted Flemmi to sing a tune more closely attuned to the proven perjurer Salemme’s tune. The plot thickens.
Matt, you said Flemmi was caught in New York; you meant Salemme. Happy Birthday!