Did you ever notice how everyone is an expert. I blame sports for this. Take the Red Sox. I’ve heard 9-year-old kids holding their own with Harvard Law School graduates debating the merits of one player over another. This is all part of our egalitarian society where we like to think everyone’s opinion has equal weight and value. I suppose it does when it comes to sports although I’ve yet to see any 9-year-old managers. It is reinforced by our idea of one-person, one-vote.
When it comes down to it, most of these experts can’t separate the wheat from the chaff. I probably shouldn’t use that expression in our modern-day society where most of us have not seen “amber waves of grain” never mind labored in those fields so few even know what chaff is.
I bring this up because one of the problems with the talk around Whitey’s case is so many of the people think they know what they are talking about. We have a plethora of legal experts. Fortunately, no nine-year-old is interested in these matters so we’re not dealing with their opinions.
I’m on this kick because recently I’ve read two articles suggesting that the recent deaths of two people connected with Whitey are causing the feds to lose potential witnesses in the upcoming trial of Whitey Bulger. Howard of the Herald wrote on October 7 that “one of the ex-cons the feds were hoping to testify against [Whitey] has just passed on.” He was referring to a bookie named Tommy Ryan who was 81 years old.
I also read some articles that came out in the middle of August after Theresa Stanley, Whitey Bulger’s long time girl friend, died. They also suggested that she was going to be a witness against him in his upcoming trial. They said her death deprived the feds of an important witness.
I’d like to suggest to Howard and the others in the press who consider themselves to be legal experts that they are wrong. Neither Ryan nor Stanley was going to be called by the feds. Well let me not be that bold. I should say the feds do not need them because they have nothing to offer in relation to the charges facing Whitey. Their evidence would have no effect on the outcome.
The feds are happy to push the idea that their witnesses are dying and having Howard of the Herald to promote it. The feds want to rush the case to trial. This is a good ploy to suggest that unless there is a quick trial all the witnesses will be gone. I’ve yet to hear them make that argument in court but I’ve got to expect that it is coming.
Theresa Stanley, Tommy Lyons, bookies, etc. are all chaff. They know nothing about the murders. Whether bookies were paying protection has nothing to do with the murders. Whether Stanley cohabited with Whitey even less. The only witnesses necessary for the feds are those people who tie Whitey in to the murders.
Below I identify the 19 people the feds say Whitey murdered. In an earlier post I separated them into categories. The only witnesses the feds need are those people who can link Whitey into those murders, or at least two of them, for him to be convicted of the RICO charge.
Here’s the wheat. To prove Whitey’s connections to these murders, the feds need only three witnesses — these are the people who say they were there when the people were killed and Whitey had a part in the murder. These are Stevie Flemmi, Johnny Martorano and Kevin Weeks. Every other witness in the case is surplusage. The deaths, the autopsy, and the identifications can come into evidence through records.
All three of the necessary witnesses are confessed murderers. All three of them have received sweetheart deals to testify against Whitey. All three appear in reasonably good health.
Here are the names of the people Whitey is charged with murdering and the dates on which they occurred:
Michael Milarno (3/8/73), Al Plummer (3/19/73), William O’Brien (3/24/73), James O’Toole (12/1/73) , Al Notorangeli,(2/21/74), James Sousa (10/74). Then Paul McGonagle (11/74), Edward Connors (6/12/75) Thomas King (11/5/75), Francis ‘Buddy” Leonard (11/6/75) ,Richard Castucci (12/30/76), Roger Wheeler (5/27/81), Debra Davis (late 1981), Brian Halloran (5/11/82), Michael Donohue (5/11/82),John Callahan (8/1/82) , Arthur “Bucky” Barrett (August 1983); John McIntyre (1130/1984), Deborah Hussey (Early 1985).
I’ll write more about the feds evidence of Whitey’s involvement in these homicides in two days. I know about the evidence because Martorano and Weeks have written about them in their books. I’ll write as an expert, not as a kibitzer, as one who has both prosecuted and defended murder cases and other major criminal felonies. Tomorrow I want to discuss the Monday Morning Quarterbacking issue as it relates to these murders.
I was looking at the dates on all of the murders and was shocked by how old they all are. The most recent one is 28 years ago. Are we supposed to believe that Whitey, believed to have committed 50+ murders, hasn’t killed anyone in almost 30 years. Are there murders he is suspected of between 1985 and when he went on the lam? Wouldn’t Flemmi and Weeks had to have fessed up about those too?
Thanks for writing. You bring up a good issue that not only applies to Whitey but to Flemmi, Martorano and Salemme. Take Martorano, he left this area in 1979 and disappeared into Florida. He writes in his books about all the murders he committed prior to 1979 and about the killings of Wheeler and Callahan in 1981 when he was in Florida. Are we supposed to think he didn’t kill anyone since 1981? The same goes with Whitey, did he all of a sudden stop killing people? My gut tells me they’ve killed others especially if they get a rise out of killing people which these guys seemed to get. I’d have to guess they did murder others but I don’t know of any they are suspected of doing.
Remember, we know of all these murders they committed back in the ’70s and ’80s because Flemmi and Weeks told us about them. I think with respect to the Wheeler, Halloran and Callahan murders some people suspected them of doing those. As to all the others, I’m not sure they were suspected. Martorano only came forward because he thought Flemmi would rat him out; Weeks also came forward for the same reason; Flemmi then got the short end of the stick but to make it a little longer he ratted out Whitey.
Martorano testified he told about all his murders so he could clear the decks. I’d say he told us about all those where other people could rat him out. As to murders he did on his own or with associates now dead he didn’t tell us. Same with the others. That’s why Whitey’s testimony will be interesting. He may know a lot more about these guys killing other people than they have admitted. Remember, none of them ever expected Whitey would be captured so the stories they spun in their books may not be exactly what happened.