Aside from knowing Salemme was wrongfully incarcerated, he may have learned that many prosecutions conducted by the Department of Justice used information from Flemmi that was not disclosed to the defendants who were convicted. He might have known there were other people beyond Salemme in prison who should not have been there. He might have known of the frame up in the Deegan murder case by the FBI and DOJ.
Carney did talk about the Deegan case in his opening; Brennan also mentioned it in his cross-examination of Martorano. Did Whitey know and could he prove that the Deegan case was a government conspiracy that went all through the Boston US attorneys office right up to the top (someting we wuld find out 25 years later), Were there other cases of a similar nature? Did Whitey know that some in the FBI or local U.S. attorney’s office had been compromised by some of the people he was dealing with?
If he had all this information or information like it which is likely, what would O’Sullivan do to keep Whitey’s mouth shut? Cut him out of a case? He did that. Tip him off to a wiretap? He did that by letting the FBI rewrite and affidavit and add him into it so he could he told of the tap.
As time went on Whitey would know more. He may have had information that the government may not have done everything by the book in leading up to the electronic surveillance on Gerry Angiulo and Larry Baione, things that could have undermined its case. If so, O’Sullivan and the FBI would have to have acceded to any terms he offered.
Throughout the late 1970s and all through the 1980s Whitey would have known that Stevie Flemmi was an informant. He would have sat back while Stevie undermined his friends and the Mafia and smiled. He had no obligation to tell Stevie to stop. He had no need to join in with him because his money and knowledge of Stevie’s treachery protected him
Weeks tells us how Whitey really didn’t like Flemmi that much. He deliberately cut him out of things like the lottery win and the Halloran hit. Flemmi would come back whining. H
That Whitey was with Flemmi when he gave information to Connolly did not make him an informant; it made the other two guys suckers. He was a percipient information sucking in information whose mouth had to be kept shut. These are the things C & B will tell the jury.
Carney promised this in his opening. True Whitey was a gangster in the drug and illegal booking business. He was partners with Flemmi. He was not an informant. He worked on a deal with O’Sullivan that he could run his operations doing the normal things inherent to those operation if he kept his mouth shut about all he knew. A good quid pro quo: the government gets the Mafia; Whitey gets enormously wealthy.
This is a rough outline of what I believe to be the Grand Strategy of the defense being put on by C&B. Reviewing what they are doing in cross-examination points to this. I’ll know more as I go along.
it is defense they can use to get Whitey out of every charge for two reasons: they’ll tell the jury to send a message to the government that this type of across the board corruption from DOJ Washington down through the FBI cannot be tolerated and the only way to do that is to acquit Whitey of all charges. Or, alternatively, the government gave up its right to go after Whitey for any of his crimes because it made a deal with him that it wouldn’t take that action if he let them continue their wicked ways.
I’m working my way through this but its the only thing that makes sense of what I’ve seen so far. I know its rough but wanted you to have something to thin about over the 4th of July. C&B have to muddy up the government with its sordid deals and knowledge. They have to make the government more corrupt and more dangerous than Whitey. It’s Whitey’s best chance for an acquittal, actually his only chance.
“A good quid pro quo: the government gets the Mafia; Whitey gets enormously wealthy.” And the government gets the illusion that it can control crime in Boston thru WB.
One thing doesn’t add up to me though: “The government gave up its right to go after Whitey for any of his crimes because it made a deal with him that it wouldn’t take that action if he let them continue their wicked ways.” The only way the deal sticks is if WB is an informant. Which he denies with a passion. If he’s not a snitch then he can’t use their protection.
This might all be covered in more recent posts. I’m way behind.
D:
Whitey couldn’t give the government the Mafia; but he could give the FBI some of his enormous wealth.
That’s the big mystery in the case – the government said it would let Whitey commit whatever crimes he wanted – normally we’d say it was done in exchange for him becoming an informant – but as you note he said he wasn’t an informant. What did Whitey do or know that made the government do that? If he testifies we will know that.
Random thoughts-Getting a jury to nullify the governments case typically requires bombshell evidence. Could C/B have some witness up their sleeve (they can’t put Whitey on the stand, can they?) that they can bring in as a rebuttal witness(therefor not having to divulge him/her to the government ahead of time)? If not, it seems their best hope is a hung jury. Tom Harrow’s thought that the jury as a whole might take current events(multiple instances of government over-reach) into consideration gives too much credit to the average jury, unfortunately.
Kevin Cullen was on the PBS News Hour last night castigating C/B for having ceded the case to the government (while on the Daily Show they made the same point). It’s always interesting to watch the media miss the main points of a trial and misinform their audience,being content to get the verdict correct and calling that good reporting. In Cullen’s case, he proudly advised the interviewer that he had lived in Southie in the 80s and 90s and knew that there was abundant drug activity, contrary to the “Whitey as Protector” of Southie from the scourge of drugs. Which was just piling, on as the interviewer wanted to know why the issue of Whitey as a snitch seemed so important to the defense (at least someone in the media is thinking). One wonders if the coterie of authors that have their own Whitey cottage publishing industry are so enthralled with their own work that they cannot see what is going on here. Could it be that they have been in bed with the government so long, relying on tips and contacts for their insights, that they have lost all perspective. And further, how much of this cottage industry product is being fashioned by the Feds, purposely or otherwise. Finally,MTCs theory is fascinating and almost certainly correct (kudos Matt). But if there is a guilty verdict, will any journalist play the gadfly and attack the government for its unbelievable corruption?
Chaco:
Good points. Thanks. Here’s Carney’s problem as I see it. Nullification usually has to come about at the end of the government’s case where defense counsel throws up his hands in disgust and tells the jury that what they heard was so corrupt and evil from the government that he just finds a defense unnecessary because no American wants to condone that type of conduct.
Without the bombshell they have lots of cluster bombs which they have exploded so far in the government’s case and they could get more from Weeks, that’ll be tough, but Flemmi who Carney should have for lunch.
Whitey is better off with a hung jury than anything else. An outright win puts him in the hands of the states that have murder charges pending against him. Whitey wants to spend the rest of his days in Plymouth now that the brutal guards have been leashed. I can’t see at this point the whole jury going against the government, not enough especially since the government is strong in the bookie/drug/money laundering area. The jury might chuck the murders and give it the others. That will be a major loss but will be played up in the press as a win.
Cullen has no idea what is happening. He said last night Whitey is charged with 32 counts and 19 of them are murders. Actually, he’s not charged with any murders. But in one RICO count, one, the 19 predicated acts are murder. Such a basic misunderstanding of what is happening is astounding. Cullen also has no idea of C/B strategy. He’s too busy tweeting and hasn’t given any thought to what is going on. He lived in Southie but so what, he worked for the Globe against Southie.
I think you are right – all the authors have read each other and every so often they gather together to play the same tune over and over again to insure they are in sync. Sometimes the prosecutors join them so they sing in unison. Any guilty will be played up as a big win. The only journalist in the mainstream who might take a run at the government is David Boeri who seems to figured out what is going on.
Tex. Connolly’s trials in Boston Federal Court and in Fla. State Court were both criminal. You can’t send someone to prison in a civil case. His Constitutional Rights were violated completely in Fla. In Boston the Feds lost the case ( serious charges) but a dishonest judge gave him ten years. 2. MTC. Your theory may be absolutely correct. Carney’s opening seemed strange at the time but it may ring true to the jury now. WB may be deemed not to have been an informant so who told the truth in their openings? If Wyshak comes across as overbearing, pompous and deceitful how does that advance his cause? His four main witnesses are lying serial killers or a lying corrupt cop on a fat pension. The FBI records look fake. WB looks like small potatoes compared to the eight serial killers the Feds let out of jail. WB as a regional or national crime figure seems as bogus as wmd in Iraq. It all comes down to how skeptical of the government the jurors are. A jury may not want to embrace any of the conduct the Feds engaged in and become refusniks.3. Flemmi’s book says that he and Salemmi practiced blowing up Fitzgerald at a Roxbury garage. In the trial in Cambridge Superior Dadicco testified it was those two who did it. If the fix were in wouldn’t the FBI have excluded Flemmi entirely and have put Gucci or some other Roxbury killer there? What is Tex’s connection to George Kaufman’s Garage? Any photos? Are all persons from Brookline suspect? 4. Have Kraft and Bellichick joined the witness protection program? No one has seen them.
N:
Happy 4th
1. went to Another
2. It’s really all Carney has to hope for is the whole case gets tossed by the jury.
3. Salemme said he had nothing to do with Fitz.s car – it was just Flemmi – Dadieco blamed the two of them so he could nail Salemme – Flemmi was on the lam. FBI put in fix to have Dadeico say both of them so it could include Salemme – it knew it’d take time to get Flemmi back and by that time it could get Dadieco out of town and fix case against Flemmi which it did. Another did the state inspections.
5. Both are in Texas – they’ve got info against Billy –
Matt,
This is the first I’ve heard that Salemme claims he was not involved in the Fitzgerald bombing. I think I remember reading in Cullen and Murphy that it was Rico and/or Condon who worked over Daddeico to turn on Flemmi and Salemme. Or maybe it was RICO.
So is it Rico/Condon with the FBI supervisors’ complicity that screwed Salemme? Is it the FBI machinery with Rico/Condon as the fall guys?
RICO (the book) seems to argue that the FBI did turn over what they knew about the Patriarca tape on Deegan, as well as other evidence, and it was then up to state/local authorities to bring the case. Also cites evidence that what Barboza was saying was corroborated by other evidence (like Barboza saying three guys pulled a trigger, and finding three different calibers of bullets at the scene). Is it possible that Rico/Condon were just so busy with their many cases that they couldn’t possibly know all the happenings going on within the FBI bureaucracy and its interaction with local authorities? They did meet with Barboza and the local ADA and detectives something like 30 times, so they were intimately involved. I’m really still up in the air about that whole Deegan murder. I’m much more inclined to believe that it wasn’t just rogue agents Rico and Condon who undermined justice, but I’m still having a hard time believing they share no blame for the supposedly wrongful convictions of Tameleo, Grieco, Limone, and especially Salvati.
Jon:
IN 2004 or around there Salemme went to DC where he got immunity from a Congressional committee and testified before its lawyers and some other staff members. There he said he refused to set off the bomb in the car so Flemmi and some others went and did it.
The big problem here is all these gangsters lie. If Condon/Rico had something to hammer Daddeico with then he’d tell them a story about the bombing and probably leave himself out and throw Salemme in. How would they know Salemme was not there if Daddeico put him there?
Here’s something I did not consider before which is very important. If as you say Rico was involved with Daddeico and was behind getting the indictments in the Fitzgerald bombings, what does that tell us about the guy. He did something Connolly would never have done. He helped indict a guy who was his informant, he didn’t protect him. Did Rico also jam Flemmi in on the Suffolk murder?
I’d like to know more about that. No wonder both of them have been putting out calumnies against Rico. There a whole aspect of this story that is hidden, that is these gangsters talking among themselves and planning their own little revenges with the help of the Mafia. Look — the Mafia decided a long time ago it wasn’t smart to hit cops — it used the judicial system and the media to take them down. The gullible judges and gangster groupies were good allies.
re: defendant demeanor
the man is coming out of a shell and getting his timing and mojo back in shape. It is a different reality than hiding or being imprisoned in a cave. He has something new and engaging to do everyday. Watching all these characters with little or no character parade in and outand he is the center of everyone’s attention. He is the cock of the walk and is taking it all in and feeling better about the trial already. It is very exciting. It’s him and his crew against them and their crew. Maybe the defendant didn’t bother with sports when he was coming up because those are games and he prefers combat and I don’t mean the paintball version.
Hopalong:
I like you take on “the other guy” as Tower and Shea called him.
I really enjoyed these series of articles, I think it makes all the sense in the world. Even the worse case scenario is not all that bad from the defendant’s point of view. Even is he is found guilty of some/all the charges, the toothpaste is now out of the tube as far as the government actions. His role as an informant can now be spiritedly debated, a few weeks ago, it was considered a foregone conclusion. I expect that the murders of the women will also be tossed into doubt.
In the end, Jim Bulger wants to be remembered as the Babe Ruth of gangsters, one of the very best at his profession that did it the old fashioned way and earned his status. The Government wants him to be the Barry Bonds of gangsters, a professional with mind boggling stats that clearly cheated to get his status and his legacy should be followed by an asterisk.
This defense strategy has the possibility to get him acquitted or just as beneficial, a hung jury. If the defense fails, at least they have moved him closer to Babe Ruth than Barry Bonds. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that this distinction is more important to the defendant than freedom* or getting back at the government.
*freedom still means trips to Oklahoma and Florida, doesn’t it? If this jury acquits him of Callahan and Wheeler, can he still be tried in other states for these murders? I thought you couldn’t be tried for the same case twice in criminal court but I am not sure if there is a distinction between federal and state cases, I am sure MTC can shed light on this question.
Great work, MTC, a real thrill to have read this series.
Matt from Texas,
I like the Ruth/Bonds distinction. On being tried twice, it was done to Connolly. Even though the statute of limitations ran out.
My understanding is that the Connolly trials were criminal and then civil, just like O.J. Simpson where you can be tried in two different types of courts for the same event. My understanding is that OK and FL are waiting with criminal proceedings as I expect the current trial also is considered criminal.
Admittedly, I probably don’t know enough about the legal system to even warrant being called a “hack” so I am hoping some certain deputy district attorney comes swooping in to provide the lighthouse of fact that will help me navigate though my current fog of ignorance.
Another:
One down, there’s doubt he was an informant; one to go, make it doubtful he murdered the women, Whitey dies happy thinking he is the Sultan of Crime. You are right about that it is more important to him to keep his gangster reputation clean (not an informant – never hurt a woman) that to be free because he can never get out again.
He won’t beat all the charges no matter how good Brennan and Carney – if the does he goes off to Florida and Oklahoma.
A person can only be tried for a crime once by a sovereigh government. We are under two sovereigns, the U.S. and the state we live in. Connoly was acquitted before a Bosotn jury of leaking information on Callahan, he was convicted of the same thing in Florida. If
ConnollyWhitey won everything here he still would have to go south for his other trials. He knows he’ll never get out so he wants to burnish his repuatition and stay out of the southern jails. The best wy to do it is to get a mistrial if Carney can make Weeks look like he’s lying over Whitey’s involvement with the women.“If Connolly won everything here he still would have to go south for his other trials. He knows he’ll never get out so he wants to burnish his repuatition and stay out of the southern jails. The best wy to do it is to get a mistrial if Carney can make Weeks look like he’s lying over Whitey’s involvement with the women.”
You mean Whitey right?
Jon:
Yes, thanks for picking that up. I’ll correct it.
Jon:
I’m getting infected by Wyshak’s belief that Connolly is on trial again.
In fact, only one sovereign tried Connolly twice; in Boston federal prosecutor Durham was the lead prosecutor; In Miami, federal prosecutor Wyshak was the lead prosecutor and we believe the FEDS paid his salary, benefits and paid for just about all of the witnesses to travel from Boston to Miami for the sham state trial. Connolly was acquitted in Florida of the original charges: first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder; he was convicted of second degree “murder by gun”, which charge was added at the end of the trial. Even the trial judge said in open court that the Statute of Limitations had run and the prosecutors failed to prove an essential element of the murderbygun charge, namely that Connolly ever had the murder weapon in his possession. Even so, the judge sentenced Connolly to 40 years for allegedly saying, “if Callahan talks we’ll all be in trouble> words to that effect. Flemmi, of course, made that up and Connolly absolutely denies ever saying anything like it.And you thought there was justice in America!!!! Yes, there was a civil trial, both the defense (the FEDS/FBI and plaintiffs (victims’ families) painted Connolly as a rogue agent; Connolly was not represented in the Federal civil action in Boston; the trial judge made erroneous “findings of fact” againsthim, findings he had been acquitted of in the criminal trial. Unlike OJ, Connolly was not held civilly liable as an individual: the FBI was held civilly liable.
William:
It would have done little good to hold Connolly civilly liable since he did not have a deep pocket but he was the vehicle that the plantiffs used to get the money from the federals. He was the corrupt agent all the civil judges wrote about.
Your are right that Connolly rally was tried by the same sovereign twice ~ Florida just accommodated the federals to give them a second bite of the apple. I heard the 40 year sentence does allow for parole. Connolly could be looking at only another 10 or 12 years in prison if he lives that long. Then he goes up before the parole board which will probably deny him it.
William:
Connolly was tried by the same team of federals twice. It does make a mockery of the two sovereign idea.
He’d due for parole in another ten years. Doubtful he will get it. He’ll die in prison. Whitey hasn’t helped his cause.
Amazing how easy it is to put a “JACKET” on a man who is not an informant
Joey:
I see you have a web site. For all you know anything you post could be going in your informant file at FBI headquarters. You may want to check on that.
Matt,
Nice work. If this really is the case, and I think it is making a great deal of sense, then it would be the most amazing case of collective brainwashing by the media and even government since (and I know many will disagree with me) the Gitmo myth that we just randomly picked up a bunch of innocents and sent them away to Cuba indefinitely. I think the government is filled with good people, I support much of our national security efforts (including prosecution of Snowden), and I think the FBI has done a lot of good things like taking down the NY mafia families. But this case has revealed a remarkable degree of incompetence and a chilling tale of how the DOJ/FBI bureaucracy is an end unto itself and seems to operate with no oversight, and this is a scary thing when embarrassments like this happens and the massively skewed accounts of history allow the government to resort to scapegoating individuals who are powerless against the resources of the faceless bureaucracy and the inexorable tides of an ocean of distortions washing up on the shore.
Jon:
The defense of the FBI is that they have done a lot of good things. Suppose Carney and Brennan started bringing in all the old women that Whitey did good things for? Would you give him a pass because of that?
The FBI is supposed to do good things all the time. It hasn’t and it still operates like it is a law unto itself. I don’t see that as being good for our country.
Point well-taken Matt. I guess I’m not ready to call it our incarnation of a police state. But I fully agree that it should be doing good things all the time, and it most certainly does not. It operates like it is a law unto itself.
I think you are ont he right track, matt. I also now believe that Whitey was not an informant, though I had previously doubted the veracity of that claim.
I will also think this weekend about current events, matt. if what you are saying is true – there are parallels with the Snowden affair (whistleblower on gov impropriety). might this resonate with jurors given what they have been hearing in the courtroom? If so – I think there is a tide of sentiment in the country, and among the jurors, perhaps, that goes something like this: enough is enough from this government. this guy, jim bulger, is far less of an offender than the gov, and even less an offender thanthe governments darling, martorano.
Thanks for your continued idea-generating anaysis. Refreshing to read it when all that the columnists resort to is the same old lies, the ad hominem attacks on Whitey, bill and Jack Bulger (and anyone with that surname really).
Looking forward to your continued postings and tweets.
Tom Harrow
Tom,
I would only caution not to forget that Whitey was a nasty hardened criminal.
Jon:
That he wasn’t an informant and could get FBI agent Connolly to give him protection shows he is even harder than believed.
Tom:
Thanks for summing up the things so well. What you set out in the second paragraph is exactly where Carney has to be heading. There’s no way he could win with the strong case the government has shown on the drugs, booking, and guns. He can only win with a enough is enough type defense as you spell out.