Whitey Bulger went to his death suggesting he was not an informant. Irish people he suggested hated informants; but it was the Irish people who produced a multitude of informants that enabled the British to suppress one plot after another. So many, that a fictitious one, Gypo Nolan, is almost as well-known as the real life Mata Hari.
There’s evidence on both sides of the coin from which people can argue. But it really doesn’t matter one way or the other anymore, not even to Whitey, because that never should have been an issue to consider. What matters is that he was treated by the FBI as if he were an informant. He was afforded all the protection the FBI could provide because it believed he was one. That protection allowed him to continue his nefarious dealings without fear of interruption. It can hardly be suggested he was a major criminal when he did not face the obstacles most criminals face. His road was made smooth thanks to the FBI’s overwhelming concern for his well-being. How is one a master criminal when his crimes are ignored and he is protected?
Some suggest Whitey corrupted the FBI. That has everything backwards. The FBI corrupted Whitey. It said to him go and commit whatever crimes you like and we will not do anything about it. Who under that imprimatur would not be led astray?
The history of the FBI’s corruptness began when it undertook to wage war on the Mafia. That is something J. Edgar Hoover always feared doing and held off doing until his hand was forced. His first act was to establish in each office a group of men who were ordered to go after the Mafia. This was done in the beginning by planting bugs in the offices of its leaders or doing other electronic surveillance operations. One office, that of Raymond Pattriaca, had bug or taps done on it for three years. All of this was done without court orders. The evidence gained would not be admissible in court but that mattered little to the FBI which was mainly looking for intelligence.
Under Lyndon Johnson, the FBI would be ordered to stop placing these bugs. Hoover, anticipating this, created another means to get information on the Mafia. He had established the Top Echelon Informant Program (TEI). This program, which continues to this date, is so abhorrent to the idea of law enforcement that it should have been destroyed at its moment of birth. That it wasn’t, and that it continues to today, points to an incredible arrogance and naiveté.
The TEI program is designed to procure top-level criminals who are actively involved in criminal activity as partners with the FBI. In exchange for a TEI providing information to the FBI that person will be protected by the FBI. He can continued his criminal acts as long as he gives it information on others. He can continued his criminal acts even though the FBI knows he is involved in murdering other people.
Steve Flemmi became a TEI on November 27, 1965. The FBI books showed he was closed and opened from that date forward but the truth was he was never closed. Flemmi was indicted for blowing up the car of an attorney John Fitzpatrick, and murdering one of the Bennett brothers. He also gave his handler, Paul Rico, information on his other activities involving murdering other people. He would be tipped off that an indictment was coming down against him allowing him to flee. The FBI then arranged for the indictments against him to be dismissed so he could come back and continue his criminal ways. What the FBI was countenancing was its informant murdering people.
It would do the same thing with Whitey Bulger. Facts don’t lie. The FBI knew it had TEI’s who murdered people but continued to protect them. It did that regardless of whether these people were informants. Don’t ever believe Whitey corrupted the FBI!
It corrupted itself.
Matt…entered this under a November post about “Mugsy” Whitaker:
Hey Matt….late to this comment…I played golf with Mugsy at Ponkapoag (Ponky) several years ago…he was the bookie at The Bulldogs….and said he was mentioned in the book about Jim Cotter, “A True Man for Others”…finally got around to reading that book by Cotter and Paul Kenney…much about Savin Hill, Eddie Connors and many, many other names you will know. Mugsy worked the docks with Cotter and his dad, Les, and Mugsy joined the National Guard and went to basic with a bunch of Savin Hill guys and Cotter. Some funny and some sad stories but all told “The Cotter way.” I think you would enjoy reading it.
Fitz 2/20/19
WHITEY DID IT !!!!!!!!!
The FBI should follow the model of the Chicago Police in their investigation of Smollet. Good police work got to the bottom of that affair. The top level of the FBI in recent years was totally corrupt but not because of their use of informants. See how Mueller and Weisman performed in the Ted Stevens case and the Arthur Anderson case( Powell’s License to Lie). They routinely hid exculpatory evidence. But the worst episode of wrongdoing was their attempted Coup D Etat against Trump. They tried to fix the election for Hillary and then fabricated evidence for FISA warrants and a bogus assertion of the 25th Amendment. Who says there is no Deep State? 2. One just has to look at the crimes the DOJ and FBI committed in Boston e. g. The probation case, Swartz, Turner, Connolly, Murphy, Finneran, Flaherty, Fitzpatrick and Timilty. The Federal judges were just as bad in allowing this malfeasance.
NC:
1, The FBI sunk Hillary. It announced it re-opened an investigation into her emails a couple of weeks before the election. The coup d’etat talk is straight out of Fox News and Rush Lindbaugh. There was no fix for Hillary. The FISA warrants weren’t made public until after the election. In fact, the FBI was so in the bag for Trump that it kept quiet that it was investigating Russia for interfering in the election on behalf of Trump. It is difficult to have honest discussions with people who reinvent the past — that’s what the Trumpers are doing — that’s what Russia is doing proclaiming it had a great victory in Afghanistan.
2. If you want to talk about FBI crimes in Boston you have to include in it Agent John Connolly. He was protecting both Flemmi and Bulger while people who were informing on them were dying at his doorsteps. How do you separate Connolly from the FBI? Truner was convicted of taking dough, Swartz had stolen computer information (they wrongly pressured him with a subsequent indictment), Speakers Finneran and Flaherty pleaded guilty, Fitzpatrick an enemy of Bill Bulger lied during his testimony and they had him cold. I agree the probation case was totally wrong – I suggest they over indicted the senator from Milton which led to his demise – Murphy ? — what did they do to him? Timilty – didn’t he go to trial and get convicted? Some wrongly paint with a broad brush.