I wrote on Saturday that the indictment of Whitey by a state prosecutor would make no sense. Fred Wyshak has taken him off the street and will insure that he never again walks as a free man. He has arrange a cell for him at ADX, Forence, Colorado.
Speaking of Wyshak, I don’t agree with lots that he’s done. He picked up a can full of worms and did the best he could with it. Was he misguided in some of his actions, no doubt about it in my opinion. The bottom line is he performed a public service in bringing Whitey to justice. But I can’t avoid wondering if the price he paid was much too great and whether the tactics he used in doing it pass the smell test.
One of those tactics was allowing his corrupt witnesses to lie on the stand. I know he’ll say he believed there was a masked man in the back of the car that murdered Halloran and Donohue and that Weeks never spoke to that man or anyone else in the gang to find out who it was but for me that is pure nonsense; as is, just one other example, believing Flemmi did not murder the two young women for his own reasons, even though Bulger may have been with him. Then allowing Flemmi to come in with a story that Bulger caused the Davis woman’s death rather than that he was so consumed with jealousy he had to exterminate her when she told him she wanted to move on.
Debbie Davis never got to move on, but I want to do that and go beyond Whitey and Wyshak to look at the detritus that is left behind. Wyshak has washed his hands of all of it suggesting that time has taken away his right to inquire into it. I’d suppose he is mostly right about that although if he really worked hard he could probably come up with some act within the five years statute of limitations that would give him a shot at some of these standing hoodlums.
Yet we shouldn’t expect any more from him in these matters. It is time he gives it a rest. After all it is twenty years since he first got involved. He’ll take his bows and move on to prosecuting the probation officers for racketeering.
What then is left to do. Lots! But four of the main guys are off the table: Whitey, Stevie, Weeks and John Martorano. Except for Whitey, they all have agreements with the Suffolk and Middlesex DAs that they will get a pass on their past criminal activities if they cooperated with federals which they did. So who is left – Pat Nee, Howie Winter, and James Martorano. They were allegedly involved in some of the past murders.
Pat Nee is the easiest target. It could be inferred from the evidence that he was involved in a half-dozen murders not the least being that of Brian Halloran and Michael Donohue where he was in the back seat with the grease gun; and there’s evidence that he was the one who provided access to the home of his brother where three murders were committed, Bucky Barrett, John McIntyre and Deborah Hussey, and assisted in both the Barrett and McIntyre murders.
How then do you get the proof against him. It would be tough involving him in the Halloran and Donohue murders since Flemmi is the only one who puts him there. So you’d want to add Weeks. He could be called before the state grand jury and inquired of about the hit on Halloran. He cannot take the 5th Amendment since he can not incriminate himself on anything that he says. There is other evidence that the person in the back seat was not masked so if he testified to the mask story to the grand jury a possible perjury indictment could result.
There’s also Nee’s admissions in his book that would assist with developing the case against him especially when it comes to John McIntyre. A good investigation against some of these people who were in league with Whitey and who have not been protected by the federals should be undertaken. It should have been done a long time ago but for some reason both the Boston Police and the Suffolk DA have been reluctant to do this. I really can’t figure out why. Yet the statute of limitations does not expire in murders so being late to the scene doesn’t matter.
I’d suggest anything that can be done to get a murderer off the street should be. The federals have done their part in cleaning up the mess but it’s time for the state prosecutors to finish the job.
Matt,
It seems you make a distinction above between the WHG guys who are protected by agreements (Flemmi, Weeks, Martorano) and those who are not (Winter, Jimmy Martorano, Nee).
I see your point, but I’m convinced the latter three have also been protected from prosecution Their agreement certainly isn’t a formal written agreement, but the contours of it are clear.
Martorano wanted to get out of jail badly by making a deal, but he didn’t want to implicate certain people like his brother Jimmy and Howie Winter. Similarly, Weeks wanted to get out of jail by making a deal, but he didn’t want to implicate Pat Nee and several other guys in Weeks’s crew. Wyshak wanted the testimony of Martorano and Weeks very badly to make his case against Whitey, but each of them had this condition that they needed to protect some people. It’s not clear to me whether Wyshak explicitly have advance permission for Weeks and Martorano to lie and/or omit certain people, or if he just gave them tacit approval. It’s absolutely clear, however, that Weeks and Martorano did in fact lie and did omit facts to protect people. Those lies and omissions have always been plain and obvious to me and others, so they were certainly known to Wyshak. It’s very telling that Wyshak did nothing to prevent or correct these lies and omissions when they were repeated on the witness stand during trials. Therefore, I believe it was at least a tacit condition of Wyshak’s immunity agreements with Martorano and Weeks that they could protect people from prosecution.
We can gather more about Wyshak’s agreement to protect Winter, Nee and Jimmy Martorano from the intersections of the witnesses’ testimony. It made no sense for John Martorano to protect his brother and Winters by lying or by omitting them from certain murders only to have Weeks’s testimony contradict his by saying that they were involved. Likewise, if Weeks lied to keep Nee out of certain murders, John Martorano’s testimony could not be allowed to contradict it by saying Nee was involved. Such a contradiction between immunized witnesses could be fatal to the US Attorney’s case. The fact that there was no conflict in their lies and omissions shows that Weeks and Martorano communicated about it beforehand. Each man was in custody at the time. The only way these witnesses could have communicated to coordinate their stories is if the government allowed its cooperating witnesses to communicate. The fact that they did communicate suggests the government knew and approved of these conditions of cooperation.
If Nee, Winter or Jimmy Martorano said anything to contradict the stories of Wyshak’s immunized witnesses, then that could also cripple the case against Whitey. Therefore Nee, Winter, and Jimmy Martorano had to know that although the guys they committed murders with were cooperating, they would not implicate their accomplices.
The bottom line is that a major component of the deals with Weeks and Martorano was that they could lie and omit people to protect them from prosecution. Wyshak knew about it and accepted it without question. Wyshak effectively agreed to immunize Nee, Winters and Jimmy Martorano by virtue of accepting the perjury of Weeks and John Martorano.
Now, however, any prosecution of Nee, Winter and Jimmy Martorano by state or federal prosecutors runs the risk of exposing this indirect immunity deal and Wyshak’s complicity.
P
Patty:
Nice comment. I do make the distinction between those who got the OK in writing from the state prosecutors and other because the others are fair game since Wyshak’s tacit deals cannot bind anyone on the state side – although they might be deterred by Wyshak’s threat of some type of RICO action against them from going after those guys.
I agree with you that their protection is part of a deal with Wyshak but Wyshak cannot bind a state attorney from doing her job. The Suffolk DA should have Weeks, Martorano, and Flemmi in front of a grand jury and start pumping them for answers. They have no reason to refuse to answer. If they refuse, lock their sorry butts up again for contempt of court.
As far as exposing Wyshak’s deals with Martorano and Weeks I suggest that has already been done. Marorano and Weeks’s deals only required them to testify against certain people. Wyshak even made a deal with Salemme the head of a Mafia gang that he did not have to testify against anyone in the Mafia. The only hitch in this whole thing would be if the DAs also signed off on that part of the deal.
That is something I’d like to know – maybe they did but if so we should know about it. What’s happening to Howie Winter’s extortion case? Maybe the Suffolk DA will give Howie a deal if he agrees to testify against Whitey in the Suffolk prosecution of him.
Good points brought up about Pat Nee. Murder never goes away.WHERE IS THE BOSTON POLICE DEPARTMENT REGARDING PAT NEE? What AGENCY PROTECTS PAT NEE? With John Henry now owning the Globe now would a perfect time for a fresh look at Pat Nee. Kevin Cullen might have to actually interview someone besides a quote unquote highly place source at the local FBI office and I will not hold my breath.
Mr. NORWOOD BORN, I wish I wasn’t so cynical and that I could embrace your optimism as to positve change coming to El Globo under Mr. JOHN HENRY but …. My sense is that in substantive terms not too much will change. Further, once WHITEY is finally sentenced and they throw away the key, the F.B.I., The Mass. State Police, and the B.P.D. won’t be able to close the book fast enough on this rancid, sordid chapter in local law enforcement history !
Gus:
They might try to close the book but some of us will stick out hands into it to make sure it is not locked. As far as Henry is concerned, he has as much interest in running the Globe as you do in running Pravda. It’s just a way for him to make more money and to get his wife an “ask Beth” type column so he can give her something to do other than staring at menus. The Globe under Henry will become an entertainment rag. I laughed when the NY Times said they wanted to make sure it had local ownership. What part of Southie did Henry grow up in?
Norwood:
Don’t hold your breath, please. Enjoy the good air that surrounds you every day. I have the same question as you, where have the Boston police been in all of this?
Matt like the micro view of reality, I prefer the Macro.
When people review the 20th century and how FBI agents collaborated
with organized crime the smart criminal justice consumer will always ask who benefited from this relationship.
I also prefer to see this Whitey Bulger drama as a voter and taxpayer, did I mention I am a primary consumer of the criminal justice system.
So I want to ensure it will never happen again.
What options do voters and taxpayers have? After all they own the criminal justice system because they fund it.
Do we shut down the FBI? What would FBI agents have to do to shut down the organization?
For me one litmus test is do FBI agents create more disorder than the amount of order they bring to our communities?
Secondly is the organizational model of the FBI a death squad posing as a law enforcement agency?
Third can your really separate the FBI from it’s mother ship, the DOJ
which means shutting down the DOJ?
As smart criminal justice consumers these are questions we all should be asking.