Catherine Greig was Whitey Bulger’s girlfriend. She went off with him on his flight. There is no allegation that she was involved with any of his murders. There is no allegation that she knew of any of his murders. Even had she heard that he was accused by Weeks or Flemmi of murdering people, there is no showing that she believe what they said. She was plain and simply a woman who went off with and lived with Whitey for 16 year while he was on the lam. She may be the only woman in the United States who was ever prosecuted for living with a criminal.
Whitey Bulger’s henchman Kevin Weeks assisted Whitey in five murders. He probably did more than assist but the government had no problem minimizing his involvement since it wanted to make Whitey the heavy. He pleaded guilty to five murder charges. He was sentenced to do six years in prison.
Catherine Grieg who had no criminal record of any kind, unless falling in love with a criminal is in the federal world some sort of crime, was sentenced to eight years in prison, two more than Weeks the murderer, because she lived with Whitey while he was on the lam.
The worst part of this is that Judge Woodlock let the families of the victims of Whitey attack Greig during her sentencing hearing as if she was the one who did the murders. Under the sentencing guidelines she should have done around two years. Judge Woodlock a former Assistant U.S. Attorney in Boston exceeded that number by adding on month after month. He did his earnest best to please the U.S. Attorney’s office where he used to work that recommended she do 10 years in prison.
This was an outrageous example of the judiciary and the prosecution joining hands to punish a person far beyond any reasonable outcome. Not only was she the first woman prosecuted for such a thing it appears she received the highest sentence anyone without a prior criminal record received for the non violent crime of conspiracy to commit identity fraud.
Was Ms Greig bitter at being forced to listen to people taunting her in court for something she had nothing to do with or for receiving a cruel and unusual sentence? You bet she was. You bet she still is.
Now having punished her beyond all normal civilized standards, U.S. Attorney Ortiz, you remember her from the Aaron Swartz and Motel Caswell cases, has indicted her again. This time because she will not cooperate with the government by testifying for it. After crushing her wrongly under its heel, the government wants to kick her in the face.
The government is investigating “who assisted and harbored James “Whitey” Bulger while Bulger was a fugitive for 16 years from 1995 through 2011.”
Greig is so angry at the government she refuses to cooperate with it in any way. Do you blame her? She is charged with criminal contempt and there is no maximum sentence for that crime. If Carmen Ortiz and the Boston federal judges have their way, Greig may end up doing more time than John Martorano who murdered 20 people. He did only 12 years.
Keep in mind that on June 22, 2011, Whitey and Greig were arrested in California. On June 21, 2016, the five-year statute of limitations will prevent the prosecution of anyone who may have harbored or assisted Whitey on his flight. It is likely by the time Greig is tried the statute will have passed so no information she has will pertain to a criminal investigation. The grand jury will be disabled from indicting anyone; but, as we’ve seen from the Boston U.S. Attorney’s office, the grand jury minutes do get leaked to the news media.
What then is the U.S. Attorney Ortiz trying to do? Is she using a criminal grand jury to do civil discovery of assets rather than investigating a crime? Is she just trying to continue to punish Greig even though she is no longer seeking indictments? Has U.S. Attorney Ortiz done these things to Mafia hoodlums or their wives or any other criminals after sentencing? Is the selection of one person who has already received an outlier sentence for repeated sentencing cruel and unusual punishment? Or, is she trying to get information about others that can be leaked to the local media so it can destroy reputations of other people?
We know the investigation is not to get indictments. We will have to follow this case closely. It affects everyone because it shows how one person out of favor can be grossly over punished by zealous prosecutors and can be kept in prison year after year even though she never committed a violent crime.
If Carmen Ortiz is the prosecutor you can be sure it has nothing to do with justice and everything to do with stepping on the backs of citizens to get to a higher office.
Ryan:
I don’t know if she’s after a higher office. I believe she was but the Swartz case did her in. I just think she is way over her head and is being run by her underlings who have been around too long.
Bob- Do you have any reasons in mind? At this point after getting 8 yrs, I just figured she would be bitter and even more prone to keep silent. But i totally respect what you are saying and actually think it would be wise for me not to speculate so much.
Bob- I feel there are only 2 people they want, the brothers Jack and William. They have already attempted to take Jack’s pension and will forever will try to get William involved. That is the only reason i feel this is occurring.
Thomas,
I try not to speculate on motives. There are a number of reasons that the Feds would want Greig (sorry that I misspelled her name above) to testify, and a number of reasons why she has refused so far.
I think Ortiz has to try everything she can to get Grieg to testify. If Ortiz does any less, she’s open to the charge that she would rather not know how Bulger avoided capture so long. Many people suspect that the FBI protected Bulger. Grieg might be in a position to know about that. She might have witnessed contacts between FBI agents and Bulger, or Bulger may have told her something.
I wonder why Grieg doesn’t testify. It doesn’t seem likely that she can harm Bulger–whatever she says. If she’s staying silent to protect him, I would think Bulger would get word to her to testify and save herself.
If she’s refusing to testify just to show her disdain for the Feds, it seems like an empty gesture. I would hope that the people close to her would urge her not to sacrifice the rest of her life just to make a statement.
The other possibility is that she is protecting some other person or persons. If that is the case, the people she might implicate apparently are willing to let Grieg stay in jail rather than to get into trouble themselves.
I have no idea which of these three possibilities represents the actual situation. Does anyone else know? I doubt it.
Were the McGonagles part of the Mullins gang? The Mullins killed Killeen and O’Sullivan. According to Fitzpatrick Morris did all the leaking not Connolly. That is why Fitzpatrick was indicted. He told the truth about who the leaker was but it contradicted the false story of the DOJ. Barrett could have been killed for several reasons. Having a pending case and being a partner with the racket guys means you probably know too much and could flip on them. That is what happened to Connors . It is easier to kill him. As in the movie CASINO the boss says” why take a chance”.The Mafia could have ordered the hit for robbing the safe deposit boxes of the LCN at the Medford bank.
NC:
Paulie McGonagle was part of the gang. His brother who either O’Sullivan or Whitey murdered was not. He looked like Paulie and that is why he was murdered since they thought that is who he was.
Morris does seem to be the major leaker. He leaked the state police wiretap on Lancaster Street. He leaked the Baharian wiretap and took a $5,000 hand shake from Whitey for that. He leaked that Halloran was informing against Whitey and Stevie.
Fitzpatrick was not indicted because he said Morris was leaking because he also said Connolly was leaking. Fitzpatrick was part of the team at one time when he was feeding Lehr and O’Neill of the Globe information on what was going on inside the FBI. He was indicted in part because the FBI turned on him when it reduced him in rank for trying to get his SAC in trouble. He was considered as having betrayed his FBI oath by leaking informant identity information. Wyshak was upset at his testimony at trial and figured that he had to send a message out to the FBI not to come in and testify for a defendant and knew he could do it because the FBI would not back Fitzpatrick. There has to more to it which moved them to try to discredit Fitzpatrick by having him labeled as a perjurer. Some suggest he has a book coming out that is an attack on the DOJ and this is a preemptive attack.
Barrett was probably murdered by Whitey because he was suspected of being an FBI or DEA informant. He had a record, was grabbed with tons of marijuana during a time when that was serious crime, but was let out on $2,500 bail. Like Halloran who should have been locked up but was out on the street working with the cops, Barrett gave all the indications that was what he also was doing. He would not have been informing on Whitey but on Joe Murray so Whitey was doing the job for Joe who would be paying him a million or so dollars after that. Whitey also knew he was involved with the Medford robbery so he got whatever money Barrett had left over and above what he expected from Murray by robbing Barrett’s house and collecting money owed him. Remember, Weeks’s story has to be taken with a grain of salt since he admits Whitey told him very little.
Mr. Connolly, What proof do you have that someone from our family murdered the Killeen’s or O’Sullivan. How dare you post that. Was anyone from our family ever charged or convicted of this ?
Paul:
I wrote: “Remember the McGonigle’s were as much criminals as Whitey. They and their friends murdered Killeen and O’Sullivan.” You set up a boogie man with your comment was anyone in the family “charged or convicted.” Was Lee Harvey Oswald convicted of killing Kennedy? Do you think Howie Winter was in the car with Johnny Martorano when they gunned down three or four innocent victims? Martorano said he was but he was never charged or convicted of it. Steve Flemmi murdered Peter Poulos in Las Vegas but was never charged or convicted of that. Many people have died before their involvement in a crime was know and they were not charged and convicted.
Do you know Pat Nee? He wrote in his book “A Criminal & An Irishman” that “Paulie didn’t hseitate. Pulling the trigger on Billy O’s was easy. After all — Billy had killed Donnie, Paulie’s brother. . . . Paulie reminded me this was war – – and Bill O’ and Whitey had killed his brother Donnie.” He also has Killeen being murdered by others in the gang. Are you suggesting Paulie was not a member of the Mullen gang?
It seems beyond dispute that Paul McGonagle was friends with Patrick Nee and both were members of the Mullen gang. There was a war between those two gangs in South Boston. People were shot at and killed by members on both sides of the gangs. The Mullen gang murdered Billy O’Sullivan and Donald Killeen.
I refer you to Wikipedia. It says under Mullen Gang: “Paulie McGonagle (died November 1974) was a Boston mobster and onetime leader of the Mullen Gang, a South Boston street gang involved in burglary, auto theft, and armed robbery. During the war against Donald Killeen and his brothers, McGonagle successfully led the Mullens in a string of shootings which finally ended with Killeen’s murder in 1972. “
That and many other things explain why I posted that. The evidence of his involvement seems uncontroversial and to say other than I did would be in my mind a blindness to the history of the South Boston war between the Mullens and Killeens.
Mr. Connolly, What proof do you have anyone in our family murdered the Kileens or O’Sullivan? How dare you post that here. Was anyone ever convicted or charged?
Mcgonagle- Blame Pat Nee, he is the one who said your family member was a killer.
Bucky Barrett: is there more to this story than what was told by Weeks in Brutal?
Check out this old Boston Phoenix article I found from 1985. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1959&dat=19851224&id=FWQtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BokFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1695,9192337&hl=en
You can scroll over 2 pages to read the rest after the page break. But to sum it up, in April 6, 1983, Barrett was involved in drug trafficking with Polecat Murray (I believe one of Whitey’s Southie drug dealers). Barrett got picked up by the FBI and DEA and was charged with intent to distribute more than 1,000 lbs of marijuana, and walked out of prison on only $2,500 cash bail (maybe alot of money in 1985, not sure). On July 26, 1983, his wife reports he called over to told her to leave the house, she returns and $2 million in cash is gone from a secret stash in their home.
Weeks says that Bulger was shaking down Barrett and decided to kill him because he didn’t give him a cut of the Depositors Trust Bank robbery in Medford. But that occurred 2 years prior to his killing. Something about Weeks’s story doesn’t make sense. We know that Barrett was killed in Pat Nee’s brothers house. We know that John Connolly probably tipped off the Bulger group to Halloran informing on them, maybe tipped them off to Callahan but less believable. Could it be that Bucky was killed because he provided information about Bulger’s drug operations in South Boston to the DEA/FBI? FBI gets this information then Connolly leaks it to Bulger and his gang? Weeks says they took from him 47,000 out of his basement and then $10,000 from Little Rascals, the bar he ran. But he also said at Bulger’s peak in the 80s-90s, he was pulling in $30 million a year in protection and drug profits. Why kill a guy over $50,000? (perhaps the Phoenix article exaggerated about the 2 million or Weeks purposely underreported the amount knowing his assets would get a once over from the IRS). Seems like there is more to this story than a dispute over tribute from a 2 year old robbery, maybe Weeks was protecting himself from revealing he knew more about Whitey’s FBI status than he has led on, an informant himself, or to go the heart of your theory, Nee was an FBI informant along with Flemmi and Bulger? Any thoughts?
Dave:
Whitey told Weeks only what he thought he needed to know. Reading that story it seems clear that Bucky was a life long criminal. (I thought he had done some time and was befriended by Frank Salemme when he was in Walpole.) He got involved with Joe Murray who was the big marijuana dealer and they stored a ton of marijuana in Whitey’s South Boston. On 4/6/83 he was arrested with a guy Rooney. On 7/26/83 he goes missing. (Whitey would eventually extort a million or so from Murray.) That Bucky was out on $2,500 bail with a prior record and facing a big rap would indicate only one thing; he was a rat. Week’s story does not ring true – sure Whitey robbed him and sent Weeks to get money he was owed from a bar – but the reason he was murdered I’d have to believe was he was ratting out Murray and Whitey was taking care of him for Joe who promised him a nice reward for doing so.
Ahhh I see. I feel like the fact Bucky got picked up for drug dealing 2 months before he disappeared gets lost in his story, and kind of hides even more wrong doing of leaks, etc. If I was his family I would want everything out in the open, not told by the guy who murdered him.
Dave:
You play with fire you get burned. Bucky lit lots of matches and one finally came back and burnt him well in the back side.
Dave
Excellent analysis. There are so many layers and such a complex story it would be a godsend to have someone write a book with truths and accuracies. Matt has provided a great blog to seperate reality from the fantasy and gossip. what books have you read Dave? Thanks for the Bucky Barrett newspaper article.
Saw Black Mass last night. I can’t it put more bluntly than this; it sucked. The story did not flesh out any of the characters’ backstories other than Bulger’s. They painted Flemmi out to be some sort of patsy who was just along for the ride, even making him seem completely depressed and saddened by Hussey’s killing, they barely discussed Martorano’s evil, showed him shoot a couple people but didn’t get into his backstory at all, and just overall misconstrued the events more than the book ever did.
They never even went so far as to explain that Callahan was talking or was about to talk to the FBI as the book alleges, and that is why Winter Hill killed him (which you and I agree is probably less likely than Martorano just plain old taking him out). At the end they just mention Connolly is doing 40 yrs for Callahan’s murder. My wife who has no background in this story other than what I mention once in a while as we pass gangland landmarks, had no idea what was going on, couldn’t follow it.
When Halloran was talking to the FBI, they skipped over the Louis Litif murder completely, and put Whitey, Flemmi, Callahan, Connolly, and Halloran, all at some sitdown in Miami where they all partied and did drugs together (which we know Bulger didn’t drink and party). From the best of my recollection, Whitey never was in Miami while Martorano and Callahan were down there.
Besides getting the facts inherent to the true story wrong (Hussey murder, Callahan Murder, maybe the Wheeler murder, I’m still not convinced Bulger was the one calling the shots on the World Jai Alai scheme) they skipped over basic lazy details. The movie has Bulger in broad day light, shooting Halloran and Donahue with a rifle in a parking lot (at least they got the gun right) with him then standing over him and shooting him in the chest.
None of that happened, Bulger, one of the most recognizable guys in the neighborhood never would have done it that way. No hit car, no walkie talkies, no fake wig/mustance to implicate Jimmy Flynn (i think that was the guys name) For the wheeler murder, they had martorano just walk up to him and shoot him in the face with his gun. Martorano testified he had wig on, and covered the gun with a newspaper and a towel. I think it would be pretty simple, and make the movie more interesting, to include those little details.
As for World Jai Alai, Paul Rico was nowhere to be seen! In their 1970’s flashbacks, they had Whitey flipping Stevie, not the other way around, and all in all it was just complete fantasy, even deviating heavily from the novel from which the movie was based.
Dave:
Thanks for the review. It makes me less inclined to go to see it. As for the Wheeler hit, it is clear that Callahan set it up with Martorano. Neither Whitey or Stevie were in Florida during that time. After Martorano did the hit things were OK since it seemed no one traced it back to the Miami World Jai Alai. But after a while the focus did shift to that venue. Once the investigation turned to Miami Martorano had to murder Callahan the only one who could put him into the murder. I don’t believe Winter Hill was involved in any of it; it was a score being done by Martorano and McDonald, both fugitives. He got $50,000 for the hit. He said he never sent any to his Boston buddies but said they took their share out of what he would have gotten. Wheeler and Callahan are plain old fashion Martorano jobs.
One reviewer called it a second rate gangster story. Had Whitey not been elevated to monster status by the FBI and DOJ and the local book writers his passing through would have had no more significance than the tale of a second rater.
I could never quite figure out the World Jai Alai/Winter Hill connection. I believe Flemmi testified to this is as well. I know you’ve touched on it before, but with so many details and subplots ( I know i sound like im talking about a crime drama now) i tend to lose a grasp on all of the specifics. From what I understand Flemmi/Martorano told investigators that Flemmi/Bulger sanctioned the Wheeler hits, and Connolly tipped them off to Callahan’s upcoming FBI sit down. Obviously those 2 are not to be trusted, but was Winter Hill ever getting any protection money at all? How did Stevie and Martorano get their stories straightened out while in prison?
Dave:
You probably couldn’t figure out the connection because there was none. Some authors have written that Winter Hill was scamming $10,000 a week from it but that has nothing to support it. A good book on World Jai Alai called Rico tells of how it was investigated several times and found to be clean.
I’ll do a post on it in greater detail but the summary is John Callahan is president of it; he gets kicked out after being seen with Jimmy Martorano and other Mafia types by the Connecticut detectives; his buddy Richard Driscoll takes over as president; Roger Wheeler buys the company and has FBI agent Rico and other FBI guys working for him. Wheeler has it a couple of years but Callahan is looking to get back into it. He tries to buy it from Wheeler; they negotiate back and forth; Callahan then decides an easy way to get the place is to hire John Martorano to hit Wheeler and he expects his widow will want to dump it to him at rock bottom prices. To induce Martorano to do the hit Callahan gives him $50,000 and promises him a $10,000 a week payment to Winter Hill for security, that is, protection from the Mafia. That is strange because up to that point the Mafia had never bothered it. Martorano does the hit on Wheeler; his widow doesn’t sell; the cops snooping around decide perhaps Callahan had something to do with the murder and start focusing on him; Martorano hears about it and murders Callahan.
Stevie and Martorano were in Plymouth together back from 1995 up into a good part of 1997; Martorano sat through Stevie’s testimony in front of Wolf. Martorano knew the story so to get his deal he threw in Stevie and Whitey – there was nothing outside of Martorano’s word for this. He said he talked to Stevie about it over the telephone and they later met in New York. Stevie would later corroborate this phone call and meeting. He too was looking for a deal and to make it had to bring Whitey in. When he was being debriefed he may very well have been asked if what Johnny said was true and he adopted it as his own answer also. Salemme told a rat he was in prison with that when he gave information the investigators would ask: “are you sure it didn’t happen [another] way.” Salemme would then know what was expected. There is no reason to believe the same tactic wasn’t used on Flemmi.
I begin with the rhetorical question,
“How are the former senior government attorneys (Bill Weld, Mark Robinson, & approved by FBI Director Bob Mueller) protecting Whitey Bulger, Winter Hill, and screwing the victims families just win the major land deal contract for construction of the new $200+ million FBI Headquarters, Chelsea, MA adjacent to properties controlled by Market Basket, former AUSA Gary Crossen (disbarred, Winter Hill associate & serial extortionist), two TE informants and precarious railroad tracks?”
Putting aside the obvious contract rigging issues, the location doesn’t appear to meet DHS Level IV construction standards.
Second, in Bulger, et al., the spin-off criminal cases, the derailed victims’ lawsuits and sham restitution & forfeiture proceedings, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Massachusetts and 5-6 former AUSAs (now district & circuit judges) are so inherently conflicted to require recusal and assignment of a non-conflicted Special Prosecutor and Judge from outside the First Circuit family.
Bruce:
Who would ever have thought a building in Chelsea would cost 200 million dollars? It sounds like the type of thing that should be investigated. Let’s see who would do the investigation of the building being constructed by the FBI? The FBI?
You do point to something I was thinking about last night. Many of the federal judges and magistrates in Boston worked in the Boston U.S. attorney’s office. Many are friends and former associates with the prosecutors standing in front of them. How can one ever get justice from such a situation? On its face it is filled with conflict. Perhaps that is why the prosecutors can play so free and loose with people’s lives.
Matt,
It’s just another brazen example of how rigged the federal justice system has become. Several of the top criminal defense attorneys of the past 20+ years are also “privileged” government informants and trade clients, evidence and information like baseball cards. It’s an affront to the adversarial system.
The vertical environment integration of the very expensive Moakley US Courthouse exacerbates the problem where the U.S. Attorney, District Court Judges, and First Circuit Court of Appeals all share the same facilities as one defacto Family. Relocate the U.S. Attorney’s Office next to the FBI in Chelsea, then move Floramo’s Steakhouse right into the FBI cafeteria.
Hello Matt:
Have you considered that one of the main motives in persecuting Greig may be that it is the only option remaining in which to hurt Whitey? He has expressed in letter and when being interviewed that he is bothered by her incarceration. Just a thought
John:
That certainly would not bother Fred the Fed if he got Whitey upset. This has long ago ceased to be a matter of a prosecutor doing his duty bringing criminals to justice but one of zealous punishment of a person and his friends. I’m surprised he is not pushing the Florida authorities to go forward with the murder case against him to get him the death penalty or otherwise trying to impose a harsher incarceratin on him. But overall it looks to me the goal is to get Billy – he is the big white whale that Wyshak has been chasing for all his years.
Matt,
Interesting analogies.
“He looked like a man cut away from the stake, when the fire has overrunningly wasted all the limbs without consuming them, or taking away one particle from their compacted aged robustness….”
(Ahab, the obsessed and crippled whaling captain, makes his first appearance about a quarter of the way into the novel)
“Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I’d strike the sun if it insulted me.”
(Ahab’s fiery response when the ship’s mate, Starbuck, asks if it might not be blasphemous to pursue a vendetta against “a dumb creature”)
“All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick.”
(Ahab’s men struggle to understand his hatred of Moby Dick)
“Moby Dick seeks thee not. It is thou, thou, that madly seekest him!”
(Starbuck tries one last time to prevent Ahab from attacking Moby Dick)
“Thus, I give up the spear!”
(What Ahab shouts at Moby Dick as he hurls his last harpoon)
“Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.”
(Ahab’s words to Moby Dick during the fatal third chase)
Matt,
…and don’t forget the ending.
To paraphrase…”Moby Dick rams the Pequod and sinks it. Ahab is then caught in a harpoon line and hurled out of his harpoon boat to his death. All of the remaining whaleboats and men are caught in the vortex created by the sinking Pequod and pulled under to their deaths”
This sound like the maelstrom of sh*t that we have all been witnessing over years….
but…wait…
” Ishmael, who was thrown from a boat at the beginning of the chase, was far enough away to escape the whirlpool, and he alone survives.”
So, metaphorically speaking,… if Ahab is Fred and Moby Dick is Billy, then who is the elusive Ishmael….???
Matt,
I feel like she got “a smoker” (relative to the Weeks, Martorano, and Flemmi deals) with the eight year original sentence, and additional time, added on now, is just piling on and/or has an ulterior motive (finding assets to pay victims?)
A couple of statements by Judge Woodlock during sentencing:
“it was incomprehensible to his honor that she didn’t know about the guns”…
“it’s apparent to me she knew there was lots of weapons there and what they were for…”
And statements by the son of McGonigle, who waited 27 years to learn his fathers fate,(she was his aunt by marriage) especially, were very telling…
“she betrayed our family”…
“it’s my family’s firm believe Greig knew about Bulger’s crimes”
She will continue doing the 8 years without cooperating or complaining, her stoic demeanor no doubt instilled by years of training by her mentor.
Cathy Greig, for what it was, or is, worth, thinks it is more honorable to be a “tough, stand-up Southie-girl” than to show any remorse, let alone cooperate. She’s still worried about what Whitey thinks of her, and her legacy with the people that matter (to her).
Rather:
What remorse should she have. She loved the guy and lived with him for 16 years. She’s now called upon to turn on him, renounce her love, and tell tales by the people who did her dirty. Only Fred the Fed could twist the immunity statute like it has been done. If he wanted her evidence he should have given her immunity up front and forced her to testify at that point. Having convicted her and then giving her immunity is one way to ensure you won’t get any cooperation. Where else except with Fred have you heard of that tactic being used.
Sure she knew about the guns but why were the victims of the murders allowed to berate her. They had nothing to do with the guns. There were no victims of the guns in Whitey’s apartment. Didn’t Whitey say she kept him out of trouble for 16 years but still she is treated worse than murderers. It would be expected the McGonigle’s would not like her. Remember the McGonigle’s were as much criminals as Whitey. They and their friends murdered Killeen and O’Sullivan. Greig divorced one of the McGonigles. Do you think the family is fond of her after that.
Matt,
How bout this?
Here’s what she should say………..
“N….O…..spells NO, Fred!!!!…. I love my little white man, and would never do anything to betray him…not then, not now. The man I know is incapable of those heinous acts, but they say there are two sides to everybody (in his case, waaaay more than that) and my deepest condolences and heartfelt apologies to anyone, man or woman or child, that he was accused or convicted of ever hurting or killing…I am sorry. Love is blind.”
That would help her standing. Everyone else has blown the chance to apologize. She could do a tiny bit of good, if not for herself then for Whitey by proxy and she would still be a stand-up broad.
Matt, I begged to disagree with your premise. We, the public do not know what Cathrine Greig learned during her 16 years living intimately with James Bulger…for example she could have learned that he had used the name of John Iuele to commit large financial crimes against the banking and insurance industries, which have ongoing consequences, and where statutes of limitations are not up…it has been reported that she was his gopher..gophers may not have to commit violent crimes to be accessories. And hope springs eternal that FBI has decided to turn away from past failed programs and begin to serve the public who pays their bills…
We may not know much about Catherine Greig’s time with Jim Bulger, but what we do know is this:
– As Matt said, she had no prior record WHATSOEVER.
– My understanding is that were she married to Bulger, the US Attorney’s Office couldn’t touch her (is this so, Matt?).
– While Bulger was with her for 16 years, he claims he committed no crimes.
– Those who know her say she is a very kind woman.
– She is deeply in love with Bulger.
– John Martorano’s girlfriend, who was on the lam with him for as much time; who was deeply involved in money laundering; who entertained known and wanted criminals in her home; who lied to a grand jury! NEVER SPENT A MINUTE IN A PRISON (except perhaps for conjugal visits with her Johnny!)
– That (in my opinion) the Boston US Attorney’s Office is using and abusing Catherine Greig to hurt Bulger.
– That, (again in my opinion) what is being done to Catherine Greig is an egregious violation of her most fundamental rights.
– That, as Matt said: “It affects everyone because it shows how one person out of favor can be grossly over punished by zealous prosecutors and can be kept in prison year after year even though she never committed a violent crime.”
– That, Bulger’s sham trial, and now the continuous punishments heaped upon Catherine Greig, are a mockery of the judicial system our Founding Fathers gave us.
– That, Catherine Greig needs Victor Garo, or someone like him, to come to her defense!
Janet,
Do you feel as passionately about the victim’s families as you do about Catherine Grieg?
What the government put them through was despicable.
They still do not have justice.
Cathy has no tears for them…even her own family….I have no more for her.
I have officially changed my stance on her.
She chose the life of a gangster moll…let her do her time and get her street-cred…that’s what she wants.
Bulger’s trial was a sham, in regards to the larger decades-long, ongoing whitewash of T.E.I. program and ruthless and unfair tactics by “the other side.”
But James Bulger was no angel, and killed people…. and she took off with him and helped spend the money, and who knows what else… (helping get ID’s, buying materials to build hide for guns???)
Coming from someone who attended the trial, I would have expected (and rather seen) a detailed, multi-point, impassioned plea on the miscarriage of justice perpetrated on the victim’s families, ….than remorseless, scowling Cathy Grieg.
The families got SCREWED in court by every underhanded, delay, stonewall, and smokescreen tactic that “they” could pull out of “their ” bag of dirty, rotten tricks…..is Victor Garo available for them?
Rather Not
You may have already stated and answered what I am going to ask in another reply but I havent read it:
How many days did you attend the trial?
Who did you see testify and what was your impression of the trial?
I was in the courtroom on 2 different days. I was there on the day they read the verdicts. Whitey Bulger was found guilty for 11 murders out of 19 cases. I regret not going to more of the trial to see and hear Flemmi, Weeks, and Martarano testimony even though some of it was filled with lies.
Janet, we agree. The public is in the dark. As Matt has pointed out, without credible evidence, can anyone believe the statement of a self confessed crime boss? And since you mentioned Victor Garo, when I asked him if James Bulger could have used the alias John Iuele, he left that possibility open once he heard my facts…so he may not be the best defense counsel for CG…just saying..
By continuing the sham Grand Jury and prosecutions, they perpetually extend the cover-ups under the pretext of “helping the victims’ families”.
AUSAs Wyshak, Kelly, and Murrane have been insulting, intimidating and dedrauding the victims’ and their families. Both the Fitzpatrick and Greig cases were somehow assigned to Judge F. Dennis Saylor (Bob Mueller’s former Chief of Staff). I am now very confident that Judge Douglas P. Woodlock was knee-deep in aiding, abetting, protecting, and covering up the government corruption, informant murderer-extortion and misconduct schemes with his mentors, Jerry O’Sullivan, Bill Weld, Ted Harrington, and Gary Crossen.
Bruce:
You point out another former AUSA becomes a judge and starts hearing cases brought by the US attorney’s office. I don’t believe Judge Saylor would cover up any corruption but I do have a sense that having been a prosecutor he would definitely lean their way. Judge Woodlock did seem to be a prosecutor in the way that he handled the Greig case giving her an unconscionable sentence.
I have to disagree with you about O’Sullivan even though I had problems with him he was a good, honest prosecutor; Weld was far from being corrupt and ran a good office; Harrington who was a dedicated prosecutor beyond any question and a man of integrity even though he too did some things that were odd, and Gary Crossen, who I thought was a good lawyer and guy and felt bad for him that he got jammed in with the Market Basket guys. I think sometimes we can use too broad a brush in looking at these matters and doing a disservice to some guys who did a good job.
My take on Wyshak (Kelly just did what Fred wanted) I’ve set out before. I don’t think he is corrupt; I
think he is too much of a misguided zealot who has made up his mind and come to an erroneous conclusion and is pursuing that by using every tool in his box even to the point of walking up to the line of what is considered just.
Matt,
Ted Harrington??? Joe “Bentley’s” old buddy? There right from the beginning when this evil mess started.
6–13–73: In a memorandum from Gerald E. McDowell, Attorney
in Charge of the Boston Field Office, to James J. Featherstone,
Deputy Chief, Organized Crime and Racketeering Section,
McDowell writes regarding the Parole Hearing for Joseph Barboza:
‘‘[I]t is crucial that the Department favorably act upon this request.
While I have taken a conservative position on the matter of Ted’s
compensation—limiting the request to reimbursement of travel expenses
and per diem—Ted is in private practice and could use the
fee.’’ According to McDowell, since Barboza’s parole will probably
be denied, it needs to be clear to him that his continued incarceration
is his fault rather than any lack of diligence by the Department
of Justice to bring the fact of his cooperation to the Board’s
attention. It is best not to give Barboza the impression that the
Department of Justice has abandoned him in light of the fact that La
Cosa Nostra (LCN) has continually pressured Barboza to change
his Edward ‘‘Teddy’’ Deegan testimony, in order to free major LCN
figures. The memorandum continues, ‘‘While the government has
evidence which would eventually blunt the LCN attempt to get
Barboza to perjure himself, on behalf of [Henry] Tameleo and
[Peter] Limone,’’ this would involve us in long, expensive court
hearings, which would do no good. Ted Harrington is the ‘‘best
equipped to represent us in a careful responsible manner’’ at the
hearing since he has maintained complete familiarity with
Barboza’s situation over the years”
Rather:
What is your point? Ted Harrington happened to believe the evidence that Joe Barboza had provided was worth any deals made on his behalf. I may not agree with him but I could never even think under any circumstance that Ted was other than doing his best, was honest, and acted with integrity in the manner that he saw it.
I noted I had trouble with his decisions on certain occasions. I thought he was applying a double standard, one for himself and one for others. But even with that, I believed we just saw things through different lenses.
Matt,
I would not be raising these matters or names (especially judges) if I did not have the extensive government documents, recordings, witnesses, personal knowledge and evidence to back it up.
Gary Crossen concocted the extortion of Arthur S. Demoulas, Judge Lopez, her law clerk Paul Walsh, Bob Gerrard, Anthony Pelusi, Jerome and Bernadette Wodinsky, and undermines the integrity of the Massachusetts criminal justice system.
Bruce:
I accept that you have the material or you would not be suggesting those things. When it comes to Gary Crossen I understand that he was disbarred and that he got himself involved in some shady dealings. I knew him and I guess I knew another side of him. I was surprised at his involvement. As someone once said you can still like the person without liking what he did. I have not seen him since prior to his involvement in the Demoulas case so my interaction with him is limited to those times when we were on good terms.
,
Janet:
The federal law on the marriage issue may not protect her but the Massachusetts law would have prevented her with being charged with any of his crimes as an accessory. I believe she could be charged with the conspiracy with Whitey to defraud. Justice Frankfurter wrote: “For this Court now to act on Hawkins’s formulation of the medieval view that husband and wife “are esteemed but as one Person in Law, and are presumed to have but one Will” would indeed be “blind imitation of the past.” It would require us to disregard the vast changes in the status of woman — the extension of her rights and correlative duties — whereby a wife’s legal submission to her husband has been wholly wiped out, not only in the English-speaking world generally but emphatically so in this country.” In that case, U.S. v. Dege the Court held a wife could be charged with conspiracy with her husband.
The big problem with Greig it in a sense is a violation of the Fifth Amendments provisions which read: “nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself . . . “ The intent of the framers is you be tried once; or, if the government wishes to give you immunity you can be forced to give evidence even if it implicates you.
The trick used by the Boston US attorney is to try the person once for the crime. When convicted, or even if acquitted, it is to bring the person back in and immunize them and again using the original crime as a basis force them to give evidence. The person is being put in jeopardy for the same offense.
There is definitely an ulterior reason for sustaining these sham grand jury proceedings and intimidating these non-germane witnesses.
Bruce:
I suggest the ulterior motive it is the animosity of the prosecutors toward the Bulger family. Play this out in your mind and see how far it can extend beyond Greig if she is forced to testify.
Jean:
You may disagree but nothing that Catherine Greig knows is within the statute of limitations. She was his girlfriend when they fled. That is after 1994. Whitey is not known to have committed any crimes after that time.
Matt, Do I understand you to say that if CG were to confirm that James Bulger used the alias of John Iuele today that somehow that information would be protected by statutes of limitation?
Jean:
What offense could he be charged with at this point? The only thing that has no statute of limitations is murder and some other exceptions like treason but I don’t see any crime that were Whitey John Luele that he could be charged with at this point.
Matt!
As you know by now my fact set is complicated, but a short answer is that the State of New Hampshire filed a Forensic Diagnosis with the Laconia District Court which among other issues made the determination that my belief that James Bulger used the alias of John Iuele was proof of my paranoid delusions, and therefore the Court should Order my testimony Not Competent, nor restorable to competency..which the Court did in violation of my US due process rights…to further complicate the process we have now prof someone flicked a switch at SSA and made me a Non US Citizen and therefore not entitled to US due process…(all this is covered on nhjustice,net And on my FB page Finding Jeanie) ..I have an SSA hearing pending, and my case has been referred to USDOJ by its OIG…I do not believe the issue in my situation is what exposure Mr. Bulger may have to ongoing crimes that are being perpetrated against me and my family, but as a material witness against those TBT Jail while acting as John Iuele. At stake is the theft of the High Birches Springs worth over a billion $, RICO damages to my family for the destruction of our businesses, and answers to the suspicious death of my Mother Agnes S Allan, and the disappearance of her body while in the custody of the NH ME, and the several attempts upon my life, but I don’t know. In a nutshell the case expands into Public Corruption by the State of NH agents, in which the Feds in the past have been stymied from investigating due to its own need to protect its own TEI Program..and so the victims continue to suffer in this Manufactured Catch 22. And, of course it goes without saying that I don’t know what I don’t know, but the facts that I have gathered have proven credible…now confirmation from the horses mouth would be helpful…the letter that I wrote to Mr. Bulger’s lawyer that I recently posted on my FB page questions whether MR Bulger would have exposure, but perhaps he would? I needed to ask Who is John Iuele? The answer may or may not be Occam’s razor.
Jean:
Whitey has no exposure so if he is John Luele he could confess to it without any adverse consequences. He is going to die in prison; he knows this as do many others. One would hope that he would clear the deck and make straight those who he offended.
Thanks Matt…my concern is those with the exposure may use pressure on Whitey, not to “clear the decks”…we are talking about some really high profile folks here…my family wants to believe that Justice will prevail, but after all these years???