Tonight I’m told the CNN network will present a program at 9:00 PM for an hour or two about James “Whitey” Bulger. I hope to watch it. I don’t expect to learn anything from it because there’s nothing new to find out. But I will watch it and let you know what I think of it.
If you’ve read any of my recent posts you know that much about Whitey has been made up out of thin air. One book Black Mass started it and the others dutifully copied parts of that book. The original book was all over the place making up conversations and putting them in quotations as if the authors had a transcript of them. I always thought that was all right for fiction but in a book that is supposed to be non-fiction it doesn’t really fit. As I learned more and more about this subject I realized Black Mass should have been published as fiction.
Another written about the Whitey affair was by a former FBI assistant agent in charge in the Boston office. He was one of the agents who cooperated with the writers of the Black Mass by violating what the FBI considered one of its agents most sacred obligations which is keeping the identity of informants secret. He revealed to them that Whitey was an FBI informant.
He was called to testify by Whitey’s lawyers. When he was confronted by the prosecutors with statements in his book the prosecutors alleged were totally false he defended himself by saying the book was a memoir. Apparently he was suggesting that what he wrote is how he remembered it and it is not necessarily how it happened. I figure if that was what he was saying he might as well have labeled his book fiction.
You can go through the lists of books about Whitey and depending on how much they rely on Black Mass or any of Howie Carr’s books or those by other gangsters you might want to treat them also as fiction.
That’s not to say everything in those books is false. It’s just to say those portions of them that are not validly corroborated have to be considered as made up. The true problem that faces everyone in trying to tell the story of Whitey’s life is that the foundation for most of the information comes from people who are admitted liars or from untrustworthy documents.
Kevin Weeks spilled the beans, as they say, when he was questioned about some inconsistencies in his testimony. He was asked whether he had been lying. He answered that he was a criminal and to be a criminal you have to be a good liar. It goes so much to the core of a criminal that to do so comes naturally. Weeks explained it by saying something to the effect “if you’re going to extort someone you don’t invite them over to be extorted.” We saw an example of that in the murder of John McIntyre where he was lured to the East Street killing house by telling him they were going to have a party.
Things we know for certain. Weeks lied about the car he was in when he murdered Halloran; Flemmi lied before Judge Wolf as to who his source of information in the state police was; Salemme lied about his knowledge of a murder being subsequently indicted for doing so and pleading guilty; Martorano lied about meeting with FBI Agent Paul Rico.
FBI files are full of lies. The 209s that contain information are based on what liars told the agents. Just because a criminal tells an agent something and the agent records it doesn’t make it true. FBI 302s contain lies because many are produced from an agents memory of what was said rather than the actual statements. And, there is no guarantee even if the FBI agent accurately recorded what was said that the person making the statement did not lie.
So I’ll be watching to see how much of the CNN program is based on things that are fairly certain and how much is based on lies. It should be an interesting endeavor. You too, if you watch it, ask yourself, “what is the basis for that.”
But more importantly ask yourself: “Why am I watching this?” For all the books and movies about Whitey the truth is except for the people he murdered, some who would have been murdered even had he not existed, Whitey left no footprint in Boston or anywhere else. Outside of the people he killed, their friends and families there were no changes in anything because of him. Nothing happened in Boston or Massachusetts of any significance because of him. More than 95% of the people of Massachusetts had no idea that he existed until long after he fled. How is it a man of so little accomplishment, a man who was nothing more than a vile hoodlum who partnered with other like himself, has been made into something he was not?
Hi Matt
Took a brief hiatus from the internet, good to be back and see you writing more excellent blogs. I have a question regarding this comment in your article, “Weeks lied about the car he was in when he murdered Halloran”
Are you saying Weeks was actually in the “tow truck” car with Whitey and was the shooter that Weeks claimed to see only in a black ski mask? I was under the impression you always considered Weeks to have lied about not knowing the 2nd shooter’s identity (believing it to be Pat Nee), I didn’t know your theory was that Weeks was the 2nd shooter himself.
Matt:
One suspects. Two is a conspiracy. 🙂
The Public is slow. They want a simple answer. The Rogue Cop or Whitey terrorizing the city fits right in. It requires no thinking or analysis. The press is hopeless. They are incapable of discerning fact from fiction. You may be watching the Whitey show most people will be viewing football. 2. When you were farming in NY did you run into Chance the Gardiner? What is the source of BHO’s best foreign policy advice? Hillary. Kerry, Biden or Chauncey Gardner? 3. Does Crablegs latest transgression show a criminal pathology? Doesn’t shouting out vulgar comments in the presence of young women indicate something is amiss? Does this misbehavior add to the credibility of the rape victim?
NC:
1. True – couldn’t agree more.
2. I think I did stumble over Chauncey when I looked in the mirror. I was quite pathetic digging up the potatoes plus I’m way out of shape. The little Amish girls put me to shame.
There’s a good article in the Wall Street Journey abaout G.I. Joe in Lilliput. It’s about how since Vietnam the country is adrift in trying to fight wars based on the advice of lawyers. He notes there are 10,000 lawyers in the the defense department. It got me thinking about Obama and I realized his big problem is he’s a lawyer. He’s trying to do his foreign policy based on what he learned at Harvard Law. He would be better off if he had Chauncey Gardner advisiing him. As for Hillary and her husband Chuckles they too are lawyers so they’d be no help. By the way Professor Torture had two days of columns in the rag – reading him one can only think the demise of America is not to far away.
3. I wrote about Crablegs. You’ll see what I think of him. I think you’ll agree. He repesents everything that is wrong with the SEC even though he is in the ACC.
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Matthew Lad 🙂 … This is a somewhat ironic question you pose here on THE TRIAL OF WHITEY BULGER … Surely you see this right? Your WHITEY is not being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He became a celebrity for reasons myriad . Period
John:
True. Myriad and suspect.