I noted Jerome was interested in learning why John Connolly was singled out when he was doing what he was supposed to do working in an approved FBI program. He only did what others in the FBI were doing, had done and are still doing. He pointed out that nothing has happened to the others.
For one, as I’ve often pointed out we know what was happening in the Boston FBI office because of litigation in the Federal District Court where it was required to open up many of its files and many of the agents in that office were required to testify. There are 55 other FBI offices in the United States and hundreds of small offices of resident agents. No one has looked at those other offices.
We do know that the FBI is the most conformist organization in the world: what is done in one place is done in every other and inspections teams are sent out yearly to ensure that is the case. We also know that agents go from one office to another on a periodical basis sometimes staying between six months to three years, sometimes getting to stay forever at their station of choice, but there is always movement at senior levels. This movement also helps maintain the conformity.
Think of yourself as a fruit vendor in the North End. A holiday weekend is coming up and big crowds are expected. You order 56 barrels of fruit from Fresh Fruit Company. The truck driver for Fresh Fruit shows up with the order; he starts unloading them. You open up one of the barrels and find the fruit is rotten in it. The driver tells you the other barrels are OK; it is just that the one you looked in happened to be spoiled. Do you accept this or do you want to check the others.
That is precisely what happened in Boston. Judge Wolf looked into the Boston barrel and found it was rotten. To prevent him or others from looking further, the FBI had to come up with a reason why Boston happened to be an outlier. The story put out by the FBI, and our local media sycophants who depend on maintaining relationships with the FBI which means never to say a bad word about it, is that the problems of the Boston office were caused by renegade agents. Yet anyone with a smidgen of knowledge about the FBI knows it is structured so that such a thing could not happen.
That brings me back to the title of my book, Don’t Embarrass The Family. The book was about the trial of John Connolly. How was it then I was talking about “The Family.” I explained this in my book. Frankie Salemme testified that when he was “king” of the New England Mafia he told his capos they could let their men do anything they wanted as long as they did not embarrass the family. Hearing him testify like that I immediately recognized what the John Connolly trial was all about, the FBI was embarrassed so someone had to be sacrificed.
The great embarrassment came when it was publicly disclosed by Steven Flemmi that he and Whitey Bulger, two top hoodlums in the area, were informants for the FBI, Flemmi testified Connolly told them they could do anything they wanted except hit someone and they would be protected. Hearing this, the public indignation rose to high levels thinking the FBI was protecting these guys. The FBI was in a quandary. It did not want to admit that this was the case in every office in the country. It decided to pretend that it had happened only in Boston. To stop a wildfire of public indignation from spreading and burning down its other offices it came up with the “rogue agent” theory.
It used its media friends to put out the lie that Connolly was doing something he should not have done. The FBI also found willing ears in the Boston US Attorney’s office, which was in the middle of a case involving Whitey, to listen to a story that implicated Connolly. to carry out the scam.It was not that he did something the FBI did not know he was doing. It was that its secret Top Echelon program was revealed publicly.
On Monday I’ll tell where that leaves us.
Hey Mtc 🙂 … Your comment posted today above ’bout THE DOCUMENNNNNNTARRRYYYY
… Are a terrific torrent of truth, reasoned and reasonable suppositio , and robust analytical inference : ALL. delivered in what ee call the SOC … Stream Of Consciousness. LOOK. ….See that chalk white swirling dervish at the blackboard … That’s ME , clapping erasers. 🙂
Kerry. Dunno … maybe he had shit for ” brines ” and flying solo he hit the curling whitecaps. We’re having some fun flights of fantasy /fancy here, but we play metaphorically simply because this jailbird is no lower echelon Audubon citation ; whatever Project. smoke he flew over, or if he had a perch specially burnished for him atop Boston Symphony Hall … he is AN AMERICAN EAGLE. We murder to dissect often the streaming confluence of personalities and events in ALL of this. If … Time Is An Arrow … I simply want to know in John’s ” Cases ” who is The Archer. Now there’s a poser for Ms. Freeh , Kerry, 🙂 … Well, as the Archery Agents adjust to the evolving paradigm of Target Acquisition, which they so seamlessly do, I take a momentito to say …. Thankyou Sir, and Ditto !!!
★ In the ORDER OF ANGELS remember, A PRINCIPALITY … is not of the HUMAN FEATHER 🙂
★ Fabulous prose, Kerry. South Boston is a Principality however. not a ” Duchy. ” ; William Bulger therefore a King, and no ” Mere ” 🙂 … A ” Princeling.” …. That said : Diffiicult to sort rogues from regents , vassals from kings, violet scented hanky silk Agents of John Connolly’s really singular stripe … from raconteuring ” brassy ” varlets … in this … Great Justice Fable. The Man with the perfumed silk and of the ilk of FBI AGENT JOHN CONNOLLY … SUPERSTAR AGENT ★ !!!!!!!!!!!!! … simply flew too close to the Sun. He is the true Icarus. Now ….. I’d like to know who his goddamn Father is. Enough of the BEESWAX.
Thanks JKM. Coming from you I consider that high praise. I don’t think he flew too close to the sun though. It was more a low altitude excursion too far out over the briny. People, like Connolly, with an impoverished, woo hoo we’re in Row Eight!, sense of grandiosity can be do real damage unnoticed.
I have read some outstanding journalism on this website. What was printed in this article was not even close to that.If ever anyone EVER deserved to be where they are, that would be John C.
Norwood:
You usually have a good idea what is happening but is seems you have blinders on when it comes to John Connolly.
Matt,
It makes me sad to see so many otherwise thoughtful, clear thinking people take this attitude toward John. One of the things that separates you from the alleged journalists in this city, and gives you so much credibility in my mind is your willingness to change your opinion after learning more facts about a situation. I remember a time when your feelings about John aligned more closely with NB. I think you have come to realize that while John was not a saint, he was far from the corrupt, rogue agent he was conveniently portrayed to be by the media.
John had his faults, like all of us. It’s difficult not to be thought of as cocky while you are consistently bringing in the best cases and being deified by the front office. Despite that, he was a hard working guy..he put the time in to make the cases and did the things he did with the full support and encouragement of upper management. He was no prima Donna…he was out working with everyone else. Did he hold back info on who his i formats were..you bet he did..but he also shared a lot of information and helped a lot of agents/agencies/troopers make cases they wouldn’t have otherwise made. A lot of what he did he did for what he thought were the right reasons..to protect his informants and The FBI. I find it laughable that it is now looked at as a bad thing that he was able to get people good seats for the Red Sox, Celtics, etc..he could, and did. Revisionist history now assigns some sort of nefarious meaning to these normal gestures.
While many can argue with my feelings about John as a person, I defy NB, or anyone for that matter, to tell me how he belongs in prison today, convicted of nothing, while Matarano, Weeks, Née et al may be sitting at a table in a restaurant next to your family tonight, all so Fred Wyshak could satisfy people’s blood lust for John.
Declan:
Nice comment. You are right about me changing my mind about John Connolly in certain respects but I still have my problems with him. The ironic thing is that I have a real distaste for some of the things he did but I find myself being his advocate. It is when I began to recognize that what he did that raised my ire what what he felt was necessary under the manner in which the FBI structured the Top Echelon program. He did what the FBI wanted him to do; the FBI turned on him to cover-up its approval of his and many other agents actions under its program.
I agree with everything you say about him. The more I involved myself in this matter the more I saw that the John Connolly who has been presented to the public is a one sided plastic version of the man. It is like looking at one panel in the corner of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and thinking that is the only work that was done by Michelangelo. I, and most others, have been too narrowly focused on his career by limiting ourselves only to the “Whitey” matters. Even there it appears people somehow want to exclude from an examination of his work his relationship with Flemmi. No one seems to complain about. We hear Flemmi gave him good information so that was all right; that Whitey gave him nothing so that was bad. Aside from it being false, the relationship with Flemmi is the one that most starkly brings into focus the horror of the Top Echelon informant program after all it was he, not Whitey, who murdered the two women: Whitey had no motive to do that and the motive that is attributed to Whitey is laughable that they would disclose his relationship to Connolly which was already well known.
Your comment was right on the mark. It is time we examine the whole man and look at all the good work he did for the FBI and the people. There is so much more I want to say on the subject but time right now is limited. I agree though that a man who dedicated his life to enforcing the law is in prison and those who dedicated it to crime including murders have been free for years. Thanks for speaking up.
The video discusses the Top Echelon Program around the 19:30 mark. Overall its an excellent production and very informative
Thanks Jerome!
You welcome. Thats a great video. Its too bad the movie with Johnny Depp (based on Black Mass book) didnt have Matt Conolly as a consultant. theres potential for a great movie to be made but I have a feeling the Depp movie wont capture it.
It’s too bad John Connolly’s story is so intertwined with Whitey Bulger’s. I sometimes wonder if Connolly’s misdeeds didn’t go well well beyond Bulger in scope and harm and for really shallow and superficial ends. I sometimes wonder if Connolly didn’t use the lack of accountability and shadowy nature of the Top Echelon Criminal Informants Program to be kind of a petty fabulist like Stephen Glass at the New Republic beyond simply Whitey Bulger. A mis-informant to the FBI who cooked the books to make himself look like a big shot around the office, cover up for the fact that he was a lazy do nothing, and to score brownie points with Whitey’s brother, the former princeling of the Grand Duchy of South Boston. Wiliam Bulger.
“Connolly just became a force unto himself, a vortex in a constantly changing system. He stayed put as new agents in charge came and went. And he could take care of other agents. He became the guy who could get you sports tickets. He could help you get a day off through the secretaries. He made no secret that he could help you get a job after retirement through Billy Bulger. But he wasn’t that much of an agent. He couldn’t write a report. He was no administrator. He was just this brassy bullshit artist. We enabled him to some extent. No one had the stomach for examining what he was up to. We just never came to grip with that guy.” Boston FBI Special Agent Robert Fitzpatrick quoted Black Mass.
Kerry:
You may have a point if Whitey was the only informant that Connolly ever had. He had at least ten top echelon as I have pointed out. You are looking at him only through the eyes of those with malicious attitudes toward Billy Bulger which I see you also buy into with your comment about his being a “princeling.” I know of other cases Connolly was involved in and believe me he was not a “lazy do nothing” but he was aggressive and good at his job. You have to keep in mind there was a lot of jealousy in the FBI about him; there was also other guys like the guy you quote who had trouble with him and who knows why he had the problem except in his book he pointed out he was Irish but not Boston Irish whatever that is supposed to indicate.
Then you quote him. Fitzpatrick was second in charge of the office and he writes like he had no power at all. In his book he writes in a derogatory manner about the new SAC arriving in Boston who he eventually will write a report on alleging he met with a defense lawyer, Marty Boudreau, a friend of mine who won the bronze star in Vietnam (if not the silver star), was a federal prosecutor and was a straight shooter if ever there was one. He demeans Marty and the SAC and writes as if he was the only one on the level in the whole FBI. He goes to a DC meeting and suggests he knows better than everyone else what is going on. As far as no one examining what he was up to that was done on a constant basis by the inspection teams and the SACs.
You got to wonder when Fitzpatrick writes about meeting with Whitey and finding Connolly at the meeting and he wasn’t suppose to be there. What does he do? He doesn’t reprimand Connolly but goes after Morris. All through his time he was Connolly’s boss yet he writes “[n]o one had the stomach for examining what he was up to.” That was his job – yes, Fitzpatrick was supposed to be in charge of the office but he suggests others had the responsibility.
Matt thanks for responding to so many of our questions and concerns. I really don’t have a malicious attitude toward Billy Bulger. I admire his intellect and learnedness and think he may have been a great role model in this area if circumstances perhaps beyond his control had been different.
I just meant that Billy Bulger was a singularly powerful person in South Boston which had a unique amount of autonomy from the rest of the city. The princeling reference was intended more of a dig on Connolly who seems to have expended so much effort currying favor with him.
I went back in to check out what it said about that. First it talks about Stevie Flemmi being Whitey’s deputy which is a joke. Mike Sullivan says informant information is important which we know but that has nothing to do with the top echelon program. He says the information is necessary to find out about the structure of an organization which shows it is not just arrests and convictions that the information is about. The say”the feds believe Whitey Bulger can help them bring the mob down” – as I’ve noted it was Flemmi who was the inside guy – Whitey from Southie and being Irish had no access – Weeks supports this – Howie Winter tells how they got along with the Mafia (Why is it in Black Mass the Mafia was going to hit Whitey) – Then they say: “Bulger resents having to cater to the Mafia.” – that’s nonsense.
The piece started off by saying in the mid-eighties Whitey is undisputed boss but then without changing the time line (because of Whitey’s so-called resentment) going to the FBI to become informants. Flemmi has been an informant since the mid-Sixties; Whitey became one in the mid-Seventies, this was a long time before the video lets on it happened.It does correctly note that the FBI provided protection for them. It then says under the TE program the FBI conceals informants from the police. They do that with all their informants not only TE ones. It says that is how they keep them on the street. It then says normally the FBI and local police share details; that is one thing that rarely happened. FBI never, never shares identity of any informant with the local police as the programs says. It then shows State Police videos and calls them Boston Police videos.
It says “the city cops consider him a small type Southie hood.” That’s another laugh line. It said when the police told the FBI about Lancaster Street Whitey moved. The state police never told the FBI about that; they told O’Sullivan and asked him not to tell the FBI which he did.
Colonel Tom Foley is fabricating his wiretaps and bugs being compromised. He wasn’t even doing investigations at the times the film is talking about which is around the time of the Lancaster Street episode . At that time we were doing them and they weren’t being compromised. The one project that I had that was stopped was because of Foley as a young trooper was working with the FBI in 1988 to go after the trooper who was leading my group. He’s just blowing smoke.
It then goes back to Fitzpatrick. You know what I think of him. It then tells how Connolly arranged a meeting for Fitzpatrick with Billy Bulger. Remember Fitzpatric is the ASAC – he’s not under Connolly’s control – but he want to meet Billy as every other SAC and ASAC who came to Boston has done – there was nothing corrupt or unusual about it , and keep in mind he did not have to go. He said when he left he asked Connolly how he got there because special agents don’t do that. Don’t you wonder why he didn’t ask that question before he went? It was Connolly worked in Billy’s campaigns, was from the same neighborhood, and was friendly with him.
Then Fitpatrick says he wonders what is going on because Connolly handles Whitey and is friendly with Billy. That’s strange because everyone knew of the relationship and no one else gave it a second thought because Billy was a straight as can be but that doesn’t make for a good story.
We go back to Foley. Remember he’s a low level guy in 1988 and they they talk about Valhalla that happened in 1984 mixing things up which mars the documentary. Next we see Fitzpatrick talking about leaks which were not happening back at that time. The FBI had done the Angiulo’s, Vanessa’s, Mike London’s check cashing joint, and the swearing in ceremony. The only leaks were from the woman who was related to Ferrara and those were relatively confined. Fitzpatrick is making stuff up.
They have the Valhalla all mixed up. Weeks didn’t lure McIntyre to the house; Pat Nee brought him there. The strange thing about that is Whitey had nothing to fear from McIntyre because he never met him; but Nee who was Weeks’s good friend did. Nee brought him to the house and buried the body in the cellar. There is a question who really killed McIntyre since Whitey had no motive. The program says McIntyre to Bulger he told the cops about the Valhalla; that’s untrue – an turncoat IRA guy tipped of the authorities.
It talks about Angiulo being arrested in 1986 when it happened in 1983. Fitzpatrick says one agent said Connolly was stealing his files. Fitzpatrick who is the ASAC never reports that? Never does anything about it? It says Fitzpatrick is stonewalled so he quits the FBI; it doesn’t say anything about him being demoted from ASAC to street agent and disciplined.
I stopped there. The documentary jumps around too much without regard to dates; it depends on two guys from law enforcement who have dubious credibility on some things; and Weeks has his own self-serving story to spin. I’m glad you liked it but knowing what went on it really has too much wrong with it to be worth while watching.
Matt
Great breakdown about everything that was gotten wrong in the documentary. Why would they be so sloppy and avoid telling the truth? The truth is just as gripping and complex, no?
On a side note I researched some more on the 3 names you suggested in another post. I learned that Herbert S. Boulin was informing about Marcus Garvey to the FBI. I learned that William Baily was a FBI agent who believed there was a second shooter that helped to assasinate John F. Kennedy. I couldnt find anything on William E. Lucas. I dont see the significance of these 3 agents in relation to Conolly and Bulger being an informant. I do see the significance of “Little Al”. Have you read any of William Roemer’s books and if so, which one(s)?
I dont know if you mentioned this already in a post but what do you think Bulger and Connolly could tell us that we dont know? What dots would they connect? What “corruption” could they possibly reveal? Its all speculation at this point of course.
If its OK to post :
Jerome:
I took a quick look at what you posted. Right of the bat it talks about Whitey putting the fear in his lieutenants by his murderous ways when we know his so-called lieutenants were his partners Martorano and Flemmi and Winter and McDonald and Jimmy Sims who were much worse killers than Whitey could ever dream being. Then I see Indicted Agent Fitzpatrick putting out the company line. The false story has taken firm hold on the media mentality who all run like stampeding cattle in the same direction without even pausing to think whether what they are saying makes sense.
Matt
As you pointed out in your book DON’T EMBARRASS THE FAMILY the 3 amigos (Weeks/Martorano/Flemmi) lied inorder to throw as much as they could at Bulger. The threat of perjury during testifying FALLS by the waste side AS LONG AS what they say supports the Feds(FBI) case?
Are you going to break down each murder Bulger was convicted of and explain what “really happened” from your great anayltical and experienced mind in these cases? I know you have down that somewhat in chopping up some of Martorano testimony. I am particularly interested in the Bucky Barrett, John McIntyre, John Callahan, Brian Halloran, Richard Castucci, and Roger Wheeler murders.
THANK YOU MATT
Jerome:
They all testified they were telling the truth because they did not want to be charged with perjury. The only ones who could charge them with perjury was the federal prosecutors. They would not want to charge them with perjury because it would undermine their case. So they were free to lie as they saw fit. Of course, the lie fit the story they told the federal prosecutors so all they had to do was to remember what the told the feds in the first place.
I will get into each murder as I set them out.
Matt
Its only a suggestion and I have my own selfish reasons to ask this but it would be great if you could break down in a timeline format each murder that Whitey Bulger was charged with committing and your breakdown on what really happened. I know you have done this with a few murders but I just suggest this so they could be in a better organized format. Also, the link you shared is the actual WHOLE 661 page report by Judge Wolf?
Matt
I think you have done an outstanding and excellent job of showing WHY the FBI went after John Connolly. Simply to try and convince the general public that the Top Echelon Program is not as sinister/dark/complex/compromising as it would appear based on the Bulger and Flemmi crime reign. Basically the FBI threw John Connolly under the bus and ran him over and over time and time again.
With that said, are you going to address the murkier and far more complex area about the TRUE nature of the Bulger and Connolly relationship. Kerry Joyce makes great and valid points. Perhaps Whitey Bulger was an informant in name only. I see where Flemmi served a huge purpose for the FBI. I dont see it regarding Bulger. So the questions remain. WHY was Whitey Bulger part of the Top Echelon Informant Program if he wasnt giving useful information? Or was he and we will never know?
Also, WHY did Judge Wolf “have” to out Bulger and Flemmi as informants? Can you direct me to those posts. This was the first time the public became aware that the FBI (aka the Feds) dealt with and enabled criminals to continue their crimes?
Jerome:
Check out my answer to Kerry. I think he, like you, are looking at this too narrowly. If you think Flemmi was valuable how can you dismiss the value of Whitey who was his daily companion and partner. Was it important to Connolly to have both men in order to carry out the scheme? Was it best that Flemmi gave information to Whitey to pass on to Connolly in order to protect Flemmi? Was it a way of insuring that if the Mafia had a connection inside the FBI office (it actually did since a close relative of Vincent Ferrara who took over after Angiulo was leaking things to the Mafia and she was quietly let go) who saw Connolly’s reports they would believe Whitey was the source and continue to trust Flemmi. Would Flemmi have gone on informing once he became close with Whitey if Whitey was not included in the protection that he was providing. We don’t know the answers to these but they are valid reasons for having Whitey as an informant.
Some of this stuff we may never know but if you focus too narrowly you do a disservice to Connolly because he was held in high regard in the FBI for his ability to get Top Echelon informants – as I said he had ten or a dozen or more – and by the way we know nothing about who they were (except Sonny Mercurio) or what type of information they gave to him. Connolly was the agent the FBI asked to give lectures to other FBI agents on how to develop informants. He had an excellent record with the FBI with respects to informants which is a dangerous game as he found out so thinking that we can somehow look at Whitey and Connolly and suggest Whitey should not have been a TE informant is really pushing things to far.
Wolf did not out Flemmi as an informant. Flemmi did it himself. The hearing before Wolf involved five or six organized crime types including Martorano and Salemme. They all had good criminal lawyers. There is a theory in the law that if a person is working for the government and you end up conspiring with him to commit a crime there is no crime because you cannot enter a conspiracy with such a person because he (assume it is a male) does not have the intent to commit a crime. The government informant doing his job does not have the same mental state as the person who is making the agreement with him so there is no agreement.
The charges before Wolf did not involve any murders but conspiring to commit racketeering charges as gaming, extortion and leg breaking. If Flemmi was an agent of the government then those who agreed to work with him in doing these things could not conspiring with him. Flemmi thought in disclosing he was an informant he and his friend would have the charges dismissed and he would go free. It was during that hearing Flemmi said he and Witey were top echelon informants. Read all about it here: http://www.ipsn.org/court_cases/United_States_v_Salemme_Decision.htm
Matt
Thank you for taking the time to address all the questions that I have asked. In response to this post:
You bring up very very good and realistic scenarios under which Whitey Bulger being an informant would work for all parties involved. As a shield for Flemmi in case there was a leak back to the Boston Mafia is an excellent point. You say that “the charges before Wolf did not involve any murders but conspiring to commit racketeering charges etc”. Ok. Then where is it in the timeline that Martorano cuts a deal when admitting to 20 murders? Why did Flemmi decide to work out a deal for himself to AVOID being put on death row? I was under the impression Flemmi did that because he was being accused of murder.
Flemmi does bring up a valid point. WHY werent the charges against him dropped since he had a “deal” with teh FBI by being a Top Echelon Informant. I mean whats the motive for any criminals to agree to be an informant going forward if other aspects of law enforcement can come at them, try them in court, and send them to jail. It seems to me, that in some ways the FBI did betray Bulger and Flemmi, as crazy as that sounds.
★ CHESS IS WAR … SO … ” IT AIN’T EASY !!! ” 🙂
Maybe we should wait for the biography – or autobiography. Perhaps Whitey will be as loquacious as Al Capone:
“What does a man think about when he’s killing another man in a gang war? Well, maybe he thinks that the law of self-defense, the way God looks at it, is a little broader than the law books have it. Maybe it means killing a man who’d kill you if he saw you first. Maybe it means killing a man in defense of your business, the way you make your money to take care of your wife and child. I think it does. You can’t blame me for thinking there’s worse fellows in the world than me.”
Interview, quoted in:
Jonathan Eig ‘Get Capone: The Secret Plot That Captured America’s Most Wanted Gangster’
Henry:
Capone’s words would apply to Whitey’s situation when it came to murdering Tommy King or Paulie McGonagle. They were rivals of his for the control of South Boston who would have killed him given the right chance. Or even Eddie Connors, McIntyre or Barrett who he killed in defense of his business because he feared them ratting him out. I have no doubt Whitey thinks there are guys a lot worse than him; his buddy John Martorano thinks of himself as a good guy so why wouldn’t Whitey.
John ” Red” Shea of RAT BASTARDS authorship is a good tough likable and honorable kid. He never ” gave up ” any coldly flatly indictment proving info on ” Whitey” because he had nonr. This was the ’92: or so SWEEP of the self-named, or more specifically ” Various Interested Fruit Vending Agencies ” DISINFORMATION NAMED … ” Whiteys .” Insulation and ECHELON DISCIPLINE was ” Mr. Tom Bsxter’s ” Texas Hold ‘Em poker faced Winner’s strategy always. And he knew when to hold ‘ em, fold ’em. and walk away for a peak sixteen years. Do
.. Red … had shit for a hand. That’s why he did Time ; Not out of Old School Honor. Only One of A ful hand has that anymore of the aforementioned and HIS NAME IS JIMMY. I do not think John Connolly ever played his cards right. He bluffed
And that cigar smoking Sharpie in the green eyeshade @ the heaf of the table , the one wirh the old style UNITED FRUIT COMPANY workshirt on, called his bluff . I AM ALL IN ON THIS ONE ; AMONG OTHERS 🙂
For me, what potentially differentiates John Connolly is that he may have had Whitey Bulger on the books as an informant when Bulger perhaps wasn’t an informant. It concerns me that Bulger may have received FBI protection under false pretenses, so that the FBI received nothing from Bulger in return for protection and that public safety suffered as a result.
John Connolly may have received money or some other personal compensation by sharing the credit for tips from other informants like Flemmi. He may also have used Bulger or other informants to pad an investigative paper trail so it looked like he was doing his job when he was really busy writing term papers or otherwise goofing off. Connolly seems to have retired quite abruptly in 1990. Did he jump or was he pushed?
Or he could have fabricated tips from Bulger or other informants to justify closer scrutiny of someone he had some suspicions about. For the top echelon enforcement program to work would require very close supervision of agents involved like John Connolly. Obviously he wasn’t getting that scrutiny from his supervisor John M. Morris, who accepted bribes from Bulger.
Anyway, none of that is what John Connolly is in prison for. In fact, the Government went to a great deal of trouble to make their case that Bulger was indeed an informant during his trial.
And it’s hard to believe that Bulger wouldn’t have known that Flemmi was an informant even if he himself was not directly involved. He may have created a discreet little firewall between himself and that end of the operation so he that he was not a rat in his own mind. Maybe what Flemmi was giving them seemed worth the protection for them both.
Kerry Joyce
You said exactly what I have been thinking and trying to express to Matt and the rest of the bloggers. I am left dissatisfied that Whitey Bulger shared any SIGNIFICANT information with Connolly and Morris. I have yet to find evidence of the sort. There does seem to be evidence that Connolly did provide information to Bulger and/or Flemmi. There are so many layers to this part of history between the FBI and Boston organized crime.
Jerome:
You have no idea what Whitey provided Connolly. You keep thinking that it had to result in arrests and convictions. He may have given him tons of information on what was going on in the Boston underworld. Keep in mind Connolly had over ten top echelon informants. He would have used all of them in different manners. You are too narrowly focused and falling into the trap left by the Boston media. So is Kerry.
There is no question Connolly and or Morris provided information to Whitey and Stevie. That is the exchange that is done in the Top Echelon program, information for information.
Kerry:
You don’t know what information Whitey provided to Connolly. The history of the FBI is that it wanted to know what was going on and not necessarily bring about charges relating to crimes that may have been committed. Whitey was an informant in the broad sense that he met with Connolly and gave him information. I don’t think he would deny that. They were together often but when it was mostly by themselves. I assume they met at times with Flemmi and when other FBI agents were present.Whitey may say he never gave him information that put someone in jail but that does not make him less of an informant.
Remember that Connolly had over ten Top Echelon Informants. You are buying into the nonsense out there that he was doing nothing. He was so effective that the FBI had him teaching other agents how to go about and recruit informants. His job as an agent was to get informants and bring in information. We have only studied the files of Flemmi and Bulger but we do not know what he got from other informants such as Sonny Mercurio a Mafia guy who gave him the Mafia ceremony.
I can’t buy into Whitey receiving protection for nothing; he was clearly providing information as I noted complaining about the Norfolk DA and Quincy police having vendettas against him. He wanted to see if Connolly could get the FBI to back us off. As far as going to Edison Connolly left at a propitious time when an FBI guy who held the job of head of security at Edison was getting a better job and he gave Connolly the inside track into that position. He took his pension and a big paying job. No mystery there although some like to think so. He clearly wasn’t pushed because he was held in high esteem by most in the FBI office up until Flemmi disclosed his informant status.
The idea you need close supervision of agents in the Top Echelon program sounds nice but how do you do it. The relationship between the handler and the informant is a one-on-one deal. They usually do not have check ups on them but in the Connolly/Whitey/Flemmi case the SAC of the Boston office did meet with Whitey and he was satisfied that Whitey was giving valuable information.
Of course Bulger knew Flemmi was an informant because they were too close for that not to be known. It seems from all I can see is that Connolly spent most of his time with Whitey and very little with Flemmi. Yet it was Flemmi that provided the real inside stuff to Connolly although you can’t rule out Whitey also passing things on when he was operating with the Mafia out of Lancaster Street. Flemmi had to have convinced Whitey that being protected by the FBI was the best way to run a gangster business; Whitey may not have provided the significant evidence Flemmi did but he would have passed it on if necessary rationalizing that it was not he who was a rat but Flemmi.
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Matt
Are you also going to explain why former FBI Agent Connolly was still working with Whitey Bulger after he had retired from the FBI, and was working at Boston Edison?
Jean:
We don’t know if he continued to work with Whitey. The only person putting him with Whitey is Kevin Weeks who also came up with that difficult to believe “miracle meeting” with Connolly just before the statute of limitations expired. The meeting made no sense because there was no reason in the world Connolly would have given a message (with names) to Weeks who he knew only as a hang around guy to pass on to Whitey. Where is the other evidence Connolly contacted Whitey during that time?
There seems to be a lot of evidence that after Flemmi was arrested he tried to help him out. That was his using Weeks as a messenger boy between him and Flemmi. There is scant evidence of the relationship with Whitey yet everyone assumes that there was a continuing relationship.
Matt,
If John Iuele is found to be an alias for Whitey Bulger there are dental records that should show the post FBI ongoing working connection.
Jean:
If I meet Whitey I’ll ask him but will we believe his answer?
Matt,
I would suggest that if Whitey Bulger were to finally confess that he operated with the John Iuele alias, he would provide corroboration that would satisfy you…and most likely he would be be breaking the Presidential seal…and then My fact set would no longer be hidden…