I saw that Whitey allegedly had written two memoirs. One was found when Theresa Stanley’s house was searched. It is entitled “My Life in the Irish Mafia Wars,” the other when he was arrested in Santa Monica which according to prosecutors appears to be autobiographical. According to one report the manuscript, about 100 handwritten pages, had a prefatory note saying it was a response to a former associate, John Martorano, “and seeing his insane interview on ’60 Minutes’ was the last straw.”
When I heard this I thought to myself that I’d stand in a long line to read one of those even though I abhor lines. Hopefully if the case goes to trial they will be introduced into evidence then we can read what this murderer turned budding author has to say about how all the murders really happened. But the chances of a memoir being admitted appear remote unless the government can prove their authenticity, that is Whitey wrote them. Yet that might be easy, Whitey has such an inflated idea of his importance that he’d probably admit ownership of the writings. Apparently he feels his story is so compelling that only he knows its truth.
Unfortunately for him the government has the autopsy report of the victims so he’ll have to fit his story into those unassailable facts. These are not pretty, from what I hear. If he puts himself at the scene then his barbarism will be apparent and any lingering doubt as to his venality will vanish. Then again, he could deny having killed anyone.
But that’ll go against his tough guy image. He’s one of those “do you know who I am guys!” guys we usually run into trying to fix parking tickets. Eddie MacKenzie in his book Street Soldier tells how Whitey showed up at his apartment with three others. Fifty some year old Whitey introduced himself as Jimmy Bulger. Twenty-two year old tough guy MacKenzie was less than impressed. Bulger seeing that said, “Most people call me Whitey.” I have to guess then that he’ll admit the murders but put a different spin on them although I’m at a loss to see how he thinks any telling of how he murdered people will inure to his credit or enhance his reputation.
This brings me to the question of the day, if I read his memoir why would I believe anything in it. A subset of that question is why would anyone believe anything these hoodlums write or say. They have lived their whole life free of any moral constraints. To cut to the chase, if they’d murder someone they’d have no problem about lying about something. In their minds they have conjured up reasons for taking a person’s life. When one can justify taking a defenseless person’s life then nothing is beyond that person’s capabilities when it comes to manufacturing lies.
I worked in a small law firm that represented Larry Baione, also known as Larry Zannino, who was the right hand man and enforcer for Gerry Anguilo, the Boston Mafia kingpin. Larry had been indicted by the feds for interstate transportation of stolen goods. There was no question he did this. He wanted to take a lie detector test. He did. He passed. He was so morally corrupt that no indicia of lying showed up on the machine. All the gangsters in the case: Whitey, Flemmi, Martorano, and Salemme fit the Zaninno profile. (Weeks was not quite as hardened. He flunked a government lie detector. Morris, as shown by his tears at the trial of Connolly, also is not of that depraved strain of humanity.)
Sadly the government has made its bed with these liars. It has no other way to prove the charges against Whitey. The government has no magic wand to use to determine whether these guys are lying. It closes its eyes to reality and then vouches for their truthfulness by putting them on the stand as representative of the people of the United States. We’ve already seen a Boston jury reject the gangster testimony in the Connolly case.
We know Martorano’s lies. His boyfriend, Howard Carr, tried to cover up for one big lie. An autopsy on Tony Veranis showed Tony was shot in the back of the head. Martorano probably snuck up behind him. But that doesn’t fit the tough guy image that Martorano wants to project. Martorano wants to say Tony pulled a gun on him but he was too fast for him. Howard says , “Taller than Veranis, he fired down, into the ex-boxer’s skull.” I knew Tony. He was my height a little over 5’ 10″ I saw Martorano in court. I guessed his height as 5’ 7”. Unless Martorano knew how to levitate, Howard’s cover up for the killing proves inept. (Does that make Howard a liar too?) Martorano can’t accept his cravenness of plugging a guy in the back of the head so he lies about this killing as he probably did about most others.
Martorano also lied when he said Billy Bulger wanted Connolly to watch out for Whitey. He said Connolly wanted to do it because Billy helped him get into college and the FBI. I’ve shown before that Billy had no juice at the college or pull at the FBI. Connolly had much better sources of influence than Billy at that time. It has always been in the feds playbook to closely connect Billy to Connolly by rewriting their history abetted by many people in the media and in books. Martorano just joined in to please his keepers.
The more you think you know about Martorano the less you do. The only one still enthralled by him is Howard Carr. Yesterday to find out if Whitey had a child by some woman he called up Martorano who comes up with some cock and bull story. It’s all so pathetic expecting the truth from a liar.
Salemme as we know testified against FBI agent Connolly, got a break from the government for his testimony and was let out of jail early. He was then indicted for perjury in another matter and put back in the slammer. Then the government worked out a deal with this life long criminal. He would plea guilty to a lesser crime of making false statements and be let loose on society again. By the way an FBI snitch was in jail with Salemme. I’ll tell you what he said Salemme told him when they were locked up sometime later.
What’s going on is Salemme and Martorano are now part of the government’s team. Nothing is too good for them as long as they keep spouting the line the government has adopted as the facts. We’re supposed to suspend all our beliefs as to their credibility now that they have stamped on their heads, “Approved by the US Government.”
Whitey will now give us another version of the many killings. I should be revolted with myself for thinking I would be interested in reading it. Forget standing in a line, I wouldn’t take a copy of his story if someone was handing them out in front of South Station. The fiction section of the library has writings by better authors and more compelling stories to read.
What is it about Americans that we love gangsters? The Godfather movies and the Sopranos series were all great hits. We’ve heard about Jesse James, Billy The Kid, Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Machine Gun Kelly, Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, Symphony Sid, Buggsy Siegal, Lucky Luciano and countless more. I bet the average American can name more gangsters than presidents.
Whitey will soon take his place on that dishonor roll of famous criminals. But unlike those others, as a present day gangster, he wants us to read his side of the story. All I got to say is don’t buy it.
Whitey was pals with Gerry’s son at one point, at least when the former worked at the Old Courthouse. Late 80s. Were they together that night when there was an unfortunate fire in the clerk’s office? Perhaps.
It’s Larry Baione not Larry Bione. I always wondered whether Whitey met him through Larry’s brother Phil. Whitey and Phil shared some obvious (to some) interests.
Thanks for reminding me I misspelled his name. I knew the right spelling but it got by me. How Whitey met him I really don’t know. One hint comes from Pat Nee’s book. He told how the truce came about in the KIileen and Mullen war in Southie. According to Nee, a Mullen, he went to Howie Winter, who is still doing business, to arrange for a peace with Whitey (a Killeen). Winter told Nee that Gerry Anguilo had called him that morning because Whitey had calle Joe Russo seeing if he could help bring a stop to the war. Whitey may have met Larry through Russo.
If all those gangsters and killers are per se incredible, which they are, how does one justify their use against ex agent Connolly? The federal jury in Boston found Connolly not guilty of taking payoffs from the gangsters ( a diamond ring and 2 seperate three thousand dollar payments) and not guilty of tipping off the gangsters about informants ( Callahan, Castucci, Halloran and McIntire) The Globe said he was acquitted of the serious charges yet he got a ten year sentence. Compounding the injustice of that sentence was the prosecution in Florida for the Callahan murder. Wyshak used almost identical evidence as was used in Boston. The concept of Double jeopardy was violated. Worse still Connolly was convicted of a crime where the judge ackowledged that the Statute of Limitations had expired. Connolly has a federal Constitutional right to Due Process. No American can be sentenced to prison for an offense where the Statute has expired. A Special Prosecutor should look into these violatios. 2 If Grieg’s sentence was unjust( 8 years) and Mrs. Gianelli’s was unjust ( 8 years) how do you justify Mrs. Tieney’s sentence( 30 days)? Her offense involved laundering $8 million, a much more serious offense than the other two women. Could it be that they have a double standard in the Federal Court? Was the fix in against the two that had connections to South Boston as it was against Connolly? Was the fix in against Turner? He took a few hundred dollars from an informant(guilty of bribery). It could have been a valid campaign contribution. Yet at 70 he gets 3 years.Morris Gouldings steals $15 million from his clients and gets 3 years. But he fit in at the court. 3. Truman said “When you persecute minorities everyone loses their freedom” He was referring to Blacks in Dixie and Gypsies, Jews and Slavs in Germany. But the same could be said about the people of South Boston, Dorchester and Charlestown.The Media has run a 4 decade smear campaign against those neighborhoods. It started with that idiot Federal Judge Garrity’s busing decision. The Globe had no problem potraying all those who opposed that nonsense as racists. A later survey showd 90% of the White families and 70% of the Black families were against forced busing. It continued with the media’s villification of the people from Savin Hill over the T Station case in 1982. In 1993 the liberal propoganda persisted in the St. Pat’s parade case. The disinformation has persisted to the present in the gangster investigation. It is the same old story. The villain is always the guy from Soutie or Dorchester and the Hero is some weirdo from NY. 4 The Probation officials were indicted for hiring qualified people but not the best qualified. Should we impose that standard on the judiciary? Was Ware the best person? Mitchell was available. Was Ortiz the most qualified?
Number one question anticipates my post which will come down tomorrow. There I answer your question.
I don’t know anything about Mrs Gianelli case or the Tierney case other than a couple of blurbs in the paper. I’d want to know more about the first one before I answer. The answer to the second is somewhat obvious. As to Turner and Goldings I’d just say there does seem to be a lack of uniformity in the sentencing although Turner as a public official was probably held to a higher standard than a mere lawyer.
You’ll note in an earlier post when I wrote about the book Black Mass I indicated that one must be careful reading it because of the Globe’s animus to Southie. I disagree it started with Judge Garrity. I suggest it existed a long time before that.
As you know, I am familiar with Judge Garrity. I represented the Boston School Committee in the so-called equal education opportunity case. He aptly demonstrated how one man could bollix up a city. It didn’t have to be that way but then again he was not the brightest bulb on the marquee and easily swayed by the “right” people.
The probation case in federal court I believe is huge overreach. I don’t see how RICO with its 20 year sentence would encompass sending out notices of rejections to applicants. But you know how the feds work, come to a conclusion and then squeeze enough people until you support it sort of like squeezing oranges when you want a glass of orange juice.