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FBI Still Covering for Whitey Bulger
The Boston Herald is appealing the FBI’s refusal to release records related to Whitey Bulger. The Bureau claims there are ongoing related investigations. Bulger died in 2018 and had been convicted for over thirty felonies including eleven murders in 2013. His longtime associate Flemmi is serving a life sentence. Bulger evaded capture for 16 years on the FBI Most Wanted lList, a duration that many suspected was an indication of the Bureau’s preference that the extent of their corrupt involvement not come to light. He was 81 when finally captured in California.
Given the Bureau’s scandalous history regarding Bulger, we have every right to be skeptical about the existence of an ongoing related investigation of any kind after all this time. Perhaps they are pretending to investigate one of Whitey’s murders they missed.
Bulger was protected by the Bureau in large part because he bribed FBI agent John Connolly, who fed Bulger FBI data on mafia activities. Bulger then in turn divulged the same info to his handler Connolly and other agents who touted the importance of these confirmations. The FBI kept Boston cops from arresting their key informer while he killed, stole, dealt drugs and extorted with impunity for years. At least he never “paraded” on federal property.
A lot of our tax dollars have gone to several families whose loved ones were murdered by Bulger while under FBI protection. Maybe the G-men are heroically protecting our tax dollars from additional claims those files might trigger.
Published in General
The go to guy for the Boston FBI and Bulger story is Howie Carr, who has been in Boston media forever. His book The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century covers Whitey, FBI corruption, and Massachusetts politics all rolled up in a big rotten ball.
Whitey’s brother Billy was a top politician in Massachusetts, being the president of the Massachusetts Senate for almost two decades. Unlike Whitey, he retired as a very, very rich man.
In the end, the Feds killed Bulger to shut him up. The files will surely stay hidden.
See also Black Mass by Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill. A good one.
Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy… book by Dick Lehr (thriftbooks.com)
IIRC, after decades as the Mass. state senate majority leader, Billy Bulger ended up as President of the University of Massachusetts, a plum post no doubt. Not bad for a guy who started out in the South Boston projects. Corrupt? Well, this is Massachusetts, after all.
Correct. He sort of got run out of the UMass job after he was subpoenaed in some Congressional inquiry about Whitey. I believe he took the Fifth, but in any case he didn’t come off looking good.
I guess his $200,000+ state retirement provides some solace.
My brother had a samizdat video of one of Billy Bulger’s annual confabs which involved compulsory attendance by almost the entire Massachusetts political establishment. He introduced, emceed and mostly mocked/insulted everybody. It was really funny. It was lost in a move. Tragedy.
I don’t think Billy ever did much to protect his brother from arrest. He did not have to because the feds did that for him.
Congrats on reading the only Boston paper, and I second the endorsement of Howie Carr. His column on Boston’s public radio — National Panhandler Radio, in Carr-speak—7-10 days ago is not to be missed.
I worked for the Governor (allegedly the Boss of things. Not.) in Billy Bulger’s State House many, many years ago, and am still washing it off. Don’t get me started.
Yes. Here is the link.
Sample: The reality is, the old WGBH business model of tote bags and umbrellas is no longer viable. You don’t need to pledge $39 a month to get your daily dose of Democrat agitprop …
As Insty says, read the whole thing.
Thanks! Thought it might be protected. Now everyone can read about “pampered twits with posh British accents.”
I’ve heard Whitey finally got so sick of Carr that he put out a hit, but the sentimental shooter noticed Carr was with his daughter and wouldn’t do it. Our gain.
Howie has spoken about this. He said he took different routes to work and home for a while, and made sure he avoided Winter Hill territory.
Howie Carr is a treasure. I even subscribe to the Herald in tribute.
FBI is good at stalling when they it is not in their interest (see how they investigate Hunter)
I thought that one of the FBI guys that went after Trump, James Comey or Peter Strzok had a tie in to Whitey as well. But I’ve been googling and can’t find it.
Mueller was in the Boston US Attorney’s office around that time. I think he was tasked with one of the less-than-thorough housecleaning investigations of the Boston FBI after the Bulger scandals erupted. Perhaps that is where he honed his instinctive pattern that federal institutions and their political allies come first, truth second, public interest third. How else do you spend two years hustling the Russiagate fraud and prosecuting trival or non-crimes without ever examining the provenance of the bogus claims of Russian conspiracy and without caring that millions of Americans were grossly misled.
Right right right… I heard someone say he was the Forest Gump of FBI Corruption… He’s in had some minor involvement in every scandal for the past 40 years… I just could remember the name…
I took this to mean he was the photo bombing retread in the background handing out smiley face stickers and wishing people a nice day…
I remember some of the “Mueller Report” hearings where it seemed like he hadn’t even read the report, much less written it.
DC is full of guys who rise to the top because of a primary skill to deflect, deflate, and delay scandals. Bury the matter in paper, procedural delay and then point to the binders already gathering dust and say how dare you question the integrity of [Fill in Agency Name here] after such an exhaustive review even if the key element of the scandal was never examined. Time passes. Elections come and go. Perpetrators get promoted and then retire or work for the companies they used to regulate/investigate.
Mueller was senile by the time he “headed” the special counsel office but likely would have let it proceed the same way if still in his prime. If Barr had not finally demanded an end, that crew would have continued raw mischief, and even with no viable charges filed against Trump, they would instead point to all the paper and tell us that there must be a pony in there somewhere, therefore the effort and expense was justified.
whenever I hear his name I remember the quip (I don’t recall who said it) that White Bulger sounds like the stage name of a male porn star….
Don’t drop the y. Its a very important Y.
JJ Bulger sounds like he could have been CEO of CitiBank.