Wow. How about the torch and pitchfork routine being leveled against “The Bulgers” by the feds and the media. Seriously. Is there any better example of the reasons why Billy refuses to speak to the feds than Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Kelly telling a federal magistrate the feds expect “The Bulgers” to pay for Whitey’s defense?Are we in freakin’ Russia? I could not believe what I read. I expect Billy’s lawyer will be sending a strongly worded letter to the Justice Department citing laws, cases, and prosecutorial and attorney ethics. Kelly said those words for no reason other than to infer he is part of the criminal enterprise. Beyond the pale.
Also, Kelly contradicts himself. If all of Whitey’s money is illegally gotten then even though Whitey has other money stashed around the world it would not be available for his defense. Kelly would confiscate it.
This Kelly guy sucks as a lawyer. IMO. I can’t wait to see him try this case.
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Good to see Dave Wedge and the Herald are still practicing the fine art of libel. Both papers reported that Bill Bulger was accompanied by two sons. Their pictures were all over the news. Dave Wedge is crying to anyone that will listen that Chris Bulger, of probation fame, shoved him. Poor Chris. What a year he is having. Chris wasn’t there. Not at the court house that day. Doesn’t appear in any of the pictures and Wedges description of the guy that “shoved him” as big a burly doesn’t fit either.
There’s another lawyer letter. Waiting on your apology David, Howie, and Pat.
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Please stop comparing these victims to victims of the Holocaust. Jesus Christ. The Bennets etc. Steve Rakes, the guy that Whitey stole the liquor store from was no angel and he lost the store in the world of mob business. This was not an innocent shop keeper. In fact he most likely was a straw for others. I find it funny how number one Boston mob lawyer Tony Cardinale represents him. He got a multi- million dollar judgement against Whitey by default. And he’s telling everyone he can’t wait to depose Whitey. This isn’t about Stevie Rakes. (BTW the guy that attacked the poor black guy with American Flag in that infamous photo is Steve Rakes brother),
Now we can talk about the two Debbies. And yes a tragedy. But you know what, Davis’s dad was a hood selling everything that fell off a truck out of his Brookline garage and the mother was dating Stevie Flemmi for years at the same time Flemmi was banging the young teen Debbie. These people are not like you and me. “The life they chose”.
Expect Whitey to testify about the killings of the two Debbies and bet on a different version. Do you really think Steve Flemmi was letting Whitey decide which of his girlfriends would live or die?
There is the guy that died on because he gave the bad guy a ride. Innocent victim.
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Kevin Weeks want us to believe that Whitey and Stevie wanted him to kill Howie Carr with an exploding basketball. This shows how down on the bottom Weeks was, And stupid. Weeks says he never killed anyone and had no experience in explosives. There is no history of explosives or basketballs in any of the gangs killings. Really Kevin? This will be your first assignment? You’re going to make your bones by building a bomb out of a basketball? When did you go to MIT?
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This Howie Carr/ Martarano alliance is funny in a way. I really don’t think Martarano did this for the doughnut. So that means that Howie could be business partners with a serial killer. Tell us Howie, how much did you pay Martarano?
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I think Catherine Greig may have conspired with the former neighbor/Icelandic tipster. Whitey could have been in on it too. Reason being, these people are from Southie. Remember I gave you a little lesson on the Southie state of mind a few weeks ago? Flaherty stealing the money bag. Well if Catherine and/or Whitey wanted to come in they weren’t going to leave a million dollars on the table. It just ain’t done. Someone’s has to get it if not them. It would be a sin to let the feds keep it. Catherine sounds like a gabber. I can picture her befriending a neighbor over the years. Nice person. Iceland is a nice touch. Perhaps she was the perfect person to set up with tip. You never know.
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Joan Vennochi had a nice piece yesterday knocking Billy for how he has handled Whitey and the public perception. She is right when she says that Billy went out of his way some times to make sure Whitey was in the equation. Mention him, have him around, etc. The public pronouncement that luck played into the lottery winnings rather than the more likely scenario of Whiey muscling the winner and paying a cash for a piece of the ticket.
And yes, Whitey did bring out a vote for Billy. He probably did some things that Billy didn’t even know. Many believe that had Whitey been around when Bill, Jr. ran for the senate seat against Steve Lynch the result would have been different.
And Billy made enemies. He could be a prick to be people. Usually without them knowing it was him keeping them down.
But that doesn’t make him a co-conspirator with Whitey. And for the the U.S. Attorney to suggest Billy pay for Whitey’s defense so the government doesn’t have to shows why Billy shouldn’t trust them. That’s why he never spoke to them.
This wasn’t a uni-bomber case where more victims were probable. So Billy didn’t have the ethical dilemma that people suggest. And I doubt very much Whitey gave Billy info regarding his whereabouts. No need to.
Steve Stein says
“I smell an FBI safe house“? Where the heck did that come from?
Nuts, these people are.
Ryan says
this thing stinks so bad, and the track record of the FBI here is so wretched, that it’s hard to think that something fishy isn’t going around here.
McPhee’s probably wrong about it being an FBI safehouse, but given how much the circumstances of his capture and the FBI finding him don’t even come close to adding up, would it be so shocking if, say, one of the rogue agents that worked with him at the FBI and helped him escape in the first place would be involved in setting up the house or the situation?
That’s complete speculation, and the odds are still against it, but at the very least I have the nagging suspicion that something went on as they were catching him. Maybe he was sick and offered himself up? Maybe someone in the FBI or once in it fessed up and talked, and the FBI didn’t want that embarrassment. Maybe the FBI wanted to get the credit of having pushed forward a new “plan” that caught him, as if they were doing something to catch him, rather than just having him somehow handed on his lap from some random tip off, etc.
I have no idea, but the puzzles pieces surrounding the circumstances of his capture don’t seem to add up quite yet.
farnkoff says
until it’s not. I’ll believe the FBI when I see a newly minted Icelandic millionaire giving an interview on CNN, thus getting the credit she clearly deserves
Steve Stein says
I’m sure there will be one scared newly-minted Icelandic millionaire. If I were that person, I wouldn’t want ANYONE to know, even in Iceland.
farnkoff says
still has guys willing to go to the mat for him? I doubt it myself, but better safe than sorry, I suppose.
Patrick says
She switches back and forth. One minute she hates and loathes all hacks with a badge. Next minute she’s all about the sterling heroes of law enforcement.
JimC says
Amazing.
Thanks for writing this Ern. Great stuff.
farnkoff says
One of Bulger’s victims had a brother who, in high school, was a racist thug who assaulted an innocent man at an anti-busing protest. Other than being a little bit interesting, not sure what we’re supposed to take from that. That all those people deserved to die? Because that girl’s mother was stupid enough to date Flemmi, she deserved to get molested, raped, and murdered? “The life you choose,” my ass.
I thought Ernie was arguing against “guilt by familial relation”, not for it.
JimC says
But the part I quoted is a great example of just how small this town is.
JimC says
I think it’s too harsh a reading of Ernie’s point. There is such a thing as making risky choices. If you date mobsters, you are courting trouble. Does that make you responsible for what they do? No, but Ernie didn’t say that.
farnkoff says
Has anyone really compared Bulger to Adolf Hitler or Stalin? He’s a mob boss, a gangster. Kind of like Al Capone, kind of like those guys doing wild drive-bys on Blue Hill Ave. Ernie’s taking us a couple of steps back toward the myth of the neighborhood defender, who only really hurt people who were already “in the game.” I think he hurt a lot of people, and terrorized his whole neighborhood. A homicidal crook who deserves to spend the rest of his life locked up with the rest of the killers.
Maybe I’m misreading Ernie, though.
Patrick says
According to Carr he is a homicidal serial killer homosexual bisexual pedophile misogynist. That he is a mob guy and thus bad doesn’t necessarily entail the other stuff.
centralmassdad says
when nit comes to the Southie Irish, and to the corrupt disgrace that Billy turned our government into.
Our commonwealth and its capital would have been far better off if Mayor Hynes had flattened Southie to make way for ugly buildings, and scattered its residents to the four winds.
farnkoff says
I don’t know about all that. But Whitey Bulger, Flemmi, and Martorano are definitely scumbags.
Ryan says
Either they have to let him spend his money, however it was obtained, or they need to provide a court-appointed attorney. Otherwise, this is just getting ridiculous.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to see justice served as much as the next person, but that can’t happen if the defendant doesn’t have a proper defense — and do we really want to see Whitey be able to push things further in court through appeals from not getting proper representation from the get go? Does the FBI and government really want to botch things even more badly than they’ve already been botched? They’re making it so that even if he loses, he wins, just through sheer embarrassment of the government.
Finally, no, the FBI can’t and shouldn’t try to compel Bill Bulger or anyone else to pay for Whitey’s defense, I don’t see the legal grounds in doing that. I don’t know about Billy Bulger, but if my brother was a suspected mass murderer who was on the run for the better part of 2 decades, I may not be so interested in being all buddy-buddy with him when he’s caught either. There is a certain line in which a person can cross that nulls and voids the “family’s always got your back” lifetime warranty. Not that I’m an expert in all things Bulger family, but I can only I imagine Whitey Bulger crossed that line many decades ago.
kbusch says
It’s not just an altruistic concern that makes me want Whitey Bulger to have legal counsel. It’s that, if he’s convicted, I want there to be no question that he deserved conviction.