He explained to me thathe was involved in loan sharking and gambling, and he was organizing things that were a little dangerous and pregnancy didnt fit. "People say Bulger liked to visit Santa Monica Pier", "Calif. cop: I knew he was here all along! Bulger and Flemmi were originally going to be part of this indictment, but Connolly and Morris were able to persuade prosecutor Jeremiah T. O'Sullivan to drop the charges against them at the last minute. Weeks said, "I don't understand because he's not the same as I remember him. I want to see him well protected. Whitey Bulger did indeed participate in an LSD testing program in the 1950s in prison . According to an excerpt of a book on Bulger published by Boston magazine, Bulger only made one friend during his post-sentencing detention,[97] Clement "Chip" Janis, a young convict who was trusted to run art classes for other convicts. [35]:xvixvii In 1997, shortly after The Boston Globe disclosed that Bulger and Flemmi had been informants, Weeks met with Connolly, who showed him a photocopy of Bulger's FBI informant file. This was caused by several factors. "[122] He added: "while I worried about my brother, I now recognize that I didn't fully grasp the dimensions of his life. I also knew that Jimmy wouldn't go to trial. Eventually, however, the massive profits of drugs proved irresistible. The FBI, by this time considered compromised, was not informed. He pleaded not guilty to 48 charges, including 19 counts of murder, extortion, money laundering, obstruction of justice, perjury, narcotics distribution and weapons violations. I would always help him. Powered by. [31], In his memoirs, Weeks describes a clandestine meeting with Bulger and Greig in Chicago. Her first husband died young. On January 5, 1995, Bulger prepared to return to Boston, believing that it had been a false alarm. [42]:123125. He repeatedly got in fights with other inmates who accused Bulger of being "a rat." The plans climaxed with Weeks' own attempt to shoot Carr with a sniper rifle as he came out of his house. [12] He was apprehended along with his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig, outside an apartment complex in Santa Monica, California, on June 22, 2011. Nevertheless, he received an honorable discharge in 1952 and returned to Massachusetts. [citation needed] After meeting with IRA Chief of Staff Joe Cahill, Bulger and Nee raised $1million (equivalent to $2.61million in 2021) "by shaking down drug dealers in South Boston and Charlestown". [45], "As a criminal, he made a point of only preying upon criminals And when things couldn't be worked out to his satisfaction with these people, after all the other options had been explored, he wouldn't hesitate to use violence. And he obviously had. His tone was a little more serious, and there wasn't as much joking as usual. His son, Douglas Cyr, died at age six from Reye's Syndrome, an allergic reaction to aspirin. Although [McGonagle] never did anything, he kept on stirring everything up with his mouth. In late August or early September 1974, Bulger and an accomplice reportedly set fire to an elementary school in Wellesley to intimidate U.S. District Court Judge Wendell Arthur Garrity Jr. over his mandated plan to desegregate schools in the city of Boston by means of busing. [1][13][14][15] Bulger and Greig were then extradited to Boston and taken to court under heavy guard. This amount was second only to Osama Bin Laden's capture reward on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. [76][77] [109] Massachusetts-based mafia hitman Fotios "Freddy" Geas was the primary suspect in orchestrating the killing of Bulger. [57], When Valhalla crew member John McIntyre was arrested "for trying to visit his estranged wife", he confessed his role in the weapons smuggling to the Boston Police. Douglas Glenn Cyr was the secret son of Lindsey Cyr and Whitey Bulger, the former leader of the Winter Hill Gang, an Irish-American crime family based in Boston. Bulger and Flemmi were instead named as unindicted co-conspirators. On June 12, 2013, Bulger went on trial in South Boston's John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse before Judge Denise J. Casper on 32 counts of racketeering and firearms possession. Their base was the Transit Caf in South Boston, which later became Whitey's Triple O's. [52] Thomas Donahue, who was eight years old when his father was murdered, has become a spokesman for the families of those allegedly murdered by the Winter Hill Gang. [116] Bulger's death came as a relief to many Bostonians, especially for family members of his victims;[105] Steven Davis, whose sister Debra was reportedly killed by Bulger in 1981, stated that "[h]e died the way I hoped he always was going to die. Even though he was the boss, he always treated me equally, like an associate, not a son. The notorious gangster died of "blunt force injuries to the head" after being assaulted by multiple people, according to his death. They also reported themselves unable to agree about the murder of Debra Davis, though Bulger had already been found liable for her death in a civil suit. However, he was repeatedly unfaithful to her with a host of other women, and was often absent while overseeing the running of his organization. Those guys have been giving up everyone for thirty years. His longevity and success in organized crime largely can be attributed to . Remember, you can't rat on a rat. Money didn't matter, his power didn't matter. No more warnings. Early life. However, while awaiting trial in Rhode Island's Wyatt federal prison, Weeks was approached by a fellow inmate, a "made man" in the Patriarca family, who told him, "Kid, what are you doing? However, when Carr came out the front door holding the hand of his young daughter, Weeks could not bring himself to shoot. Flanked by Weeks and Flemmi, Bulger would inform each dealer that he had been offered a substantial sum in return for that dealer's assassination. John Martorano was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, in 1940.He is the older brother of James "Jimmie" Martorano by eleven months. From the start of his involvement with the FBI, Bulger "insisted that he would never give up the IRA". In a long political career, William rose to become President of the Massachusetts Senate. No question about it. Connolly frequently boasted to his fellow agents about how he had recruited Bulger at a late-night meeting at Wollaston Beach inside an FBI-issue car. There was no way that would be allowed. [102] Bulger was indicted in Florida for the murder of Callahan and in Oklahoma for the murder of Roger Wheeler, and could have received the death penalty in those states. [20][106] At 8:20a.m. on October 30, the 89-year-old Bulger[107] was found dead. [83] He was from a family that led the Mullen Gang and was injured during a mob gunfight in 1969. The two gangs joined forces, with Winter as overall boss. [56] Valhalla rendezvoused 120 nautical miles (220km; 140mi) off the west coast of Ireland with the Marita Ann, an IRA ship that had sailed from Tralee. I got the feeling that he was resigning himself to the fact that he wasn't coming back. [128] According to Cyr, "He used to say that there were four people he would turn up on a street corner for: Douglas, me, Billy, or his mother. [63] However, there were unconfirmed sightings elsewhere. He initially insisted he was his alias, Charlie Gasko, according to FBI special agent Scott Garriola, until he eventually admitted: You know who I am; Im Whitey Bulger, reports Biography. According to retired FBI agent Scott Bakken, "Here you have somebody who is far more sophisticated than some 18-year-old who killed someone in a drive-by. [16] On August 12, Bulger was found guilty on 31 counts, including both racketeering charges, and was found to have been involved in eleven murders. After a number of bookmakers agreed to testify to having paid protection money to Bulger, a federal case was built against him under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). [61], On November 17, 1999, Weeks was arrested by a combined force of the DEA and the Massachusetts State Police. However, the verdict was overturned on appeal due to the late filing of the claims. When Bulger arrived at the United States Penitentiary in Tucson there were other famous inmates there, including Brian David Mitchell, Steven Dale Green and Montoya Snchez.[97]. [18] Bulger was incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary Coleman II in Sumterville, Florida. In fact, from the moment that Cyr found out that she was pregnant, she said that Bulger was most concerned about the baby. [31], In 1956, Bulger served his first term in federal prison at Atlanta Penitentiary for armed robbery and truck hijacking. His eyes had nearly been gouged out and his tongue almost cut off;[108][109][110] a law enforcement official described Bulger as "unrecognizable". Bulger's third petition for parole, in 1965, was granted after he had served nine years in prison. In a 2004 interview, Stanley stated that she was planning to publish her memoirs;[44] however, she died of lung cancer in 2012 at the age of 71.[133]. Of Arab descent, he had a mustache like Saddam Hussein. Connolly kept Bulger and Flemmi closely briefed on what Halloran was saying, specifically his claims, false according to Weeks, to having participated in the Tulsa, Oklahoma murder of businessman Roger Wheeler. According to Weeks:[35]:236. [105], Bulger was transferred from the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City to United States Penitentiary, Hazelton, in West Virginia on October 29, 2018. Bulger developed a reputation as a thief and street fighter fiercely loyal to South Boston. After his retirement he was appointed President of the University of Massachusetts system. At one point, FBI agents were sent to Uruguay to investigate a lead. People familiar with Coin-O-Matic knew exactly who the employee was, but the code of silence was still very strong in South Boston. Whitey Bulger's death has officially been ruled a homicide. If he saw them coming, he would take them with him. According to Weeks's memoirs, in 1980 Boston Herald reporter Paul Corsetti began researching an article about Louis Litif's murder and Bulger's suspected involvement. They would rent cars and travel all through Europe. [104] According to prison documents obtained by The New York Times, Bulger gained a reputation for disconcerting behavior during his time in prison: "At the Coleman prison complex in Florida in September 2014, he was disciplined multiple times, including once for masturbating in front of a male staff member and once, in February, for threatening a female medical staff member". Her son died of a drug overdose after returning from Vietnam. Bulgers life on the run ended in June 2011, when he was caught and arrested in Santa Monica, California, after a 16-year manhunt. Nicknamed "Whitey" as a child because of his white-blond hair. The Boston Police Department, operating on a tip, raided a butcher shop in South Boston co-owned by Bulger and two other Winter Hill members. In 1943, 14-year-old Bulger was arrested and charged with larceny. [66] A confirmed report by an off-duty Boston police officer after a San Diego screening of The Departed also led to a search in southern California that lasted "a few weeks". On June 3, Paul E. Coffey, the head of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the Department of Justice, gave a sworn statement admitting that Bulger had been an FBI informant. In 1982, a South Boston cocaine dealer named Edward Brian Halloran, known on the streets as "Balloonhead", approached the FBI and stated that he had witnessed Bulger and Flemmi murdering Litif. Just after Cyr learned she was pregnant, Bulger opened up to her about some of the things going on in his life. However, at that point, there was something different going on with him. [35]:167, It would not be until the 1999 cooperation of Weeks that Bulger, by then a fugitive, was conclusively linked to the drug trade by investigators. Sometimes they took girls, sometimes just the two of them went. ', According to former Mullen boss Patrick "Pat" Nee, McGonagle ambushed and murdered O'Sullivan on the assumption he was the one responsible for his brother's killing. Cyr was 21 at the time. Police officers found the employee hanging from a beef rack, having been severely tortured and held for more than six days. I have not aided James Bulger in any way while he has been a fugitive. November 8, 2018 BOSTON (AP) A funeral Mass was held in Boston Thursday for notorious gangster James ''Whitey'' Bulger, who was killed last week hours after he arrived at a troubled West. Their father was a machinist from Glasgow, Scotland, and their mother was from Canada, as was Bulger's father. In June 2012, Greig pleaded guilty to conspiracy to harbor a fugitive, identity fraud, and conspiracy to commit identity fraud, receiving a sentence of eight years in prison. She did so a short while later. Later reports of a sighting in Italy in April 2007 proved false. An employee for Coin-O-Matic, a cash laundering vending machine company owned by the Patriarcas, was kidnapped on the job. And now he wanted to kill a friend of Jimmy. Other agents were sent to stake out the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Normandy, as Bulger was reportedly an enthusiastic fan of military history. After Bulger's arrest, Cyr announced her support of him,[131] stating: If he wanted to see me, I'd be happy to. Bulger reminisced fondly about his time hiding out with a family in Louisiana. But, Connolly told me, he had to put Jimmy's name on the files to keep his file active. He would rather plead out to a life sentence than put his family through the embarrassment of a trial. He had to give it up. Writing in 2006, Weeks recalled:[35]:235. James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger was the boss of the largely Irish Mob in Boston from the 1970s through the 1990s. [84] She and Bulger lived together for a time at her home in Squantum, a section of Quincy. The Justice Department's inspector general has found a series of missteps by federal Bureau of Prisons officials preceded . Twitter/Boston Informer John Connolly at his murder arraignment hearing in 2005. In return, Connolly, as Bulger's FBI handler, ensured that the Winter Hill Gang were effectively ignored. So Jimmy decided to kill him. "[35]:261, In the aftermath, Weeks decided to cut a deal with federal prosecutors and revealed where almost every penny was stashed and every body was buried. By definition, his was a secretive life. In order to explain Bulger and Flemmi's status as informants, Connolly said, "The Mafia was going against Jimmy and Stevie, so Jimmy and Stevie went against them. [121], In December 2002, William Bulger appeared before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and refused to testify, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Federal prosecutors . Douglas died in 1972 from Reyes Syndrome. This earned Shea a legendary reputation in South Boston. The first confirmed sighting of Bulger before his capture was in London in 2002. [51]:216 Connolly reported that Halloran was shopping this information to the FBI for a chance for him and his family to be placed in the Witness Protection Program. "[35]:55 "[Louie] had always been a major moneymaker for Jimmy. Early in his criminal career, local police gave Bulger the nickname "Whitey" because of his blond hair. Bulger was annoyed when he learned that the IRA members he supplied had burned the van that contained the weapons. Douglas Glenn Cyr, Whitey Bulgers Son: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. The question today, more than a year after his gruesome murder in a West Virginia prison, is whether his killer or killers will ever be brought to justice. ", "Fourth Superseding Indictment in Case Number 94-10287-MLW, United States v. Francis P. Salemme, et al", "Third Superseding Indictment in Case Number 99-10371-RGS, United States v. James J. Bulger, et al", "Search for Whitey Bulger turns to Canada". Bulger, 89, was found beaten to death inside his cell at the Hazelton federal prison in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, on Oct. 30, 2018. Bulger was able to begin taking part in counseling with a prison psychologist at the Tucson facility. Here's what we know. After Douglas death, Bulger was said to be devastated.. After his 2011 arrest, federal prosecutors tried Bulger for nineteen murders based on grand jury testimony from Kevin Weeks and other former criminal associates. She says Bulger never wanted a child because it made him vulnerable, but he loved him dearly and after Douglas died of Reyes. [35]:5759 Litif told an outraged Bulger he was also going to kill his partner, "Joe the Barber", whom he accused of stealing from the bookmaking operation. [31] He spent time in the military prison for several assaults and was later arrested by Air Force police in 1950 for going absent without leave. State and federal agencies were repeatedly stymied in their attempts to build cases against Bulger and his inner circle. He said that during his days as a fugitive he often went back and forth across the border to Mexico to buy medicine for his heart disease. Both families were awarded several million dollars in damages. Early diagnosis and treatment of Reyes syndrome can save a childs life, reports the Mayo Clinic. [59], After fleeing Boston, Bulger and Stanley spent four days over Christmas in Selden, New York, before spending New Year's Day in a hotel in New Orleans's French Quarter. [60] On May 23, 2001, Bulger, along with Stephen and Michael Flemmi, were charged in a 48-count federal indictment with racketeering, murder, and other crimes. [74][78] 'He was wearing green underwear and was in a green garbage bag. A tipster had notified the FBI that the 81-year-old fugitive and Greig had been living in a rent-controlled apartment as retirees. After an eight-month effort by prison officials to move the 89-year-old mob boss, he was killed at a federal prison in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, in October 2018, allegedly beaten multiple. It was over. [83] Greig grew up in Boston and had an identical twin sister, Margaret, and a younger brother, David. Most of the time, The Boston Globe wasn't as inaccurate as the Herald. On June 12, 2012, she was sentenced to eight years in federal prison. And Jimmy said, "I'm never going to hurt like this again."[129]. [2][3] On December 23, 1994, Bulger fled the Boston area and went into hiding after his former FBI handler, John Connolly, tipped him off about a pending RICO indictment against him. I would see, over and over again, that some of these people had been arrested for crimes that were mentioned in these reports. [31], Weeks stated that, although several plans were considered, all were abandoned because there was too much risk of injuring Carr's wife and children. [67], After sixteen years at large and twelve years on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, Bulger was arrested in Santa Monica, California, on June 22, 2011. "His murder would have been an attack on the system, like attacking freedom of the press, the fabric of the American way of life, and they would have spared no expense to solve the crime. The four men shared a prize of around US$14million. Bulger's life had many women - and not just Lindsay Cyr, whose affair with Bulger produced a son, Douglas Glenn Cyr, in 1967. [118] In January 2022, U.S. District Judge John Preston Bailey dismissed the lawsuit, ruling federal law did not allow his family the right to sue Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officials because Congress expressly puts custody of inmates in the hands of the BOP, and "has repeatedly limited judicial authority to review BOP housing decisions and to entertain claims brought by prisoners.
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