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THE WINTERHILL GANG
Part Two
Soon after taking over the Winter Hill gang, James 'Whitey' Bulger and Stephen 'The Rifleman' Flemmi were called to a meeting with Patriarca family underboss Jerry Angiulo. On the agenda that day was the $245,000 debt owed to Angiulo that Whitey and Flemmi had inherited when they took over. The debt loaned to them at 1% so they in turn could loan it out at 5%, was initially given to Howie Winter. Angiulo nervous that the new Winter Hill king pins Bulger and Flemmi would not pay him back, had called the meeting to set up a payment plan. Whitey and Steve had no intention of ever paying the underboss back. They knew at this time that the FBI were a few months away from placing a bug in Angiulo's office. A bug which would wipe out Angiulo's regime and their loan along with it.
Bulger and Flemmi had the information regarding the bug because they were at that time top echelon informers for the government. Since the mid 60's for Flemmi and 1975 for Bulger, these two gangsters led a double life. According to Flemmi the two had carte blanche from the bureau. They could commit any crime short of murder without fear of being charged, for as long as they were informants. It worked a double edge for the two gangsters, keeping themselves in business while stepping into the businesses of the mobsters they had informed on when the FBI closed them down and put them away. The year was 1980, it was time for a new office and new schemes for the gangsters with double lives, for the first time in it's history the Winter Hill gang's base was moved out of Winter Hill. Bulger and Flemmi decided they wanted to move to a more centralized location. They chose a garage on Lancaster Street around the corner from Boston Garden and walking distance to the North End. Again, George Kaufman fronted the Lancaster street garage just as he had done with the Marshall Street location. Their day began at noon when Flemmi would pick Bulger up in South Boston and drive to Lancaster Street. All day they would meet with associates and mobsters from around Boston. It was said that every gangster in Boston stopped by at least one time for a meeting with Bulger and Flemmi.
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This is known because the state police set up surveillance across from the garage. After a few months of monitoring the garage the FBI installed a bug to enable them to eavesdrop on any conversations. The first day that the bug was active, Bulger was overheard complimenting state troopers on the great work they were doing. It was obvious from that wisecrack that Bulger had been tipped off about that bug. The bug never produced anything of great value, it was a major disappointment to the state police and a setback. It was later learned that the FBI had given Bulger and Flemmi the information regarding the bug. The state police angered by the rumors surfacing that Bulger being tipped off about their bug, called a meeting with the bureau. Just as the bug had been unproductive so was the meeting, it produced nothing. For Bulger and Flemmi it was time to move again.
In 1984 Bulger, Flemmi and Kevin Weeks, Weeks Bulger's newest associate, gave liquor store owner Stephen Rakes a bag with $64,000 and stated they now owned his store. Even although Stippo as Rakes was known to everyone had recently bought and opened the store for a little over $100,000 there was little he could do. Stippo did contact a relative who was a Boston police officer to tell him about the hostile takeover. The relative then contacted a man he knew inside the FBI, agent John Connolly. Connolly was Bulger and Flemmi's 'handler' a term the FBI use for a agent controlling a confidential informant. Connolly listened to what the officer had to say. After abruptly asking the officer if Stippo would wear a wire he said there was nothing the bureau could do.
A few days later Stippo ran into Bulger, Bulger told him bluntly that he should stop talking to the FBI and to get on with his life. Hearing this from Bulger, Stippo thought it wise to forget about trying to get his store back. The only way Bulger could have known about him contacting the FBI was from the FBI themselves through his handler, agent John Connolly.
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From now on whenever anyone wanted to meet with Bulger of Flemmi they would go the South Boston Liquor Mar. Usually important meetings would take place in the mens room at the back of the store. To the underworld and the Boston public Bulger and Flemmi appeared untouchable. Nobody thought the two were informants, just very cautious and capable criminals. As the faces of the gangsters changed in the North End, they stayed the same in South Boston. Since the late 70's the Winter Hill gang had been skimming money from World Jai Alai. Jai Alai is a sport played on a court called a 'fronton' that resembles racquetball. Wagers are placed on which opponent would win the game. The gang were able to skim money through an associate they had that worked as an accountant at World Jai Alai, John Callahan. Callahan a banker, liked to socialize at night with gangsters. He started to hanging out at Chandlers a South End restaurant that was owned by Howie Winter. The skim had been going without a hitch until a man named Rodger Wheeler purchased World Jai Alai. Wheeler noticed that something wasn't right with the figures and that someone had to be skimming money. There was going to be an investigation, and people were going to lose their jobs.
Bulger and Flemmi decided they had to get rid of Rodger Wheeler. Winter Hill associate Brian Halloran was called to a meeting and asked if he would take out Wheeler. A few weeks later Halloran was told he wasn't needed and that other guys would be handling the hit. In the spring of 1981 Rodger Wheeler was killed in the parking lot of a country club where he had been playing a round of golf earlier. The killers were rumored to be on the lam gangsters John Martorano and Joe McDonald. After an investigation led police to Callahan, he too was murdered and his body left in the trunk of his car at Miami International Airport. Around this time Halloran started talking to the FBI about becoming a co-operating witness. Agent Connolly insisted to his superiors that it was laughable to think that Bulger and Flemmi would ever let Halloran be privy to any serious information or use him for any crime, particularly a murder.
Connolly also made much of Halloran's cocaine addiction, informing his bosses that this alone rendered him useless as an informant. The bureau subsequently released Halloran as being unreliable, unstable and of no use to them. Bulger found out about Halloran talking to the FBI from his handler, agent John Connolly.
In May of 1982 Brian Halloran sat with Michael Donahue in his car, a blue Datsun F10 outside the Port Café on the South Boston waterfront. A car pulled up next them and blasted away with a machine gun. Donahue died instantly slumped over the wheel, while Halloran lay face down a feet feet from the car, his attempts to get away thwarted by the spray of bullets, Halloran was still alive as the police arrived on the scene but died on his way to hospital. Witnesses said the car involved in the hit had three men in it. Although Bulger no longer had to handle hits himself anymore, he was rumored to be one of the trigger men on this hit. As the 80's turned to the 90's it was business as usual for Bulger and Flemmi. Although they always claimed they did not deal in drugs they did make money from the dealers by charging them a fee to allow them to remain in business. A major drug ring in the late 80's was busted in South Boston, Whitey Bulger despite being recognized by everyone as the top man in South Boston managed not to be arrested.
In 1990 John Connolly retired from the bureau ending Bulger and Flemmi's career as informants. As the early 90's progressed the two took a break from the day to day running of the business. Whitey traveled around the country with one of his two girlfriends while Flemmi traveled the world enjoying his hobby of parachuting. In South Boston Kevin Weeks and Kevin O'Neil tended to business and took care of Bulger and Flemmi's interests in their absence. O'Neil owned the Triple O's tavern on Broadway and also had real estate interests in and around South Boston. Kevin Weeks continued being the muscle in South Boston wherever and whenever it was needed. In January 1995 things were about to change, the hammer was about to fall on the group.
Bulger, Flemmi and Frank Salemme who was boss of the Patriarca crime family and an old friend of Flemmi's were all indicted for running an illegal enterprise. Charged along side them were John and James Martorano and Robert DeLuca, DeLuca was Salemme's man in Rhode Island, some of the charges included murder. Flemmi and Salemme were charged with the murder of their old boss Wimpy Bennett and his two brothers. Flemmi was quickly arrested in the back bay, but both Bulger and Salemme took off. Salemme was later arrested in Boca Raton, Florida where he had been laying low. As of May 2007 Whitey Bulger is still on the run and tops the FBI's Most Wanted list. It was disclosed in court that Flemmi had been an informant and that he had ratted on his friends Salemme and both Martorano brothers. James Martorano plead not guilty and was released. John Martorano decided to turn the tables on Flemmi and subsequently became a witness against him. Salemme and DeLuca both disgusted by Flemmi plead guilty and are serving out their time. Flemmi took a plea and agreeing to help the government by giving information, for this he was given a life sentence instead of the death penalty. He is currently helping the government bring murder charges against Frank Salemme. Salemme was indicted on December 2006, It was said that he had lied about having no knowledge about the disappearance and presumed murder of Westwood nightclub owner Stephen DiSarro. Flemmi is testifying that he witnessed DiSarro being strangled in the home of Salemme's ex-wife while Salemme looked on. Salemme still maintains he knows nothing about Di Sarro's disappearance.
In November 1999 Kevin Weeks and Kevin O'Neil were both indicted with racketeering and various other charges. Kevin Weeks decided to cooperate with the government in exchange for a lighter sentence. He volunteered information on where three bodies were buried, Arthur Bennett, John McIntyre both of Quincy and Deborah Hussey the daughter of Flemmi's longtime girlfriend. He also admitted his own involvement in the murders of Brian Halloran and Micheal Donahue. Weeks gave the government a wealth of information regarding Bulger's operations as well as telling them what he knew about his involvement in the murders of the afore mentioned. Weeks was sentenced to only five years imprisonment due to his cooperation. Kevin O'Neil plead a deal which resulted in him serving a year and a day in a federal prison.
John 'Zip' Connolly Bulger and Flemmi's former FBI handler and the man responsible for tipping both gangsters off to any investigations being run by the Boston police dept against them, the man who kept Bulger updated on who may be about to turn snitch against them, the man who for all intents and purposes was all but one of Bulger's crew was finally indicted on Dec 22, 1999 with two counts of racketeering and two counts of obstruction of justice, the latter two pertaining to among other things pre-warning Flemmi and through extention Bulger to the 1995 indictment being made against them. Connolly is also charged with warning New England Mafia boss Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme during a 1994 meeting that he was being investigated by a grand jury along with Bulger and Flemmi.
On Sept 22, 2002 in the Federal district court in Boston Mass. John 'Zip' Connolly received a ten year prison sentence from Judge Joseph L. Tauro. Judge Tauro cited the importance in sending 'a message of deterrence' when passing the sentence.
John 'Zip' Connolly Bulger and Flemmi's former FBI handler and the man responsible for tipping both gangsters off to any investigations being run by the Boston police dept against them, the man who kept Bulger updated on who may be about to turn snitch against them, the man who for all intents and purposes was all but one of Bulger's crew was finally indicted on Dec 22, 1999 with two counts of racketeering and two counts of obstruction of justice, the latter two pertaining to among other things pre-warning Flemmi and through extention Bulger to the 1995 indictment being made against them. Connolly is also charged with warning New England Mafia boss Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme during a 1994 meeting that he was being investigated by a grand jury along with Bulger and Flemmi.
On Sept 22, 2002 in the Federal district court in Boston Mass. John 'Zip' Connolly received a ten year prison sentence from Judge Joseph L. Tauro. Judge Tauro cited the importance in sending 'a message of deterrence' when passing the sentence.
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Article: Courtesy of Chris
BostonMafia.com
BostonMafia.com