Organized Crime: The Whitey Bulger Case

As we look at criminal cases that are prolific, and make us wonder I became enamored with the Whitey Bulger case. This was a criminal case that go my attention because of the fact James Joseph Bulger Jr. evaded law enforcement for so many years. But the reason behind that would grasp my attention even further. Organized crime has always been an interest to me because of the secrecy and the loyalty behind the Cosa Nostra. I specifically picked Whitey Bulger for the simple fact he wasn't the typical mobster we see in film. Also the fact the Federal Bureau of Investigation was compromised due to the fact their agents were bought and were a large part in why Whitey Bulger was able to evade law enforcement for so long.

During the seventies Whitey

Bulger was an informant for the FBI. This gave Whitey Bulger the tenacity to do what he pleased without getting in to any trouble with the local and federal law enforcement. This gave him the power he needed to further his ventures and create a sort of double agent in which he played both sides of the card. This was crucial for Whitey Bulger in order for him to have a vast network of informants that would tip him off on what he was being investigated on.
Whitey Bulger had a FBI handler who was in charge keeping Whitey Bulger from double crossing law enforcemtn. But this ended up going a lot deeper then one would think. The FBI handler by the name of Special Agent John Connolly who was the FBI’s star agent with an impeccable record. Bulger ended up joining up with Connolly and creating a fake type of front that would leave the FBI on wild goose chases.
Whitey Bulger was involved in 32 plus counts of extortion, rackettering and violations of the RICO act. He was also implicated in at least 19 murders. Bulgers crime goes as far back as a young as fourteen years old where he would create a reputation of being a hardened criminal who would not be crossed. As time progressed Whitey Bulger did time in 1956 in an Atlanta Penitentiary for armed robbery and hijacking.
John Connolly was an upstanding FBI agent who was supposedly in charge of handling Whitey Bulger as an informant.

This would prove to be Connolly’s turning point because he ended up being the informant who aided Whitey Bulger with cases that were being brought forth to bring Bulger down. Having an inside man left Bulger to be untouchable. Connolly met Bulger after a failed attempt by another agent to lure in Bulger to become an FBI informant. In 2009, John Connolly was sentced to 40 years in prison for his involvement in the 1981 murder of World Jai Alai executive Roger Wheeler in Oklahoma. Bulger was persuaded to have Wheeler killed because of skimming of money off the World Jai Alai profits and wanted to keep the thefts secret and possibly take over the business. This was not the first time that Connolly was linked with the Bulger gang. In 2002, he was sentenced to ten years for federal racketeering charges for protecting Whitey Bulger and Stephen Flemmi, who happened to be his long term informants, while they remained free to continue their long criminal rampage which included homicides in different

states.
In trade for the valuable tips Bulger provided, Connolly and other agents helped the mobster escape the law by tipping Bulger off to pending investigations and protecting him from prosecution. Flemmi and Bulger then built the criminal empire that would become the greatest of its day. This is only because of the fact that they found a way to temporarily beat the system. But after John Connolly retired from the FBI in 1990 the FBI dropped Bulger and Flemmi as informants and began to pursue them, once this started to get the ball rolling it came to the FBI’s attention what was really going on between Bulger and Connolly. This was very emabarassing to the FBI once they found out the relationship between Bulger and Connolly. Connolly informed Bulger to flee before their 1995 racketeering indictment, and he also lied to the FBI about his efforts to help Bulger beat the charges that they took so long to pin on Bulger.
This goes to show that even the most respectable of law enforcement could be turned and could easily become as crooked as the criminals that they’re supposed to protect civilians from.

Whitey Bulger since then has been sentenced to life in prison for his crimes. He was also ordered to pay $19.5 million in restitution to his victims and to forfeit another 25.2 million to the government. This case marked the end of a tumultuous saga that stretched over the span of fifty years and a multitude of homicides. Bulgers lawyers are quoted as saying that they will be “appealing the verdict” on the grounds that he did not get a fair trial because he was prevented from presenting his claim that a deceased former federal prosecutor gave him immunity for his crimes decades ago. The defense spent a lot of time trying to refute the FBI’s admittances that Bulger was an informant from 1975 to 1990. Bulgers lawyers mentioned that John J. Connolly fabricated Bulgers informant file to cover up the fact he was taking bribed from Bulger and leaking information to

him.
Now that Bulger is in his late 80’s I personally feel it is to late for him to acutally feel remorse for his crimes. This is because he lived a good life even though he was evading law enforcement the entire time. And the simple fact that the family of the slain will never get there loved ones back. The FBI should have a better system of checking on agents with these kinds of missions. The only count that Bulger was not found guilty of was the alleged extortion of Kevin Hayes, a ticket broker, who had mentioned that he was warned in 1994 that he had to give “payoffs” to Bulger in order to operate. So Bulger was collecting taxes from the criminal underworld. Bulger did decline to take the stand to testify in his defense, saying that he outside jusry’s presence, that the whole trial was made to incriminate him even though be had an immunity deal with federal authorities in the past.
This goes to show that even the FBI could be part of crimes and that no one is immune to the law. Which is a good way of looking at it. Whitey Bulger just got lucky that his FBI handler happened to cross over to the bad side of crime.
Now knowing what really happened in Boston, we can take a look into other cities with the potential for this level of crime and it makes you wonder whether other law enforcement officers are involved. We as Americans need to create a system that allows us to monitor our law enforcement. If we don't it could prove to be detrimental to not only civilians but to other law enforcement officers to.
After this entire aftermath John Connolly claims that he is entitled to a judgment of acquittal on the RICO charge because the government failed to present sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt two essential elements of the RICO charge. But to no avail the courts affirmed the conviction because of his stature as a law enforcement officer. The Supreme Court repeatedly indicated that the courts should take a “natural and commonsense approach” in assessing the Whitey Bulger case. I found that interesting because I constantly see criminal cases get destroyed because of decisions made on emotion and not on evidence.