Boston's Bulger is killed in federal prison

James "Whitey" Bulger, longtime Boston underworld figure, was found dead Tuesday, October 30, within a high-security penitentiary in Hazelton, West Virginia.

Sources indicated that Bulger was "killed." Federal authorities are investigating the circumstances.  The New York Times, citing two unnamed Federal Bureau of Prisons employees, reported that at least two inmates beat Bulger to death. The Boston Globe reported that the prison in Hazelton has experienced a string of violent attacks. Two other inmates were killed in fights at the understaffed institution earlier this year, according to the Globe. Bulger was found unresponsive at 8:20 a.m. Efforts were made to revive him.

Eighty-nine-year-old Bulger, sentenced to two life prison terms after being convicted of involvement in eleven murders, had only arrived in Hazelton on Monday, October 29. He was transferred from a prison in Florida and held for a time at a transfer facility in Oklahoma City.

Bulger was part of South Boston's Winter Hill Gang. While engaged in his own illicit rackets, he fed information to the FBI about Mafia rivals and assisted in the dismantling of the Angiulo Mafia organization in Boston in the 1980s. His cooperation with federal agents provided him with protection from prosecution for more than a decade. When authorities finally were poised to arrest Bulger early in 1995, he was apparently tipped off and vanished. The indictment against him included charges that he participated in nineteen gangland killings.

FBI corruption was revealed in 2002, when Bulger's handler, John J. Connolly, Jr., was convicted of racketeering and obstruction of justice.

Bulger quickly earned the top spot on the FBI's Most Wanted List. The government reward for information leading to his arrest reached $2 million in September 2008. A worldwide search (there were reports that Bulger might have fled to Sicily) ended on June 22, 2011, with Bulger's arrest in California. He had been living in Santa Monica with his longtime companion Catherine Greig. Agents found $800,000 in cash and more than thirty firearms hidden in their apartment.

Catherine Greig pleaded guilty to helping Bulger elude the police. She was sentenced in 2012 to eight years in prison. She remains behind bars in Minnesota.

Bulger came to trial at Boston's federal courthouse in June 2013. The jury concluded five days of deliberations on August 12, 2013, finding Bulger guilty of racketeering offenses and participation in eleven murders. On November 14, 2013, he was sentenced by federal Judge Denise J. Casper to two consecutive life sentences plus five years.

Born September 3, 1929, in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Bulger grew up in a South Boston housing project. His criminal activity started at an early age. He was arrested in 1956 for bank robbery. Following conviction, he was sentenced to twenty years in prison, but served just nine years. When he emerged from prison, he became a key member of the Winter Hill Gang. A younger brother, William, went into politics and became a longtime leader in the Massachusetts State Legislature.

Sources:

• "Crime lord Whitey Bulger appears in LA court, remanded to Massachusetts," New York Post, June 23, 2011, nypost.com.
• "Fugitive Boston mobster arrested on Westside," Los Angeles Times, June 23, 2011.
• "James 'Whitey' Bulger killed in West Virginia prison, sources say," WCVB-5 Boston, Oct. 30, 2018, wcvb.com.
• "Whitey Bulger, galpal nabbed in California," Boston Herald, June 23, 2011.
• Butterfield, Fox, "F.B.I. agent linked to mob is guilty of corruption," New York Times, May 29, 2002, p. 14, nytimes.com.
• Harvey, Matt, "Update: U.S. Attorney Powell in WV...," WVNews, Oct. 30, 2018, wvnews.com.
• Kennedy, Helen, "Boston mobster James (Whitey) Bulger spotted in Sicily?" New York Daily News, Sept. 15, 2007, nydailynews.com.
• Ivory, Danielle, and William K. Rashbaum, "Whitey Bulger said to have been killed by inmates in prison attack," New York Times, Oct. 30, 2018.
• McFadden, Robert D., "Whitey Bulger, notorious Boston mobster and informant, is dead at 89," New York Times, Oct. 30, 2018, nytimes.com.
• Pulice, Chris, "Inmate death at United States Penitentiary Hazelton," U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, news release, Oct. 30, 2018.
• Rocheleau, Matt, and Emily Sweeney, "James 'Whitey' Bulger's killing is just the latest in a string of troubling violence for W.Va. prison," Boston Globe, Oct. 30, 2018, bostonglobe.com.

Ex-boss Salemme, 84, convicted of murder

Salemme in 1995

"Cadillac Frank" Salemme, eighty-four-year-old former New England Mafia boss, has been convicted of the 1993 killing of a government witness, according to published reports. A South Boston federal jury on Friday, June 22, 2018, found Salemme and co-defendant Paul Weadick, sixty-three, guilty of the murder.

The defendants will be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs on September 13. The offense carries a mandatory life prison sentence. Salemme's attorney Steven Boozang said he plans to appeal the verdict.

See full story on Writers of Wrongs site.

Octogenarian Bulger still tops FBI list

A recently released FBI Most Wanted list has a familiar name in its top spot: James J. "Whitey" Bulger, according to a story by Patrick Cooper of IrishCentral.com. A $2 million reward is offered for information leading to Bulger's capture.

      The 81-year-old, a fugitive Irish-American gang boss from Boston, reportedly has been in hiding since his early 1995 racketeering indictment. He also was charged on Sept. 28, 2000, with participating in 19 murders during the 1970s and 1980s. Bulger received some protection from the Boston area FBI as he served as an informant against the New England Mafia.
      Bulger's FBI handler, former FBI agent John Connolly was convicted of racketeering in 2002 and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. Connolly was convicted of second-degree murder late in 2008. He was found guilty of providing Bulger and a Winter Hill Gang underling, Stephen Flemmi, with information that led to the death of potential government witness John B. Callahan in 1982. Connolly was sentenced in January 2009 to 40 years in prison that murder conviction. The sentencing judge noted at the time that the statute of limitations on the murder charge may have lapsed.

Read more about Bulger:
The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century.
Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob.

Limone pleads no contest to gambling charge

Peter J. Limone, 76, of Medford MA, pleaded no contest today to 12 charges related to loansharking and gambling, according to stories in the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe. Limone, who served 33 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of a 1965 murder, will avoid jail time on the latest charges.

DeLeo case based on cellphone tap

A federal racketeering case against Ralph DeLeo, 66, of Somerville, MA, is based in large part upon a tap of DeLeo's cellphone from January through November of 2009, according to a report by Shelley Murphy of the Boston Globe. In December, DeLeo was indicted for racketeering conspiracy. The indictment names him the "street boss" of New York City's Colombo Crime Family as well as leader of an underworld crew operating in Greater Boston. DeLeo is being held in Arkansas, where he also faces cocaine trafficking charges.

In addition to DeLeo, the indictment also names Franklin M. Goldman, 66, of Randolph, MA; Edmond Kulesza, 56, of Somerville; and George Wiley Thompson, 54, of Cabot, Arkansas, as participants in a plot to distribute marijuana and cocaine, to extort money from victims and to collect loansharking debts.

Prosecutors say DeLeo ran Colombo rackets for most of 2009, reporting to boss Carmine "the Snake" Persico and his son Alphonse "Allie Boy" Persico, both imprisoned.

New England leadership moves to Boston

New England media are reporting a shift in the leadership of the regional Mafia. The Boston area faction is increasing in importance as Bostonian Peter Limone has reportedly replaced Providence-based Luigi Manocchio as boss.

Six years for DiNunzio

The New England Crime Family's Boston-based underboss, Carmen "Cheese Man" DiNunzio, was sentenced Sept. 24 to serve six years in prison after pleading guilty of bribery charges.

Jerry Angiulo dies at 90

Gennaro "Jerry" Angiulo, 90-year-old former underboss of the New England Crime Family, died today of kidney failure at Massachusetts General Hospital.

DiNunzio pleads guilty to bribery

Carmen "Cheese Man" DiNunzio, reputed leader of the New England Mafia's Boston branch, pleaded guilty July 1 to bribery charges related to the Boston area's "Big Dig" highway construction project.

New England mobster Danny Angiulo dies

Donato "Danny" Angiulo, convicted New England Mafia racketeer, has died at the age of 86, according to reports by the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald.

Angiulo (left) died Sunday night at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center after a long illness. Funeral arrangements are being handled by the Dello Russo Funeral Home in Medford, Massachusetts, Angiulo's hometown. A funeral Mass is scheduled for Friday, May 8, 11 a.m., at St. Leonard Church in Boston's North End.

Angiulo, once a caporegime in New England's crime family, served 11 years in prison after a 1986 conviction for racketeering, gambling and loansharking. Upon his release from prison in 1997, some wondered if he would take control of what remained of the Patriarca crime family, then decimated by successful prosecutions. Donato Angiulo's brother, Gennaro Angiulo, once served as underboss of the crime family. Gennaro also was sentenced to a long prison term in 1986. He was paroled in 2007 and is now 90 years old.

An electronic listening device installed in the crime family's North End headquarters in 1981 gathered evidence of Angiulo illegal activities. Two other brothers, Francesco and Michele, were also convicted of participating in those activities.

Former FBI agent Connolly gets 40 years, but...

John J. Connolly, a former FBI agent recently convicted of second-degree murder, has been sentenced to 40 years in prison, according to a story by Shelley Murphy of the Boston Globe. However, the judge in the case believes it is unlikely that the conviction will stand on appeal.

Judge Stanford Blake of Miami-Dade Circuit Court noted that a defense challenge citing the statute of limitations was legally correct. Blake said he could not throw out the conviction because the defense argument was not made until almost a month after the verdict was returned.

Connolly (left), 68, is already serving a sentence in federal prison that continues until 2011. He was recently convicted of leaking information to Boston area mobsters James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "the Rifleman" Flemmi that led to killing of potential government witness John B. Callahan. Callahan had knowledge of Bulger's and Flemmi's role in the 1981 killing of Jai Alai businessman Roger Wheeler. Callahan's body was found Aug. 2, 1982, in the trunk of his car at Miami International Airport.

Ex-FBI agent portrayed as 'just another' gangster

Prosecutor Fred Wyshak told a Florida jury Monday that ex-FBI agent John J. Connolly (right) functioned as "just another member" of the Boston area Winter Hill Gang in the 1980s, according to a story by Edmund H. Mahoney of the Hartford Courant. Connolly, 68, convicted in 2002 of racketeering and serving a 10-year prison sentence, is now on trial for murder and conspiracy.

Wyshak, U.S. attorney working with Florida state prosecutor Michael Von Zamft on the case, delivered the trial's opening statement. Wyshak said Connolly spent time with gang leaders, vacationed with them, shared information with them and profited from their illegal activities.

Connolly is charged with helping to set up the 1982 assassination of former World Jai Alai president John B. Callahan. According to prosecutors, Connolly informed Winter Hill Gang chiefs James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "the Rifleman" Flemmi that Callahan was preparing to cooperate in an investigation of an earlier gang murder. Gang hitman John V. Martorano then killed Callahan to prevent him from talking to authorities. Flemmi and Martorano have pleaded guilty to participating in Callahan's murder. They are expected to testify against Connolly. Bulger remains at large.

Defense attorneys argued that the gang needed no help to decide that Callahan was about to aid investigators. Attorney Manuel Casabielle defended Connolly's relationship with Bulger and Flemmi, saying the former FBI agent recruited them as informants and used the information they provided to dismantle the New England Mafia.

Casabielle charged that prosecutors have accused his client of various wrongdoings spanning a quarter century in the hope of winning convictions. "It's not fair to take a bunch of mud and throw it at an individual and hope some of it sticks," he said.

FBI doubles reward for Bulger information

Two million dollars is now offered for information leading to the arrest of fugitive New England gang boss James "Whitey" Bulger, according to a news release from the FBI's Boston field office. With announcement of the reward - just doubled from $1 million - the FBI is circulating new "age enhanced" photos of Bulger.

(Watch video.)

Bulger, formerly leader of a Boston-area Irish gang, has been in hiding since his racketeering indictment early in 1995. He was also charged on Sept. 28, 2000, with participating in 19 murders during the 1970s and 1980s.

Authorities say Bulger cooperated in FBI investigations of his Italian underworld rivals while continuing his own criminal career.

FBI tape labels "Cheese Man" as Mafia head

FBI recordings seem to point to Carmen "the Cheeseman" DiNunzio (right), 51, as the head of the Mafia in the Boston area and as the prime underworld authority behind a scheme to defraud administrators of the "Big Dig" project, according to a story by Laurel J. Sweet of the Boston Herald.

Andrew Marino, a contractor who has been indicted in connection with the scheme, was reportedly unaware he was being recorded as he spoke with a federal informant. According to the FBI, Marino identified "the Cheeseman" as "the guy in the North End - the head of the ... organization" and as "the head of [the] Mafia."

When the two men discussed an individual who was not trustworthy, Marino said the "rat" would be dealt with: "They'll kill him, dude. This ain't ... regular hoodlum that's setting this up. This is the Cheesman."

Marino refused to refer to DiNunzio by name: "You'll know his name if I said it, but nobody says his name."

Federal prosecutors have identified the Cheesman as DiNunzio, who has operated a cheese shop on the North End's Endicott Street. They say DiNunzio has served as underboss of the New England Mafia since about 2003.

In a different audio tape, DiNunzio identified himself as "the Cheeseman" to an undercover FBI agent: "I'm the Cheeseman... You ask anybody about me. We straighten out a lot of beefs, a lot of things."

DiNunzio was arrested May 2, the result of the FBI's "Big Dig" sting operation. He, Marino and Anthony J. D'Amore were charged with conspiracy to commit bribery in a federally funded program. The group allegedly offered bribes in order to win a contract to provide fill for the Big Dig underground highway project. The men allegedly planned to provide substandard fill to the project.

DiNunzio is under house arrest. He also awaits trial on extortion and gambling charges.

'Cadillac Frank' sentenced, expects to be out in '09

Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme, 74-year-old former boss of the New England Crime Family, was sentenced Tuesday to five years for lying and obstruction of justice, according to a story by Shelley Murphy of the Boston Globe. With credit for time served, he could be released from prison by December or January. After prison, he will be in a supervised release program for three years, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts.

In a plea deal, Salemme (right) admitted lying to investigators about the May 1993 disappearance of Steven A. DiSarro, owner of a nightclub in South Boston known as "The Channel." Salemme maintains that he had nothing to do with DiSarro's disappearance. The nightclub owner is presumed to have been murdered. A decade ago, Salemme told investigators that former New England boss Nicholas Bianco wanted DiSarro eliminated.

"I want to categorically deny that I had anything to do with DiSarro, the assault or the murder...," Salemme told the court before hearing his sentence.

Salemme took over as New England boss after Bianco was removed by federal prosecution and by his November 1994 death in prison. During a power struggle within the Boston and Providence-based Mafia, Salemme was indicted on racketeering charges in January 1995.

Also indicted at that time were James "Whitey" Bulger (left) and Stephen "the Rifleman" Flemmi. Bulger and Flemmi were longtime FBI informants. According to Salemme, former FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. warned Salemme, Bulger and Flemmi of the indictments. Bulger and Flemmi fled. Bulger remains a fugitive. Salemme became a government witness against Connolly in 1999, helping to convict Connolly of racketeering.

Salemme was released into the witness protection program in 2003. He was back in custody in 2004 after prosecutors accused him of covering up his son Frank Jr.'s alleged involvement in DiSarro's slaying. Salemme denied the charge. Frank Jr. died in 2005 of lymphoma.

Prosecutors noted that DiSarro's disappearance occurred shortly after investigators began looking into the relationship between the Salemmes and The Channel.

FBI says Bulger might be in Sicily

The FBI has released photographs and video that it says could be fugitive mobster James "Whitey" Bulger and his girlfriend Catherine Greig, according to a story by Helen Kennedy of the New York Daily News.

The images, taken in the area of Taormina, Sicily, were obtained through a U.S. drug enforcement agent who happened to be vacationing there in April and spotted the couple. The FBI is hoping others might be able to help identify the couple. A $1 million reward is offered for information leading to Bulger's capture.

Bulger led the Winter Hill Gang in Boston while aiding FBI investigations of local Italian mobsters. He has been charged with participating in 19 murders.

Feds pressing for Bulger info

According to the March 17 broadcast of America's Most Wanted, federal authorities have released a surveillance video of James "Whitey" Bulger in the hope of locating the fugitive.

Bulger, a former Boston area gang leader and federal informant, has been in hiding for the past eight years. He and Steven "the Rifleman" Flemmi provided information on the New England Mafia to FBI agent John Connolly, who has since been linked with criminal activity and convicted of racketeering.

Bulger was indicted for racketeering in January 1995 but apparently learned of his pending arrest and escaped. He was reportedly a key member of Boston's Winter Hill Gang. His brother Billy Bulger is a veteran legislator in the State of Massachusetts.

Related MobNews posts:

• Informant Mercurio dies at 70 02-13-07
• Dukakis testifies in Limone lawsuit 12-14-06
• Salvati, Limone sue FBI for 1960s frameup 08-19-2006
• Attorney: FBI responsible for mob hit 06-30-2006
• Agent had 'Whitey' concerns in '81 06-14-2006
• FBI 'condoned' crimes, gang hits 06-07-2006
  

Limone testifies in $100M lawsuit

Six years from the day he was released from prison, Peter J. Limone Sr. (right) yesterday told a district court judge about the 33 years he spent behind bars for a crime he did not commit, according to a story by John Richardson Ellement of the Boston Globe.

Limone, 72, described his fear and shock at being convicted in 1967 of the murder of gangster Edward "Teddy" Deegan and being placed on death row at Walpole State Prison.

Limone, Joseph Salvati (left), Louis Greco and Henry Tameleo were all convicted of the 1965 slaying, largely based on the perjured testimony of Mafia hitman Joseph "the Animal" Barboza. While death sentences were eventually commuted, Greco and Tameleo died during their long stays in prison. Limone and Salvati were released in 2001, as evidence of Barboza's perjury and FBI complicity in the frameup was uncovered.

Limone, Salvati and the families of Greco and Tameleo are now suing the U.S. government for $100 million.

While there now seems no question that Limone is innocent of the Deegan murder, he has long been linked by law enforcement with the leadership of the New England Crime Family. Some believe he would have been put in charge of the Boston branch of the Mafia organization if he had not turned the post down.

Related Mob-News items:

• FBI 'knew all along they were not guilty' 12-22-2006
• Dukakis testifies in Limone lawsuit 12-14-2006
• DiNunzio released on $20K cash bail 12-05-2006
• Mass. police arrest DiNunzio 12-02-2006
• Salvati, Limone sue FBI for 1960s frameup 08-19-2006
• Attorney: FBI responsible for mob hit 06-30-2006
• Agent had 'Whitey' concerns in '81 06-14-2006
• FBI 'condoned' crimes, gang hits 06-07-2006