Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing, puzzling,scary, elusive
Review: One thing not speculated on in this book is if Whitey had children who have been used as leverage to control him, perhaps raised in care of the Department of Social Services. Gov. Cellucci, who may be an indirect supporter of John Connolly, assigned the current Commissioner of DSS, Jeffrey Locke. If Whitey had a child, was this child targeted as the child attended the alma mater of agent John Morris? Has the child been systematically harassed and had their reputation destroyed in Massachusetts by either the government or perhaps rival mobsters or both? If there was a child, was the child prevented from finding work by screening their calls? If there was a child could it have become imperative to make the child look like a failure or less than spectacular performance in school? Was NSA, located where a Kennedy family member is governor, involved?Did the child seek help after receiving harassment from forces alleged to be loyal to Gov Cellucci and Scott Harshbarger?
Rating:
Summary: Ball and Chain
Review: Suppose this: you are a wild but intelligent male who is approached by government personnel to perform work requiring discretion and with classified status. You feel patriotic and agree, having to sign what you suspect are standard briefing forms but which in fact are used to further suck you into a shadow world. Once done, COMSEC comes in and your mail, telephone and other communications become fair game. New 'friends' appear in your life and you do not notice that frank discussion and honest disclosure are being cleverly documented for later use. As you enjoy the good feelings that come from your new job, your friends and family see good or bad fortune in sync with your own performance but you do not grasp this. After a time you decide you have had enough and want out but cannot understand why you are getting no employment responses. Sudden waves of ill fortune come upon you and your loved ones like a bad nightmare. You did not realize you had signed on for a lifetime job nor that you will never be free again. The more you fight, the worse it gets for you and your loved ones. You do not suspect that rumors are being planted in the community to give you a bad name as innocuous personnel approach areas you frequent.You do not know that when you signed the brief that your financial records become open for inspection at any time, permitting easy tracking. After a time, you realize you are caught in a maze with no way out.This may have been what Flemmi and Bulger were up against.
Rating:
Summary: Behind the scenes
Review: A prosecutor is supposed to seek justice, not just prove guilt. One thing to be concerned with here is whether leads in the investigation are fully considered, even if the leads do not support the prosecutor's assertions. If the investigators in the Bulger case received tips contrary to allegations put forth against Bulger and Flemmi and Connolly would those tips be followed up? How do we know that tip sources such as the media or television crime shows generate leads that investigators will follow up? There is a case of one person who went to the Justice Department when this case broke and who had come under heavy fire for reasons unknown. The Justice Department redacted some of the correspondence and never provided feedback while the harassers showed evidence of in depth knowledge of this correspondence. Later the individual requested a copy of any records they had and met with stonewalling by the department. The individual did not know if they were being held under some form of investigation, as the attackers seemed quite anxious about the unfolding of the Bulger investigation. This scenario might be a warning to any who might consider becoming an informant. For nearly 3 decades Flemmi and Bulger served law enforcement and now they and their families and friends are being destroyed systematically as former associates crumble under pressure and cut deals. There are a lot of allegations about these guys and incriminating testimony and evidence but the full story is not told. As Salemme, Weeks, Nee,Martorano and perhaps others now become informants, they might one day end up like Flemmi and Bulger, once praised and now condemned.
Rating:
Summary: Where does this end?
Review: John Connolly and Steve Flemmi shared an apartment or condo in Brighton,Mass. You have Kevin Weeks and John Martorano making deals while Flemmi and Bulger may be charged with the death penalty in Oklahoma and Florida. If any other government personnel have information that might clear Bulger and Flemmi, shouldn't they come forward? If they do not, aren't they permitting these two men to possibly be killed to save themselves? And how is it that individuals who actually perform murders get less penalty than those who are alleged to collaborate? A murder cannot be fulfilled if the hand designated to do it refuses to do so. Shouldn't more tip lines be opened up to compare information, rather than concentrating only in one place, where possibility of compromise exists?
Rating:
Summary: The Web
Review: Are leads really being followed up in this case whether they be for or against Connolly and Bulger et al? One way to test is to supply some test info to a lead source and see if it is followed up on. Information used to clear is just as important as to incriminate. The Bulger case has expanded to Canada, where Paul Cellucci has been nominated Ambassador to Canada. Few of the political leaders in Mass. are untouched by the Bulger case.
Rating:
Summary: Pieces of a 10,000 piece puzzle
Review: In this case you have a number of political considerations in the context in which this case mushroomed. Governor Paul Cellucci, a supporter of George Bush,Jr., received widespread state police support and support from Fleet Bank. Joe Malone received support from Fidelity, Scott Harshbarger the investment sector. The state police and DEA in this book are noted as being hampered in their investigations of Bulger while in the recent past state police leaks have been detected to Bulger. State Senator James Jajuga,a Democrat and former state trooper, pledged support to Paul Cellucci, a Republican, garnering local Democrat party dissent. FBI agents have been alleged to receive appliances (perhaps appliance repair services also) and numerous other perks courtesy of Connolly and Bulger. John McIntyre,an Army veteran was killed..was the Defense Investigative Service brought in? Bulger had a relationship with the CIA but it is unclear if that relationship ever ended. While Bulger remains at large, his brother has had his phone tapped, his sister faces an upward battle for lottery winnings, Kevin Weeks has implicated Bulger in a number of murders and is able to retain lottery winnings, Flemmi has been sequestered for years with no trial, Salemme and others pleaded out to break the gridlock and limbo in jail, some of the murder victim families are filing multimillion dollar lawsuits with upwards of half a dozen former FBI agents and the informant's families brought into the mix. Angiulo is said to have ordered a hit on Deegan which Salvati and Limone served 3.5 decades of prison time for where agent Rico, who trained Connolly, had allegedly forwarded knowledge of the hit on to Hoover where it was ignored. Records going back 3 or more decades have allegedly been destroyed.
Rating: 
Summary: Premature judgement?
Review: The bulk of the information available for this book and the case in general comes from newspaper accounts, but sometimes false information is released to conceal the investigation. Is this the case here? If so we may not want to rush to judgement. A civil case involving a number of agents and the informants is in the works with Judge Wolf allegedly presiding.Agent Rico is unable to be charged due to insufficient evidence. Connolly, trained by Rico, continues to be a major target. Frank Salemme, for years targeted to be an informant and allegedly harassed as such, is said to be cooperating now. Caught in the middle are the families and friends of the agents and informants involved. There seem to be few avenues of getting potentially relevant information to the FBI. Likewise, we don't know how objectively any leads are treated.
Rating:
Summary: 'What in the heck is going on?"
Review: There are some fundamental things not asked in all of this. How much did the Justice Dept know and when did it know? Did any of the informants have children which could have been used as leverage against their parents in exchange for cooperation? Why are documents only now coming out? If it is as alleged, how could this relatively small group have operated for so many years and held the Justice Dept and FBI headquarters at bay? Were there serious crimes going on that the agents and informants in the region were battling that we know nothing of? Given the success of the program, was it mimicked all over? What,if any plans for perpetuating the program were or have been in place? Were successors planned?
Rating: 
Summary: Cross examination
Review: There are many many questions that can be asked in this case. How much of the allegations are true and how much is puffery? If you look at the distinction between personal and professional conduct outlined in the handbook on informants described in this book, it appears there is wide latitude between what is tolerated 'on the job' versus 'off the job'. There is a marked difference between Bulger's conduct off the job and on the job. Was this a man who acted as an informant for fun or out of desperation? There is much about Whitey's 'wild side', but one might note there are some positive attributes there also-- a fondness for libraries and reading, health and fitness, loyalty to family.Was he tough? Of this there is little doubt. Does the government either set people up or approach people who have been convicted and give them an alternative: work for us or spend many years in prison? How many people would do things they never thought possible to avoid this ugly choice? This case also shows the ends used. The FBI is alleged to tamper with home and car at will, play off sides against each other,feeding on healthy paranoia considering the inherent dangers organized crime brings. The book is also honest in that organized crime players are not portrayed as volunteers feeding the hungry at food kitchens either. What in a broad sense is played out here is groups at complementary ends of the spectrum slicing up pieces of the pie. Greed and hunger for power are the fuel. Is this case a fundamental issue of bad people in a good system, average people in a bad system, or a mix of good and bad people in a mediocre system? Is the convergence of these two worlds an economic necessity? One can also ask what makes an informant and why do they do it? How many are people who have become targets of criminal activity and seek help through the legal channels available? as children we are taught that if someone steals your car, you don't hunt them down-- you go the police.You go to the police and are considered a rat but if you take matters in yourown hands you are a vigilante. The guidelines described in here also allow for a wide array of crimes that are acceptable for informants. An informant, according to this book, could say break into your home, plant false evidence or rob you and there is nothing wrong with this. Informants could help with illegal wiretaps and other evidence gathering techniques and this is ok. Should informants be honest people trying to help reduce crime or potential crime? Bulger is alleged to have made a lot of money but to have lived a pretty down to earth lifestyle. This book does not suggest someone motivated by love of money.
Rating:
Summary: Conflicts of interest
Review: Do you believe these guys could have operated as long as they did without high level approval? One thing no one is addressing in this case is how much pressure could have come to bear on these informants. In his book,William Breen describes how the IRS was all over him if he tried to build a stash from his informing activities. Could these guys have evaded the IRS for 3 decades? Were Bulger and Flemmi informants for more than one agency simultaneously? Massachusetts has been a center because of the concentration of schools and high technology and all that goes with them. In such a high profile state, could these guys have operated without highly placed help? If they could operate without highly placed help in government, then this case is even scarier than one might think. The question then becomes how could they have achieved this? Whom did they control? And there is a question never considered: what if Bulger and Flemmi did not do much of that attributed to them but are being scapegoated to keep the radius of those involved small? This book and the media takes the view that these guys forsook legitimate careers and decided the life they chose. What hold could someone have over Bulger and Flemmi to make them do the things attributed to them? What could motivate them to do these things? What happened to all the money? How many people are helping Bulger on the run? Has the government taken out its rage on their friends and families?
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