Betrayal: Whitey Bulger and the FBI Agent Who Fought to Bring Him Down (31 page)

“And the reason that they have that confidential information arises out of the informant/FBI relationship?”

“Association, yes.”

“And that as part of the informant relationship between an agent and the informant, the agent has given the informant some confidential, classified information?”

“Yes.”

I knew even before he spoke that Judge Lindsay was about to intervene once more, his question directed straight at me without equivocation.

“I have a question for you, Mr. Fitzpatrick. When you received information in Boston that Bulger was involved in the murder of Wheeler, did that lead to a further discussion of the suitability of Bulger as an informant?”

“Absolutely, Your Honor.”

“What was that discussion?”

“Again, to the best of my recollection, this conversation here was with Sean McWeeney at headquarters; and I believe there were five or six other headquarters supervisors, which included the informant desk nationally, the Organized Crime unit and section. And the general discussion from my point of view was that we should target him, go after him; and we were, in fact, doing that.”

“That he, Bulger, should be closed.”

“That he should be closed, right,” I said.

“And targeted.”

“Yes, Your honor.”

I finally felt a full measure of the vindication I had sought. After many years of grappling with the Bulger dilemma, I felt that this judge had actually honed in on the ultimate disaster of keeping Bulger open as an informant. In spite of my prior humiliation and shame, my testimony now left no doubt that the course of action I’d chosen then was justified. It was the principle of the matter to stand up for the truth and adhere to the oath I had taken as a young agent. I couldn’t help thinking about all those who said they didn’t remember, or didn’t know.… How could that be? How could all of the others in the Boston office and Washington not understand the danger of leaving Bulger to commit more murders and more crimes? By all indications, Judge Lindsay felt the same way.

THE FOURTH DAY, JUNE 15, 2006

“Mr. Fitzpatrick,” plaintiff’s lawyer Steven Gordon began, “when we left off yesterday, we were talking about the information that Brian Halloran provided to the FBI in January of 1982. You were to manage that investigation for the Boston office. Is that correct?”

“That is correct.”

“Now, with regard to that process, you learned, did you not, that there was a willingness by Mr. Halloran to actually wear a wire?”

“Yes.”

“And, in fact, a request was made to Washington, D.C., FBI headquarters for authorization to have that wire?”

“I authored that document.”

“And that the teletype went to Washington with a request that Halloran wear a wire in order to corroborate specific allegations by Halloran which implicates Callahan and others?”

“True.”

“And it would be necessary for Halloran to engage in a discussion with Callahan, and a place was set for a public restaurant?”

“True.”

“We also discussed the fact that Mr. Morris would be involved in surveillance of that meeting. Do you remember that?”

“Well, Mr. Morris was in charge of that LCN squad, and it was an LCN matter. So the surveillance would have to be Morris’s squad.”

“So Morris was informed of the fact that there would be a surveillance of Callahan meeting with Halloran?”

“Generally speaking, I made him aware that we were going to conduct an interview, and his job was to protect the safety and to see if anybody else had information about the meeting. There were several things he was tasked with doing. First of all, testing any leak in the investigation, and also the safety of the informant, but he wouldn’t know every detail about what we were doing.”

“May I interrupt you,” said Judge Lindsay, his voice calmer this time, but back to rubbing his scalp. Seeming to dig lines in it this time. “Because I’m, to be perfectly frank, I’m a little confused. Mr. Gordon, help me. I’m going to see if I can get unconfused.

“Mr. Fitzpatrick,” the judge continued, turning to me, “I understood you to have testified that you were in the Wheeler investigation trying to erect a wall, a Chinese wall, that separated the people involved in the handling of Bulger and Flemmi from the investigation of the Wheeler murder. Did I hear you say that?”

“Yes, Your honor,” I told him.

“And are you saying now that Morris, who was Connolly’s supervisor, was involved in this operation in which Halloran was going to have a conversation with Callahan about that murder?”

“Your Honor, Morris was the … was the squad leader, the supervisor of C-3. This case was really about the Wheeler murder, but also about the involvement of Bulger and Flemmi and others possibly in the killing. That involves LCN and other vehicles of organized crime. Morris, because of his supervisory position, would have to be involved because the people I needed to ensure the safey of my agents and my informant would have to know what to look for and be able to recognize potential danger from organized crime members. People who are not on the Organized Crime squad would not have that ability to recognize danger in the form of those who might come after this.

“Secondly, Morris was at the time a very reputable supervisory agent whom we trusted, we believed in. And there was no reason at that point to exclude him, because he would be the natural person to use. So there was no hint on our part that Morris was a turncoat or Morris was ‘dirty.’ That simply was unknown at the time.”

What goes around, comes around, and the judge was understanding that Morris was used for assistance in 1981 and 1982 prior to our knowledge that he and Connolly had sold out the FBI. As I sat testifying I thought of the Morris book about lying and Connolly’s rifling of files and how they were both protected by FBIHQ who thought them to be the best agents imaginable. But here today, in court, that picture was crumbling through a conflation of lies that was finally being exposed so that the truth could prevail.

“And was there a dispute in the office as to whether or not Halloran should go into the Witness Protection Program?” Mr. Gordon picked up.

“True, yes.”

“And you recommended that he go into the Witness Protection Program, correct?”

“Right. I felt we had to take him off the streets and put him in the Witness Protection Program where he’d be out of harm’s way, again, trying to box this thing in, if you will, and I expressed my concerns to Strike Force chief Jeremiah O’Sullivan and also to the United States Attorney Bill Weld.”

“And at that time,” said Mr. Gordon, “did you feel that you were getting all the information concerning the investigation of the Wheeler murder?”

“You never get all the information you want.”

“Did you feel that at that time, that because of your desire to close Bulger, that people were keeping information from you within the office of the FBI?”

“My thinking was to get the information from Halloran, to get him in the Witness Protection Program, and to get the information we needed to go ahead and prosecute the subjects, Bulger and Flemmi.”

“Do you recall going to a meeting in Washington to discuss this issue?”

“I do.”

“Would you describe the nature of the meeting you had in Washington, D.C.?”

“Well, it’s stated here in this memo to Larry. I met with Sean McWeeney, Jeff Jamar, Randy Prillman all at headquarters. I don’t remember Ronald Reese. I remember Anthony Amoroso being there, Joe Rush was the Miami agent. And we were discussing the planning of what we do next, how we proceed and so forth.”

“And were the informants discussed, Bulger and Flemmi, at that time?”

“I believe they were.”

“Do you remember discussions whether or not Bulger should be closed as an informant?”

“Yes. My position was that he be closed, but I was overrun. They decided to keep him open.”

“When you say ‘you were overrun,’ what do you mean by that?”

“Well, that I have an opinion, they have an opinion, their opinion won out.”

“And did you voice your objection to that?”

“I believe I did. I remember.”

And here was an incredulous Judge Lindsay interjecting himself once more into his own proceedings.

“Let me see if I can understand this meeting a little better. You went to Washington, Mr. Fitzpatrick.”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“To FBI headquarters, and you had a meeting with Sean McWeeney, Jeff Jamar, Randy Prillman, Ronald Reese, and some people from Miami as well.”

“That’s true, Your Honor.”

“And in your discussion of the informants in Boston some of the people in Washington thought that Bulger should remain open.”

“That’s correct, Your Honor.”

“Did that include Sean McWeeney, head of the Organized Crime squad at headquarters?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“Was there anybody else who thought that Mr. Bulger should be kept open?”

“My recollection is everyone at headquarters thought he should stay open.”

“Mr. Fitzpatrick,” the judge continued, “you’ve talked this morning about Mr. Bulger having been suspected of involvement in the murder of Wheeler, of Halloran, of Callahan, and suspicion of being involved in drug trafficking.”

“That’s true, Your Honor.

“Now, I understand that we’re only talking about suspicion. In the time that you were ASAC in Boston, if you have an informant who has as much suspicion as you’ve testified to this morning, did that cause any concern, even if the suspicions were never proven out?”

“It caused a great deal of concern to me.”

“I mean, beyond you.”

“It should have,” I told him, the two of us again seemingly alone in the courtroom. “It should have called for an inspection by headquarters. And, in fact, during this period, we were inspected, but the inspectors who have access to the files, who are supposed to interview people, didn’t. I’ve served as an inspector myself and I can tell you that was never done.”

Gazing up at Judge Lindsay, I felt certain in that moment he’d made his decision. I knew that he’d gotten the picture of truth and was resolved that the FBI was responsible for McIntyre’s death and others, as indicated by the line of questioning he pursued with me. Brownie mentioned that he thought my testimony would leave the judge no choice but to find the government and the FBI “guilty.” But now it was time to turn the court’s attention to the true subject at hand, the murder of John McIntyre at the hands of Whitey Bulger.

“Do you know an individual by the name of Rod Kennedy?” Mr. Gordon asked me.

“Yes, I do.”

“And who is Mr. Kennedy?”

“Rod Kennedy was assigned to the C-2 squad, and he was one of the agents on that squad.”

“And what were Mr. Kennedy’s responsibilities?”

“Mr. Kennedy was primarily liaison with DEA, Drug Enforcement Administration.”

“And with regard to this drug investigation, was this another one that you were to manage with regard to the investigation of Mr. Bulger and Mr. Flemmi?”

“He would have been privy to information, yes.”

“Did it come to your attention that John McIntyre was cooperating with law enforcement?”

“Yes.”

“And when did that come to your attention?”

“I believe Rod informed me.”

“And when Mr. Kennedy informed you of Mr. McIntyre’s cooperation, did Mr. Kennedy tell you what McIntyre was telling law enforcement?”

“That it was about the
Valhalla,
the IRA, the
Merita Ann,
and Joe Murray, his gang, the Irish gang and so forth.”

“What about drug shipments?”

“Drug shipments were part of the investigation.”

“And you use the phrase here ‘attribution by Bulger’ and so forth.”

“Bulger was part of the information, yes.”

“And this was information that was being provided by Mr. McIntyre?”

“Right.”

“If you go to the last page of Exhibit Number 36, second page, do you see … could you read into the record the last sentence there?” Gordon requested.

I flipped the exhibit over to the proper page. “It says that ‘McIntyre was released and stated that he would cooperate with the United States Customs and the FBI in the drug operations of Joseph Murray.’”

“Do you recall when you first learned that, and I’ll represent to you that Mr. McIntyre was murdered on November 30, 1984, do you recall the first time you learned that Mr. McIntyre could not be located?”

“Not long afterwards.”

“What happened with the drug investigation? Was Mr. Bulger indicted?”

“No, he was not.”

“Was Mr. Flemmi indicted?”

“No, he was not.”

“Did the investigation, in effect, shut down?”

“I can’t say that. I don’t know if it was shut down. It could have continued without me. I just don’t know.”

“Did you have any involvement after Mr. McIntyre’s disappearance in November 1984?”

“Well, I submitted a memo in 1985 about McIntyre, but that was six months to a year later.”

The memo I submitted was the one in which I accused the SAC of allegedly disclosing information on our informants to mob attorney Martin Boudreau. The rest of the next day’s testimony only served to reveal how the FBI had abused their discretion in not following the established rules and regulations governing FBI informants in this matter. In all, I spent over six grueling days testifying, the longest ever in my career, and I was flat-out exhausted. My goal had been to tell the truth, the whole truth, and I did, leaving the rest in the able hands of Judge Lindsay.

32

BOSTON, 2006 AND BEYOND

The truth had finally been told. Sitting in the witness box as McIntyre’s lawyer Steven Gordon finished his line of questioning on the John McIntyre case left me feeling calm, relieved, but strangely unfulfilled. In reviewing all the facts of the story after so many years, I was struck even more that this young man didn’t have to die. He was relying on the justice system to protect him and that system simply let him down. Another life senselessly lost because the FBI had not acted on my recommendation to sever ties with Whitey Bulger once and for all.

Now, though, justice had a chance to be done at long last, for both McIntyre and myself. My narrowly focused testimony in the Wolf hearings was hardly the right forum or opportunity for the world to learn the truth. District court in Boston under Judge Lindsay was something else again. If the Estate of John McIntyre prevailed, then the FBI in particular and the justice system as a whole would have no choice but to regard the conclusion I reached way back in 1981 with a new level of credence and validity. I would be vindicated, exonerated in a sense, as someone who had been telling the truth for twenty-five years—a truth that could no longer fall on deaf ears.