Where the Bodies Were Buried (26 page)

And then he left, a minor though memorable player in the trial of Whitey Bulger.

WAS THE DEFENDANT
a Top Echelon Informant, or was he not?

If the defense had their way, this question should have dominated the trial. Weeks earlier, in his opening statement, Jay Carney had planted the seed, hoping that it might produce a tuber or a spore all on its own, since precious little had been done so far to nurture its growth. Through witness testimony and legal posturing among the competing sides, Whitey's status with the FBI had been little more than a stalking horse—derided by some witnesses, speculated upon by others, or accepted as a given fact.

The man who would serve as the catalyst for bringing Whitey's informant status to the forefront was James Marra, a most unassuming bureaucrat. Marra worked for the DOJ's Office of the Inspector General. Before that he worked at the U.S. Office of Social Security; the Labor Department; and the Treasury Department, all as a special agent with the Inspector General's Office.

A little-known federal agency that is empowered to investigate accusations of corruption, fraud, and waste within agencies of the federal government, the Inspector General's Office proudly flies below the radar. Their agents do not carry guns or do stakeouts or make arrests. Marra had been with the Inspector General's Office for twenty-nine years. Since he is a man in his late forties, it's fair to say that he was weaned at the bosom of the federal law enforcement bureaucracy.

In 2004, Marra was assigned to investigate matters of internal corruption surrounding Bulger's relationship with the FBI. Over a nine-year period, he had become an expert on all government documentation pertaining to the relationship between the FBI and Bulger. Marra testified at Connolly's 2008 murder trial in Florida, and even before he took the stand
at the current Bulger trial, he was in the courtroom nearly every day monitoring the proceedings. Very little happened in regards to the prosecution of Bulger that was not duly noted and recorded by Marra, who then reported to his supervisors in Washington, D.C.

Like a character out of a John le Carré novel, he was an anonymous figure buried deep within the machine, until the day arrived that he was called upon to step forward into the light. Day eight of testimony in the Bulger trial was that moment for John Marra. He was the vehicle by which the prosecution would enter into evidence the informant file for BS-1544, otherwise known as James Joseph Bulger Jr.

On a large screen, the prosecution projected the image of government exhibit No. 354, which Marra identified as Bulger's informant index card. On the card were the date Bulger was first enlisted as an informant—September 1975—and the name of his “contacting agent,” John Connolly. This information was highly confidential, noted Marra. “The identity of individuals who are cooperating with the federal government, their names would not be disclosed in most reports. This would be on a strict need-to-know who that person was. It would be limited usually to the people that are working the informant, supervisors, and agents that are working the case.”

About Bulger, Marra said, “During the approximately fifteen years that the file existed on him, at different times he was considered an Organized Crime Informant, was elevated to Top Echelon Informant, then he was closed. He was reopened as an Organized Crime Informant, but again he's elevated to Top Echelon Informant based upon the information he's providing to the FBI.”

Prosecutor Wyshak swiftly immersed the witness into what would become known colloquially as Bulger's “rat file.” Again, on the screen were projected facsimiles of reports known as 209s or 302s, internal memos, most of them filed by Special Agent Connolly.

Wyshak would instruct Marra to read from a portion of the file, which he did with little or no inflection. It was an instructive process. The Bulger files contained seven hundred pages and read like a who's who of the Boston underworld. The official story had always been that Bulger was enlisted by Connolly to rat on the Mafia, but even a cursory sampling of the files revealed information on Bulger's own partners:

Joseph “Joe Mac” McDonald—
On 1/16/83, BS 1544-OC advised that the weapons that Joe McDonald was carrying were two converted Ingram .380 semiautomatic weapons which had been converted to fully automatic weapons. McDonald also had home made silencers with him. Source advised that McDonald was transporting the weapons to Queens, New York City, and they were going to a first cousin who is active in raising money for the IRA.

The Winter Hill Mob
—
On 8/15/80, BS 1455-TE advised that Joe McDonald is supposed to be drinking heavily and the word is that Johnny Martorano is spending time with him to straighten him out. Source advised that the Hill people will back away from McDonald if he cannot control his drinking. Source considers McDonald to be an extremely dangerous and volatile individual. . . . NOTE: Same source in past insert advised that Martorano was in the Miami, Florida area.

On 1/26/83, BS 1499-OC advised that Joe McDonald and/or Jimmy Sims are attempting to be assigned to Leavenworth Penitentiary to get with Howie Winters. Source advised that one or both may try to pull some strings politically to wind up in the same penitentiary as Winters.

The Joe Murray Crew from Charlestown
—
On 2/8/82, BS 1544-OC advised that Joe Murray, who owns Murray Towing Company in Charlestown, is the biggest importer and distributor of marijuana on the East Coast and possibly the whole country. Source advised that Murray is a “real sleeper” and is probably “the best kept secret in organized crime.” . . . Source emphasized that Murray has high level Coast Guard personnel on the “pad.”

On 4/20/88, BS 1544-TE advised that the conventional wisdom in the underworld is that the Liberty Bank burglary score was taken down by the Joe Murray crew from Charlestown. Source advised that Michael Murray, an acknowledged alarm expert, handled that end of it with Gigi Eatherton, Jimmy Murray, and John McCormack also participating.

Depositors Trust robbery
—
On 6/25/80, BS 1544-TE advised that the word on the street is that two police officers, a Medford sergeant named Doherty and an MDC police captain named Jerry Clement were “in” on the Depositors Trust score. The set-up guy is supposed to be Bucky Barrett who, in turn, is supposed to have brought in other unknown help. The talk is that Barrett has control over the majority of the gold and diamonds. There is supposed to be over 80 pounds of gold.

Tommy King
—
On 12/31/75, source stated that the word is out that Tommy King has been taken out. Source stated that various rumors are flying about as to whether or not he is actually dead and the reason for it. Source heard that King had gone “kill crazy” and was putting people's lives in jeopardy in that he was talking crazy about killing various people including police officers. Source stated that King gave them no alternative but to make a move on him.

From the lips of Jim Marra came what had once been viewed as an unprecedented treasure trove: names, dates, and references to criminal activities of which Whitey Bulger had privileged, inside information. There were sheets of paper, now being projected onto a computer screen in the courtroom, filled with underworld intelligence and gossip. Some of this information had contributed to the securing of warrants and court-authorized wiretaps and other investigative techniques that could and did, on occasion, lead to indictments and arrests—though Bulger's name was never linked to any of these actions.

Marra had taken the stand on a Friday, and on Monday his direct testimony continued with little contention until Wyshak asked a question for which he'd spent numerous hours laying the foundation: “Mr. Marra, based on your review of these particular files, is there any doubt in your mind that Mr. Bulger was an informant for the FBI?”

“Objection, Your Honor,” interjected Hank Brennan.

The entire proceeding had reached a cul-de-sac, one that had been inevitable ever since the defense first claimed in open court that the defendant, contrary to public legend, never was an FBI informant. Up until now, everyone had been able to ignore this claim, but the time had arrived to confront the beast.

Judge Casper dismissed the jury and the witness.

The lawyers and spectators stood as the jurors filed out of the courtroom. Once the jurors were gone, Casper said, “Everyone can be seated. Counsel, I know there was an objection. I'll hear Mr. Wyshak.”

The prosecutor stood before the court. “Your Honor, I understand that for whatever reasons, whether it's the ego of the defendant or attempting to preserve his reputation, he does not want to be called an informant. But I am not going to tailor my questions in a manner that preserves that ridiculous contention.” Normally, Wyshak spoke with the common sense
of a corner druggist, but here his voice had an unusual tone, a trace of exasperation—some might say a whine—in reference to Bulger.

“It's not as though we have one report or two reports. We have fifteen years of reports from Mr. Bulger. As a matter of fact, the exercise that I'm currently going to undertake is to demonstrate that not only did Mr. Bulger report to Mr. Connolly, but he reported to Mr. Morris, he reported to Mr. [James] Ring, he had meetings with the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in 1980. He reported to another special agent, Nick Gianturco.

“So unless it is Mr. Bulger's contention that all of these agents got together to fabricate this file for some reason, his contention that he was not an FBI informant is simply absurd. And I don't think the government should be required in the face of all this evidence to tailor its questions in a manner which preserves this contention.”

The judge raised an eyebrow. “Mr. Brennan, I'll hear you.”

Brennan took a breath. For the defense, this was an issue that, they believed, defined their case. “Your Honor, the Department of Justice has historically engaged in inappropriate relationships with organized crime figures. There are documented histories of relationships with organized crime figures who are serial murderers, not limited to this case. There is an extraordinary history that when the Department of Justice employees can benefit their objectives, they'll allow organized crime figures to engage in whatever conduct they want. . . . That is the historical backdrop to this case. It goes through Barboza, it goes through this case. . . .

“Furthermore, there is a long-standing history of the Department of Justice, FBI Washington, Strike Force employees overlooking the relationship between Mr. Connolly and Mr. Bulger. There is a long-standing history of them choosing not to indict or charge Mr. Bulger with any crimes. The DOJ had an obligation on a quarterly or yearly basis to look into these files, to consider whether or not they were viable. They didn't do that, or if they did, they didn't do a very thorough job. There is missing information suggesting that there isn't any authenticity to these files. There is no pink sheet, which is a piece of paper [with personal information] about the intake a person must go through in order to sign up to be an informant. That is absent here.

“Certainly the DOJ needs to protect the fact that they let somebody
they believe is a killer run loose, kill people throughout the Boston area, and never charge him. If they were now to come in and admit the truth, that there was a special relationship and nobody cared about it because they were pursuing the LCN, then they would have a problem.

“So to come in now and say that somehow this person, Mr. Marra, who's never had a conversation with Mr. Bulger, to give an opinion that he was an informant . . . There is absolutely no basis for it.”

Wyshak seemed miffed by the sweeping, roundhouse nature of Brennan's objection. “Your Honor, all of that information—whatever happened with Barboza and those relationships [from long ago] has nothing to do with the fact of whether or not Mr. Bulger was an informant. He was an informant who corrupted his handler, and, you know, the Justice Department, the FBI, shares some responsibility for continuing to operate Mr. Bulger as an informant over the years. The government doesn't dispute that, but one does not follow the other. It doesn't mean that Mr. Bulger was not an informant.”

The discussion continued for the better part of an hour. Brennan was objecting on a number of different grounds to a number of different issues, though he kept trying to bring the argument back to his contention that the central fallacy of the government's case was that Whitey Bulger was an informant.

It was a circular argument, and the more Brennan spoke, with occasional injections of support from his co-counsel Carney, the farther the defense team drifted from shore.

The leakiness of their position was obvious: From before the trial began, they had been arguing that Bulger's position was that he had been given immunity from prosecution by Jeremiah O'Sullivan. Few specific details about that arrangement were put forth. There was no mention of a meeting in a hotel room around Christmas of 1978, with John Connolly present. The defense team preferred to leave it as vague as possible. All they would say is that a meeting or meetings had taken place. Consequently, Bulger promised something to O'Sullivan, and O'Sullivan, in return, offered immunity to one of the most notorious gangsters within his jurisdiction.

Assuming that this exchange did take place, and that some sort of mutual arrangement was discussed, the most credible conclusion would be that Bulger was offering to help O'Sullivan take down the Mafia by serving as
an informant, and in exchange the top crime prosecutor promised that he would cover Bulger's back. But the defense wasn't making that argument. Instead, they were asking the jury—and the public—to make a leap of faith and accept, for the sake of argument, that Bulger never was an informant.

Which begged the question: if Bulger wasn't an informant, why would O'Sullivan offer him immunity?