'Whitey' Bulger fingered rivals for gangland killings: FBI files

By Scott Malone

BOSTON (Reuters) - Accused mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger spent a year warning his FBI handlers that rival gangsters were souring on fellow thug Brian Halloran, and after his murder was quick to finger a killer, according to files read at his trial on Monday.

Halloran is one of 19 people Bulger is accused of murdering, either directly or by order, during the 1970s and '80s when he ran Boston's brutal "Winter Hill" crime gang.

Dozens of files from the FBI agent who worked with Bulger showed how, beginning a year before Halloran's May 1982 murder - committed outside a fish restaurant a few blocks from where Bulger is now standing trial - the accused mob boss had begun warning that other gangsters could have reason to kill Halloran.

It was one of several instances in which Bulger used his relationship with a corrupt FBI agent, John Connolly, to protect his own gang and increase law enforcement focus on rivals, prosecutors contend.

Bulger, 83, has denied ever serving as an FBI informant - contending that he paid Connolly for information but never provided any of his own.

"Source advised that the Mafia want Brian Halloran 'hit in the head' to shut him up as a potential witness," read an October 1981 memo written by Connolly, who prosecutors said used Bulger as an informant for more than a decade.

BLAMED THE MAFIA

Two days after Halloran's murder, another report said Bulger "stated that the Mafia should not be ruled out in that they stood to gain the most from Halloran's death."

Bulger had targeted Halloran for death because he, too, had been providing information to law enforcement, prosecutors contend.

FBI Special Agent James Marra, an investigator with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General, read the memos in court.

Connolly's relationship with Bulger was a black mark on the bureau's record. The two shared an Irish background and grew up in the same South Boston neighborhood. For years, Connolly turned a blind eye to Bulger's crimes as he worked to build cases against gangsters of Italian ethnicity.

Connolly has since been convicted of racketeering, obstruction of justice and murder for tipping off the gang's leaders of efforts to arrest them as well as for identifying informants.

Bulger has pleaded not guilty to all charges, which include racketeering, drug dealing and money laundering in addition to murder. If convicted, he faces the possibility of life in prison.

Connolly's FBI supervisor, John Morris, is due to take the stand later on Monday. Morris, who also helped Bulger's gang avoid arrest, was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony in 1998 federal court proceedings.

Connolly was sentenced in 2009 to 40 years in prison for the his role in allowing the gang to commit murders.

Prosecutors have said Bulger fled Boston after a 1994 tip from Connolly. He eluded arrest for over 16 years before FBI officials tracked him down in June 2011, living with his girlfriend in a seaside apartment in Santa Monica, California.

The accused gangster's story has captured Boston's imagination for decades and inspired the Academy Award-winning 2006 film "The Departed."

(Additional reporting by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Douglas Royalty)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/whitey-bulger-fingered-rivals-gangland-killings-fbi-files-151914094.html

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