Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger Page #5

The tip reads that "1544 advised

that the Mafia whacked out a guy

several weeks ago...

He's in the trunk of a car."

It doesn't tell

who whacked out the guy,

it doesn't tell what guy

was whacked out,

it doesn't tell where the car is,

there's no substantive information

in that, and there's no follow-up

in the entire file.

You turn, it's actually the last page,

June 8 of that same year,

the same exact tip shows up.

"1544 advised that source heard

that the outfit people whacked out

a guy several weeks ago

and left the individual in the trunk."

It's vague, there's no details,

and it shows up twice in his file.

This is not unusual to see reports

in one informant's file

that's similar to reports

in another informant's file.

If a crime occurs, a law-enforcement

agency surveys their informants.

They get multiple reports

from various informants

about the same criminal activity.

That's exactly what Connolly

was doing with Bulger.

The federal government

is so desperate in this trial

to try to convince people

that he's an informant.

Because James Bulger had such

a strong and influential reputation,

his name had value as a commodity

for the Department of Justice.

They needed search warrants

to take down the Mafia.

They needed to put something

down to justify intrusions

into people's civil liberties.

Nobody was going to look and see

if the information was verified.

No one was going to determine

whether it was made up by a street agent.

No one was going to determine

whether it was true or not.

It wasn't enough simply for a magistrate

to sign off on probable cause.

And there is example after example

in this case

of where they took James Bulger's

name and used it as a commodity.

It's a preposterous assertion that he

was not an FBI informant.

In fact, he used the FBl,

and they used him.

What this is all about,

quite frankly, is he doesn't mind

being called a murderer,

he doesn't mind being called

a criminal, obviously he doesn't mind

being called a drug dealer,

but he doesn't want to be called

an informant.

Because where he came from in Southie,

that's the worst thing you can be.

You can be a crook,

you can be a murderer,

but it's worse to be an informant.

That's the way he's brought up,

in his sick mind,

that's what he believes.

The fact that the file

is 700 pages, quite frankly,

that's a large file. Bulger had

this relationship for 15 or 20 years.

When they were saying that

he had a voluminous FBI file,

how long were they claiming

that he was an FBI informant?

Almost 20 years.

Okay.

Well, I have extensive experience

with a lot of informant files,

and a top echelon informant file

is never going to be 700 pages.

What should, generally,

the size of the file be?

For 20 years?

Anywhere from 60,000,

55,000, up to,

you know, 300,000.

The problem with the top echelon

informant program,

it's not unique to the Bulger case,

and a lot of people are dying

because of it.

So I file a Freedom of Information Act

lawsuit against the government,

and I won massive files,

55,000 pages of files just on

one top echelon informant,

Gregory Scarpa, a high level

informant for the FBI in New York.

His main role was to

bring down the Colombo crime family.

But at the same time,

he was lying and killing off

his rivals and committing murders,

a lot of murders.

In trial, they said

more than 50 people.

I don't know if you've ever seen

a real informant file or not.

- I haven't. That looks heavy.

- Because I don't think that you have.

See, you didn't have this

on yours, correct?

These are important, these are

showing who these went to

and who authorized these.

That's an unbelievable

amount of signatures.

Exactly.

That means everybody here

saw this or endorsed it.

Yeah, exactly.

And, but look how high it went up.

Kelly, Deloach, that's up there,

that's up there with,

with Hoover.

And then it should go into

the information that he provided.

He's given information, and then

the FBI does their own summary.

Here. "This informant has not

furnished any information

known to be false."

Do you have any of that on yours?

We don't have things like that.

And this is a total of 1147 pages.

So, and that's just the first set.

Now, I have an additional 55 coming,

55,000 coming.

Remember the day when Hank and I

were with you, and showed you

the so-called informant file

that John Connolly had been keeping?

Yeah.

Remember your reaction

to seeing that?

I was shocked. I was angry.

I couldn't believe it was,

I consider it the worst betrayal that ever,

ever happened to me in my life.

I couldn't believe that anyone

even could dream of such a thing.

I never knew it existed.

Did you recognize the information

that was contained in it

as anything that you would

ever talk to John Connolly about?

No. I asked the questions,

I got the answers.

I was the guy who did the directing,

they didn't direct me.

What are some of the things

they would give you

in terms of tips?

The thing that we needed most

of, number one, was wiretaps.

And then, like, photo surveillance,

search warrants

when they were coming,

indictments that were coming,

so guys could get a chance

to make a run for it.

Well, if you weren't providing

information to these people,

why were they willing to give you

all this information?

For money, for money.

Money's the common denominator.

It's a way of doing business.

It happens all the time,

it'll never stop.

I remember you told me once

that Christmas

- Is for kids and cops.

- Correct.

How many people would you be

paying off on a holiday period?

Everybody I knew I took care of

at Christmas time.

Put money in envelopes for all of

the different police. I had contacts

on the state police,

the Boston police, the ATF,

also in the FBI. There was more people

than John Connolly, but I'm not going

to say who they were. I would

never say anybody's name, you know.

But I took care of everybody.

And was this in cash?

Always cash.

I never handed anyone money,

I handed them an envelope,

makes it a little bit easier for them

to accept it, you know?

Or I put the money maybe in a box,

if it was that much money.

What was the most amount of money

you ever paid an FBI person, FBI agent?

- At one time?

- Yeah.

I don't know,

maybe 25,000, 50,000.

Everybody can be corrupted.

People who are of the opinion

that the FBI is above reproach...

Well, they're just regular people.

They put their pants on in the morning

just like everybody else.

They are regular people,

except they have a badge that says,

you know, "Special Agent."

But there's nothing special

about them, they are regular people.

If you find their weakness, or their needs,

or if they have a problem

and you can solve it for them,

you can corrupt them.

Maybe they like money, maybe

they like wine, maybe they like jewelry,

you know, trips, whatever.

There's always a way

to corrupt somebody.

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