Review of Where the Bodies Were Buried: Whitey Bulger and the World That Made Him by T. J. English

Below  is my review of Where the Bodies Were Buried: Whitey Bulger and the World That Made Him as submitted to the Sturbridge Times Magazine for the November 2015 issue.

Where the Bodies Were Buried: Whitey Bulger and the World That Made Him

by T. J. English

Book Review by Richard Morchoe

September seemed to be Whitey Bulger Month in Massachusetts, if not the Nation. Johnny Depp gave an excellent performance as the South Boston gangster in the movie, Black Mass. His character exuded menace in most every scene.

Crime in Boston, however, did not begin with Bulger, and though the players have changed, has not ended with his incarceration. Around the time the movie came out, Where the Bodies Were Buried: Whitey Bulger and the World That Made Him also appeared. The book, by veteran crime reporter T. J. English, is in the words of the late Boston radio personality Larry Glick, “The story behind the story.” English is probably most famous for The Westies, the story of a deadly New York Irish-American gang. Havana Nocturne, about how Meyer Lansky and the Mafia lost Cuba to Castro is a finely crafted story reviewed in the September, 2010 issue of The Sturbridge Times Magazine. The author has, as the saying goes, “been around the block.”

According to English, the FBI, who are supposed to be a law enforcement agency has systemic problems and they long predated Bulger and continue to this day. Rules were not just bent, but broken if the agency wanted. He concludes the book with the statement, “In the end, the system protects itself.”

Joe Salvati was an average guy and no criminal. He did like to bet on horses and had borrowed money from a loan shark. Joe ran afoul of a man who, before Whitey's time, had a reputation for brutality maybe worse than Bulger's. His rep did not include sanity. The FBI wanted to use mad man Joseph Barboza to gut the Mafia or LCN, short for La Cosa Nostra. Barboza would testify that Salvati had been part of a murder, and Joe would do life until his vindication after 30 years in jail.

Barboza lying under oath would be protected by the FBI because they wanted to keep him as an informant even if an innocent man would rot in jail.

The men who handled Barboza would run other gangsters who would lead to Whitey. They would eventually pass the baton to agents who would carry on the tradition. When Bulger finally had to face a court of law, the government prosecutors tried to portray history as a couple of bad apple agents. John Connolly and John Morris, in a good system serving justice.

Before Connolly and Morris, there was H. Paul Rico. Rico ran Barboza as well as the the Flemmi brothers, Vincent and Steven. Steve Flemmi would become Whitey's partner. Connolly would work with Flemmi and developed Whitey Bulger as a “Top Echelon Informant.”

What did this lead to? Getting away with murder. It turned out that Whitey and Flemmi were running Connolly, his supervisor, John Morris and the Boston office of the FBI rather than the other way around.

The whole thing was so absurd that it had to end. Whitey would go on the lam until he was captured and bought to trial.

There was no chance Bulger was ever going to end his life a free man. He was interested in making the case that he had the FBI's approval. His defense team, headed by Jay Carney wanted to show that the corruption was pervasive and historic. The prosecution, lead by Fred Wyshak attempted to build a cordon sanitaire around the agency and limit the damage to the Whitey era.

Judge Denise Casper, presided over the trial in the Moakley Federal Court Building. Though English does not come out and say it, it did appear that she favored the prosecution. Carney's attempt to show endemic corruption led to constant objections by the prosecutors. Judge Casper seemed to sustain most of them. Then again, she is a federal employee and the same treasury that issued Attorney Wyshak's paycheck issued hers.

Whether or not Bulger, or his legal team actually proved anything, “juror number twelve” Janet Uhlar came away with questions about the system. English would get to talk with her and she was appalled at the deals the government had made for testimony with criminals arguably as bad or even worse than Bulger. She was pilloried in the media, but if the English book is accurate, she is right in her opinion.

Big Pharma has the FDA in thrall. The Department of Agriculture does the bidding of Monsanto and Big Ag. If you have been following the F-35 fighter jet debacle, the Defense Department seems to be serving contractor interests. Why should anyone be surprised that the FBI can be captive to Big Crime.

Where the Bodies Were Buried is typical T.J. English, hard to put down and filled with informative detail. I admit, however, it was not pleasant to read. George Orwell wrote that the England of his day was corrupt, but it could only get so corrupt. I'm not sure we can say the same.