Posted on 02/28/2007 12:28:07 AM PST by raccoonradio
“The Departed” deserved to win the Oscar for Best Picture. But it is,of course, a work of fiction. And truth is always stranger, and gorier, than fiction.
Just check out these state police crime-scene photos, which have never been published.
These pictures, taken in Revere on the last day of 1976, chronicle another chapter in the sordid story of Whitey Bulger unlikely to make the sequel to “The Departed.”
The dead man in the trunk is Richie Castucci, a 48-year-old FBI informant. An FBI agent tipped off two other FBI informants that Castucci was working for the feds, and the two snitches decided that their fellow rat would have to go.
Castucci was a big-time earner in Boston mob circles. He owned the Ebb Tide in Revere, where the infamous Teddy Deegan murder was planned back in 1965.
By the ’70s, his chief source of income was a strip joint called the Squire Club. He owned racehorses under other people’s names, and often traveled to Las Vegas for gin tournaments. Every year, he bought new Cadillacs for himself and his family.
After Castucci was recruited as an FBI informant, the feds directed him to get into the bookmaking business. Castucci was tight with a New York bookie with ties to the Mafia. It was through the New York mob that Castucci learned two fugitive members of the Winter Hill Gang - Joe McDonald and Jimmy Sims - were hiding out in Greenwich Village.
By the late summer of 1976, someone in the local FBI office had tipped off the Winter Hill Gang that Castucci had ratted out Sims and McDonald. The boys decided he’d have to go. But first, they thought they’d bet some football games through the New York bookie.
By Christmas 1976, the Hill owed New York, and their local conduit Castucci, close to $300,000. They had no intention of paying up.
On Dec. 30, they told Castucci to come to the garage on Marshall Street in Somerville to pick up his money. There, he met his fellow FBI snitches, Whitey Bulger and Stevie Flemmi, and they told him they had the cash stashed in an apartment around the corner.
Castucci went upstairs with the two serial killers. He was counting the money when suddenly Johnny Martorano appeared behind him with a Police Special .38 and, well, you can see for yourself where Johnny shot Richie Castucci.
Whitey and Stevie rolled the body up in the blanket, put him in the spacious trunk of his new Sedan DeVille, and then they drove him to Revere.
The next day his body was found, and the frantic feds called a meeting to figure out who had outed their informant. Zip Connolly, the crooked FBI agent now in prison, assured his fellow feds that the Mafia had done it, because “Winter Hill doesn’t kill like that.”
And that was it. The New Yorkers sent a couple more guys up looking for the $300,000, but they were told to get lost.
And now, 30 years later, Castucci’s family is suing, just like everybody else who had a relative who ... departed. They want $25 million. Their trial is probably more than a year away.
And what happened to the two on-the-lam hoods? Well, with Castucci gone, the FBI needed someone new to keep an eye on them. The job was taken over by, who else, Whitey Bulger.
A few years later, Jimmy Sims was arrested and went to prison. When he got out, he vanished. He’d seen way too much to stay around, am I right, Whitey?
And then there was Joe McDonald. He was the driver on two more hits with Johnny Martorano, in Oklahoma and Florida. Whitey ordered both of them. By 1982, he was 65 and tired. McDonald decided to come home. He told only a couple of guys, one of whom was Whitey Bulger.
When his train reached New York, guess who was waiting for Joe McDonald? That’s right, the FBI. The feds had gotten a “tip.”
Doesn’t seem very Hollywood, does it? No blaze of glory, for anybody.
Howie column ping. I think there are more photos (some
gory ones) at http://www.whiteywatch.com
BUMP
Is Finneran tanking as much like they say? I heard him on the radio this AM (I usually only listen to Howie) and he seemed overly pedantic.
I've had him on in the morning, and he didn't start out bad. But now he's in gear -- and I'm finding him unbearable! And his guests -- first Ed Markey (barf!), then Marty Meehan (not as bad as Markey, but that's not saying much), and today JOE BIDEN! Is Finneran being paid by WRKO or the DNC?
It's not so much that he's pushing the liberal view of things, as that it's too often a commercial for Democrats and politicians -- more exactly Democrat politicians, including Coupe Deval. I get the feeling he's neither liberal nor conservative nor even middle-of-the-road -- just pro-government (in all its deviousness and mechanics) and pro Democrat politicians (though he doesn't even say much against Republican pols!).
He used to guest host and he was OK. He is a tool and I hope he does take.
I was not a Scott Miller fan either but at least he could be amusing at times.
True though I'll bet the libs (the ones still fighting to get Air America back on in Boston) probably feel he's
"conservative". And if ANYONE is pro-government/hacks, it's them.
yes they're "factual" not biased...right about then is when you hear them talk about "the myth of the liberal media"
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