Willie’s got so much to be thankful for
by Howie Carr
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Let’s look on the bright side, the mayor of Lawrence said last night. But Willie Lantigua missed some of the obvious high points he could have bragged about.
First of all, a former state rep from Lawrence has already been arrested this year.
And it wasn’t him, it was Jose Santiago!
More good news: Lantigua has finally filed his campaign finance reports. OK, so they were two years late.
And do you realize that it has been one week — seven whole days — since one of his pals has been convicted of a crime?
That would be Wilfredo Laboy II, son of the political prisoner, former School Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy. He got the jail time, the old man did, but Junior got probation. All he did was lie to the grand jury.
Willie Lantigua pointed out last night that the majority of drug suspects in Lawrence now come from out of town. Not to mention out of the country.
“I ask you to join me in refusing to allow distraction to keep us from the job at hand.”
In case you were wondering, “distraction” is another word for grand juries.
Alas, Gov. Deval Patrick was apparently unable to attend. But he is a gracious patron to his dear pal Mayor Lantigua. On the way to City Hall, perhaps Willie heard Republican state Rep. Jim Lyons talking on the radio about how the state — Lyons’ constituents, people who actually have jobs and pay taxes — are forking over $152 million for the Lawrence school system.
Of course he didn’t mention that the city of Lawrence is also making its own contribution — $4 million. Lyons calls the city an “ongoing criminal enterprise,” like Lawrence isn’t an equal-opportunity mob.
Take Lennie Degnan, the mayor’s suspended-with-pay chief of staff. His father-in-law is an ex-con, Nick Rizzo, the guy who looted Paul Tsongas’ campaign account back in 1992. And he’s from North Andover. Lawrence doesn’t care about your native tongue, or the color of your skin, just the length of your rap sheet.
Just ask Deval Patrick. The mayor should have thanked Patrick for the “loan” of an additional $35 million. I’m sure it’ll be paid back.
But look at how much Lawrence gives back — not just the votes to elect the fake Indian, but also, when his man Ron Bell allegedly drinks too much in Boston, who’s there to hire him off the waiver wire? Willie Lantigua, that’s who.
The mayor has much to be proud of. Think of all the arrested cops he’s still got on the payroll. And how about the three kids in the anti-gang program who were allegedly supplementing their income by sticking up bodegas?
What’s the big deal? There’s a word for it ... double-dipping.
Is there method to his madness?
by Howie Carr
Friday, February 8, 2013
Is Whitey Bulger going soft in the squash?
I mean, if your only defense is that you had total immunity from the feds, conveniently given to you by a dead guy, then why would you start yapping on a recorded line about how you never gave the evil G-men any information?
In other words, you claim you had a quid pro quo, but you never delivered the quid for the quo.
“I bought (expletive) information, I didn’t sell it,” Whitey said Sept. 12, in a dogtrack-ready spiel to his younger brother Jackie. “I never gave them (expletive) information. Nothin’. Nothin’.”
Obviously, Seamus is still in Step One of the Five Stages of Snitchhood — denial that he’s a rat. Even to his brother, who is himself a convicted felon.
In his prime robbing days, Whitey didn’t talk on phones — wiretaps. Or indoors — bugs. Or in cars — ditto.
This conversation was recorded nine days after his 83rd birthday. He’d been in the can for 15 months, and before that, he’d spent 15 years sitting on a park bench in Santa Monica — Heaven’s Waiting Room, Left Coast Annex.
It’s to be expected he’s lost a little off the fastball, but why would he be spewing out this kind of nonsense to undermine his own already unbelievable defense? Unless maybe he’s laying the groundwork for his next defense — senile dementia.
You know who else this filing by the feds is bad news for? The dwindling band of Zip Connolly acolytes who think the bent fed was framed. Doesn’t sound to me like Whitey’s going to go to the mat for his old go-to guy, Special Agent Cannoli.
“I didn’t know that (expletive) John Connolly wrote all those reports.”
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Whitey’s partner in crime, Stevie Flemmi, was making the exact same complaints about his first FBI handler, H. Paul Rico. First he said he never said that stuff in the 209s, even though he was the only one who could have known the details. Then he said Wimpy Bennett must have said it — until Frank Salemme pointed out to him that he’d already murdered Wimpy Bennett weeks before the reports were filed.
Finally, Stevie admitted everything, but whined Rico had stiffed him on the informant fees he was due.
“You don’t get it,” Stevie told his co-defendants. “They gave us gold and we gave them (expletive).”
In this case, the expletive was his co-defendants. Stevie really was lucky to get out of Plymouth in one piece. Now he’s going to be brought back from Otisville to testify against Whitey. The trial is supposed to start June 6.
Once Whitey was the boss of all the “snow” in South Boston. This morning he sits in his cell in Plymouth and watches the other kind of snow fall.
Whitey’s got more than one blizzard headed his way this year.