Posted on 04/01/2013 5:53:18 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Howie thread for the first half of April
List ping for first half of April.
http://www.howiecarrshow.com is supposed to go into full content today (for now it’s just a plug for his book, but it’s still early)
Radio-TV hoaxes on Apr 1:
==1980: WNAC-TV 7 bogus news report of volcano at Great Blue
Hill erupting. News producer was fired.
http://www.csmonitor.com/1980/0404/040423.html
—forget year: soul station WILD AM changes to country...
for a few hours.
—1998: WAAF fires Opie and Anthony after bogus report of Mayor Menino dying in a car crash in Florida “while transporting a Haitian prostitute”. The clip is on
youtube (and starts with them calling Howie fat etc.
Sorry folks, but if you’re depending on two goofy
talk host/DJs on a rock station for your only source of
news...
baseball season again and you may get Howie pre-emptions for day games (like today) on the following stations:
WCRN 830 Worcester—Red Sox Network
WEGP 1390 Presque Isle ME (not sure; RKO site says they’re
not on the Howie network but supposedly they are acc to
their site)—Red Sox Network
WVMT 620 Burl VT—Yankees Network
Carr: Win this one for all of the double-dippers
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
By: Howie Carr
Double-dipper few other things drive voters into such a frenzy as the thought of some payroll patriot collecting not one, but two paychecks, at least one of them from the taxpayers themselves.
I mean, its one thing to feed at the public trough. Its something else altogether to lick the plate.
It looked like we were going to have two double-dippers in the Boston mayors race. But now state Rep. Marty Walsh says he is giving up his $167,911-a-year job as secretary/treasurer of the Boston Building and Construction Trades Council within the next 10 days.
And how about the $38,750 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee that your fellow pinky-rings gave you?
Thats going, too, he said. Everything with the job, gone. Im going to have to buy a car Ive owned one before, I just dont have one of my own right now.
Good Lord, it sounds like hes trying to channel Ray Flynn circa 1983.
What color was that station wagon of his, red?
I seem to remember it as being brown rust brown. Mostly rust, not so much brown.
Of course, Walsh didnt have much choice in the matter if he wanted to run. Last year, the Heralds Joe Battenfeld called him out on his work for Granny Warren while collecting both the union salary and his House chairmans pay of $67,000.
Im not part of that 1 percent, Walsh said then.
No, Marty, you were more like part of that one-half of 1 percent. At least then.
Then there is Jim Rooney, boss of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. Word is that hes been calling around to the business community, whatever that means in Boston these days. His current pay is $257,500 a year. He also collects a pension from the MBTA. His flack didnt get back to me with the current number on that one, but in 2001 the T kiss in the mail was $68,000 a year.
At the age of 43.
Between the MBTA, the MCCA and chief of staff for Mumbles at City Hall, it would seem that Rooney has spent a lot more time in the hackerama than in the Dreaded Private Sector. And by the way, his current salary is down from what he made in 2011 $377,000, including $114,000 in bonuses from 2009 and 2010. Gotta love those public-sector bonuses.
But I rather doubt Rooneys going to run. I left him a message asking the question, and repeated the request to his flack, who said, I passed on your request to Jim. When the phone didnt ring, I knew it was Rooney.
Oh well, so it looks like no double-dippers in the fight. Thats OK, Ill find other things to write about. Anyone know exactly how tall Rob Consalvo is?
Where do I sign up? Seriously, where/how do I get on this gravy train? EBT? SSDI? How do I get on board.
Not the Spotlight they sought
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Howie Carr
For once, I have to agree with Mumbles. The latest Globe Spotlight series about Boston cabs was too long, and I didnt read it either.
Which is why I didnt know until yesterday that the undercover Globe reporter/taxi driver got into a big smashup at Stuart and Clarendon streets last November. Even more damning, before the scribe and his two passengers were transported to the hospital, he gave the cops a story that he later had to, ahem, correct a factual flaw in.
Is correcting a factual flaw anything like changing your story?
And now these crack journalists have neglected to print the other side of the story, from the other driver. Not giving both sides of the story what did the Globe think, that it was still misreporting on Granny Warrens alleged Indian heritage?
But the bow-tied bumkissers should look on the bright side of this fiasco. At least this one Globe story wasnt made up, or plagiarized. The accident really happened, believe it or not.
What you have to understand about this Spotlight series is that the Globe was trolling, once more, for a Pulitzer Prize in Public Service. As Alexander Cockburn (a noted lefty) once observed, these awards invariably go to stories you havent read, about issues you dont care about.
This is where the length comes in handy, no matter what Mumbles thinks. These interminable series are delivered to the Pulitzer judges doorsteps in wheelbarrows, and the judges spirits sink as they contemplate actually having to read volumes of such dreck. The only alternative is to just give them the damn prize. That way no one will call you on not reading it. In addition to being long and boring, the winning Pulitzer Public Service entry must be Politically Correct. God forbid the Globe should try to shine its nickel-and-dime flashlight on, say, EBT-card abuse. Too mean-spirited.
From a PC viewpoint, the great thing about Boston cabbies is that most of the drivers are immigrants. Thanks for pointing that out, Globe, we never would have known otherwise.
The Globe said the reporter/hack revealed his identity to his passengers. Did he really have to? Im guessing his ascot gave him away, or when he first asked them, Where to, old chaps?
The CEO of Boston Cab asked a good question: Who knows what hes doing while hes out there, hes not a professional cab driver.
Or working on his resume? You do understand that on Morrissey Boulevard, the end is near. The Globe theme song is, Any day now.
As of yesterday, the throne-sniffers hadnt deigned to print a correction, or even a clarification, admitting that the other guy is blaming the Globe reporters Ted Kennedy-esque driving.
They cant, because if the Pulitzer judges see that, they wont have to even pretend to read
the series before they dismiss it.
83 or so, Ch 2 followed around Tom Menino as he campaigned for city council. Youngah, thinnah, and at times you could almost understand him. That’s him standing behind a TV set as he practices his speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mL_RjdztIdc
Carr: Pols tax battle
not free for all
Friday, April 5, 2013
Howie Carr
Finally, some good news out of the State House the Democratic Legislature and the Democratic governor are throwing roundhouses at one another.
As they used to say about the Iran-Iraq war, Isnt there some way they can both lose?
Unfortunately, no. Heres the dispute in a nutshell: Gov. Deval Patrick wants to extract $1.9 billion from the working classes. The legislative leadership says only $500 million will suffice. For now.
As the governor said yesterday of the general courts tax hike: Everybody pays more and gets less.
Devals plan is that everybody pays more and more and more and gets less.
The governor and his hackerama are so desperate for more money that Deval immediately issued an empty threat to veto the legislation. Ask Mitt Romney how those work out.
Republican lawmakers proposed a no-new-taxes bailout of the transportation system. But the GOP plan has three chances slim, fat and none.
Todays events on Beacon Hill, said state Sen. Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester), clearly illustrate the situation were in.
Yes, they do. In 12-step terms, Speaker DeLeo is a problem taxer. Deval is a full-blown taxaholic. Both of them need to go on the wagon.
This fight has been brewing for a while now, since DeLeo reportedly described Devals tax-em-back-to-the-Stone-Age scheme as fantasyland. Id say hallucination-land is more like it.
Among other things, Deval wants billions for worthless new rail lines, from Boston to Fall River and New Bedford and from Pittsfield to New York (you cant make this stuff up).
Plus $350 million more for the department formerly run by a moonlighting, $200,000-a-year hack from New Haven whose minions couldnt be bothered to check if sex offenders were living at the same addresses as day-care centers.
Deval immediately dusted off his pal Obamas sequester playbook. The sky is falling, the sky is falling! Take hostages! Obama says, Give me the money or the cancer patients get it! Deval says, Give me the money or the T gets it!
DeLeo said, Our plan is more responsive to the needs of the middle class.
Thats exactly the problem, as far as Deval is concerned. He wants to raise the income tax, which is a burden on people who work, in order to cut the sales tax, which is paid even by Devals EBT-cardholders.
Three days ago, a Republican was elected to the House from Peabody for the first time since 1990. Leah Cole, a 24-year-old nurse, knocked on 3,000 doors in her campaign. I asked her what the No. 1 issue was among the voters she talked to.
Taxes, she said.
But thats Peabody. Beacon Hill isnt in Peabody, its in Boston.
Cruel founding fathers
This 8th amendment twist is a bit unusual Sun Apr 7, 2013...by Howie Carr
Add the name of Michelle Lynne (ne Robert) Kosilek to the list of modern phenomena the Founding Fathers would definitely not appreciate being blamed for.
Little did they know what havoc they would someday wreak by adding the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution to prohibit cruel and unusual punishment.
Now comes Kosilek, a convicted wife murderer doing life without parole. He/she is claiming that it would be cruel and unusual punishment to deny him/her a sex-change operation excuse me, gender-reassignment surgery.
Not to get too graphic, but Kosilek is begging for elective amputation of a body part. Yes, that body part. Remember, the Eighth Amendment prohibits inflicting cruel and unusual punishment. An infliction is exactly the right word for what he/she is petitioning the court for.
As a lawyer for the state said last week, This expands the Eighth Amendment to new heights.
New heights? Surely he meant to say, new depths.
And it gets even more bizarre. A federal judge appointed by Ronald Reagan has signed off on this infliction, and ordered payment of $724,000 to Kosileks pro-bono lawyers.
Odder still, the legal team desperately fighting to stop this latest slap in the face to common sense and the taxpayers works for a moonbat Democrat governor who began his own legal career filing frivolous lawsuits against prison officials in Maryland.
But it appears that Michelle Lynne Kosilek is a bridge too far even for ultra-Politically Correct Deval Patrick.
You may recall that back in the 90s, wife-strangler Kosilek was diagnosed with a trendy new malady called gender identity disorder. Knowing full well the type of bleeding-heart crackpots who sit on the bench in Massachusetts, the Department of Correction signed off on psychotherapy, female hormone treatments, laser hair removal, etc.
Just not the ultimate cruel and unusual punishment. So Kosilek sued and prevailed in federal district court. Now the state is appealing to the First Circuit.
By the way, despite Kosileks alleged anguish and suffering, he/she has not tried to commit suicide.
Here is what Judge Mark Wolf wrote when ordering the sex-change operation, and if Ronald Reagan could read what his appointee wrote, James Madison wouldnt be the only one turning over in his grave.
There is no less intrusive means to correct the prolonged violation of Kosileks Eighth Amendment right to adequate medical care.
After Kosilek gets the sex change, whats to stop her (what other word can you use at that point?) from turning around and re-suing the DOC for violating her Eighth Amendment rights by allowing the operation? After all, didnt the ACLU et al. go bonkers in Kansas when the legislature merely tried to impose chemical castration on convicted sex-offenders?
To top it all off, Judge Wolf issued a not-so-veiled threat to the state and Deval:
Resistance at all costs could end up costing the taxpayers quite a lot. The defendant, up to the governor, should consider whether its in the publics interest to do that.
In other words, resistance is futile. And behind Kosilek a queue of other DOC inmates are reportedly lining up for their own one-way gender reassignments to MCI-Framingham. Thanks a lot, President Madison.
Rifleman: Flemmi thought about killing his pal Whitey
Victims of gangsters bloody reign Monday, April 8, 2013 By: Howie Carr
First of three excerpts from Howie Carrs new book, Rifleman: The Untold Story of Stevie Flemmi, Whitey Bulgers Partner.
Gangster Stevie the Rifleman Flemmi will return to Boston for one final cameo in June, for his longtime underworld partner Whitey Bulgers murder trial in federal court. Theres no love lost between these two, and in todays excerpt, Flemmi claims he thought about killing Whitey.
Testifying against Bulger will have to do. Prosecutors will want Flemmi to hang a string of murders including his two girlfriends, Debbie Davis and Debra Hussey on Whitey. The defense will try to pin them on Flemmi alone.
At age 78, Flemmi is doing life at an undisclosed prison after confessing to 10 murders, and taking the Fifth on 10 others.
After his 2003 conviction, Stevie detailed his 40-year criminal career to feds and cops from three states. That document is the basis of Howie Carrs Rifleman. What follows is a partial list of Flemmis explanations or rationalizations for why he, Whitey and other Boston mobsters killed:
Debbie Davis, 26, Flemmis longtime girlfriend, strangled by Whitey in 1981:
Flemmi had met Davis shortly after his return from the lam in 1974. Flemmi and Davis lived together, but over the years their relationship deteriorated, as Flemmi began sexually abusing Davis 14-year-old sister Melissa.
To patch things up, one night Stevie took Davis to the Bay Tower Room on State Street. But he was called away and Davis, suspicious that he was going to see another woman, asked him why he had to leave so suddenly.
He admitted out of frustration that he was going to see an FBI agent (John CONNOLLY), who was a friend of BULGERs. BULGER was very angry when he learned from FLEMMI that Ms. DAVIS was now aware of their relationship with Connolly.
FLEMMI stated the problems with Ms. Davis were also affecting his relationship with BULGER. FLEMMI said that BULGER didnt like Ms. DAVIS, and wasnt very skilled in his relationships with women. As FLEMMIs romance with Ms. DAVIS cooled, BULGER insisted that Ms. DAVIS had to be eliminated because of her knowledge.
FLEMMI said that he finally assented to BULGERs demands and allowed BULGER to plan the murder. Flemmi says he was under a great deal of stress when he lured her to his parents house across a courtyard from Senate President Billy Bulgers home. Whitey was waiting inside, on the Flemmis sun porch, to murder her. Strangling the beauty was a pleasure for Whitey, Flemmi says, and while she was being buried on Tenean Beach, Flemmi claimed, he contemplated killing BULGER.
Later Flemmi told hitman Johnny Martorano that he himself had accidentally strangled Davis a statement Flemmi denied making in his confession.
Debra Hussey, 26, Flemmis common-law stepdaughter with whom he had been having sex since she was 14, strangled by Whitey in 1985:
This was another very difficult and emotionally draining murder for Flemmi. But like Davis, Hussey was often disrespectful to BULGER. And, Flemmi added, she was doing a lot of things which I didnt approve of.
Hussey was using heroin, turning tricks and sometimes even brought home black male prostitution clients to the familys residence (in Milton), which caused FLEMMI additional embarrassment.
Flemmis confession continues: Eventually he and BULGER had had enough and decided to kill her.
Flemmi said the actual strangulation was committed by Whitey, although he (Flemmi) may have twisted her light beige sweater around her neck, while stripping her body and also pulling out her teeth, to prevent future identification.
Later, when the gang had to dig up three bodies theyd buried in a small house in South Boston, the observant Flemmi noticed that Ms. HUSSEYs corpse had some flesh clinging to the bones after it was exhumed.
Harold Hannon and Wilfred Delaney, gangsters strangled by the Winter Hill Gang in 1964:
Flemmi says they werent tortured with acetylene torches, and were in fact given drugs a humane method intended to reduce the doomed pairs suffering.
Wimpy Bennett, Stevies first underworld boss, was murdered in 1967 because (Mafia underboss) Larry BAIONE had a particular dislike for BENNETT and these feelings were mutual.
Walter Bennett, Wimpys older brother, was murdered three months later. After his brothers murder Walter no longer trusted FLEMMI. It was decided that Walter must also be eliminated.
Billy Bennett began vocalizing his belief that Flemmi had murdered both his brothers. Flemmi reluctantly decided Billy had to go, too.
Richie Grasso, who helped kill Billy Bennett, was shot in the head the same night in December 1967 because of the panic he had exhibited at the murder scene.
Peter Poulos, a witness to the Bennett murders, was murdered by Flemmi in the Nevada desert in 1969 because FLEMMI became concerned that POULOS will was weakening.
Paul McGonagle, part of Southies Mullens Gang, was murdered by Whitey in 1974 because BULGER still considered him a threat, not least because BULGER had murdered his brother by mistake years earlier.
Roger Wheeler, the millionaire owner of World Jai Alai, was murdered in Tulsa in 1981 because he was being exceptionally difficult to deal with.
Brian Halloran, murdered on Northern Avenue in 1982, was a potential witness against Whitey. Flemmi was fine with it: I thought he was a bully he killed a guys horse. I thought that was a despicable act.
Tomorrow: Whitey Bulger claims five murders he didnt commit, to intimidate a shakedown target. Wednesday: Flemmi says FBI agent H. Paul Rico asked him for a throwdown gun to kill a gangster but failed to go through with it. To preorder Howies new book, Rifleman, go to howiecarrshow.com.
(Note: Lehr & O'Neil's book Whitey begins with the Davis murder--I have the audiobook version. There won't be an audiobook version of "Rifleman" but I ordered a copy of the book...--rr)
Sounds like another good book from Howie!
...Death pool? Thatcher RIP
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/former_uk_prime_minister_maraget_O6zeIkY2lqgrUrYOJqGpDO
Annette Funicello has also passed away.
GOP debate (minus Winslow) on Howie’s show today at 5.
One of the candidates is named Gomez; speaking of Gomez...
Gomez the Politician! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM16uYI_nuY
I heard the ‘man up’ debate...Gomez sounded like a weasel. I’ll pull the lever for any republican in the race but I truly hope the primary voters find Sullivan to be the right guy to put up.
'Rifleman': Whitey, Stevie were kings of the scam
Blackfriars massacre shocked the city in 78
Second of three excerpts from Howie Carrs new book, Rifleman: The Untold Story of Stevie Flemmi, Whitey Bulgers Partner.
by Howie Carr/Bostonb Herald 4/9/13
Gangster Stevie the Rifleman Flemmi is due back in Boston in June to testify in his longtime underworld partner Whitey Bulgers federal murder trial. In todays excerpt from my new book, Rifleman, based on Flemmis 2003 confessions, he details some of Whiteys scams:
In June 1978 Whitey pulled off one of his boldest scams, after five men were murdered in a Summer Street cocaine den known as Blackfriars.
Flemmi had ties to the place through its owner, Vincent Solmonte. Flemmi had even gotten one of his girlfriends, Marilyn DiSilva, a job there. The night of the murders, he and DiSilva stopped by Blackfriars. But then Flemmi saw BARBOZA associate Nick FEMIA in the club, and had gotten a sense that something was amiss. FLEMMI convinced DISILVA to leave the club with him, probably saving her life.
(DiSilva, on the other hand, has told reporters that Stevie called her that night and told her not to go to the club one of many instances in Flemmis debriefings where his testimony is contradicted by other witnesses.)
The next morning the city awoke to the news of the slayings of five men in Blackfriars, among them owner Solmonte and former Ch. 7 reporter Jack Kelly.
Whitey called his own personal FBI agent Zip Connolly, now serving 40 years for murder, to get the BPDs crime-scene photos.
BULGER wanted the photos both for his own curiosity, and to be used on a scam to be perpetrated on (a Boston businessman) whom Whitey knew had owed $60,000 to the deceased Blackfriars owner.
That afternoon, Whitey went to the businessmans office, announced that he did the Blackfriars murders, and said the businessman now owed him the $60,000. When the businessman balked, Whitey laid out the crime-scene photos on the mans desk, saying he had taken them himself. Terrified, (the businessman) promptly paid the money.
It was a brazen grift. But then, as Richie Castucci told the FBI a few months before he was killed in 1976, he is a vicious animal who will not take no for an answer.
Although Bulger was convicted of robbing only four banks in the 1950s, he bragged to Flemmi that he had actually held up 17 banks during his 1955 crime spree, and that he was still spending some of that stolen loot well into the 1970s.
Both the Rifleman and Whitey were known as extreme cheapskates. Frank Salemme, an early partner of Flemmi, called the pair squirrels. He also called them jackals, for the way they bullied others.
Some cons the gang ran repeatedly, Flemmi said. One was to summon someone operating on the fringes of the law, say a shady businessman or a drug dealer, to the second floor of their Lower End bar, Triple Os the word was out they had committed murders there. The dodgy character would be told that some unnamed party had given the gang a contract on him. But it could be straightened out, for, oh, $50,000.
Another scam was to fire shots at the home of a bookie late at night. The next morning, Stevie or Whitey would call the bookie to commiserate, and ask if he needed protection. Those cons might be worth a $25,000 down payment, and $300 a month from then on.
Four years after Blackfriars, the gang murdered a businessman wannabe named John Callahan, the last of the gangs four World Jai Alai murders. Soon after Callahans body was found, the gang learned Callahan had secret bank accounts in Switzerland worth up to $600,000.
Callahans business partner was brought to the second floor of Triple Os.
FLEMMI and BULGER demanded money that they claimed Winter Hill had invested with CALLAHAN. (It was a lie.) FLEMMI said that (the businessman) was threatened with a replica Thompson machine gun and was clearly frightened.
He flew to Switzerland and emptied out Callahans accounts. He then gave the cash to the gang, who split it up, each one getting $60,000 cash.
However, the businessman was soon subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury investigating the World Jai Alai murders. He knew he would have to answer questions about his furtive trips to the Swiss banks.
FLEMMI stated that (the businessman) was instructed to tell the grand jury that Bucky BARRETT had been the one who had gotten money from CALLAHANs bank accounts.
Bucky Barrett was a burglar Whitey and Stevie had murdered a few months earlier, after stealing more than $100,000 from him. At the time Barrett was officially missing, although he was already dead and buried in the basement of a small house on East Third Street in Southie.
FLEMMI also confirmed that (the businessman) was shown a picture of Barrett so that he could intelligently describe BARRETT. FLEMMI ... believed that the picture came from BULGER.
One thing Stevie always wanted the cops to know: BULGER was in control. He made all the decisions. And why, Stevie was asked, did he take over the gang?
Because of his management abilities.
Tomorrow: Stevie Flemmi and H. Paul Rico, the most corrupt agent in FBI history.
Rifleman: Agent Rico and Stevie like blood brothers
FBI always had a place for the thug
By Howie Carr April 10, 2013
The final excerpt from Howie Carrs new book, Rifleman: The Untold Story of Stevie Flemmi, Whitey Bulgers Partner.
Gangster Stevie the Rifleman Flemmi is due in Boston in June to testify in his longtime underworld partner Whitey Bulgers federal murder trial. In todays excerpt from my new book, Rifleman, based on Flemmis 2003 confession, he details some of his dealings with corrupt FBI agent H. Paul Rico:
When they first met in 1958, Rico was a young FBI agent and Flemmi was an up-and-coming hoodlum. Pretty soon they were, you might say, thick as thieves.
Rico is best-known for the congressional testimony he gave in 1997 about the FBIs 1968 framing of four Boston underworld figures for a murder they did not commit. All four served more than 30 years in prison. Two died there.
Whaddaya want from me, tears? Rico told a congressman.
But that was just one facet of his incredibly corrupt career, much of which involved Flemmi.
Rico hated the McLaughlin gang of Charlestown. In the early 1960s, the FBI had tapped their phones, and picked up disparaging comments about the alleged sexual practices of Rico and his bosses, J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson. Edward Punchy McLaughlin had also threatened the brother of Dennis Condon, Ricos partner in the FBI.
George McLaughlin in 1965 was a fugitive, on the FBIs Most Wanted List for the murder of a Roxbury bank teller. Flemmi picks up the story:
Just prior to George MCLAUGHLINs arrest RICO asked FLEMMI for a throwdown handgun. Rico explained that the agents were about to arrest MCLAUGHLIN (and were) planning on shooting MCLAUGHLIN as they took him into custody. The agents were going to plant the gun on a dresser next to MCLAUGHLIN and claim that he had reached for the weapon (and they had fired back) in self-defense.
Flemmi gave Rico an untraceable .38 caliber revolver. The next day, McLaughlin was arrested, without any fanfare. Flemmi was puzzled.
RICO explained to FLEMMI that there were five agents involved in the arrest, but that while four were in agreement to kill MCLAUGHLIN, the group was uncertain about a fifth agent ... and the plan was dropped. FLEMMI added that RICO never returned the firearm to him.
Another time, Rico gave the Dorchester address of two McLaughlin hoodlums to Buddy McLeans Winter Hill gang.
FLEMMI noted that this information was of a particular interest to the MCLEAN group because the Dorchester neighborhood was unknown territory for the (Somerville) gang, which would have made surveillance on these two MCLAUGHLIN associates very difficult.
Armed with Ricos information, the Hill quickly rubbed out the two McLaughlin gunsels.
Perhaps Ricos greatest assistance came in Flemmis 1965 murder of Punchy McLaughlin, the leader of the Charlestown crew. He had already been shot several times, and one of his hands had been amputated after an ambush in Canton. He could no longer drive, but his girlfriend took him every morning to the Spring Street MBTA station in West Roxbury, to catch a bus to his brother Georges murder trial downtown.
Rico passed this on to Flemmi. RICO then said that he wouldnt be working the following day, and was going golfing. FLEMMI recalled that RICO then took a make-believe golf swing. Flemmi murdered Punchy the next day as he boarded the bus.
FLEMMI added that when next he saw RICO, the FBI agent made the comment, Good shooting or Nice shooting.
Thirty-two years later, Chairman Dan Burton (R-IN) asked Rico about Flemmi.
Burton: Did you know he was a killer?
Rico: No.
Rico retired and went to work for World Jai Alai in Miami. Soon he was conspiring to kill his boss, Roger Wheeler. He recruited Flemmi and Whitey Bulger, as well as Johnny Martorano and Joe McDonald, two Winter Hill fugitives also living in Florida.
McDonald agreed to participate, because 20 years earlier, Rico had helped his late partner, Buddy McLean, set up yet another gangster who had been trying to kill McLean. After the murder, Rico had allowed McLean to hide in his home in Belmont for several days. Now Rico, the FBI agent, was calling in the 20-year-old chit.
After Wheelers murder, Tulsa Police Detective Mike Huff flew to Miami to interview Rico.
I went down there expecting to sit down with a fellow law-enforcement professional, he recalled later. I find myself sitting across the table from The Godfather.
A few months after Rico orchestrated the World Jai Alai murders, the FBI had a job for him. They needed an agent who could pass himself off as a gangster. Rico was their guy. As a result, a federal judge in Florida was impeached in the House and convicted in the U.S. Senate. Rico received a citation.
But by 2003, both Martorano and Flemmi had pleaded guilty to Wheelers murder, and testified against Rico. Huff had the honor of making the arrest. When the police first appeared at his posh lakefront condo, Rico was dressed in madras pants and a cardigan World Jai Alai sweater. When Huff produced the handcuffs, Ricos jaw dropped and he soiled his pants in terror. He was dead a few weeks later in a prison hospital in Tulsa, under guard, alone. He was 78.
Hacks never too old for taxpayer kisses
Thursday, April 11, 2013
By: Howie Carr
Sure, its impressive at some level, these state hacks hanging on until well into their 90s, but the hero of the hackerama is still John Flaherty, late clerk of the South Boston District Court.
A former truck driver, Flaherty served three terms as a state rep and was appointed clerk in 1945 at age 35. He was still at the public trough 58 years later when he stopped coming down for breakfast in 2004.
Pension? He didnt need no stinkin pension.
When Flaherty finally croaked, he was succeeded by none other than another person named Flaherty Peggy Flaherty Albertson. How South Boston is that?
Peg was no relation to Jack, but she is the daughter of ex-state rep and judge Michael Flats Flaherty, cousin of the late double-dipper Jimmy Flaherty, and sister of ex-City Councilor Baby Flats, who is running again this year because he wants to serve, i.e., run up his pension, reclaim his parking space at City Hall and maybe make another run at getting his wife on the BPD, thus setting her up for yet another pension for the Flahertys, the tinkers of Ward 6.
This is what its all about. When hacks say public service, theyre talking about the kiss in the mail. Nobody, and I mean nobody, in the Dreaded Private Sector gets a pension anymore. Everybody, and I do mean everybody, in the hackerama does.
Check out the new state pension list on our website. And remember, we dont have the MBTA pension list. State Rep. Shaunna OConnell (R-Taunton) tried to attach an amendment to the tax increases earlier this week making the T pensions public, but it was ruled beyond the scope of the bill.
I went down the pension list, by ages, and once again the old saying about retired payroll patriots comes to mind: Forgotten, but not gone.
Come on down, Eugene Brune, former Southern Middlesex register of deeds. Former mayor of Somerville. Retired in January at age 83, now grabbing $82,006.80 a year.
Ex-Rep. Alice Wolf of Cambridge, a moonbats moonbat. Also retired in January, at age 79, making $55,070.28.
Never leave until you have to. Just ask Ron Pina, the ex-DA of Bristol County. He left in 1991 and collects a mere $34,446. He was succeeded by Paul Walsh, who lasted until 2007. He gets $74,746.44.
I see one elected official emeritus who, when first elected, blurted out, Five hundred bucks a week for the rest of my life! Little did he know! Hes now 66, and his pension is ... $89,286.48 a year.
I know youre thinking exactly what Im thinking. Why didnt we become hacks too?
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