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Whitey Bulger RIP



Whitey Bulger died on October 30, 2018, bringing us all a spate of stories reminding us of his notoriety, five years after his conviction, just as he had begun to be forgotten -- as the passage of time had consigned him to the role of just another nameless inmate in vastness of the US prison system.

Bulger's case is worth remembering, because it may remind us how regularly government is the cause or at the very least the partner of the woes from which it poses as our protector.

Bulger, the brother of the influential Massachusetts politico William Bulger (who was at his own career peak President of the state Senate), became notorious as the head of the feared Winter Hill Gang in Boston through the '80s. How did he become that? Because in February 1979 federal prosecutors indicted various members of that Gang, including its boss Howie Winter, having noticed that they were fixing horse races. Bulger and his bud Stephen Flemmi were originally going to be named in the indictment, but at the last minute the prosecutor decided to drop the charges against those two, naming them instead as unindicted co-conspirators.

The apparent reason for this was that Bulger and Flemmi were valuable as informants. In effect, they had become the government licensed gangsters.  They took over the remnants of the Winter Hill Gang and by selective tips to their FBI buddies, eliminated competition.

When, many years later, the Boston State Police finally initiated a serious investigation into a string of murders committed by the new and improved Winter Hill gang, they deliberately kept the FBI out of it, having come to understand that what they told the FBI would get back to Bulger.

John Connolly, who had long been Bulger's FBI "handler," was himself indicted in 1999 for a variety of racketeering-related offenses, and was convicted in 2008.

There is much more, none of it inspirational for those who believe that a State is legitimate so long as it is a "nightwatchman" State. Whitey and William Bulger were NOT in distinct lines of work.
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