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Boston's dirty degrees of separation go on forever
Boston Herald ^ | Friday, May 20, 2005 | By Howie Carr

Posted on 05/20/2005 2:08:58 AM PDT by ninonitti

Here's the question about Stevie Flemmi: Is he going out as Joe Valachi, or as Joe Barboza?

That is, is he an embittered old man lifting the lid on organized crime, or is he an imprisoned hit man using the government to settle all his old scores?

Probably some of both.

I know that all of the ex-FBI agents have denied they took cash from the serial killers, Stevie Flemmi and his partner, Whitey Bulger.

But at least one or two of these feds have already been named by other witnesses, under oath. Kevin Weeks testified that Whitey used to draw an orange on the envelope for John Newton, because Whitey called him ``Agent Orange.''

And Flemmi makes no claims that he was the mob's paymaster. He was just testifying about what he saw when he happened to be in the room. It was Whitey, after all, not Stevie, who first observed that Christmas is for cops and kids.

Whoever you believe - Flemmi or the feds - one thing is undeniable, and that's just how much of a political cesspool Boston was, and continues to be. Everybody is connected to everybody else.

Take Jim Ring, ``the Pipe,'' as Whitey called him. Personally, I don't believe Stevie gave him anything. Ring is the fed who testified that he had indeed attended one of those infamous Sunday night dinners at Mary Flemmi's house next door to former Senate president Billy Bulger.

Ring said that in addition to the usual three gangsters - Whitey, Stevie and John `Zip' Connolly - a fourth person just happened to stop by. William M. Bulger, by name. Billy had to send out his own fat man named Connolly to deny that he had ever done any such thing.

In other words, Ring was ``no friend of mine,'' as Billy said of corrupt agent John Morris. Yet, somehow, of all the people in all the world that Mayor Mumbles Menino could have picked as his top lawyer, he grabbed Ring's wife, Merita Hopkins.

It's a small world, isn't it?

Then there's John Cloherty, known to his pals, including Ted Kennedy, as ``J.J.'' or ``Jack.'' This one-time partner of convicted mobster Zip Connolly indignantly denies accepting any payoffs. In his testimony, Stevie says Jack, always the forgetful sort, was bouncing checks when Whitey decided to bail him out.

I've put some video of Jack Cloherty up on my Web site - go to howiecarr.com and click on ``whitey watch.'' He's speaking at Zip's farewell time after Zip got the big job at Boston Edison. Cloherty is a dead ringer for Good Time Charlie Flaherty, the former House speaker and now convicted felon.

Watch Cloherty on the videotape, bragging about how his mother and Zip's came from the same tiny village in County Galway. Then he talks about how ``lucky'' Zip is. The Clohertys, though, are pretty lucky themselves.

Jack has a brother named Tom. Would you care to guess if Tom Cloherty works in the public or the Dreaded Private Sector? That's right, he works part-time for Auditor Joe DeNucci, who really knows how to pick 'em.

Jack has a sister, Maureen Hegarty. Here's a yes-or-no question: Does she work at the State House?

You got it. Maureen works one day a week for Sen. Marian Walsh, (D-West Roxbury). Before she was picked up on waivers by Maid Marian, Jack's little sister worked for House Speaker George Keverian, who was succeeded by Charlie Flaherty, to bring the Cloherty family saga full circle.

The question is whether you can believe a serial killer who thinks Brian Halloran deserved to be machine-gunned.

``He killed a guy's horse,'' said Flemmi, who had Whitey strangle two of his girlfriends. ``I thought that was a despicable act.''

Maybe Zip has a chance in Miami after all.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Politics/Elections; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: bulger; cary; flemmi; hopkins; menino; ring
Howie hits it on the head with his "cesspool" description. I just want more information on John Kerry, young prosecutorand returning viet-nam vet. I'm sure the memories of these days are seared into his mind.
1 posted on 05/20/2005 2:08:59 AM PDT by ninonitti
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To: ninonitti

..."Diss stuff reads real good"...actual quote from a bentnose reading his arest record.


2 posted on 05/20/2005 2:17:16 AM PDT by Khurkris (This tag-line is available on CD ROM. NRA.)
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