Posted on 07/26/2009 5:33:51 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Howie thread for the week. He returns to the air Mon 7/27 after hip surgery. I'll post his Sun column but right now (8:35 am) I can't get into the site -- heavy traffic (Gates case?) at bostonherald.com Stay tuned.
I’ll post Howie’s Sun. column—assuming there is one—when I can get onto the Herald’s site.
>>
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My son in law had two seperate hip replacements, he was 33 when he had his done and he was not up and around and able to get to work in two weeks, could Howie possibly be doing a remote from home? Maybe he’s sleeping over in the studio all week? LOL!
who knows; we’ll find out tomorrow...
column ping sorry for delay
Rifleman’s ‘Fifth’ toll rises
By Howie Carr | Sunday, July 26, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
Nine murders - that’s how many “unsolved” slayings serial killer Stevie Flemmi has been asked about in this latest mob trial in U.S. District Court here.
And nine times the wrinkly 75-year-old archfiend has replied in the same way.
“I’ll take the Fifth,” or words to that effect.
The mobster’s already doing life-plus for at least nine other murders. But he wouldn’t cop to any additional killings in this civil trial, where the families of some of his victims are suing the feds for coddling mass murderers, including the Rifleman and his dear pal Whitey Bulger.
So let’s go down this up-to-date account of the murders Flemmi refuses to discuss, lest he, ahem, possibly incriminate himself.
We begin with Punchy McLaughlin, Charlestown plug ugly. By the fall of 1965, Stevie had fallen in with crooked FBI agent H. Paul Rico, who was offended more than somewhat when he heard Punchy on an illegal wiretap referring to him and his G-man boss J. Edgar Hoover as “fags.”
Rico knew where Punchy was hiding out and how he was getting into Boston every morning for his brother’s murder trial. Punchy was taking the bus, because he hadn’t been able to drive since his right hand had been shot off in Brookline by gangsters dressed as rabbis a few months earlier.
One morning two guys caught up with Punchy on a bus in West Roxbury. Punchy had a revolver in a brown sandwich bag, but it’s tough to grab a gat quickly enough when you only have one meat hook. Sayonara Punchy.
Asked about the hit the other day, Stevie took the Fifth.
A year later, in October 1966, the McLaughlin gang was down to one capable hitman, Stevie Hughes . A car full of shooters caught up with Stevie and another hood, Sammy Lindenbaum, on Route 114 in Middleton. (Quite a gruesome photo of the sanguinary aftermath resides in the archives. Discretion keeps us from printing it here.)
Flemmi then reported back to FBI agent Rico that with Hughes dead, “the entire city is much more at ease.” When asked about the double murder this month, he took the Fifth.
Flemmi got his start in organized crime working for an older Roxbury hoodlum named Wimpy Bennett . Wimpy disappeared in January 1967 and Stevie alerted Rico that there was “absolutely no chance” that Bennett would be found alive.
In court when he was asked about Wimpy, Flemmi mentioned the Bill of Rights. Ditto with Wimpy’s older brother Walter, who according to Stevie’s report to his FBI cohort-in-crime was “ ‘taken out of the picture’ Monday evening 4/3/67.”
That left Billy Bennett . Just before Christmas 1967, Billy Bennett was picked up by a friend from Southie named Richard Grasso . A few minutes later Bennett was dead, shot in the head, his body up against a snowbank in Mattapan. A week later, Grasso’s body turned up in the trunk of his 1967 Buick Wildcat in Brookline, shot two times in the head.
Stevie Flemmi took the Fifth twice more.
Next to go was one Thomas Timmons, age 47. Rico reported in May 1968: “The reason that STEVIE FLEMMI had killed and buried TOMMY TIMMONS was that TIMMONS was very anti-Italian and indicated that he was going to blow up LANGONE’s funeral parlor when they were all at some ‘connected’ Italian wake.”
Stevie took the Fifth.
In September 1969, Stevie went on the lam to the West Coast with Frank Salemme and another member of the old Bennett gang named Peter Poulos, who had the misfortune of being a witness to Wimpy’s murder two years earlier. Two months later, Poulos’ bullet-riddled body was found in the desert outside Las Vegas. Salemme has since denied murdering Poulos. The other day, Stevie took the Fifth.
The lawyers probably could have asked the Rifleman about a few other murders from a few other decades, but nine are enough to make the point, don’t you think?
In Boston, until well into the 1990s, the F and the B in FBI stood for Flemmi - and Bulger.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1187139
At the start of HC’s show yesterday they played an intro with old(er) news bits and it ended with “oh where oh where has Howie gone, oh where oh where can he be?” I thought,
uh oh, maybe he isn’t coming back today after all and we’re
about to get Col. Hunt or a rerun. But no, they just played the wrong intro.
Remember the case of the 18 yr old in Saugus who ran over an elderly woman while driving drunk after the “alcohol free” prom?
>>But according to the four defendants’ statements to police, they decided to continue partying. After driving to Vokey’s house, where Baldwin picked up nearly a case of beer, the four headed to Nahant Beach. At the beach, Vokey’s girlfriend arrived and picked him up, leaving Baldwin, Palomba, and Caruso with the beer.
>>According to their statements, Baldwin and Palomba each consumed about five beers, and Caruso drank as many as six. The three were at the beach for about two hours. When they got into Caruso’s car, Baldwin asked Caruso if he was “good.’’ Caruso responded, “Ya.’’
>>Moments later, police said, Caruso hit Carol Marean, who had been walking her dog with her daughter, Charlotte, 41, near Essex and Grove streets in Saugus. Marean was killed, and her daughter has since recovered from critical injuries.
Caruso told authorities at the scene that he had been drinking and that he had probably fallen asleep at the wheel.
>>According to statements Baldwin made to police, which were entered into court records, Caruso looked up immediately after the accident and said, “What happened, not a problem.’’ Baldwin said he told Caruso he had just hit two people and Caruso responded, “No way, really?’’
Yup—now thing about this, these kids have probably been up for at least 24 hours—they probably did have a regular school day on that Friday (at least I think it was a Fri.) then later there’s the prom, everything ends at 4 am and
parents pick them up, no problem. Except they decide to
stop being alcohol free and drive two towns away to Nahant
where they get blitzed, and the 18 yr old is “OK to drive”
After six beers.
After being up for 24 hours straight at least.
And many teens are probably on the thin side so it wouldn’t take too many brews to get them drunk.
And he’s OK to drive.
Wed. column ping
This Bud’s for you - take it or leave it
By Howie Carr | Wednesday, July 29, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com
Here’s a modest proposal: Tomorrow night at the White House, everybody drinks the same brand of beer.
How America 2009 is that? It’s not enough to have the host provide the adult beverages. No, now all the guests have to get on the record with which beer they prefer, and please, hold the Milwaukee’s Best.
Barack’s a Bud man. You know, the No. 1 domestic brand, although he probably hasn’t gotten the memo that August Busch IV and Ed McMahon aren’t walking through that door. Some Belgians now own the Clydesdales and the Beechwood aging process.
Actually, now that I consider Barack and beer, the first brand that comes to mind is Schlitz Malt Liquor, especially when Obama gets near a microphone:
“Look out for the bull!”
As for Professor Skip Gates - he says he’s a Red Stripe man, surprise surprise. After all, it’s brewed in Jamaica, mon, which must appeal to his repeatedly self-proclaimed 44 percent African DNA. Don’t tell Skippy, but I think the Red Stripe brewery was founded by Germans, and I wonder if that “horrifies” Skip, the way his 56 percent white DNA does.
Skip’s fallback lager: Beck’s.
But didn’t the serial killer known as Whitey Bulger once serve Beck’s to a bunch of G-men after a double-hit? Got the feds good and beered up, and then found out what they knew. After Whitey poured them back into their Crown Vics he said, “Thank God for Beck’s beer.”
If it’s good enough for Whitey, how can it possibly be good enough for Skip?
Then there’s Sgt. Crowley, and we’re all disappointed in his pick - Blue Moon. Are you bleepin’ kiddin’ me, Sarge? That’s one of those beers you put a slice of fruit in. Surely you meant to say Blue Ribbon. Or you could have asked for Busch Beer. That way, they would have had a familiar target to blame if things go bad tomorrownight.
It used to be the host only had to provide one beer. Everyone would be happy, because it was the best kind of beer - free beer.
One final question: Remember when Larry Summers was president of Harvard? Back in 2002, Summers went after Gates’ pal, Cornel West, because of “alleged skepticism” over the academic rigor of his courses in Gates’ African-American studies department.
Irony of ironies, Summers now works for Barack Obama - as one of his top economic advisers. Will Larry Summers of Cambridge and Harvard be invited to the Cambridge-Harvard summit?
Given his relationship with Gates and his lack of PC, Summers only gets to the beer summit on one condition. Hey, Larry, BYOB.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1187649
today’s show via howiecarr.com; btw Howie also said (on Mon.) the death pool would prob be today. He didn’t want to do it yesterday because he knew he’d be out of the studio, broadcasting from the Eastern Standard in Kenmore Sq. (though there were tech problems so he had to do the show from the studio anyway)
Wednesday, Jul 29PDT
1st Hour (DEATH POOL?)
2nd Hour (DEATH POOL?)
3rd Hour
Call in for THE CHUMPLINE!!!! 617-779-3469 and leave a message for Howie or Sandy about today’s stories or whatever else is bothering you!
4th Hour
We will speak with author Jonathan Tudan author of Lovers, Muggers & Thieves - A Boston Memoir in which he recounts his experiences in 1969 as an eighteen-year-old college freshman who was offered a free ride into Boston’s Combat Zone, the most bizarre neighborhood the city has ever known, when he was asked to manage a flophouse renting rooms by the week to the purveyors of the neighborhood sex trade.
.
4pm death pool.....
yup, and Howie is on WRKO till 7 pm as Sox are on WEEI
tonight.
btw I will be away for one last vaca week Aug 10-14 or so;
while I will have a laptop with me down in “delta blues”
country, it would be great if you could do the list that week (even if it’s just posting links to his articles or the
articles themselves)
No problem.
I remember that I was putting in an alarm for my cousin at the Arts One and Two on Stuart Street. As I was running wire as some hookers were rolling some guy on the other side of the fire door.
All to naught, some Mafia clown got pissed, the owners were Greeks, and rolled a fire bomb in the front door, exit an account, they did pay in cash though.
today’s show..wonder if he will also talk about Manny & Ortiz (no, not “Manny Ortez”, Senator) testing positive for
steroids in ‘03....naah, maybe not. I’ll just note that on the same page of the NY Times online there was an ad for a ticket agency that could put you in Yankee Stadium for a game vs. the Sox on 8/6 and some tickets were going for $19,500
Hey, those steroids are expensive you know. Need to pay the players big bucks.
Thursday, Jul 30PDT
1st Hour
The black professor and white cop at the center of a race relations dispute that garnered international attention when President Obama dove into the discussion are ready to toast and make up during a White House “beer summit” tonight. Did the President help or hurt this situation by getting involved?
2nd Hour
3rd Hour
Call in for THE CHUMPLINE!!!! 617-779-3469 and leave a message for Howie or Sandy about today’s stories or whatever else is bothering you!
The ranking Republican on the House Subcommittee on Immigration says Democrats have refused to pass an amendment that would prevent illegal aliens from being covered in the Obama healthcare plan. Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa), finds it outrageous that Democrats want to force hardworking Americans to foot the healthcare bill for those who are in the country illegally. We will speak with Congressman King about this outrage.
4th Hour
Veterinarian John deJong will be with us to talk pets.
.
thu ping
Love ‘pet talk’, some of the funniest radio when they go off on a tangent...
Fri column ping
And we owe it all to Governor Deval Patrick
By Howie Carr | Friday, July 31, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
On this final shopping day before the 25 percent sales tax increase here in Massachusetts, I would like to personally thank Gov. Deval Patrick for making it all possible.
Happy T-Day, Governor.
Don’t worry about us taxpayers, Governor - what’s another billion dollars to people who actually have to work for a living and didn’t get free rides to Milton Academy, Harvard College and Harvard Law School?
None of us has any pressing need for extra dough, especially not with the economy humming along like it is.
Thank you too, Governor, for that property tax relief that you promised all of us during the 2006 campaign.
That’s working out so well that last weekend in Abington, the voters nixed a Prop 2 override by a 4-1 margin, in a turnout rivaling last year’s presidential election, with 500 people taking absentee ballots.
Thank you, Governor, for getting the people of Massachusetts interested in the political process again.
Thank you too, Gov. Patrick, for yet another new tax going into effect tomorrow - the brand-new 6.25 percent sales tax on all alcohol products, which will of course be imposed on the full price of the alcohol, which already includes a state excise tax.
In other words, a sales tax imposed on an excise tax - it’ll do wonders for all those mom-and-pop package stores on the New Hampshire border. It’ll do for booze sales what the earlier tax-on-a-tax on smokes did for cigarette sales along the Merrimack.
And now everyone will have yet another reason to cross the border.
Governor, thanks for the new “sales tax” on all of us satellite-TV subscribers. That kicks in tomorrow too.
And we sure do appreciate all your recent fee increases at the Registry of Motor Vehicles - at the same time you’re shutting down, how many, 11 Registry offices, including the one in New Bedford, which no one ever uses, right, Governor?
Thanks, Governor, for dithering all through the budget process, going back and forth on raising the tolls, and the gas taxes, and every other damn thing, enabling the unspeakably corrupt Legislature to move into the vacuum of your nonleadership to sock it to us with this 25 percent increase in the sales tax.
Thanks for giving Mumbles Menino et al. the right to impose higher meals taxes, but why do they have to wait to jack up the cost of a cheeseburger until Oct. 1?
Thanks, Governor.
Thanks for nothing.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1188137
With the economy going the way it is, the compassionate thing to do would be suspend all taxes on alcohol and cigarettes (might as well fully legalize pot too). Might not help the economy, but poverty might not bother people as much! ;-)
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