Posted on 12/12/2002 11:09:50 PM PST by ninonitti
There is the picture of James J. ``Whitey'' Bulger with a fake mustache penciled above his top lip like Groucho Marx.
There is another of Whitey wearing Mr. Peepers glasses, and one more of our favorite fugitive psychopath with a full head of virtual hair.
Yesterday, we were told these three tired mug shots, along with other Whitey tidbits, would be spread out across the vastness of cyberspace, all to pump a wee bit o' life into the moribund, 8-year search for The White Man.
A week ago, Billy Bulger invoked his Fifth Amendment ``privilege,'' essentially telling Congress and everyone else looking for his brother to pound sand. Yesterday, Michael Sullivan, the U.S. attorney, and Charles Prouty, the soon-to-be-gone director of the Boston FBI office, admitted they have no clue where Whitey is.
But now, a high-octane Internet outfit has come to their emotional rescue. Terra Lycos says it can beam Whitey's puss to some 118 million people over 42 countries.
A flashy bell-and-whistle to be sure. Trouble is, Whitey's portraits already have been haunting the FBI's World Wide Web site for some eight years. So far, the sons of J. Edgar Hoover have come up with, well . . . Zip.
The day before Billy Bulger clammed up in front of a congressional panel, Sgt. Mike Huff of the Tulsa, Okla., police department spoke in vivid detail about a murder investigation that has consumed 21 years of his life, taken him deep into Boston's ``cesspool of dirt and corruption,'' and contains more betrayal than a Russian novel.
Huff concluded his statement this way:
``Whitey Bulger is a degenerate lowlife. I look forward to the day he is in custody, and hope to be part of the arrest team. My final question: Why doesn't the FBI turn that fugitive case over to the U.S. Marshal's Service, an objective agency with an outstanding reputation that specializes in the capture of fugitives?''
Yesterday, Michael Sullivan embraced that question like someone facing oral surgery. ``I have been here a year,'' he said, ``and continue to have full confidence in the FBI Joint Task Force.''
One answer later: ``Nobody has ever closed the door to any federal agency . . .''
Two answers later: ``I can't imagine anyone in the FBI turning down an offer from the (U.S.) Marshals.''
Funny, but one federal law enforcement source begged to differ with Mike Sullivan. ``There were negotiations between the FBI and the Marshals several years ago here in Boston,'' he said. ``There were written drafts . . . plans of how it would work. The FBI wouldn't go for it.''
Another source, who also asked to be nameless, added: ``The Bureau is tone deaf when it comes to this case. That's not likely to change. It's like the kid at the dance with two left feet, who just knows he will never, ever get the girl.
``The FBI's greatest fear is that if this case found its way into the hands of the U.S. Marshals, they might hook Whitey in six months. And how the hell would that look?''
According to the Marshals' stats, the service cleared 38,249 federal fugitive warrants last year, or more than all other federal law enforcement agencies combined.
They tracked Darrell Bellamy all across the middle of the country and out to a theater in Long Beach, Calif. Among other things, Darrell once suspected a drug courier of ripping him off, so he dipped her bare feet in a pot of boiling oil, stripped her naked and proceeded to burn her with a hot iron.
Kindah sounds like Whitey, don't you think?
When it comes to the U.S. Marshals, the operative phrase is ``tracked,'' as in bloodhound . . . as in doggedly roaming the country, as opposed to waiting for the phone to ring.
After years of bitter inter-agency feuds, the idea has been to portray a ``united'' law enforcement front, with the FBI as the shiny hood ornament.
At the moment, Whitey Bulger is not on the U.S. Marshals Top 15 Fugitive List. That's because he remains the exclusive property of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. And so far, the Bureau is not inclined to share.
In order for the Marshals to begin hunting for Whitey, they not only need to be invited in, but they also have to be presented with at least one of Whitey's several arrest warrants.
Yesterday afternoon, after the high-tech bells-and-whistles show was over, Mike Sullivan reportedly sat down for some low-tech interfacing with the local boss of the U.S. Marshals.
After eight years, that's a start.
Gelzinis is an unreconstructed liberal but he seems to have good sources on this one inside the fed bureaucracy.
I know if I'd been in bed with a gang of murdering thugs I sure wouldn't want them showing up to testify about "this thing of ours"
But then again the Marshalls have a record of long range sniper "apprehensions" in Idaho.
This is the worst example of Newspaper journalism I have seen in quite some time. Maybe the author thinks all important readers know the underlying story, and the other readers can do a google search to deduce what he [Gelzinis] is babbling about.
On second thought, I understand. Most people in Boston, are so provincial, that they still think NYC will never amount to much, because it is too far from Boston!
Thanks... people like you on FR, make a huge difference in understanding. (I say that as a former Bostonian, BB, [Before Bulger])
And not just the FBI's wrongdoing, either. It goes well outside that agency.
-archy-/-
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