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University of Massachusetts President William M. Bulger asked FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. more than 20 years ago to keep his gangster brother James J. ``Whitey'' Bulger ``out of trouble,'' a Winter Hill Gang hit man told a federal jury yesterday during shocking testimony also linking the retired agent to two mob murders. John Martorano, a remorseless killer of 20 men, claimed Whitey Bulger told him the Bulgers had a friend at the FBI after William helped Connolly escape poverty and the siren song of crime in their South Boston neighborhood. ``He said he was told that Connolly owed...

John “Zip” Connolly is apparently one of those hoodlums who cares what his obituary says about him after he’s dead and gone. At age 82, the infamous ex-FBI agent seems obsessed with clearing at least one indelible stain off his remarkably squalid (even by Boston G-man standards) underworld career. He’d prefer not to have “Mob hitman” in the first sentence of his death notice. There’s not much he can do about the racketeering conviction, or all his tawdry connections to the Bulger Crime Family. But “Mob hitman” is a bit much. Sadly, Zip has failed yet again to remove “assassin”...

There’s no way in hell they shouldn’t tell all’.. The FBI is closing the book on the agency’s “corrupt” handling of James “Whitey” Bulger — forever. The feds are refusing to make any further installments of Bulger’s case file public, saying the records are “investigative” and no longer subject to the Freedom of Information Act. “The records responsive to your request are law enforcement records; there is a pending or prospective law enforcement proceeding relevant to these responsive records, and release of the information could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings. Therefore, your request is being administratively closed,”...

To assist in their new venture, they(Biden & Heinz) partnered with a Massachusetts-based consultancy called the Thornton Group, headed by James Bulger, son of former Massachusetts state Sen. Billy Bulger. James Bulger has the dubious honor of being named after his uncle, the notorious mob hitman James “Whitey” Bulger. They have a Chinese counterpart Solebury Thornton (Beijing) Consulting Co., Ltd., Beijing, China

For most of the first half of my life, I lived in or near Boston. Usually, I am proud of my hometown, its history, its universities and its spirit. After the Boston Marathon bombings, Beantown united under the phrase "Boston Strong." I left in 1985. When I go back, I see how much the city has changed. The Boston I left had a wrong side, too -- a culture that looked away when organized crime terrorized young and old. Boston Wrong has been on parade this month during the long-awaited trial of James "Whitey" Bulger, 83, on 32 federal counts...

Finally, after all these years, Billy Bulger and I are on the same side of an issue. We are both rooting for the Globe to fold. Stipulated, your Honor, that the Corrupt Midget continues to grab that $200,000-a-year state pension. He’s still got his spalpeens at the public trough, including at least one double dipper. Makes ya wanna throw up on TV, as Dapper O’Neil used to say. Yes, Bulger is the generalissimo of the Forgotten but Not Gone Brigade. He’s made disparaging remarks about this paper, too. How can we miss him when he won’t go away? Still, the...

Howie Carr thread for week of Dec 30, 2007. Howie's Sunday Herald column to follow.

Generally, I'm a 60 Minutes fan, but the opening segment of the March 12 edition of the newsmag was a glaring example of what happens when deals are cut for exclusive access and long-harbored hard feelings get in the way of sound editorial judgment. When this happens, viewers are shortchanged and a venerable franchise's image is tarnished. The 60 Minutes segment I'm referring to centered on Kevin Weeks' just published Brutal: The Untold Story of My Life Inside Whitey Bulger's Irish Mob. I was well-versed in the Bulger saga. Virtually every Monday for the past six years, I've been a...

First of three parts It was Dec. 23, 1994, the day that Whitey Bulger vanished. He had always assumed it would come to this, so in 1977 he began constructing a new identity for himself. The most powerful organized crime figure in New England was about to turn into “Thomas F. Baxter.” When the cops got around to searching his condo, and his girlfriends’ houses, they would find how-to books about living on the lam. There were almost as many of them as there were World War II books and videotapes. Whitey was into Nazis, so much so that in...

Already ordered my copy of Howie Carr's book "The Brothers Bulger" but wanted to mention that excerpts from the book will appear starting tomorrow (Feb 17) in the Boston Herald. (Can read online at bostonherald.com) Two brothers, one a murdering gangster and one a Mass. State Senate President profiled on "60 Minutes". "With political corruption on one side and deadly force on the other, the Bulgers shared a diabolic and destructive alliance for decades."

Talk show host, newspaper columnist, and now-book-author Howie Carr has a site up (offering free fridge magnets, for a limited time) to promote his upcoming book on "The Brothers Bulger" http://www.thebrothersbulger.com ("...hello?...hello?") "...two brothers from South Boston who grew up to control a state. With political corruption on one side and a deadly force on the other, the Bulgers shared a diabolic and destructive alliance for decades." There's also an interview with Howie. The gangster and the Mass. Senate President. One robs with a gun, one with a pen, as they say.

LOWELL, Mass. - University of Massachusetts President William M. Bulger resigned Wednesday after months of increasing pressure over his role in the federal investigation of his fugitive mobster brother. His resignation - the result of what he called a ``a calculated political assault'' against the university - is effective Sept. 1. The board of trustees immediately voted to accept the resignation, and have agreed to pay him more than two years' salary in a severance package worth close to $1 million. ``I increasingly believe that the university and the Board of Trustees should not be subjected to further assaults. I...

UMass President William M. Bulger failed to help his shaky political standing during a daylong grilling yesterday, with Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly accusing him of deliberately thwarting a congressional panel probing FBI corruption. Reilly, a Democrat who is leading the call for Bulger's immediate resignation, charged the University of Massachusetts president with giving ``evasive'' answers and said he had ``no interest in helping that committee . . . find the truth.'' ``Clearly he was not forthcoming; he was evasive, he had a convenient memory,'' Reilly said at a press conference minutes after Bulger's testimony in Washington concluded. ``He knew...