Boston Bodies May Be Mob Victims

B O S T O N, Sept. 23, 2000 -- Across the Boston area, investigators have beendigging up bodies along with the long-buried secrets of fugitivemob boss James “Whitey” Bulger and his associates.

The dead — five of them so far — are believed to be victims ofBulger’s gang from as far back as the 1970s.

Their discovery comes after more than five years of work byinvestigators and federal court hearings that revealed a cozyrelationship between Bulger and the FBI.

On The Lam Since 1995

The reputed boss of Boston’s Irish mob has been on the lam since1995 after an FBI agent allegedly tipped him off about anindictment. He is now on the agency’s Ten Most Wanted list.

“If Bulger is going to be apprehended, it will be because ofthese bodies,” said Jack Levin, a professor of sociology andcriminology at Northeastern University. “Now there’s hard evidenceof mass murder.

“And mass murder of not only crime figures, but of ordinarypeople who may have had contact with crime figures but were notthemselves involved in the underworld.”

The first three bodies were found early this year, near aninterstate in Boston’s Dorchester section. One of them, DeborahHussey, was said to have had an affair with Bulger associateStephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, and was threatening to expose therelationship to her mother — Flemmi’s common-law wife. Husseydisappeared in 1984.

Last week, investigators in Dorchester found skeletal remainsbelieved to be those of Paul McGonagle, a rival of Bulger’s whodisappeared in 1974.

Latest Body Unearthed Thursday

The latest body was unearthed Thursday in Quincy, just outsideBoston and several hundred yards from where Bulger once lived. Thevictim is believed to be Tommy King, who disappeared in 1975 aftera bar fight with Bulger.

According to published reports, authorities were led to thebodies by Kevin Weeks, a Bulger crony who pleaded guilty to federalracketeering charges.

The digging continued Friday, reportedly for Debbie Davis, aformer girlfriend of Flemmi’s who disappeared in 1981.

Davis’ relatives have been going to each new grave in hopes offinding her.

“It’s not just how this might help an ongoing investigation,”U.S. Attorney Donald Stern said. “It’s also the emotional tollthat it takes on family members whose loved ones have disappearedfor all these years.”

Ties To FBI?

The unearthing of the bodies marks a new stage in theinvestigation into Bulger, brother of William Bulger, a formerstate senate president who is now president of the University ofMassachusetts.

Bulger and his cohorts are accused of bookmaking, extortion andother crimes dating to the early 1970s. According to court records,Flemmi and Bulger also worked as FBI informants.

Flemmi, who is awaiting trial on racketeering charges, hasclaimed that with the FBI’s protection, he and Bulger could doanything short of “clipping someone” without fear of arrest.

Over and over, Flemmi said, he asked then-FBI agent JohnConnolly and Connolly’s supervisor to guarantee him immunity fromprosecution, which he said they did.

Connolly now faces federal racketeering charges. He is accusedof alerting Bulger and Flemmi to investigations by other lawenforcement agencies and tipping them off in 1995 about an upcomingindictment.

Bulger’s whereabouts remain unknown..

“What typically happens in a murder case, is that the trailgoes colder and colder with every passing year,” Levin said. “Thepublic loses interest in the case. Investigators move on to casesthat are easier to resolve. But finding bodies always energizes anold murder case.”