Collusion: Whitey Bulger and the FBI’s international trade off for domestic information

Fascinating piece by Ed Moloney on Whitey Bulger, an Irish Boston gangster who was ‘turned’ by the FBI relatively early in his long career of domestic crime, was later allowed a little international sideline: In 1975, Bulger agreed to become an FBI informer and was largely left alone by the authorities, who were mostly interested in what he knew about rival Mafia gangs. In 1994, his FBI handler tipped him off about an impending indictment and he fled Boston. For …

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‘Whitey’ Bulger arrested

The arrest of “Most Wanted” James ‘Whitey’ Bulger in Santa Monica, California, yesterday brings to an end a 16-year-long international manhunt that was proving to be an embarrassment to the FBI.  As the Boston Globe reports Bulger fled just before his federal racketeering indictment in January 1995. It was later revealed in federal court in Boston that he was a longtime FBI informant who had been warned by his corrupt handler, former FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr., that he was …

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