FBI Can't Find Its Tail

FBI Can't Find Its Tail

The lack of prosecutions of organized crime in Massachusetts is
due more to the priorities of the FBI, than the lack of organized
crime operations . (Kevin Cullen, "Wiseguys, wannabes," Boston Globe,
February 11, 2008) Major crime operations moved into offices run by
corporations and public officials. As the Corleones said you can steal
more money with a law degree than with a gun. US Judge Mark Wolf
questioned why US Attorney Michael Sullivan does not focus on white
collar crime.
Taxpayers cover multi-billion-dollar thefts using government
agencies. See the Savings and Loan scandal, the subprime mortgage
scandal, HUD, etc. Best Buy employees discovered a terror plot not the
FBI. The corruption of the Boston FBI office was revealed by defense
attiorney Anthony Cardinale. US Attorney Donald Stern took credit when
credit was not due.
The Gambino arrests resulted from an informants who was arrested, in order to save his own behind, not from FBI diligence. The New York arrests excluded public officials, police and corporation executives that worked with the Gambino crew members. They will cooperate with any family. Business is business. In Boston after
Weeks (in print) and Bulger boasted of having local police and state
police on their payroll there has yet to be any investigation of any
police agencies including the FBI. It appears that crime families
moved out of the streets and now comfortably operate in public and
private offices. It is possible to fool most of the people most of the
time.

Roy Bercaw - Editor ENOUGH ROOM

Wiseguys, wannabes
By Kevin Cullen,
Boston Globe Columnist
February 11, 2008

Reading through that 170-page indictment aimed primarily at the
Gambino crime family in New York the other day, it was hard not to
feel a twinge of nostalgia.

Among the 62 wiseguys and wannabes named were such luminaries as John
"Johnny Red Rose" Pisano, Thomas "Tommy Sneakers" Cacciopoli, John
"Jackie the Nose" D'Amico, and the deliciously named Anthony
"Buckwheat" Giammarino.

Now, perhaps there is some loanshark in Cleveland called "Stymie," but
I'm guessing Giammarino is the only made guy in America named after a
black kid on "The Little Rascals."

Despite this talk of the Red Sox having exorcised the demon of
inferiority complex when it comes to all things New York, my first
reaction to the indictment was: Why we no have?

There hasn't been a roundup of mafiosi by the feds around here in
years - and don't hold your breath waiting for one.

The difference between New York and Boston is not simply one of scale:
that New York, as home to the five biggest crime families, is a
major-league wiseguy town while Boston is not. There are still more
than a few made guys around here extorting bookies, running drugs,
whatever. Still, federal prosecutors are loath to bring another
era-spanning racketeering case against the remnants of Boston's mob
not merely because there are so few wiseguys left but because doing so
would inevitably mean revisiting the legacy of corruption within law
enforcement, especially Boston's FBI office.

To suggest, as the Department of Justice does, that it began and ended
with a few rogue agents involved in the mishandling of James "Whitey"
Bulger is simplistic. So, while the good guys in New York are still
chasing real live wiseguys, we're chasing ghosts, namely Bulger, who
may or may not be alive and is most definitely not where the FBI has
been or has not been looking for him.

Taking advantage of the federal racketeering act, prosecutors were
able to charge the New York wiseguys with crimes that stretch to 1976.
Detailing in court the way people around here were getting framed,
used, and excused going back to 1986, let alone 1976, would be a
defense attorney's dream.

"As the FBI approaches its 100-year anniversary, we remember that our
very beginnings were rooted in fighting gangsterism," FBI Deputy
Director John Pistole said in New York. "We face other daunting
challenges today, but our commitment to battling organized crime has
never wavered."

Could Pistole come here and make that same speech? Actually, let me
rephrase the question: Could Pistole come here, make that same speech,
and be believed?

If federal prosecutors here were to prepare an indictment similar in
scope and historic reach to the one in New York, some of those
indicted would have been working for the FBI or enlisted as government
witnesses over the last decade to clean up the mess created by corrupt
agents. Some of them will be in Miami in June, ready to testify for
the government when Bulger's old FBI handler, John Connolly, goes on
trial for allegedly helping Bulger's guys murder people.

The greatest single act of government aggression against the Mafia
around here was the creation of the Massachusetts Lottery. It muscled
out the mob's bread and butter, the daily number, essentially leaving
the gangsters with sports betting. The federal prosecutions of the
1980s took out some big shots, but the chances of seeing another big
Mafia trial here are, unlike Carmen DiNunzio, the alleged local Mafia
leader, slim.

DiNunzio faces state charges for extortion and sports bookmaking,
which might land him maybe five years, instead of a federal rap that
would be effectively a life sentence. As for DiNunzio's supposed
nickname, "The Big Cheese," he insists nobody calls him that, that
it's an invention of the cops and the newspapers because he runs a
cheese shop in the North End.

We have been reduced to bookmaking cases and made-up wiseguy nicknames.

What would Buckwheat say?

Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com.