Trices Group Book Review Journal

Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance . .

Lehr, Dick and Gerard O'Neill

by:

Perennial: HarperCollins Publishers

Publisher:

Location:

2000

Mark McGarry

Cover:

Softcover

Type:

Lynard Barnes

reviewed by:

11/03/2006

Comment:

**** Highly Recommended. The FBI entanglement with the Irish Mob

Arrogance, as a character trait, never starts off as such. Behind every arrogant, egocentric persona is a flawed foundation.

In reading Lehr and O'Neill's BLACK MASS: THE TRUE STORY OF AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE FBI AND THE IRISH MOB, it is the arrogance exposed more than the related crimes that stands out.

James J. "Whitey" Bulger decides he needed a legitimate business to cover his racketeering activities. Stephen and Julie Rakes had just opened a new liquor store , "Stippo's" , in South Boston,. Bulger decided he wanted it and presented the couple with a bag of money and the ultimatum to take it and leave the store to him. Knowing Bulger's reputation, they accepted. Bulger could do such things because he was arrogant. He was entitled.

The Rakes took their situation to a relative, Joseph Lundbohm, a Boston police detective. The relative said that he knew an "agent" in the FBI whom he believed would jump at the opportunity to pursue a case against an organized crime chieftain, which Bulger certainly was. The FBI agent, John Connolly, simply warned Bulger that the Boston police were aware of the intimidation scheme. John Connolly was not going to let a little case of extortion and intimidation interfere with the life of one of his prized informants, which James J. "Whitey" Bulger was. John Connolly could make such decisions because he was arrogant. He was entitled.

A couple of days after Lundbohm met with Connolly, the seemingly omnipresent Bulger told Stephen Rakes to inform detective Lundbohm to butt out. By 1984, Bulger's "South Boston Liquor Mart", Bulger's new name for "Stippo's", was one of two business fronts he used to cover the money trail of his illicit enterprises.

Lehr and O'Neill's book is not the only one on Bulger and the Boston mob, but it is the best. A straight, factual rendition of how one organized crime element in Boston used and, in effect, directed federal law enforcement, courtesy of FBI Special Agent John Connolly and those in the agency he managed to ensnarl in his grand scheme of self-aggrandizement. The surprising effect of the authors' effort is how seamlessly it all fits together. A criminal enterprise determined to maintain control of its "territory" and keep out rival elements and an

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arm of federal law enforcement, swooning under the sway of John Connolly, dedicated to keeping its "stats" up to show how effective it was against crime–organized crime in particular. The arrogance in the mix merely highlights the self-centeredness of both the criminal and crime fighter. Both opted to pursue self-interest over any guiding principle or framework of principles. How it could happen is easy to see in retrospect.

By the time Bulger met with Special Agent John Connolly in 1975 and Bulger agreed to become his informant, Bulger was already in control of South Boston's gambling and loan-sharking network. Bulger was ten years out of prison after serving a nine years sentence for what amount to racketeering. In the self-centered world of criminals, Bulger had already been an FBI informant of sorts. Recruited by Special Agent Dennis Condon throughout the early 1970s, Condon was unable to get Bulger to fully cooperate with law enforcement. Cultural differences may have been the roadblock according to the authors. Condon was not from South Boston. He was not "of them"--the folks of "Southie". But Condon knew agent John Connolly and Connolly was from South Boston. Connolly had grown up in the same neighborhood as Bulger, went to the same schools and churches. Connolly knew the Bulger brothers, James and William, the latter an elected State Representative.

Condon helped Connolly get transferred from the Brooklyn FBI office to Boston. He then handed the Bulger informant file over to Connolly. The rest was a sordid history of abuse and misuse.

Connolly became an FBI agent in 1968, three years after Bulger's release from prison. With seven years experience and with Condon's help, Connolly was able to get transferred back to his hometown--to the old neighborhood. It is inescapable to conclude that the same qualities that made Connolly such a perfect match in getting James Bulger to rat-out his criminal colleagues were the same qualities that allowed Bulger to flip the relationship. Bulger had risen to the top of the criminal heap in Boston by ruthless, arrogant calculation. Bulger did not have to make any changes to his style or methods in dealing with FBI agent Connolly. For Bulger, it was always a question is this good for me or bad for me? A black and white question with no shades of gray. Special Agent Connolly's downfall resulted from asking himself the same self-centered question. It is a quality rarely found in law enforcement officers of any ilk, but especially of FBI agents. Connolly was using Bulger to promote his self-interest above and beyond any interest related to the community, the FBI or anyone else. Bulger had made his bones by exploiting such people. Why should an FBI agent be treated any differently.

Connolly allowed himself to be used by Bulger. But of course Connolly, certainly at first, would not see it that way. He saw the relationship as an extension of his job. Putting bad guys in jail by getting information from another bad guy. It was an FBI strategy. But it was never FBI strategy to look the other way as other crimes were committed. That is the line that Connolly crossed. He, his supervisors, and to a lesser degree, those charged with directing the Boston FBI office at the time, crossed that line out of simple arrogance. Connolly's career and his position were more important than any ultimate aim of justice.

Special Agent John Connolly was charged on October 11, 2000 with leaking FBI information to Bulger that resulted in the murder of three men during the 1980s. The Bulger criminal organization was finally dismantled in 2002 when all of his lieutenants were arrested and charged with racketeering. James "Whitey" Bulger however remains a fugitive.

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BLACK MASS is one of those books dealing with a narrow subject with implications over an expansive range of seemingly mundane human experiences. There is the ongoing corruptive influence of egoists like Bulger and the corruption of law enforcement. Both are found in other places, other times. To generalize about the subject is simply to recognize a flaw in human nature–the tendency found in all of us to focus on self rather than principles of behavior or conduct. Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill have shown in this book how, even in the most exemplary of social institutions such as the FBI, one person can subvert noble goals. Nothing new. Even so, it is tragic.

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