“In the beginning [Bulger] was a small time player… And the next thing you know, he’s a damn kingpin. You know why? Because the FBI let it happen.” Whitey Bulger’s rise to power was greased by the FBI, who covered for him. Deliberate FBI negligence led to the murder of an informant. Two FBI agents went to prison. Black Mass does not flinch from this ugly truth. And this may be Johnny Deep’s best role ever.
In December 1977, FBI agent John Morris was put in charge of the Boston FBI’s Organized Crime Squad. Morris not only proved himself unable to rein in Connolly’s protection of Bulger, but even began assisting Connolly. By 1982 Morris was “thoroughly compromised”, having had Bulger buy plane tickets for his then-girlfriend Debbie Noseworthy to visit him in Georgia while he was being trained for drug investigations. Even after 1983, when he was transferred to head up the Boston FBI’s drug task force, Morris remained an accomplice to Connolly and Bulger.
A federal judge ruled on September 5, 2006, that the mishandling of Bulger and Flemmi caused the 1984 murder of informant John McIntyre. As a result, the McIntyre family was ordered to receive more than $3 million from the U.S. Federal Government. The judge stated the FBI failed to properly supervise their own agent John Connolly (convicted and jailed in 2002) and also failed to investigate numerous allegations that Bulger and Flemmi were involved in drug trafficking, murder, and other crimes over decades.
In a 2011 interview, Stephen Flemmi recalled, “Me and Whitey gave [the Feds] shit, and they gave us gold.”
FBI agent John Connolly may well have been corrupt from the beginning. He and Bulger grew up together.
John Joseph Connolly, Jr. is a former FBI agent, who was convicted of racketeering and obstruction of justice charges stemming from his relationship with Irish mobsters James “Whitey” Bulger, Steve Flemmi, and the Winter Hill Gang. Connolly was released from federal prison June 28, 2011,[2] and was transferred to Florida State Prison to serve the remainder of his sentence for his 2008 second degree murder conviction.[