The FBI is closing the book on the agency’s “corrupt” handling of James “Whitey” Bulger — forever.
The feds are refusing to make any further installments of Bulger’s case file public, saying the records are “investigative” and no longer subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
“The records responsive to your request are law enforcement records; there is a pending or prospective law enforcement proceeding relevant to these responsive records, and release of the information could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings. Therefore, your request is being administratively closed,” the FBI stated in a letter to the Herald Monday.
They did not divulge what investigation Bulger’s case could still be linked to, considering the former Southie mobster was murdered while in a West Virginia prison in August 2018 by two fellow inmates. He was 89 and wheelchair-bound at the time of his death.
It has also long been speculated that Bulger hid millions of dollars in foreign bank accounts that have yet to be discovered.
Bulger’s former FBI handler, John “Zip” Connolly, is also back in Massachusetts on a compassionate release and is appealing his case. He was given only years to live.
Other former Winter Hill gang associates — including Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi — are alive, but Flemmi’s Florida parole date is set for 2218.
Still, the FBI does not want Bulger’s secret file to “interfere” with whatever case may or may not be percolating, the letter states. The Herald is appealing the decision.
“It’s a joke,” said Steve Davis Wednesday. “There’s no way in hell they shouldn’t tell all. It’s not right to all of the loved ones of victims still looking for answers.”
Davis has fought for victims’ rights ever since his sister, Debra, was reportedly slain by Bulger in 1981 – when Connolly was Whitey’s FBI handler.
Bulger was found guilty in August of 2013 in federal court in Boston for the murder of 11 people, as well as numerous counts of extortion, money laundering, drug dealing, and firearms possession. But he took to his grave the dirty dealings he had with the Boston branch of the FBI when he was killing with impunity.
“The whole thing was corrupt from the get-go,” said Janet Uhlar, a juror on Bulger’s 2013 trial. “They put out a lie. He was never an informant, he bought information from the FBI.”
Uhlar, who added she shared 70 letters with Bulger after the trial, said she still wonders what role the CIA had with the serial killer while he was locked up early in his life and submitted to an LSD experiment.
“His mind was manipulated by the CIA and he shouldn’t have been let out into the public,” she said Wednesday. “The other guys were as dirty as dirty could be.”
In an addendum to the FOIA denial sent to the Herald, the FBI states “Congress excluded three categories of law enforcement and national security records” from the public records law. That includes “records of intelligence sources, methods, or activities.” And, they add, the FBI “can
neither confirm nor deny the existence of records pursuant to FOIA exemptions.”
It’s as if Bulger never existed.
“They don’t want to reveal what they have,” Uhlar said, adding sitting on the jury was “disturbing and changed my life forever.”
The limited information the FBI has made public is mostly canned mob work with bookies and fixing horse races. The murders, leaks, double-dealing, life on the lam, and intel possibly gleaned from Bulger once he was caught in Santa Monica, Calif., in June of 2011, will never see the light of day.
He was living with his lover Catherine Greig with $822,198 in cash hidden in the wall inside their apartment. She did time and is now out.
Bulger’s secrets, however, remain locked up for eternity, with another appeal as the only hope.
