The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has canceled $8.4 million in judgments against the FBI that had been awarded in connection to two 1982 murders committed by notorious Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger - with the help of the FBI.
From the late 1970s well into the 1990s, Bulger lived a double life as both leader of the Boston area Winter Hill Gang crime syndicate and as one of the FBI's "Top Echelon" informants. As the key figure in what the court called the "tawdry tale of the FBI's corrupt collaboration," Bulger, along with his partner and co-informant Stephen "the Rifleman" Flemmi, provided the FBI with information leading to the conviction dozens of members of rival gangs, including the Mafia. In return, the FBI protected Bulger and Flemmi, and in some cases even aided their criminal activities.
"The FBI's ardent desire to bring the Mafia to heel led it to make a Faustian bargain: in exchange for information about Mafia activities, the FBI would protect Bulger and Flemmi and 'look the other way' as the duo pursued their own felonious misadventures," wrote the court.
The case decided by the Court of Appeals involved a 2006 lawsuit filed against the U.S. government by the heirs of two men murdered on Bulger's orders in 1982. On September 5, 2006, a U.S. District Court found that the FBI's mishandling of Bulger and his associates had contributed to the murders and awarded the heirs a total of $8.4 million. The Court of Appeals dismissed the judgment, ruling that the 2006 lawsuit had not been filed in a timely manner.
"We are not without sympathy for the plaintiffs' plight," wrote the court in its ruling. "But statutes of limitation are designed to operate mechanically. They aspire to bring a sense of finality to events that occurred in the distant past and to afford defendants the comfort of knowing that stale claims cannot be pursued."
In 2002, FBI agent John Connolly was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for racketeering and obstruction of justice in his relationships with Bulger, Flemmi and the Winter Hill Gang. But what about Bulger himself?
Where In the World is 'Whitey' Bulger?
You might think that Bulger is now rotting away in a federal prison. Well, forget about it. After being tipped off by his FBI "buddies" that he had been indicted and was about to be arrested, Bulger fled Boston in December of 1994 and remains at large today. He is on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List (Bulger photographs), with a reward of $2 million offered for information leading to his capture.
Photo: James "Whitey" Bulger in 1994 - FBI
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