Mike
At End Of Day
by
George V. Higgins
tells the story of this FBI,mob partnership
great read.
sources: Ex-FBI agent Rico likely to slip away
by J.M. Lawrence
Monday, November 11, 2002
While disgraced former FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. sits in a Kentucky federal prison cell, the man who forged the Boston FBI's original alliance with the mob 40 years ago plays golf in Florida.
Belmont native H. Paul Rico, now in his late 70s, has apparently slipped the noose, according to several sources.
Despite explosive testimony in Boston in May linking Rico to the 1981 mob murder of a Tulsa millionaire, the U.S attorney's office said last week federal investigators are stymied by the statute of limitations on racketeering.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma police who remain convinced Rico helped orchestrate the hit on Roger Wheeler have so far been unable to convince prosecutors to indict the elderly FBI legend.
And Rico himself fended off Congress this year by gruffly invoking his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
``He's the only guy who really, really knows,'' said a Congressional investigator.
Now preparing a report after a two-year investigation, House Committee on Government Reform leaders contend Rico likely holds the key to Department of Justice secrets from the 1960s that paved the way for Winter Hill gang bosses Stephen ``The Rifleman'' Flemmi and James ``Whitey'' Bulger to win cover for their crimes.
But the depth of the government's alliance with the mob may only surface now in U.S. District Court Judge Reginald Lindsay's courtroom next year in civil litigation.
A dozen attorneys for victims of Flemmi and Bulger are battling the government for damages and the Department of Justice is fighting back with claims of government immunity and other legal roadblocks.
Attorneys for the Wheeler family recently filed additional court papers pointing the finger at Rico for allegedly providing a Winter Hill Gang hit man with enough personal information to find Wheeler and execute him on May 27, 1981.
``It took 20, 30 years but those chickens come home to roost,'' said attorney Frank A. Libby Jr., who is representing the Wheelers in the $860 million claim.
With the same testimony the government used to convict Connolly of racketeering in May, the Wheelers' attorneys submitted hit man John Martorano's statements that Rico provided him the roadmap to find Wheeler at a Tulsa golf course.
``Bulger and Flemmi directed Wheeler's murder at the request of Rico and (Winter Hill associate) John Callahan,'' attorneys told the court.
The motive behind the murder conspiracy was to take control of Wheeler's lucrative World Jai Alai by convincing his widow to sell to Callahan, attorneys claim.
Rico was retired from the FBI then and working as the head of Jai Alai security for Wheeler, who had just bought the Florida-based gaming operation.
With former FBI agents running his operation, Wheeler thought he was safe, Libby said.
``He believes he's in a cocoon,'' said Libby. ``He buys into this already-infested swamp and it ends up getting him killed.''
Federal prosecutors said they have no jurisdiction to bring charges in a Tulsa murder case. They also have no racketeering case against an ex-agent without a criminal act in the last five years, sources said.
``Martorano's allegations are ridiculous,'' Rico's attorney, Peter E. Parker said last week and declined further comment.
In court papers, Parker has asked the judge to dismiss the case, saying Rico ``strongly denies the factual allegations against him and denies liability.''
Libby counters that Rico was ``the architect of the protective shield around Mr. Flemmi.''
``Not only did they believe they could get away with murder, they did get away with murder,'' Libby said. ``They take it on themselves to go cross country and murder a Fortune 500 CEO. It manifests a boldness that cuts across any other kind of criminal activity.''
Through Flemmi, Rico was able in the 1960s to convince Joe ``The Animal'' Barboza to testify against the Mafia, helping secure many of the convictions, according to congresssional investigators.
Through Flemmi, Rico and other agents carried out then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy's and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover's orders to bring down the mob, they said.
Flemmi, 67, will eventually face the death penalty in Tulsa for Wheeler's murder after trial in Boston next year on 10 other murder cases. Martorano will be a key witness in Boston and Oklahoma.
Bulger, 72, has been on the lam for seven years after fleeing a 1995 federal racketeering indictment in Boston. He is now charged with 19 gangland murders spanning a quarter of a century.
Tulsa Police Sgt. Mike Huff acknowledged that ``a lot of people are concerned about what Rico could unravel,'' he said.
Huff, who was a rookie cop on the day Wheeler was killed, remains committed to solving the crime. He said police have recently developed additional evidence in the case but refused to elaborate.
``I don't care where the chips fall,'' he said. ``I don't care where this leads.'' |
