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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (115756)	9/11/2008 10:49:40 PM
From: Skeeter Bug	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

...and in more new... southern texas is set to play the role of tina turner... ba...dum...

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (115756)	9/12/2008 9:59:33 PM
From: Pogeu Mahone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Message Boards \| Politics/Government : Ask Michael Burke jesus christ SI has this board classified as Politics/Government? wtf?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (115756)	9/14/2008 11:25:44 AM
From: Giordano Bruno	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Don't drink the water Mike.

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (115756)	9/18/2008 1:54:07 PM
From: Pogeu Mahone	Respond to of 132070

Martorano: Connolly set Miami hit in motion By Associated Press \| Wednesday, September 17, 2008 \| bostonherald.com \| Local Coverage Photo by AP MIAMI - A mob hit man who claims responsibility for 20 killings testified today that he fatally shot a gambling executive in 1982 but that a former FBI agent on trial for murder set events in motion that led to the assassination. John Martorano said leaders of Boston’s Winter Hill Gang got protection and tips from former agent John Connolly, whom they often referred to as "Zip." That included information that former World Jai-Alai president John Callahan might finger the gangsters for an earlier hit on an Oklahoma businessman — also done by Martorano. "John Connolly had told them there was going to be so much pressure. They were going to bring it on Callahan now," Martorano said. "John Connolly had told them they were going to put so much pressure on him he was going to fold." They feared they "were all going to jail for the rest of our lives," he added. That included Connolly, who Martorano said was on the mob payroll. "They told me at all times they took good care of Mr. Connolly," he testified. Connolly is being tried for murder and murder conspiracy in the July 1982 killing of Callahan, whose body was found stuffed in the trunk of his silver Cadillac at Miami International Airport. Connolly, 68, faces life in prison if convicted. Martorano spent just over 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to killing Callahan and admitting to 19 other murders. Now free, the 67-year-old’s agreement with prosecutors requires him to testify against Connolly. "If I lied in any way, I’d do the rest of my life in prison," Martorano said. Dressed in a conservative blue suit, crisp white shirt and blue tie, he testified in a soft, matter-of-fact voice about his many murders. Callahan, an accountant by profession, got involved with the gang in the mid-1970s, Martorano said. The mob was led by James "Whitey" Bulger — still a fugitive on the FBI’s "Ten Most Wanted" list — and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi. Both gang leaders were secretly working as FBI informants handled by Connolly. Under cross-examination by Connolly attorney Manuel Casabielle, Martorano said he received $20,000 from the U.S. government as "startup money" after his prison release and acknowledged that he faced the death penalty if he had been prosecuted for all the murders. "That’s a pretty sweet deal, isn’t it?" Casabielle asked about his 12-year prison term. "I don’t deny I made a good deal. I risked my life to make this deal, too," Martorano answered. He added that he did not consider himself a "rat" for testifying against his former partners because many of them broke gangster rules by becoming FBI informants. "You can’t rat on a rat," he said. Martorano said he never met Connolly except in court but that Bulger told him that the agent passed sensitive information to them. Callahan had pushed for a hit on Oklahoma businessman Roger Wheeler, who owned World Jai-Alai and was about to discover Callahan had been skimming profits. But after Martorano shot Wheeler, it became clear to the gang that Callahan had to go, too. "They wanted to kill him to stop him from hurting anybody," Martorano said. "They convinced me that it should be done." Martorano, who had been living as a fugitive in South Florida, said he met Callahan at the Fort Lauderdale airport. He shot him in the head, then put him in Callahan’s car. When he and an associate heard a moan, they shot Callahan again, Martorano said. They then scattered some of his belongings around Little Havana "to make it appear drug-related." Martorano also described how he killed Wheeler on May 27, 1981, in a country club parking lot in Tulsa, Okla., using information from another Boston ex-FBI agent, Paul Rico. Rico was charged in Wheeler’s killing but died before standing trial. Bulger and Flemmi, Martorano said, shipped guns and disguises to him and his associate. The assassins had detailed information about Wheeler, even his golf tee time, and simply walked up to him sitting in his car. Martorano said the .38-cal. handgun "exploded" when he pulled the trigger. Connolly is serving a 10-year sentence for a federal racketeering conviction over his protection of the Winter Hill Gang, including a tip that allowed Whitney Bulger to escape arrest just before a 1995 indictment. Flemmi is serving a life term and is expected to testify. Article URL: bostonherald.com Related Articles: Trial begins in John Connolly murder case /news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1119213 Whitey Bulger’s ex-pals line up to bury John Connolly /news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1118915

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (115756)	9/18/2008 1:56:10 PM
From: Pogeu Mahone	Respond to of 132070

Whitey Bulger’s ex-pals line up to bury John Connolly By Peter Gelzinis \| Sunday, September 14, 2008 \| bostonherald.com \| Columnists In a Miami courtroom tomorrow, the past will once again catch up to John Connolly. The former FBI agent who prosecutors say made it so much easier for friends like Whitey Bulger and Stevie Flemmi to kill people will stand trial for one of those murders. It will mark the second time in six years the rogue G-Man, affectionately dubbed “Zip” by Whitey, faces a jury. The first time around he was sent off to prison for 11 years for his efforts to obstruct justice. But the hometown jury stopped just short of believing that this flamboyant fed, who liked to sport French cuffs and have his nails manicured, enabled Whitey to kill a couple of problematic hoods who seemed poised to roll over on him. Tomorrow, Whitey Bulger’s devoted FBI manservant will be 1,500 miles away from home. This time, John will be led to the defense table in shackles, rather than allowed to sit with his wife and kids. And the murder of a Jai Alai executive named John Callahan will be haunting him. The story of this trial might best be summed up in a punch line Bill Cosby made famous back when he was TV’s favorite doctor, Cliff Huxtable . . . and Whitey Bulger was still killing people. “Remember, I brought you into this world,” Cosby would say to one of his petulant children, “and I can take you out.” Precisely the same could be said about the unholy trinity of star witnesses who are expected to tie John Callahan’s murder around Zip Connolly’s neck in the coming days. Between them, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi and John Martorano have killed close to 50 people. Kevin Weeks became the son Whitey never had and functioned as his gangster protege. He was the loyal bouncer always ready to break kneecaps and bury Whitey’s bodies. For John Connolly to avoid dying in a Florida prison, the jury will have to see Flemmi, Martorano and Weeks as monsters who all cut their various deals with the government. Zip’s last best hope is that those Florida strangers sitting in the box will be so appalled by how real gangsters look and sound, they will find the story of how this G-Man morphed into a gangster too incomprehensible to actually be true. Will they believe Stevie Flemmi when he tells them how Connolly urgently warned both himself and Bulger that John Callahan was planning to tell the FBI all he knew about the murder of his partner, Tulsa businessman Roger Wheeler? Flemmi will then go on to explain that a rattled Connolly reminded the two hardened killers who doubled as his prized informants “we could all go to jail for the rest of our lives” if something wasn’t done about Callahan. John Martorano, the contract killer who has confessed to murdering both Roger Wheeler and Callahan, will testify that Flemmi and Bulger told him about Zip Connolly’s fear. The problem of John Callahan needed to be dealt with. And so he was paid to stash Callahan’s body in the trunk of a Cadillac he parked at the Miami airport in 1982. The government will cement the pieces of this story together by telling the jury how John Connolly became the prince of the Boston FBI office by joining into a marriage of convenience and death with the likes of Bulger and Flemmi. In their role as confidential informants, the feds will say, they made Connolly’s career and in exchange they were given free rein to plunder and kill for almost 25 years. “Remember, I brought you into this world . . . and I can take you out.” Back when audiences were roaring at that line, John Connolly was telling his FBI superiors that the word of his two gangster rats was golden. Yes, they were killers. But they were killers who spoke the truth. Well, Whitey Bulger has run away. And Stevie Flemmi, who has already lied to a federal judge once to protect Connolly, back when he thought it might get him out of jail, will die in prison. Now, the bitter, ugly and ghastly truth is all Stevie has left. And it’s quite likely that truth will take Zip Connolly out. Article URL: bostonherald.com Related Articles: Martorano: Connolly set Miami hit in motion /news/national/south/view.bg?articleid=1119684 Gelzinis column sexist /news/opinion/letters/view.bg?articleid=1119557 Trial begins in John Connolly murder case /news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1119213