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June 23, 2011. The news of the notorious gangster Whitey Bulger’s capture—after sixteen years on the FBI’s Most Wanted list—swept the nation. Many breathed a sigh of relief. But for Thomas J. Foley, a former Massachusetts state police colonel and the investigator who sparked Bulger’s flight from Boston, the moment was bittersweet. The FBI may have caught Bulger, but as Foley had painfully discovered almost two decades before, they were also responsible for his escape.
It has been known that Whitey Bulger was a secret informant for the FBI, but it has never been revealed—until now—that the FBI was actually actively protecting Bulger from Foley, effectively derailing Foley’s efforts to stop Bulger’s horrific crime sprees time and again. At one point, the FBI even presented Foley with a plaque at a holiday party that read “the Most Hated Man in Law Enforcement,” a not-so-subtle suggestion that he and his team should lay off their investigation.
Most Wanted is a true-life thriller, and Foley is the hero at its center. His investigative efforts resulted in criminal convictions of a half-dozen of Boston’s most notorious thugs and also led to the conviction of John Connolly, one of the FBI agents who abetted Bulger; Connolly is now serving a forty-year prison sentence. In this book, Foley, a cop’s cop, honestly recounts how his wide-eyed admiration for the nation’s top law enforcement agency was gradually transformed by dark realities he didn’t want to believe.
***
When Whitey was captured, and flown back to Boston, he was the talk of the city, and much of the country, too. But it wasn’t for another month that I laid eyes on him myself. He was just a wisp of a guy shuffling around, his rough voice all that was left of the vitality that had once terrified an entire city. Just seeing how old Whitey was as he sat, his shoulders curved, on that chair—it reminded me of how long he’d been gone, and I remembered why he hadn’t been rotting in prison as he deserved. Why someone like Whitey Bulger had been able to stay in business for so long, killing, extorting, dealing drugs, terrorizing. How could it still fester, wrecking more lives, like those of the families of the victims sitting around me? I was pleased to see him captured, no question. But what kept coming back as I looked at this old man was the cold fury that had so often surged through me on this case.
— CHAPTER 2 —
At Christmas in 1991, we were about a year into the Bulger investigation. I was with a few guys from my team at Joe Tecce’s, the big, splashy restaurant in the North End. Big John Tutungian, Sly Scanlan, our hookup guy Chuck Hanko, and a few others. It was the annual Christmas party of the Boston office of the FBI for a lot of law enforcement people around New England.
FBI special agent John Connolly, one of the bigger showboats, always played the host. Remember, this was when the local FBI and the State Police were supposedly working night and day to get Whitey Bulger arrested and sent away. Guess where the booze came from. A liquor store called the Rotary Variety in South Boston that was owned by Whitey Bulger himself. That was the rumor back then, that Connolly picked it up there himself, and it turned out to be the truth: we were drinking Whitey’s booze.
My guys were bothered by the idea, needless to say. We drank, sure, but the beer did not go down easy. But, starting with Connolly, a lot of FBI agents seemed to think it was a matter for a few jokes, some hearty claps on the back, and maybe another round on Whitey.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston also had some law enforcement people in from around New England for a little get-together from time to time. A bunch of FBI agents swung by for one of them that year, 1991, and some “Staties,” including me. By then, we’d started to make some serious progress on the Bulger investigation, and I was feeling good about how things were coming along. A couple of agents clanged beer bottles together and yelled for quiet and then they announced they wanted to make a presentation. They did it up big, asked all of us to crowd around, and got all solemn. When everyone was quiet, one of the FBI agents called out: “Everyone, this is a very special occasion for all of us here, and we’d like to present an award to a distinguished trooper from the State Police. Would Corporal Tom Foley please step forward?”
There was a little too much tittering in the crowd. My friend Fred Wyshak, the assistant U.S. attorney, had been given an “award” from the feds just the year before, and he didn’t appreciate his very much. So I stayed right where I was.
“Tom Foley, please?” one of them repeated.
By now, the room was dead silent. I still didn’t move, so the feds came toward me, and drew many of the attendees, many of them my superiors in the State Police, in a ring around us. One of the agents made a little unfunny speech about my investigative zeal in the Bulger case. That got some laughs, but not many.
Then the two agents handed me my award, which was wrapped up in tissue paper. “Go ahead, Tom, open it up,” one of them told me.
I pulled the tissue paper away, and scanned the plaque. It read: “The Most Hated Man in Law Enforcement.” It had a picture of me with my name underneath.
They wanted me to read it out to the crowd, but no way. So one of them did the honors, while I just glared at him.
The FBI agents in the crowd got a chuckle out of it, but not too many other people did, and I certainly didn’t. Still, the agents shook my hand, looked me dead in the eye, and said, “Congratulations, Trooper, you’ve earned it.”
I still have that trophy someplace, and whenever I want to remember what it was really like to work on that case, I take it down and look at it. Then everything comes rushing back.
The most hated man in law enforcement. I’m proud of that, prouder of that than I have been of any other award I have ever received. This book is about how I earned that honor. It’s the story of my twenty-year quest to bring Whitey Bulger to justice when hardly anyone outside my little band of overworked State Police investigators—like Tutungian, Scanlan, and Hanko; and a dogged agent from the DEA named Dan Doherty; and a few others who came later—gave a shit, quite frankly, and the FBI did about everything in its power to stop us.
In 1990, when our investigation kicked in, Whitey Bulger was by far the most dominant figure in the Irish mob. The Mafia had started to flame out, leaving the Irish mob about the only mob with any impact in Boston. Steve Flemmi, or Steve “The Rifleman” Flemmi, as the newspapers always put it (so named for his lethal shooting skills as a paratrooper during the Korean War), came in second to Whitey. Flemmi was up there largely because he was tight with Bulger; Whitey would have ranked regardless. Still, Flemmi was the only mobster Whitey trusted, had ever trusted, or even spoke to on any kind of regular basis. Third was probably “Cadillac Frank” Salemme, so named for his favorite car, who had recently emerged from prison to claim control of what was left of the New England Mafia. He’d relied on Flemmi for help in getting established, which meant that he was drawing on Whitey’s reputation, too. In the Boston mob scene, Whitey had all the power—others simply borrowed it. But all three of these men were woven in tightly to our case.
By 1990, Bulger was sitting on a criminal empire the newspapers pegged at $50 million. It came from his marijuana smuggling, cocaine dealing, extortion, illegal liquor distribution, pilferage, racketeering, gaming, and loan-sharking, but he’d do about anything if enough money was on the table. Although he was rarely seen around town, even in South Boston, his presence was everywhere. If there was a crime anywhere in the city that involved scaring the crap out of someone, it was probably Whitey’s doing. If there was a legitimate business to be muscled in on, Whitey again. If someone needed to be made an example of, Whitey.
Whitey was just plain smarter than the other mobsters, better connected, with keener instincts. But most important of all, he was utterly ruthless. More than most gangsters, Whitey could always think several steps ahead, sure. But it was his ability to scare the shit out of people that made the difference. Terror was his business. It wasn’t just killing people. All mobsters killed people. By now, Whitey’s official tally is up to nineteen, but the real count is probably twice that, if you add up all the virtual unknowns from the gangland wars earlier on when he was making a name for himself as a killer. Those victims weren’t widely missed after their bodies were dropped into the trunk of a car, or dumped in some alley. But more than the numbers, it was the way he killed, at extremely close range, the tip of the gun right up in the victims’ faces, so that last thing they saw on this earth was Whitey Bulger hovering over them, relishing it, before he blew them away, the blood splattering on him, like that brought him the greatest satisfaction there was. People who were there told us that Whitey liked to lie down afterward, and a weird calm would descend over him. “Like he’d taken a Valium,” one of them said. And the whole scene was so grotesque, so horrible, he knew that word would get out about what he’d done, and that this would be good for him, too. Do that enough, and you have to do it less. Whitey Bulger has to be the most cold-blooded killer in Boston’s history. If he isn’t, I wouldn’t want to know the guy who is.
None of this was a big secret in Boston. Most people knew the basics of what Whitey was about. But until we came along, no one in law enforcement had been able to do what law enforcement is supposed to do—get a bastard like that off the street before he kills somebody else. Whitey had been at large since 1965, when he emerged from his only prison stint, served mostly in Leavenworth and Alcatraz for a string of bank robberies, the last one in the Midwest. Since then, he hadn’t been touched by law enforcement. Never questioned, never indicted, never arrested. Not once. It was as if Whitey Bulger was a model citizen.
To the FBI, it was like Bulger didn’t matter. Despite his fearsome reputation, he had nothing to do with anything. Well, we thought differently. There are plenty of things to say about the FBI, but I’ll save most of them for later. For now, I’ll just say that I have never known any other organizations, or any individuals, where what they said and what they did had so little to do with each other. But the funny part is that the FBI thinks this is fine, even now. Since I got that Most Hated award, federal judges, congressional committees, and countless newspaper accounts have all agreed that the FBI’s problems go very deep. They did here. The feds stymied our investigation of Whitey, got us investigated on bogus claims, tried to push me off the case, got me banished to a distant barracks, phonied up charges against other members of the State Police, lied to reporters, misled Congress, drew in the president of the United States to save themselves, nearly got me and my investigators killed, and—well, I’ll tell you and.
The Most Hated Man in Law Enforcement, indeed.
Part 1 Where I'm Coming From 1
Part 2 Getting Whitey 63
Part 3 The Big Reveal 133
Part 4 Bodies of Evidence 177
Part 5 The Big Picture 267
Epilogue 303
Appendix 307
Acknowledgments 321
Index 327
James “Whitey” Bulger was one of the country’s most horrific mobsters. The head of the Winter Hill Gang from South Boston, he ruled for several decades while the FBI looked the other way. Then, in the mid-90s, when the tireless investigative team led by Thomas Foley was closing in on Bulger, he was tipped off and fled. After sixteen years living as a fugitive with his girlfriend, he was finally captured and now awaits trail. This is the riveting behind the scenes story of Whitey Bulger, the bloody trail he left and how he was finally found, told by the man who led that investigation. The author of Most Wanted, Thomas J. Foley knows the Bulger case like no other person in law enforcement and he breaks it all down in this book, from Bulger’s childhood, first scuffles with the law, to his growing power and murderous rampages. Accused of killing 19 people (and possibly more), Bulger was trouble from the start. Released from prison after serving just nine years, Whitey continued his life of crime and in the 1960s, aligned himself with one of the local Irish gangs. A gang war was going on and Whitey, through manipulation and murder, rose to the top of the Winter Hill Gang. From there, he would reign through the 90s, controlling much of organized crime’s activities in Massachusetts. Foley, the former head of the Massachusetts State Police, was also the commander of the SSS (Special Services Section) and was in charge of bringing Bulger and his right-hand man, Steve Flemmi, to justice. He recounts the attempts in the 80s to get Bulger, with sweeping ideas of bugging every home, car and restaurant where members of the gang were known to hang out. Unfortunately, Bulger was always one step ahead and bugs were removed faster than they were placed in hiding spots. In the 90s, with Foley in charge, the focus of the investigation was changed and attention was turned first to the lowly bookies; get them, surmised Foley, and they’d be able to go up the chain of command in the Winter Hill Gang. The author provides a fascinating look into how they went about getting various members, and how those members were convinced to testify (and why some refused). Foley suspected early on that there was something going on with the FBI, and when his suspicions were proven, we see what the author had to deal with to keep his case alive. He was stymied almost every step of the way by the FBI, and particularly by John Connolly, Bulger’s FBI contact. Many men would give up and walk away but Foley was tireless, in part no doubt, because the victims’ families were desperate for help. Through testimony from Bulger’s accomplices, the reader will learn just what happened to many of the crime boss’s victims, how he liked to do the killings himself, and what was done with the bodies. Considered by some in South Boston as a sort of Robin Hood, this book brings to light the absolutely horrific, disgusting man Whitey Bulger was, and no doubt, still is today. Thanks to Foley’s efforts, he will finally be brought to justice when his trial starts later this year. Hopefully it will also bring some semblance of peace to those who suffered at Bulger’s hands. Quill says: An eye-opening, fascinating look into the life of Whitey Bulger and how a team of dedicated law enforcement officers brought him to justice.
5 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Thomas Foley made it his life work to get James "Whitey" Bulger. Reading his story will frighten you...how could they??? They meaning the FBI!
Thomas Foley wanted this monster off the streets of Boston so badly that it did affect his health....and he was thwarted on each try of capturing him by the FBI.
The story is so riveting you won't be able to put the book down. The book brings to lite a lot of the "Irish Mob" in Boston, and a lot of the ones that aren't there anymore.
The "Evil" one was finally caught decades later,I saw it on the news. Now in his eighties and just plain old. To think he got to live the good life after all he had done. Foley is now retired, but he is the one responsible for bring down this man.
I recommend this really good read....it will grab you and really make you think. Amazing that this is going on ...and yet we know it, but don't want to believe it!
I received this book from Simon & Schuster Publishing, and was not required to give a positive review.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Thomas J. Foley and John Sedgwick in their new book, “Most Wanted” published by Touchstone takes us on the true case Pursuing Whitey Bulger, the Murderous Mob Chief the FBI Secretly Protected.
From the back cover: When Whitey was captured, and flown back to Boston, he was the talk of the city, and much of the country, too. But it wasn’t for another month that I laid eyes on him myself. He was just a wisp of a guy shuffling around, his rough voice all that was left of the vitality that had once terrified an entire city. Just seeing how old Whitey was as he sat, his shoulders curved, on that chair—it reminded me of how long he’d been gone, and I remembered why he hadn’t been rotting in prison as he deserved. Why someone like Whitey Bulger had been able to stay in business for so long, killing, extorting, dealing drugs, terrorizing. How could it still fester, wrecking more lives, like those of the families of the victims sitting around me? I was pleased to see him captured, no question. But what kept coming back as I looked at this old man was the cold fury that had so often surged through me on this case.
From the inside jacket flap: June 23, 2011. The news of the notorious gangster Whitey Bulger’s capture—after sixteen years on the FBI’s Most Wanted list—swept the nation. Many breathed a sigh of relief. But for Thomas J. Foley, a former Massachusetts state police colonel and the investigator who sparked Bulger’s flight from Boston, the moment was bittersweet. The FBI may have caught Bulger, but as Foley had painfully discovered almost two decades before, they were also responsible for his escape.
It has been known that Whitey Bulger was a secret informant for the FBI, but it has never been revealed—until now—that the FBI was actually actively protecting Bulger from Foley, effectively derailing Foley’s efforts to stop Bulger’s horrific crime sprees time and again. At one point, the FBI even presented Foley with a plaque at a holiday party that read “the Most Hated Man in Law Enforcement,” a not-so-subtle suggestion that he and his team should lay off their investigation.
Most Wanted is a true-life thriller, and Foley is the hero at its center. His investigative efforts resulted in criminal convictions of a half-dozen of Boston’s most notorious thugs and also led to the conviction of John Connolly, one of the FBI agents who abetted Bulger; Connolly is now serving a forty-year prison sentence. In this book, Foley, a cop’s cop, honestly recounts how his wide-eyed admiration for the nation’s top law enforcement agency was gradually transformed by dark realities he didn’t want to believe.
There is a particular movie where the hero is at the top of one hill and the villain is at the top of a distant hill and the two of them face each other which let you know these two would battle throughout the movie. It was quite exciting. This is the same feeling I get when reading “Most Wanted” and what is even better is that this is a true story with Thomas J. Foley against Whitey Bulger. Get ready for a page-turning, thrill ride. I am a fan of the fiction books where the FBI hero is after a serial killer and all the dips and turns those cases take us on. While those books are exciting “Most Wanted” is even better as these events actually occurred. Colonel Foley was in a twenty year pursuit of Whitey Bulger simply because certain individuals within the FBI were tipping Mr. Bulger off of the pursuit. So “Most Wanted” becomes a two-way chase as Col. Foley continues after Bulger but also has to pursue who it is in the FBI that is after him and informing against him. Misters Foley and Sedgwick get us caught up in the story as they propel us along at a brisk clip in this true investigation. They show us what one man of integrity and honesty can do when even the system is operating against you. If you like true life police procedurals then this is the story for you.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Touchstone. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.bill2ID
Posted June 8, 2012
fast moving and interesting
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.PGAPete
Posted January 10, 2013
One question to be raised here is whether a child born in the 1960s and raised as an orphan is key to what happened in the Whitey Bulger case on either side. The child appeared to be befriended by state subcontractors in Massachusetts in the early to mid 1970s then have various individuals befriend him under pretenses to keep tabs on him. When Bulger became a fugitive in 1995, the man was ejected from a posiiton with Wr Grace came under attack from individuals implanted in his life from 1992-1996 ready to act should Bulger/Flemmi go awry. After Bulger left, individuals re-appeared bearing different names than when the man had been introduced to them as a boy. The man was subsequently steered to work for Hewlett Packard, where as the Bulger case further unraveled, he was subject to harassment for being responsible for fallout in the Bulger case and later been blackballed from employment in the area by a coworker at the Lawrence/Andover,Mass, facility who spread lies to make him unemployable and had been seen secretly meetingh with suit-wearing officials clandestinely in the Hewlett Packard parking lot after work.The man has been tracked and manipulated all of his life and it strongly appears to be connected to the Whitey Bulger case. Even a social worker as a child entered the boys life bearing the name and street address of an FBI agent mentioned in the literature on this case.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.dmarott1
Posted October 12, 2012
I lost interest in this book. Very repetitive, and I feel like it was a waste of my time and money.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.fafaPT
Posted August 16, 2012
What a great book, I could not put it down. If you read Black Mass then
this book really puts everthing into perspective .Tom Foley has a winner
with this book.
Anonymous
Posted October 7, 2012
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Posted October 14, 2012
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Posted May 12, 2012
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Posted October 11, 2012
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Overview
June 23, 2011. The news of the notorious gangster Whitey Bulger’s capture—after sixteen years on the FBI’s Most Wanted list—swept the nation. Many breathed a sigh of relief. But for Thomas J. Foley, a former Massachusetts state police colonel and the investigator who sparked Bulger’s flight from Boston, the moment was bittersweet. The FBI may have caught Bulger, but as Foley had painfully discovered almost two decades before, they were also responsible for his escape.
It has ...