David G. Binney, 67; held leadership positions at FBI
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Growing up in Wrentham, David Gardner Binney was the most competitive kid on the street, his brother recalled.
"Dave was always knocking somebody over, bloodying their nose. He was just a hard player in everything he did. He was the guy whose team you wanted to be on," said William Binney.Mr. Binney's drive carried him to West Point, then to Vietnam, and through an almost 25-year career with the FBI. He was deputy director under Louis J. Freeh in 1994 before he retired from the bureau and went to work in corporate security.
Mr. Binney died Oct. 4 at his home in Mount Pleasant, S.C. He had a heart attack in his sleep, his family said. He was 67.
He was a trusted ally of Freeh from their days investigating organized crime in New York City in the early 1980s. But the FBI director didn't always take his advice, said Ronald Kessler, author of "The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI."
"For years, Binney warned FBI Director Louis Freeh about the deplorable state of the FBI's computers. In an age when even 85-year-old grandmothers used e-mail, Freeh still refused to use it or to employ a computer himself," Kessler said in an e-mail response to a Globe reporter.
"When Freeh finally listened, the FBI's computers were so antiquated no one would take them as a donation to a church, and that meant the FBI couldn't handle all the intelligence it was receiving before 9/11," the author said.
As one of the oldest of 12 children, Mr. Binney had a big brother's sense of responsibility and a strict sense of right and wrong.
"He was a little bit different than the rest of us," said William Binney, who was first born. "He was very rules-oriented. Right and wrong was very important to him, and you did not cross that line."
Mr. Binney was born in Rochester, N.H., and was raised in Wrentham, where he graduated from King Philip Regional High School. He received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point from then-Senator John F. Kennedy.
He graduated in 1964 and served in the Army for the next three years, rising to captain in the 25th Division in Vietnam. He also served with the Fifth Division in Colorado.
He served a 13-month tour in Vietnam ending in 1966 as a forward observer with the 27th Infantry Wolfhound Regiment. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Army Commendation Medal, and Combat Infantryman Badge for "Valor Under Fire."
Mr. Binney began his FBI career in 1970. As an agent, he worked in field offices in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Indiana. His first marriage ended in divorce.
In 1976, he earned a law degree from the University of Indiana Law School.
In February 1977, he was transferred to FBI headquarters in Washington for two years before he was assigned to head organized crime investigations in the New York City bureau.
He was a lead investigator in cases that made headlines for years, including the "Pizza Connection" heroin busts in the 1980s. The case involved an extensive drug-trafficking operation by Sicilian organized crime members who used pizza parlors as fronts. He also led the bureau's investigation of Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno," the head of the Genovese crime family who pleaded guilty to racketeering and extortion in 1989.
In March 1985, Mr. Binney was named assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Washington Metropolitan field office. He was later promoted to inspector-in-place and held several other leadership positions during his career.
After he retired from the bureau in 1994, Mr. Binney worked as
Friends in South Carolina, where he moved after retiring, introduced him to Carolyn Black. They were married for more than four years.
"These have been some of the happiest times," said his brother William of East Burke, Vt., who fondly recalled a golf weekend with Mr. Binney in April. "We had the greatest time. He was just so alive and vibrant."
In addition to his brother and wife, Mr. Binney leaves two sons; Steve of Reston, Va., and Geoff of The Woodlands, Texas; six other brothers, Robert of Boston, Richard of Lebanon, Tenn., Laury of West Tisbury, Henry of Orlando, Fla., James of Hopedale, and Peter of Mansfield; two sisters, Nancy of Glenn Mills, Penn., and Susan of Bridgewater; five grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.
A funeral will be held at 10 a.m. today at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. Burial will be at West Point.
