Bulger and Flemmi forged friendship over crime, physical fitness

(Drug Enforcement Agency)

This surveillance photograph taken in 1989 by the Drug Enforcement Agency shows Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi (left) and James "Whitey" Bulger walking near Castle Island in South Boston.

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

MIAMI -- Most of the criminals that hung out at a Somerville auto body shop in the mid 1970s were hard-partying thugs. All except two men -- James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi -- who were physical fitness buffs and shunned alcohol and cigarettes.

For the first time today, Flemmi publicly described how he and Bulger forged a partnership that made them Boston's most powerful gangsters. They did this, Flemmi testified, while secretly working as FBI informants.

Flemmi described his relationship with Bulger during the murder trial of former FBI agent John J. Connolly. As members of the Winter Hill Gang, Flemmi said he and Bulger "kind of hit it off together because we both identified with each other's activities."

"The rest of the guys were kind of party-type guys,'' Flemmi said of the gang at the garage. "We liked to party also, we weren't square, but we weren't extreme.''

At the time, Bulger told Winter Hill Gang members that he had been approached by Connolly for the FBI. Initially, Flemmi said he was led to believe that Connolly was providing him information.

Flemmi testified that he met Connolly in 1975, when Bulger introduced them at a coffee shop in Newton. The FBI agent wanted information about the local Mafia. Flemmi said he agreed to help, funneling information through Bulger. By 1976, Flemmi said he had begun joining Bulger for his regular meetings with Connolly.

Flemmi had easy access to local Mafia leaders and had been invited to join several times, but declined. "I didn't trust them," Flemmi said.

Bulger, on the other hand, couldn't join the Mafia because he was Irish. Regardless, Bulger didn't trust them, and apparently the feeling was mutual.

"They didn't particularly like him because he was kind of a violent guy,'' Flemmi said. "He was his own person."

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