FBI picks Bamford for top job in Boston

Warren T. Bamford -- a Lowell native who has worked as a sniper, hostage rescuer, antiterrorism specialist, and gang task force leader during his 21 years with the FBI -- will take over the agency's Boston office next month.

Bamford said yesterday that the 12-year hunt for fugitive gangster James "Whitey" Bulger will remain a top priority and that he also plans to work closely with local and state law enforcement agencies on both gang violence and international terrorism.

He said he has yet to have detailed briefings for his new job, so he wasn't ready to elaborate on his priorities for the Boston field office, which supervises agents in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Rhode Island.

Bamford, 48, succeeds Kenneth W. Kaiser , who left last week after 3 1/2 years as special agent in charge in Boston to become assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Inspection Division in Washington, D.C.

Bamford has been in charge of the counterterrorism division of the FBI's Los Angeles office since March. After six years as a Marine Corps officer, he joined the FBI in 1986 and has worked in Washington, New Haven, and Baltimore. He was a sniper on the bureau's Hostage Rescue Team, leader of a SWAT unit in New Haven, and was second in command of the FBI's national Critical Incident Response Group.

The Boston post is a return to his roots. He was raised in Lowell, graduated from Central Catholic High School in Lawrence in 1976, and earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, N.H., in 1980. His wife was raised in Haverhill, and the couple, who have three sons, still have family living in the Boston area.

"It's a pleasant surprise," Bamford said of his promotion during a telephone interview. He described himself as a huge fan of the New England Patriots and the Boston Red Sox, and joked that he is looking forward to returning to a place where he won't have to worry about sounding his R's.

"I don't have to learn the language," he said. "I can kind of revert to my native tongue."

But Bamford will also be heading a busy office that is responsible for helping local police fight crime, that must keep an eye on terrorist threats, and must deal with its own checkered history.

Kaiser has said one of his biggest regrets leaving Boston was the FBI's failure to capture the 77-year-old Bulger, who is charged with 19 slayings and is one of the FBI's 10 most wanted.

Bamford said he knows the FBI's handling of Bulger, a longtime bureau informant, created hard feelings in Boston, but hopes to build on relationships forged by Kaiser. "The biggest thing that I try to foster with the whole counterterrorism program and probably across the board is the partnerships," Bamford said.

While serving as the coordinator of a violent crime task force in Hartford during the 1990s, Bamford said, he built a strong relationship with John H. Durham , the federal prosecutor who later led the investigation resulting in the 2002 racketeering conviction of Bulger's former handler, retired FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr.

"We became great friends," said Bamford, adding that Durham was "very congratulatory" about his new job in Boston.

In a statement to the Globe yesterday, Durham, now deputy US attorney for Connecticut, called Bamford "one of the most decent, honest people I know." He said, "The citizens of Massachusetts and its law enforcement community are indeed fortunate to have a person of his caliber as the new head of the FBI's Boston office."

Bamford said he plans to use the same teamwork strategy to target gangs in Boston, which authorities blame in part for the surge in violent crime in the last two years, including 74 homicides last year and 75 in 2005, the most in a decade.

"People have a right to have a safe neighborhood," Bamford said. "They have a right to be safe in their homes. They have a right to push a baby carriage down the street without worrying about someone shooting at them or hurting them. Gangs affect neighborhoods."

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton , who was formerly Boston police commissioner, said Bamford has done an extraordinary job in working with the Los Angeles police to coordinate antiterrorism efforts, adding that Boston is fortunate to be getting him.

He said Bamford and Boston's new police commissioner, Edward F. Davis, should work well together since neither have any "baggage."

"It's a great opportunity with all the new leadership in public safety in Massachusetts to forge relationships and get beyond history, which is often difficult in Boston," Bratton said. "Part of its Irish history is it always hangs on to the grudges, and none of these guys have any grudges."

While working on the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team, Bamford was deployed to three high-profile operations: the Ruby Ridge standoff in Idaho in 1992, the Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Texas, in 1993, and the Talladega prison riot in Alabama in 1995.

Bamford said he was an observer during the standoff at Ruby Ridge with white separatist Randy Weaver and never fired his weapon. He later testified before a congressional committee investigating the confrontation, which led to the deaths of US Deputy Marshal William Degan of Quincy and Weaver's wife and son.

"It was a real tragedy," said Bamford, who didn't know Degan and was dispatched to the scene after the deputy marshal was killed. "It was certainly a rough time for the folks there and the bureau, as well. We move on. We try to get better."

James McDonnell , who is second in command of the Los Angeles Police Department and has known Bamford since they attended Saint Anselm together, described Bamford as a genuine, nice, hard-working guy, "the kind of guy that you'd be real proud if your sister married him, just a class act."

Shelley Murphy can be reached at shmurphy@globe.com.