Bulger gang tough enough to 'destroy' Mafia, Flemmi says

Rivalry touted at murder trial of ex-FBI star

Gaston De Cardenas/associated press/PoolStephen Flemmi, who partnered with James ''Whitey'' Bulger in the Winter Hill gang, testified on years of dealings with John J. Connolly Jr. (Gaston De Cardenas/associated press/Pool)

MIAMI - Gangster Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi boasted to a Florida jury yesterday that while he and his partner James "Whitey" Bulger were being protected by the FBI for providing information against the Mafia, they were actually more dangerous than their mob rivals.

"If we had a competition with the Mafia, we would absolutely, positively destroy them," said the 74-year-old gangster, testifying in the state murder trial of his former handler, retired FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr.

Jurors seemed unimpressed, their faces expressionless, as they listened to Flemmi talk about the Mafia. The slightly built gangster, who is serving a life sentence for 10 murders, hardly looked menacing in his green windbreaker, worn over his prison-issued khaki shirt and pants.

Seated at the defense table, Connolly, 68, stared at Flemmi with a slight look of disgust.

Flemmi recounted a meeting he had in the 1980s with the New England Mafia boss at the time, Raymond "Junior" Patriarca, to settle a dispute between two notorious drug dealers - Mafia associate Salvatore "Mickey" Caruana and Frank Lepere, who was protected by Bulger and Flemmi.

"We met in a trailer behind Caruana's home," said Flemmi, adding that Patriarca personally attended the sit-down. "I stated my position and said we wanted our money, $200,000 was our share, and we got it. I was armed, and we won the issue."

It was Flemmi's third and final day on the stand. Connolly, who retired from the FBI in 1990 after 22 years and is already serving a 10-year prison term for racketeering, is accused of murder and conspiracy to murder in the 1982 slaying of Boston business consultant John B. Callahan. Connolly is accused of warning Bulger and Flemmi that the FBI planned to question Callahan and suggesting he'd probably implicate the gangsters in the murder of Tulsa millionaire Roger Wheeler.

Last week, a hitman-turned-government witness, John Martorano, testified that at Bulger and Flemmi's urging, he lured Callahan to Florida and killed him. Callahan's bullet-riddled body was found Aug. 2, 1982, in the trunk of his Cadillac at Miami International Airport.

Even though Connolly is charged only in Callahan's murder, prosecutors have been allowed to present additional evidence in an attempt to show that Connolly was a corrupt agent.

The credibility of Martorano and Flemmi is a central issue in the case. Martorano was freed last year after serving 12 years and two months for 20 murders. Flemmi is serving a life sentence under a deal that spared him the death penalty.

In exchange for his cooperation against Connolly, the government has placed him in a witness security unit at an undisclosed federal prison.

Flemmi told jurors that Connolly was like another member of Bulger's gang, that he pocketed $235,000 in payoffs from them between 1981 and 1990, and that he routinely leaked information to them. In return, he said, they fed Connolly information about the FBI's top priority at the time, the Mafia.

Flemmi said Callahan enlisted him, Bulger, and Martorano to kill Wheeler as part of a plot to take over the Tulsa businessman's company, World Jai Alai, a gambling operation with arenas in Miami and Connecticut.

If the plan had succeeded, Flemmi said, he and other members of Boston's notorious Winter Hill gang would have served as muscle for Callahan, making sure the Mafia didn't demand a cut of World Jai Alai's profits.

Connolly's defense lawyer, Manuel L. Casabielle, implying that Flemmi was lying, asked skeptically, "You were going to stand up against the entire Mafia?"

Flemmi shot back, "The Mafia didn't want to get involved with us. I'll tell you, we were a formidable group."

But there was no mob showdown because the plot to take over World Jai Alai fell apart.

Flemmi testified that Connolly warned him and Bulger in 1982 that one of Callahan's friends, Edward "Brian" Halloran, was cooperating with the FBI and had implicated the gangsters and Callahan in Wheeler's slaying. The tip prompted Bulger to gun down Halloran, and an innocent bystander, on Boston's waterfront in May 1982, Flemmi testified.

Flemmi admitted he was disappointed that he wasn't there for the hit. "I'm part of the team, I should have been available in case something went wrong," Flemmi said.

After Halloran's murder, Flemmi said, Connolly warned Bulger that the FBI planned to question Callahan.

Later, Flemmi said, he was present when Bulger told Connolly that Martorano would "take care of it."

Flemmi conceded they never specifically told Connolly that "taking care of it" meant Callahan would be killed, but he insisted the agent knew.

"He gave us the information," Flemmi said. "He knew our reputation."