How the FBI helped "Whitey" Bulger

By: Overtime Staff
Topics: 60 Rewind

About six years after Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger disappeared, the bodies of his alleged victims started turning up all over Boston. As Ed Bradley reported in his 2001 60 Minutes story on Bulger, tips from former members of Bulger's gang led authorities to the bodies of at least six people Bulger himself allegedly tortured and killed.

Eddie Mackenzie, who once worked for Bulger, took 60 Minutes to one of those grave sites, where he told Bradley that he believed Bulger killed many more than the 19 for which he stands accused. "You're talking 70, 80 easily," Mackenzie said.

Bulger's brutality, as Mackenzie describes it, is shocking, but so is the revelation that some of these killings may have been done with the help of the FBI. It turns out that Bulger had been operating as a longtime FBI informant, committing crimes under the protection of corrupt federal agents.

Here's an exchange from Bradley's 2001 60 Minutes report, called "The FBI & The Mob:"

Ed Bradley: Let me ask you a difficult question, as a former FBI agent, do you, in any way, hold other FBI agents, the bureau itself, responsible for these murders?

Former FBI agent Robert Fitzpatrick: Yes, I do. Yes.

In the end, it took the FBI 16 years to catch a mobster who landed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list for crimes he committed with the FBI's help.

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by davidperi June 27, 2011 12:49 AM EDT: No moral consciousness because their morality is darkened by the pride and material wealth of a self importance.; Reply to this comment

by longtree-2009 June 24, 2011 5:19 AM EDT

where is bulger's proof? criminals always say they're innocent, reformed, sorry, that they have mental disorders. how is this allegation any different? where is his evidence, his proof that the fbi, police, aided and abetted him in his many murders?

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by berlinfoto-2009 June 24, 2011 5:41 AM EDT: I at one time, lived across the street form a FBI Informant, then again maybe he was some kind deep cover agent for the FBI. The neighbor's biggest deal was selling the criminal life style, you can be a criminal just like me, and grow rich and stay out of jail, just do as I tell you to do. He was involved in all sorts of crime, mainly as a conspirator, and his fellow conspirators would go to jail, and the neighbor would remain free.
It was the same old song and dance but with new suckers, each time. My guess is that many of them were first time offenders, and for the offense, that they conspired with the informant over.
My guess is that the informant got these people to do things that would never even think about doing, for it would sort of be like the Moonie's love bombing someone, lots of actors would profess how good the criminal life could be.


by berlinfoto-2009 June 23, 2011 11:36 PM EDT: FBI worshipers of power, have long ago forgotten their purpose, if that is they ever had one. If solving a crime can increase their power, then they spare no expense solving it, if solving a crime would diminish their power they will spare no expense in covering up that crime.; Reply to this comment

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