Tale Of Two Brothers
The House Government Reform Committee issued a subpoena Monday to compel University of Massachusetts president William Bulger to testify before a congressional committee about his fugitive brother, James "Whitey" Bulger, a notorious mobster and FBI informant.
The committee delivered the subpoena to the U.S. Marshals Service in Washington Monday morning. The service's Boston office will deliver the subpoena to Bulger, who works in Amherst, Mass.
"It has Mr. Bulger's name on it," said Nick Mutton. "It will be served directly to Mr. Bulger either this afternoon or tomorrow morning."
The committee's chief lawyer, Jim Wilson, said over the weekend that Bulger's lawyer, Thomas Kiley, told him that his client would not show up voluntarily to testify at a Friday hearing in Boston.
Wilson said the committee started the process of issuing the subpoena "because Mr. Kiley was so emphatic in his message that Mr. Bulger will not appear."
It's unclear if Kiley will move to have the subpoena quashed or take other action to try and prevent Bulger's testimony. A message left for Kiley at his Boston law office was not immediately returned Monday morning.
If legal means of preventing Bulger's testimony do not succeed, and Bulger fails to show up, he risks imprisonment.
The committee has not revealed what it will ask Bulger, but he could be expected to be questioned about what, if any, influence he had with law enforcement while his brother was an informant.
The committee, chaired by Dan Burton, R-Indiana, scheduled hearings Thursday and Friday as part of its ongoing investigation of the Justice Department's handling of mob informants.
Documents released to the committee indicated that FBI headquarters in Washington D.C. was aware of such relationships.
James Bulger, 73, fled in 1995 just before he was indicted on racketeering and extortion charges. He has since been indicted on additional charges related to 18 murders, and is on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.
William Bulger, 68, is a former state Senate president and one of Massachusetts's most high-profile public figures.
During the trial earlier this year of retired FBI agent John Connolly, confessed hit man Joseph Martorano testified that William Bulger asked the FBI to protect his brother.
Martorano testified that when Connolly asked William Bulger what he could do for him, the reply was: "Just keep my brother out of trouble."
Bulger has denied that claim.
Connolly was sentenced in September to 10 years in prison after his conviction on charges of racketeering, obstruction of justice and making a false statement.
Federal prosecutors claim he was a bag man for payoffs from Whitey Bulger to another FBI agent, and tipped off Bulger and another suspected mobster, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, when arrests against them were imminent.
Bulger and Flemmi allegedly led a criminal organization in Boston known as the Winter Hill gang.
Burton claims his committee has uncovered evidence that, under J. Edgar Hoover, FBI officials provided tips to mobsters that led to the murder of witnesses and allowed an innocent man to go to jail. This fall, several members of congress, led by Burton, asked that Hoover's name be removed from the FBI headquarters building in Washington, DC.
The FBI is offering $1 million for information leading to Bulger's capture. His entry on the Most Wanted List is the only one written in English, Spanish and French.
It says that Bulger "is being sought for his role in numerous murders committed from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s in connection with his leadership of an organized crime group that allegedly controlled extortion, drug deals, and other illegal activities in the Boston, Massachusetts, area."
"He has a violent temper and is known to carry a knife at all times," the notice continues, adding that he is considered "armed and extremely dangerous."
The notice also reveals that Bulger is an avid reader, history buff and animal lover who might be seen at historical sites or animal shelters.