BOSTON – James “Whitey” Bulger’s capture could cause a world of trouble inside the FBI.

The ruthless Boston crime boss who spent 16 years on the run is said to have boasted that he corrupted six FBI agents and more than 20 police officers. If he decides to talk, some of them could rue the day he was caught.

“They are holding their breath, wondering what he could say,” said Robert Fitzpatrick, the former second-in-command of the Boston FBI office.

The 81-year-old gangster was captured Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif., where he apparently had been living for most of the time he was a fugitive. He appeared Friday afternoon inside a heavily guarded federal courthouse in Boston to answer charges he committed 19 murders.

Bulger, wearing jeans and a white shirt, looked tan and fit and walked with a slight hunch at back-to-back hearings on two indictments. He asked that a public defender be appointed to represent him, but the government objected, citing the $800,000 seized from his Southern California apartment and his “family resources.”

“We feel he has access to cash,” prosecutor Brian Kelly said.

At the second hearing, Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler asked Bulger if he could pay for an attorney.

“I could, if you give me my money,” he replied in his unmistakable Boston accent, prompting laughter in the courtroom.

Prosecutors asked that Bulger be held without bail, saying he is a danger to the community, might flee and may try to threaten witnesses.

At one point Bulger scanned the courtroom and saw his brother William seated in the second row. Bulger smiled at him and mouthed, “Hi.” His brother smiled back.

Bulger’s girlfriend, Catherine Greig, who was arrested with him, appeared in court later in the afternoon on charges of harboring a fugitive. She asked for a hearing to determine whether she can be released on bail, and one was scheduled for Tuesday.

Bulger, the former boss of the Winter Hill Gang, Boston’s Irish mob, embroiled the FBI in scandal once before, after he disappeared in 1995. It turned out that Bulger had been an FBI informant for decades, feeding the bureau information on the rival New England Mafia, and that he fled after a retired Boston FBI agent tipped him off that he was about to be indicted.

The retired agent, John Connolly Jr., was sent to prison for protecting Bulger. The FBI depicted Connolly as a rogue agent, but Bulger associates described more widespread corruption in testimony at Connolly’s trial and in lawsuits filed by the families of people allegedly killed by Bulger and his gang.

Kevin Weeks, Bulger’s right-hand man, said the crime lord stuffed envelopes with cash for law enforcement officers at holiday time. “He used to say that Christmas was for cops and kids,” Weeks testified.

After a series of hearings in the late 1990s, U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf found that more than a dozen FBI agents had broken the law or violated FBI regulations.

Among them was Connolly’s former supervisor, John Morris, who admitted he took about $7,000 in bribes and a case of expensive wine from Bulger and henchman Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi. Morris testified under a grant of immunity.

Richard Schneiderhan, a former Massachusetts State Police lieutenant, was convicted of obstruction of justice and conspiracy for warning a Bulger associate that the FBI had wiretapped the phones of Bulger’s brothers, one of whom, William, was the leader of the Massachusetts Senate for 17 years.

Edward J. MacKenzie Jr., a former drug dealer and enforcer for Bulger, predicted that Bulger will disclose new details about FBI corruption and how agents protected him for so long.

“Whitey was no fool. He knew he would get caught. I think he’ll have more fun pulling all those skeletons out of the closet,” MacKenzie said. “I think he’ll start talking and he’ll start taking people down.”

But some law enforcement officials said they doubt Bulger will try to cut a deal with prosecutors by exposing corruption, in part because he will almost certainly be asked to reveal what contact he had with his brothers while he was a fugitive and whether they helped him in any way.

“If Bulger talks, he would have to talk about his brothers, and I can’t see that happening,” said retired state police Detective Lt. Bob Long, who investigated Bulger in the 1970s and ’80s. “They are not going to take selective information from him — it’s either full and complete cooperation or nothing.”

Criminal defense attorney and former Drug Enforcement Administration agent Raymond Mansolillo said Bulger may not have any incentive to talk. “The FBI may say, ‘You’re going to jail or you’re going to be killed. We’re not offering you anything,”‘ Mansolillo said.

But retired state police Maj. Tom Duffy, one of the lead investigators in the Bulger case, said Bulger may agree to talk if he thinks it could help his girlfriend.

“It’s very possible he’s concerned about her well-being — she was with him for 16 years and was very loyal to him,” Duffy said. “That may be a bargaining chip for the government during negotiations.”

 

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