New prison letters have revealed the final wishes of whacked Boston mob boss James 'Whitey' Bulger, including his desire to be buried next to his longtime girlfriend.
Bulger, who was murdered last week just hours after he was transferred to USP Hazelton in West Virginia, penned the letters to a woman in California after his arrest in 2011, the Boston Globe reported.
The letters were written to a young woman whom Bulger, 89, and his girlfriend Catherine Greig lived next to in Santa Monica during their 16 years on the run - years that Bulger said in the letters were the happiest of his violent life.
'I want to live until she is free,' Bulger wrote in a letter postmarked November 3, 2011. 'After that I will refuse all medical care. I have a family member, a lawyer, who I wrote for final instructions — No autopsy. I want to be buried next to Catherine and that's it — Simple.
The family member Bulger mentions is likely his brother William Bulger, a former president of the Massachusetts state Senate who has a law degree.
However, an autopsy was most certainly conducted despite Whitey Bulger's wishes, given that he was murdered behind bars while a federal inmate.
The current disposition of Bulger's remains is unknown, as are plans for a funeral.
Sources close to Bulger's inner circle have told DailyMail.com that there may not even be a funeral, with one possibility being a cremation and burial in a relatively unmarked grave, so as not to attract tourists.
If there is a service, it is unclear whether Grieg, who remains incarcerated at minimum-security Waseca FCI in Minnesota, would be granted temporary release in order to attend, as the two never married and such furloughs are usually granted only for the funerals of relatives.
The warden at Waseca declined to comment when contacted by DailyMail.com, and said that Grieg did not wish to discuss her plans with the press.
Greig, 67, is due for release on September, 29, 2020, after she was sentenced to nine years for her role in hiding Bulger from authorities.
In the letters obtained by the Globe, Bulger wrote that his goal was to live long enough to see her walk free from prison.
'I must wait for a natural death — my family has suffered enough because of my wild life, and suicide is taboo in old-time Catholics — also it wouldn't be fair to Cathy,' Bulger wrote in September 2011. 'I want to see her free and one day be side by side forever. I don't talk this way to my family — they hope for better days.'
Bulger seemed to hold out little hope for religious salvation in his letters, jokingly referring to welcoming the heat of hell while complaining about his drafty cell.
He also spoke of getting letters from strangers, including 'some Religious elderly woman who wants to save my soul.'
He added: 'Good of them to try. But for me it's the 'End of the Trail.' '
Another prison letter from Bulger obtained by DailyMail.com revealed that he had one hero in his life — a vicious cop-killer he loved because he was even more violent than he was.
Bulger idolized Jack Twining, who spent time with him in Alcatraz and Leavenworth in the 1950s and 60s, he said in the five-page letter obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com.
In the letter, written to schoolteacher Jeff Kelly, Bulger describes how Twining — who killed himself after a 1970 California shootout in which four cops died — strangled and beat a fellow prisoner and then tried to gouge out his eyes.
The notorious mobster also griped in the letter about his treatment in prison, complaining 'pervert' guards would inspect his naked body multiple times a day.
When Bulger, 89, was killed last week in Hazelton Federal Penitentiary in West Virginia, his killers gouged his eyes and tried to cut out his tongue.
Two mobsters are alleged to have killed him within 12 hours of him arriving at the prison because he had been an FBI informant.
Jack Twining was one of my best friends in prison,' Bulger wrote. 'Met him in Alcatraz Pen.
'Jack was doing 30 years for Bank Robbery. I was doing 20 years for Bank Robbery.
'Jack was young and one of the most dangerous men I ever knew. We both wound up in Alcatraz from Atlanta — deemed incorrigible,' he bragged.
Bulger sent the letter to Kelly, a Massachusetts teacher who had contacted him as part of a school project on '20th Century Dictators and Disasters.'
'The Twining stuff is bone-chilling,' Kelly, 43, told DailyMail.com. 'I had never heard of Jack Twining. Whitey said ''Google him,'' which surprised me that an 80-something year-old-man is so 21st Century literate.
'Whitey described not only the crimes in graphic detail, but also refers to Twining as a close friend and wants him to rest in peace.
'The Whitey Bulger I grew up hearing about was a career criminal and a murderer who ruined the lives of countless families in the New England area,' said Kelly, a married father-of-two, who was raised in the Boston suburb of Norwood.
But he said the letter did not change his opinion of Bulger. 'If anything it solidified it. He spoke about fellow murderers in an endearing manner.'
Kelly said he had asked Bulger for details of his life in prison, but unprompted, nearly one-third of the reply talked about Twining.
Kelly, 43, wrote to Bulger in 2016 as part of a project for the elective course he teaches upperclassmen at Taunton High School in Massachusetts.
He found his students gravitated towards murder stories and he wrote to several notorious killers, including members of the Manson family and Robert Kennedy's murderer Sirhan Sirhan.
He asked the prisoners about how they felt about politics and current events when they were the age of his students, never really expecting a reply.
But Bulger — Federal prisoner number 02182-748 — wrote him a detailed five-page letter from his cell in Coleman II federal lock-up in Florida, the prison he was in until just days before his murder.
He wrote of his health problems, what he deemed his harsh treatment in prison, and of Catherine Greig, his common-law wife, who was arrested alongside him when he was finally nabbed in Santa Monica, California, in 2011 after more than 16 years on the run. They had been living quietly in a third floor apartment, three blocks from the ocean, calling themselves Charlie and Carol Gasko.
But the passages on Twining stand out for the gleeful way Bulger reminisced about his fellow prisoner's violence.
'Jack Twining — look up on computer, Google ''The Newhall Incident'' — we were very good friends,' wrote Bulger in spidery, at times illegible, handwriting.
Twining was 35 when he shot himself at the end of the Newhall Incident in April 1970. He and fellow career criminal Bobby Davis killed four cops in Newhall, California after a road-rage incident. After the shootings Twining took another man hostage for five hours before shooting himself dead.
In his letter to Kelly, Bulger included a newspaper clipping of the Newhall Incident, which described how, during the hostage-taking, Twining talked to reporters by phone. 'I don't hate the police,' he said. 'They have a job to do and so do I. After what happened, they can't offer me anything. I don't want to spend the rest of my life on death row.'
Bulger clearly idolized Twining for his violence, gleefully recalling how he killed fellow prisoner Walter Mollett in Alcatraz in 1959.
'An Alcatraz sexual predator 'Mollet' committed suicide by bothering Jack — wrote threatening letters to Jack,' Bulger said in the letter. 'Twining saved them.'
He continued in the letter: 'One day Mollett came near Jack who hits him, karate chop to neck, dropped him, knelt on him, strangled him, then let him come to, then choked him unconscious.
'Then said ''Now you die.'' Strangled him then tried to rip his eyes out, then beat his head against a capped off low pipe — cracked his head open — brain came out.
'Mollett was Dead. Jack jumped up and down, screamed ''Best Day of My Life.''
'From that moment Jack lived to kill. He was put in isolation for doing the world a favor.
Bulger idolized Twining for his violence, recalling how he killed fellow prisoner Walter Mollett (pictured) in Alcatraz in 1959
'Jack spent months in isolation hole — Rough,' Bulger continued in the letter dated November 30, 2016.
A judge ruled that Twining had killed Mollett in self-defense and eventually he was freed from Federal prison, vowing he would never go back inside.
'Jack knew he was never coming back to prison — told me 'I Live to Kill' and when I get out, if anyone orders me around, pushes me, bothers me, I'm going to kill them.'
Bulger said he told his friend his life was like 'running down a steep mountain where you're going to fall and die.'
'I know it,' Twining replied. 'I want to die — I hate the world, I want revenge!'
Bulger said he stopped Twining killing another man he identifies as 'Mitchell' in Leavenworth Maximum Security Prison in Kansas.
'Didn't like the way he looked at him, made a small sword to kill Mitchell in the yard, ran at him. Mitchell puts his arm up to ward off — cut his hand or arm then his head.
'I grabbed Mitchell,' wrote Bulger. 'Asked him ''do you want to leave here alive'' — ''Yeah'' — told him don't look at Twining, no eye contact, avoid him.'
And in another passage, he said Twining tried to poison a prisoner with a candy. 'Took Mounds Bar, cut open and filled space with experimental poison. Gave it to Joe the Polack in Leavenworth — he came from upstate N.Y. — Joe ate it — ''Delicious'' — in fact asked Jack for more.'
Bulger said Twining was released after 16 years in prison. 'Went North, may have killed Fed Officer in Wash. State and cop in Oregon — 2 or 3 murders he was suspected of — then the 4 highway patrolmen in Northern CA, all young, saw it on TV back home in Boston.
'Took family hostage, told police on phone ''I'm not going to prison, I've done all the time I'm doing'' — he had father, mother and son hostage, told police on phone ''If you rush this house I'll kill these people — I'm coming out TOES UP.''
'He let woman and son leave alive — told law if you rush in I kill him — then put barrel of pump shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
'Saddened me, but in minutes I was glad he did it — his war was over.'
Then, in an attempt to explain his friend's lust for violence, Bulger told Kelly about Twining's life. 'Jack never sat down to a holiday dinner with a family,' he wrote.
In his letter, Bulger even asks Kelly if he is related to three Kellys he knew through his life of crime in the Boston area
'He was adopted young, was happy, was playing with a ball, it rolled into bushes by the house. Heard the male say to his wife ''Why did we take the Bastard home for?'' (sic)
'Jack ran away then, back to orphanage and lifetime of torment.
'He was a close friend — his struggle is over — RIP Jack!'
In his letter, Bulger showed no remorse for his crimes, which include at least 11 murders. He even boasted about his notoriety by including a webpage which mentioned him alongside Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly and Robert Stroud, the 'Birdman of Alcatraz,' among the most famous inmates held on the San Francisco Bay island prison.
He said his favorite time in prison was the early morning when things were quiet — saying he started writing at 2:05am.
He complained that while awaiting trial in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a 'Goon Squad' of prison officers had made his life hell. 'Sleep Deprivation, Degrade and Dehumanize — called Special Treatment — I had 4 months of it from the Goon Squad who took care of the Dirty Work at the County Jail.'
He claimed he was strip searched five times a day, saying guards 'inspect my naked body, remind me of perverts.
'Then they leave with ''Have a Nice Day.'''
And he griped about the length of the sentence his girlfriend Greig received for harboring him.
'She had never been arrested before, never took drugs or smoked — little alcohol, tipsy 3 or 4 times in 61 years.
'Held, no bail, put in isolation cell for a year until trial, then pleads Guilty — usually in such a case Guilty plea is rewarded with easier sentence.
'Not Catherine, she received longest prison sentence ever given in US history at present, 11 years 2 months.'
Greig, now 67, actually received eight years for harboring Bulger and another 21 months for contempt of court. She is currently serving time in federal prison in Waseca, Minnesota, and is due to be released in 2020.
Bulger, who was in a wheelchair when he was killed, said he had a heart attack while awaiting trial in Plymouth which left him with a heart murmur and A-fib. He was told he needed an operation but refused and was sent back to prison.
In his letter, Bulger even asks Kelly if he is related to three Kellys he knew through his life of crime in the Boston area.
'Had a crime partner, Ritchie Kelly, way back at a young age, taught me a lot — was drunk and beaten to death.
'Martin Kelly, a legend in Andrew Square, owned bar then Dover Cafe in Rough South End — he was stabbed in back, almost died. Did time in Charlestown State Prison — robbery.
'Billy Kelly, physically big, was on Death Row in Fla. for years in the 70s & 80s & 90s for a murder.'
It was while writing about Billy Kelley — whose name he misspelled — that Bulger abruptly ended his letter.
'Are you related to Billy Kelly?' he asked, then continued: 'Out of space — hope you can decipher this, signing off, Jim Bulger — everything true.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Wed Nov 30 2016
2:05 Am
Mr. J. Kelly
It's late but my favorite time in prison — it's quiet, peaceful and I use it to write letters — I do get quite a lot of mail from all over the US and have heard from Ireland, France, England (Ireland repeat the hour) Sweden, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Romania, Thailand, Newfoundland, Bermuda, Caribbean Islands.
Most of the mail is friendly — a few negative — one I got a laugh out of when captured in 2011, held at Plymouth County Jail for 3½ years in isolation cell — ate every meal in the cell — had camera in the ceiling recording my every move — a guard watched me through metal slot open they put tray of food through and a glass panel about 7 or 8 inches wide and 24 inches long.
Guards each on 8 hr shifts had to enter a report in a ledger called the 'Whitey Watch' every 15 min. designed to keep guard awake — 8 hr shifts, 3 per 24.
I was subjected to what is called 'Special Treatment' taught in the 'School of America' in Ft. Benning, Ga. CIA School that since 1959 has taught the police and military from Mexico, Central and So. America how to interrogate and break the will of prisoners etc.
Sleep Deprivation — Degrade and Dehumanize — called Special Treatment. I had 4 months of it by the Goon Squad who took care of the Dirty Work at the County Jail plus spied on the Regular Guards.
The Goon Squad would come to my cell in the Unit used to keep prisoners who lost privilege and isolated — none exposed to this Sp.T. Goon Squad came to my cell, tell me cuff up — put hands (you stand back to open slot) together behind back. They put hand cuffs on you — they open door — 'Step out,' walk backward and stand off to side. Other prisoners are quiet and watch — none get this — 3 guards Goon Squad enter my cell, pull apart my bed, inspect, read my mail, look through family pictures, tap bars on window, tap walls, call me back into cell, take cuffs off. Strip naked, socks off.
They inspect my naked body, remind me of perverts. I recently have been searched this way. Upon entering house before — expected and called for but this is not so. And only I get this, then they leave with Have a Nice Day.
This repeated at all hours, 5 times per day and night. I have not left the cell, meals served in my cell on tray — cold — ate every meal there for 3½ years. 5 times a day Goon Squad puts me through the hard to sleep and intended — Tactic to wear you down — your told upon entering cell for 1st time you can't talk to anyone, no one can talk to you. 5 days a week you come out, pace up and back in front of your cell for the 1 hr exercise. You can use this to shower. By degree I'm calling all my resources to help me keep going — no sleep. Hate, anger, no sleep starting to Hallucinate — Room Breathes, walls going in and out, camera looks like dog's face — Feel like I'm back in the MK Ultra Projects which almost pushed me over the edge into insanity and still plague me with terrible nightmares — hate to sleep, can't for more than an hour at a time since 1957 and the CIA torture is taking me apart — after 4 months or so 600 strip searches 5 per day & night, lose weight, nerves shattered, have fallen out of bed 14 times onto concrete floor, land on my left hip each time.
Regular guards ask head of Goon Squad can we put a mattress under his bed and pull out when he tries to sleep in case he falls to floor. Goon Squad leader — Sadist — say No, let him sleep on the floor and he won't fall out of bed — told him F YOU I'm no animal.
Months of it and can't walk far to get med for high blood pressure, when I do almost pass out, nurse has chair for me or I'll fall down. Late one evening I'm standing in cell and feel like I am stabbed in left deltoid and pain put me down fell on bed, hard to breathe, pain all down left arm, feel like someone is squeezing my heart. Guard on door calls for help — nurses come — like angels, after them damn goon squad. Feel I'm dying — peaceful in a way. I'm rushed to hospital, Jordan Hospital, in ambulance, have chain around waist, hand cuffed to it and leg irons on ankles. In hospital about 15 FBI agents and 10 Marshalls. They were in front and behind ambulance all armed with sub machine guns, few with handguns.
Dr. and nurse said take all the irons off so we can work on him. I said leave me alone I want to Go — want to Die — felt like I was going. Dr. asked take iron off — No. Nothing comes off arm Dr. hollering, nurse is crying this man's dying, Please — No! Decent jail guard grabs scissors and cuts all the jail uniform off me.
I'm naked. Decent guard — knew him from on door of my cell — Regular Guards were to a man men doing a job and no ax to grind, fair, most of them. Goon Squad had their own Demons — enjoyed their work, felt they were an 'Elite Team' special little bars on uniform — dark colored pants, militant pretending they were Air Borne troops instead of men with hangups and they would do this for ½ the money, it satisfied their ego — needed it, felt power!
There's always people like them in every country on earth — there is work to make them feel powerful and if they were told there's no more money in the Badge they would work for no pay. That was their drug of choice.
Dr. at Jordan was agitated, I said leave me go — Decent guard said to me Your selfish to do this. Think of Catherine facing years of prison — my common law wife — no record, school teacher, your brother in Mass General open heart surgery. Think what your death will do to them — he made me think and I said Your Right I'll cooperate. Dr. tried, said I can stabilize him. He has to be rushed to Boston Medical in Boston 40 miles away. They put me in ambulance, blanket over me and like a convoy — ambulance, 6 State Troopers on motor cycles, blue lights, siren, V formation leads and non stop SUV full of (illegible) machine guns, ambulance another full SUV and black car with more. We go at 90 or more, non-stop into hospital. Bring me up stairs, take over corner of hospital. Cardiologist works on me, I'm in bed, all iron on, hooked to IV machine, thing is on legs to squeeze and relax so no blood clots, time passes differently. Room full of people with guns, my 2 lawyers, feel like I'm out of it — goes for days (illegible) etc. Docs tell Marshalls (illegible) 20 there police, jail guard, FBI small army even around the hospital, some for 1st time I ever saw it. Marshalls, sub machine guns & some with steel helmets on. Bottom line, I survive. Docs recommend 5 changes for me. I survived heart attack — now have heart murmur — heart damage AFIB and need operation — Refuse — Back to jail told Goon Squad No more! If you want my clothes off you will have to tear them off. 5 suggestions by doctors — No Way (illegible) from here.
About 6 months ago taken out with another heart attack entered jail healthy, worked on since 1949 steady weight plan. Jail ruined jogging etc. My health always bad following orders of the US GOV or WYSHAK.
Came in healthy to Plymouth Jail on purpose puts to the S. Treatment, know how it ends and question who ordered it? Governor, they said, I feel it was Wyshak the Prosecutor who is capable of anything and no hesitation.
He was behind my common law wife receiving rough treatment when captured — she had never been arrested before, never took drugs or smoked, little alcohol, tipsy 3 or 4 times in 61 years, now 66. Held, no bail, put in isolation cell for a year until trial. She plead Guilty — usually in such a case Guilty Plea is rewarded with lower sentence.
Not Catherine, she received longest prison sentence ever given in US History at Present 11 years 2 months — Repeating so I'll get back to that later.
Jack Twining was one of my best friends in prison, met him in Atlanta Pen. He worked in TRAY DEPT. I worked in the Physio Therapy Room. Jack was doing 30 years for Bank Robbery. I was doing 20 years for Bank Robbery — no note passing, his by way of guns. Jack was young and one of the most dangerous men I ever knew. We both wound up in Alcatraz from Atlanta, deemed incorrigible. My friend in prison. During war left in stairs of orphanage, later goes to Reform School, then chain gang, later FLORIDA State Pen. Then ATLANTA, and then Alcatraz.
Jack Twining, look up on computer. Google 'The Newhall Incident.' We were good friends. An Alcatraz sexual predator 'Mollett' commits suicide by bothering Jack, wrote threatening letters to Jack. Twining saved them, one day Mollett came near Jack who hits him karate chop to neck, dropped him, knelt on him, strangled him, then let him come to, then choked him unconscious. Then said 'now you die.' Strangled him, then tried to rip his eyes out, then beat his head against a capped off low pipe, cracked his head open, brains came out. Mollett was Dead. Jack jumped up and down, screamed 'Best Day of My Life.'
From that moment Jack lived to kill. He was put in isolation for doing the world a favor. 4:30 AM will finish later and mail to you — going to read and rest.
Jack spent months in isolation hole — Rough — Judge told feds Self defense, keep your garbage over there out of the city.
Jack knew he was never coming back to prison, told me I Live to Kill and when I get out if any one orders me around, pushes be, bothers me, I'm going to kill them. Told him if you don't slow down, your like a man running down a steep mountain side. Your going to fall and die.
I know it. I want to Die. I hate the World. I want revenge! I prevented him killing Mitchell in Leavenworth, a guy from the Rock. Didn't like the way he looked at him, made a small sword to kill Mitchell in the yard, ran at him. Mitchell puts arm up to ward off — cut his hand or arm, then his head. I grabbed Mitchell, asked him do you want to leave here alive — 'Yeah' — told him don't look at Twining, no eye contact, avoid him — I'll have him do the same — no talk! He agreed, ended. Had to talk like Clarence Darrow.
Jack would experiment with poison to kill anyone — took Mounds bar, cut open and filled space with experimental poison. Gave it to Joe the Polack in Leavenworth. He came from upstate N.Y. Joe ate it — Delicious — in fact asked Jack for more!
Jack got out after about 16 years, went North, may have killed Fed Officer in Wash. State and cop in Oregon — 2 or 3 murders he was suspected of, then the 4 highway patrolmen in Northern CA, all young, saw it on TV back home in Boston. Jack was cornered, took family hostage, told police on phone — I'm not going to prison, I've done all the time I'm doing. He had father, mother & son hostage, told police on phone If you rush the house I'll kill these people, I'm coming out TOES UP. He let woman and son leave alive, told law If you rush in I kill him. Then put barrel of pump shotgun in his mouth and pulled trigger — saddened me, but in minutes I was glad he did it — his war was over. Jack never sat down to a holiday dinner with a family, he was adopted young, was happy. Was playing with a ball, it rolled into bushes by the house, Heard the adult male say to his wife 'Why did we take the bastard home for?' (sic) Jack ran away then, back to orphanage and lifetime of torment. He was a close friend, his struggle is over — RIP Jack!
Kelly — had a crime partner Ritchie Kelly, way back at young age, taught me a lot — was drunk and beaten to death. Martin Kelly, a legend in Andrew Square, owned bar, the Dover Cafe in Rough South End. He was stabbed in back, almost died — did time in Charlestown State Prison — Robbery — Dudley Street, the Bennetts.
Billy Kelly, physically big, was on Death Row in Fla. for years in the 70s & 80s & 90s for a murder. Von Etta & Earl Smith died for Wimpy Bennett in Fla. Earl Smith killed Von Etta, robbed him and left him in trunk of his car — are you related to Billy Kelly.
Out of space — hope you can decipher this, signing off, Jim Bulger — everything true.
No comments:
Post a Comment