Federal Judge Reginald C. Lindsay is sick of hearing lawsuits from victims of the Bulger gang. Yesterday, Lindsay granted a motion for summary judgment against the FBI in lawsuits filed by widows of Brian Halloran and Michael Donahue, two men killed in 1982 by James "Whitey" Bulger and accomplices.
But that's not all. With at least four additional wrongful death lawsuits brought by survivors of Bulger's victims still pending, Lindsay wants the FBI to put a sock in it.
"Mr. Kaplan, please take back to Washington my suggestion that now is the time to settle this case and, indeed, all of them," Lindsay was quoted in the Globe.
The basis of these lawsuits is simple. Bulger and his associate Steve "The Rifleman" Flemmi worked as snitches confidential informants for FBI agent John Connolly, who would warn them when somebody was about to come forward to testify about Bulger's stranglehold on Boston's drugs and gambling rackets. Those informants would get whacked, and their families argue that the FBI is to blame.
In criminal cases brought against Flemmi and Connolly, the FBI has agreed. So why not settle with the victims' families? The FBI argues that, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Connolly was not acting within the scope of his FBI authority when dealing with Bulger.
It's a claim that Lindsay wants Washington to stop making. And we don't blame him. When the government says one thing in its criminal cases and the complete opposite in its civil cases, it simply delays what has been put off for too long in the Bulger affair: justice for the families.
Image of Bulger look-a-like (or maybe Bulger himself) from FBI's website
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