Post: #1

Now this is an interesting trial:

Questions as alleged Bulger victim Rakes found dead

Quote:A man who had waited decades to testify against James “Whitey” Bulger for allegedly stealing ownership of his South Boston liquor store was found dead Wednesday in Lincoln in what people familiar with the investigation are calling a suspicious death.

While an autopsy found no trauma to the body of Stephen “Stippo” Rakes, 59, authorities believe that he may have died elsewhere and that his body was dumped near a popular walking trail off Mill Street, where it was found, say several people familiar with the investigation.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Lincoln police Chief Kevin Mooney said Thursday that they have yet to determine the cause of Rakes’s death and are awaiting toxicology results, which generally take several weeks to complete.

“I can assure you my ex-husband did not commit suicide,” Rakes’s former wife, Julie Dammers, said during a brief telephone interview Thursday, responding to reports that he was despondent after being told by prosecutors earlier this week that they no longer planned to call him to testify against Bulger.

She said that she and her three adult children had no idea how Rakes had died. “We have more questions than answers,” Dammers said tearfully. “We are just in limbo right now. We’re all in complete shock.”

Investigators were trying to determine Thursday how Rakes, who was not carrying a wallet, ended up in Lincoln, say those familiar with the investigation. His body was found by a jogger. The retired MBTA worker and South Boston native was living in Quincy.

Boston attorney Paul V. Kelly, who represented Rakes in a civil suit filed against the government, said, “I know you have to let the facts come out and give authorities a chance to do work, but the timing, the circumstances, and knowing what I do about him, it leaves a lot of questions.”

Rakes was one of the most determined of Bulger’s alleged victims, still furious at the South Boston gangster and his allies, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi and Kevin Weeks, for allegedly extorting his store from him at gunpoint in 1984, while Rakes’s two young daughters were in the same room.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/07...story.html

Post: #2

No justice, no peace

Post: #3

Every time i hear a new story about this trial I am amazed that this is real. Bulger is like every boston mob character come to life.

Post: #4

I think Nicholson's character in "The Departed" was based off of Bulger.

Post: #5

(07-20-2013 11:02 PM)MHaes Wrote:  I think Nicholson's character in "The Departed" was based off of Bulger.

Not just Nicholson's character Frank Costello, but Matt Damon's character Colin Sullivan was based off the FBI informant John Connolly:

"At first, Connolly made Bulger his informant, and the gangster happily fed him information about his gangland rivals.
Soon it was Connolly who was informing Bulger, tipping him when his car or office was bugged, covering up for his crimes and ultimately alerting him when an indictment was coming down.
Bulger skipped town in 1995 and his relationship with Connolly became public, causing a giant scandal.
Connolly was sentenced to 10 years for racketeering in 2002."

Link

It's a shame that the real life FBI agent didn't take down Bulger like Matt Damon did in the movie.

Post: #6

Isn't his brother also a senator? Wonder what kind of dirty backroom shit his brother was involved in during Whiteys heyday?

I read a book by I think Kevin Weeks quite a few years ago. Whiteys enforcer. Marky Mark bought the rights to the movie, hopefully he makes it now that the trial is drumming up more interest.

Post: #7

He was a government informant. He was a serial murderer. The government allowed him to kill people. He had FBI agents working as double agents form him. The government in bed with gangsters. The government participating in a criminal enterprise.

This is a small peek at what goes on behind closed doors.

Welcome to reality. If you knew the truth you would not believe it.

Post: #8

(07-21-2013 12:02 AM)RioNomad Wrote:  Isn't his brother also a senator? Wonder what kind of dirty backroom shit his brother was involved in during Whiteys heyday?

I read a book by I think Kevin Weeks quite a few years ago. Whiteys enforcer. Marky Mark bought the rights to the movie, hopefully he makes it now that the trial is drumming up more interest.

William Michael "Billy" Bulger (born February 2, 1934) is an American retired Democratic Party politician, lawyer, and educator from South Boston, Massachusetts, who for many years was President of the Massachusetts Senate and president of the University of Massachusetts. He was forced to resign from the office of president of the University of Massachusetts after it was revealed that he had communicated with his fugitive brother, James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger, Jr.

I bet his brother kept a lot of heat off of him.

Post: #9

Bully Bulger would still be in charge today if Mitt Romney did not stand up to him when he was governor and tell him he had to go.

Post: #10

Boston's police are famously corrupt. Cops will let you run red lights around here. They run red lights themselves. They'll let you go most of the time even if they pull you over. They pretend to be politically correct but the officers themselves will let laws go unenforced if it suits them.

I'll never forget when I called the cops to kick a woman out of my apartment, one cop said to the other, "Did you offer to help her get her things?" and he replied, "She's a cunt. Fuck'er."

I actually like them. As long as you put on a good act, they'll never bother you.

Post: #11

Mobster Whitey Bulger Dies in Jail/Mueller ties

Post: #12

The little I have read about Whitey is absolutely fascinating. He was a total and utter rat scumbag, however he played the game like Machiavelli. The guy was no kidding pimping out the FBI.

In light of his acts of violence and dishonor, his end in jail was no surprising, however the circumstances around his death are about as unintended as the Kashoggi case in the Saudi Consolate.

Post: #13

Post: #14

It is an interesting end.

One point of interest, is that I knew Steven Rakes through a mutual friend of ours. I saw him many times in the early to mid 2000s.

I last spoke with either of them a few years before they each passed away; Steven Rakes when he dialed my number by mistake, and our mutual friend when he passed away in Jan 2017.

Steven Rakes 'passed away' (was murdered) around the same time as Bulger trial was about to start so there was some speculation that Whitey had Rakes knocked off to prevent Rakes from testifying. As it turned out, what really happened is that Rakes had loaned money to someone that turned out to be a con man, who meet Rakes at a Mcdonalds and then spiked a coffee that killed Rakes. The guy was caught because a video at the McDonalds showed Rakes and the guy together, then the police found Rakes dead the next day, so the police knew who to go and pick up.

One time Steven Rakes told me the story about how he got into trouble for lying to a grand jury about Whitey Bulger plus the story of how Whitey Bulger 'convinced' Stevie to sell the liquor store to Bulger. (Whitey Bulger walked into the liquor store that Steven Rakes owned one day and told Stevie that he (Whitey) was buying the store now and threw at Stevie a bag with $68K in cash in it.) As it turned out, there was every reason for Rakes to lie to the grand jury. After Rakes had given his testimony to a grand jury about Bulger, Rakes was walking along a street in Southie, and along side of him a car pulls up, with the back window down. In the back seat was Whitey Bulger with some papers and notes. Whitey Bulger started to ask Rakes about questions and answers that Rakes just gave to the grand jury no more than an hour ago! As you can imagine, Rakes was rattled by the whole episode, especially since grand jury testimony is supposed to be sealed but here is Whitey Bulger in possession of what looked like to be a transcript of the whole damn thing!

Rakes ended up spending just about all of the money he had at that point to try to stay out of jail. Years later, when it turned out some of the FBI was involved, Rakes tried to bring a lawsuit but it got thrown out on the grounds that Rakes had waited too long to file the lawsuit.

Around the same time, Kevin Weeks was traveling around South Boston as part of some 60 Minutes interview or something, in a limo, to various places. Even though I am "Mr. Nobody" from outside the I-128 belt, even I was hearing that people in South Boston were absolutely livid and furious that Kevin Weeks was being chauffeured around the city and I wondered if some of the locals were going to arrange a beating or worse for Weeks as payback for the years of his reign of terror on the people in South Boston.

One time the mutual friend of Steven Rakes and myself was approached by Whitey Bulger. (This was years before I had meet either our mutual friend or Steven Rakes.) Our mutual friend owned a building that had a car repair shop in it. Bulger approached my friend and started off with, "I hear that you are a smart jew." Apparently, the pitch that Bulger was wanted to use the car repair shop for part of his operation and would pay for the use if our friend would help with the operation. My friend was very polite but didn't want to get involved in something like that, no only because it was most certainly illegal, but if he had problems with Whitey Bulger, what would happen? At the end of Whitey Bulger's pitch he told Bulger that he didn;t want to do that kind of work. Whitey couldn't understand why he would turn a chance to make a lot of money so our mutual friend said to him, "Yea, but if we have a problem, who do I go to?" To this Whitey Bulger said, "You are right. You know, you are a smart jew."

Post: #15

That prison transfer that lead to the murder was sketchy as hell.

Post: #16

(11-01-2018 10:04 PM)EvanWilson Wrote:  It is an interesting end.

One point of interest, is that I knew Steven Rakes through a mutual friend of ours. I saw him many times in the early to mid 2000s.

I last spoke with either of them a few years before they each passed away; Steven Rakes when he dialed my number by mistake, and our mutual friend when he passed away in Jan 2017.

Steven Rakes 'passed away' (was murdered) around the same time as Bulger trial was about to start so there was some speculation that Whitey had Rakes knocked off to prevent Rakes from testifying. As it turned out, what really happened is that Rakes had loaned money to someone that turned out to be a con man, who meet Rakes at a Mcdonalds and then spiked a coffee that killed Rakes. The guy was caught because a video at the McDonalds showed Rakes and the guy together, then the police found Rakes dead the next day, so the police knew who to go and pick up.

One time Steven Rakes told me the story about how he got into trouble for lying to a grand jury about Whitey Bulger plus the story of how Whitey Bulger 'convinced' Stevie to sell the liquor store to Bulger. (Whitey Bulger walked into the liquor store that Steven Rakes owned one day and told Stevie that he (Whitey) was buying the store now and threw at Stevie a bag with $68K in cash in it.) As it turned out, there was every reason for Rakes to lie to the grand jury. After Rakes had given his testimony to a grand jury about Bulger, Rakes was walking along a street in Southie, and along side of him a car pulls up, with the back window down. In the back seat was Whitey Bulger with some papers and notes. Whitey Bulger started to ask Rakes about questions and answers that Rakes just gave to the grand jury no more than an hour ago! As you can imagine, Rakes was rattled by the whole episode, especially since grand jury testimony is supposed to be sealed but here is Whitey Bulger in possession of what looked like to be a transcript of the whole damn thing!

Rakes ended up spending just about all of the money he had at that point to try to stay out of jail. Years later, when it turned out some of the FBI was involved, Rakes tried to bring a lawsuit but it got thrown out on the grounds that Rakes had waited too long to file the lawsuit.

Around the same time, Kevin Weeks was traveling around South Boston as part of some 60 Minutes interview or something, in a limo, to various places. Even though I am "Mr. Nobody" from outside the I-128 belt, even I was hearing that people in South Boston were absolutely livid and furious that Kevin Weeks was being chauffeured around the city and I wondered if some of the locals were going to arrange a beating or worse for Weeks as payback for the years of his reign of terror on the people in South Boston.

One time the mutual friend of Steven Rakes and myself was approached by Whitey Bulger. (This was years before I had meet either our mutual friend or Steven Rakes.) Our mutual friend owned a building that had a car repair shop in it. Bulger approached my friend and started off with, "I hear that you are a smart jew." Apparently, the pitch that Bulger was wanted to use the car repair shop for part of his operation and would pay for the use if our friend would help with the operation. My friend was very polite but didn't want to get involved in something like that, no only because it was most certainly illegal, but if he had problems with Whitey Bulger, what would happen? At the end of Whitey Bulger's pitch he told Bulger that he didn;t want to do that kind of work. Whitey couldn't understand why he would turn a chance to make a lot of money so our mutual friend said to him, "Yea, but if we have a problem, who do I go to?" To this Whitey Bulger said, "You are right. You know, you are a smart jew."

He ended up setting up at the Lancaster Street garage.

If you haven’t been reading Howie Carr the last few days, he’s been on fire with his articles. He even sent Freddy Geas, who whacked the miserable bastard, $100 for kitchen money.