Boston corruption prompts drive to remove Hoover's name from FBI Headquarters
The chairman of the House Government Reform committee has introduced
legislation to remove J. Edgar Hoover's name from the FBI headquarters in
Washington, saying the legendary FBI director was too much of a scofflaw
himself to merit the honor.
Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., introduced the bill after his committee concluded
hearings into the Boston FBI office's use of known killers as informants in
its zeal to bring down the Patriarca crime family.
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"Unfortunately the whole justice system has became dependent on
snitches...(One of the reasons it has become so crooked)."
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"J. Edgar Hoover clearly abused his role as Director of the FBI," Burton
said. "Symbolism matters in the United States, and it is wrong to honor a
man who frequently manipulated the law to achieve his personal goals.
Evidence uncovered by the investigation indicates that Hoover himself
turned a blind eye to numerous murders in order to develop and protect
informants. The whole story is detailed in Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill's
excellent book, "Black Mass: The Irish Mob, the FBI, and a Devil's Deal."
As a result, Joseph Salvati and others were left to die in prison for a
gangland execution of Edward Deegan, despite clear evidence that they were
innocent. Salvati served 30 years of his life sentence based on perjured
testimony by Joseph "the Animal" Barboza.
Barboza was described to Hoover as "a professional assassin responsible for
numerous homicides and acknowledged by all professional law enforcement
representatives in [New England] to be the most dangerous individual known."
Barboza was protecting his associate, James Vincent Flemmi, who actually
committed the murder. Flemmi was an FBI informant who was credited with
seven murders, some known to the FBI while he was ratting on Patriarca's
LCN family.
At the same time that the FBI was recruiting James Vincent Flemmi to be an
informant, it also recruited Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi as an informant.
Stephen Flemmi -- and his partner James "Whitey" Bulger -- went on to
commit dozens of murders while serving as FBI informants.
The FBI was able to effectively gut the Patriarca clan, turning over
control of the Boston rackets to Bulger.
The federal witness protection program was created to shield Barboza after
his testimony in the Deegan case, but he soon committed another murder in
California after his relocation.
The feds stonewalled prosecutors in that case, the congressional committee
learned, and directly aided the defense.
Barboza ultimately pled guilty to the murder.
He got a short sentence and a federal prosecutor testified at his parole
hearing a few years later. When asked about the short prison term for
Barboza, his own lawyer told Congressional investigators, "That was pretty
amazing. I figured out that was how it worked when you had friends in the
FBI."
After he left the FBI, H. Paul Rico, one of the agents who recruited the
Flemmis and Barboza became the Director of Security for World Jai Alai, a
company that had connections to organized crime, and that was tied to
Stevie Flemmi and Whitey Bulger. Rico is currently under investigation for
the murder of successful Tulsa businessman Roger Wheeler in 1981.
The quest to remove Hoover's name from FBI headquarters may not be the only
legislation to come from Burton's hearings. One witness to the scandal
called on the Congress to strengthen punishments for prosecutors and
investigators who violate their oath to uphold the law.
"We cannot allow the justice system to function as it has in Boston for the
past 40-plus years," said Salvati's attorney Victor J. Garo. "You, the
Congress have the power to right this wrong."
Sacco and Vanzetti were reputedly croaked for the crime of the New
England Mob.
