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→Whitey Bulger: Spelling, grammar, and general cleanup, typos fixed: ’s → 's (3), of of → of
==Whitey Bulger==
==Whitey Bulger==
Whitey Bulger was convicted at the age of 81 of 19 murders during his lifetime career as a [[Boston]] crime boss. The actual number of killings Bulger was responsible for is likely much higher.<ref>The AP identified 11 killers believed to have committed 52 murders while under the Bureau’s protection from the 1960s to the mid-1990s. https://www.aim.org/aim-report/aim-report-did-mueller-know-hoovers-dark-secret/</ref> Bulger was an FBI informant against a rival gang. Robert Mueller and [[Bill Weld]] of the Boston U.S. Attorney's office were listed as witnesses for Bulger's defense.<ref>https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2335614/Trial-Boston-mob-boss-James-Whitey-Bulger-gets-underway-family-victims-say-look-eye.html</ref> Bulger claimed he was granted immunity.<ref>https://af11.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/howie-carr-weld-dukakis-and-others-deserve-bulger-blame/</ref><ref>https://www.bostonherald.com/2012/12/10/william-weld-unable-to-rule-out-whitey-immunity-claim/</ref> Bulger spent sixteen years on the run as number two on the FBI Most Wanted list, behind [[Osama bin Laden]]. While on the run witnesses and evidence against Bulger continued to disappear. The federal government’s cozy dealings with Whitey Bulger and the Winter Hill gang have produced widespread and long-lasting damage to the reputations of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston.<ref>https://masslawyersweekly.com/2013/04/17/bulgers-immunity-defense-what-appearance-of-justice-requires/</ref><ref>https://www.thedailybeast.com/whitey-bulgers-defense-to-reveal-widespread-fbi-complicity?ref=home</ref>
Whitey Bulger was convicted at the age of 81 of 19 murders during his lifetime career as a [[Boston]] crime boss. The actual number of killings Bulger was responsible for is likely much higher.<ref>The AP identified 11 killers believed to have committed 52 murders while under the Bureau’s protection from the 1960s to the mid-1990s. https://www.aim.org/aim-report/aim-report-did-mueller-know-hoovers-dark-secret/</ref> Bulger was an FBI informant against a rival gang. Robert Mueller and [[Bill Weld]] of the Boston U.S. Attorney's office were listed as witnesses for Bulger's defense.<ref>https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2335614/Trial-Boston-mob-boss-James-Whitey-Bulger-gets-underway-family-victims-say-look-eye.html</ref> Bulger claimed he was granted immunity.<ref>https://af11.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/howie-carr-weld-dukakis-and-others-deserve-bulger-blame/</ref><ref>https://www.bostonherald.com/2012/12/10/william-weld-unable-to-rule-out-whitey-immunity-claim/</ref> Bulger spent sixteen years on the run as number two on the FBI Most Wanted list, behind [[Osama bin Laden]]. While on the run witnesses and evidence against Bulger continued to disappear. The federal government's cozy dealings with Whitey Bulger and the Winter Hill gang have produced widespread and long-lasting damage to the reputations of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston.<ref>https://masslawyersweekly.com/2013/04/17/bulgers-immunity-defense-what-appearance-of-justice-requires/</ref><ref>https://www.thedailybeast.com/whitey-bulgers-defense-to-reveal-widespread-fbi-complicity?ref=home</ref>
Howie Carr of the ''Boston Globe'' wrote a book about Bulger and described how Bulger and his sidekick, Stevie "The Rifleman" Flemmi., strangled two of Flemmi’s 26-year-old girlfriends as Flemmi lured them to their deaths. One was a Flemmi step-daughter whom Flemmi had been molesting since she was 15. In each instance, Bulger and Flemmi used pliers to yank out the victims’ teeth and cut off their fingers. Andrew Krieg of the Justice Integrity Project notes, "This kind of blunt reporting about such crimes is widely known about Bulger in the Boston area. But the sheer depravity of many such crimes tends to get lost in standard news accounts for national audiences."<ref>[https://www.justice-integrity.org/287-fbi-confronts-its-demons-by-busting-mobster-whitey-bulger FBI Confronts Its Demons By Busting Mobster Whitey Bulger], Andrew Krieg, Justice Integrity Project.</ref>
Howie Carr of the ''Boston Globe'' wrote a book about Bulger and described how Bulger and his sidekick, Stevie "The Rifleman" Flemmi., strangled two of Flemmi's 26-year-old girlfriends as Flemmi lured them to their deaths. One was a Flemmi step-daughter whom Flemmi had been molesting since she was 15. In each instance, Bulger and Flemmi used pliers to yank out the victims’ teeth and cut off their fingers. Andrew Krieg of the Justice Integrity Project notes, "This kind of blunt reporting about such crimes is widely known about Bulger in the Boston area. But the sheer depravity of many such crimes tends to get lost in standard news accounts for national audiences."<ref>[https://www.justice-integrity.org/287-fbi-confronts-its-demons-by-busting-mobster-whitey-bulger FBI Confronts Its Demons By Busting Mobster Whitey Bulger], Andrew Krieg, Justice Integrity Project.</ref>
A commission member of the [[Massachusetts]] parole and pardons board claimed four members of a rival gang had been framed by the FBI and Bulger for a 1965 gangland killing, and were unjustly convicted. Mueller, as Assistant US Attorney and Acting US Attorney, opposed clemency throughout the 1980s for the four innocent men framed by the FBI. Meanwhile, Bulger's career as a crime boss and FBI informant flourished, with Mueller and the FBI removing his rivals from the streets. Exculpatory witnesses for the innocent men were murdered.<ref>https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/1970/01/19/one-lingering-question-for-fbi-director-robert-mueller/613uW0MR7czurRn7M4BG2J/story.html</ref>
A commission member of the [[Massachusetts]] parole and pardons board claimed four members of a rival gang had been framed by the FBI and Bulger for a 1965 gangland killing, and were unjustly convicted. Mueller, as Assistant US Attorney and Acting US Attorney, opposed clemency throughout the 1980s for the four innocent men framed by the FBI. Meanwhile, Bulger's career as a crime boss and FBI informant flourished, with Mueller and the FBI removing his rivals from the streets. Exculpatory witnesses for the innocent men were murdered.<ref>https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/1970/01/19/one-lingering-question-for-fbi-director-robert-mueller/613uW0MR7czurRn7M4BG2J/story.html</ref>
The commissioner who maintained the four were innocent, framed by the FBI, and kept in prison by Mueller, was elected mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts in 1995. The new mayor and his administration found themselves targets of Mueller and the FBI in public corruption probes.
The commissioner who maintained the four were innocent, framed by the FBI, and kept in prison by Mueller, was elected mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts in 1995. The new mayor and his administration found themselves targets of Mueller and the FBI in public corruption probes.
Amid allegations that FBI informants Whitey Bulger and Stephen Flemmi had corrupted their FBI handlers, US Attorney [[John Durham]] was appointed as a special prosecutor in 1999. He oversaw a task force of FBI agents brought in from other offices to investigate the Boston office's handling of informants. In December 2000, Durham revealed secret FBI documents that convinced a judge to vacate the 1968 murder convictions of of the three men who had been framed by the FBI.
Amid allegations that FBI informants Whitey Bulger and Stephen Flemmi had corrupted their FBI handlers, US Attorney [[John Durham]] was appointed as a special prosecutor in 1999. He oversaw a task force of FBI agents brought in from other offices to investigate the Boston office's handling of informants. In December 2000, Durham revealed secret FBI documents that convinced a judge to vacate the 1968 murder convictions of the three men who had been framed by the FBI.
Two of the innocent men died in prison. The same year Mueller, who covered up FBI and DOJ abuses in Boston for two decades, was appointed FBI director.<ref>https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140904190742-29817943-doj-complicity-and-cover-up-of-murders-involving-boston-fbi-agents</ref> In 2007, the documents helped the survivors and the families of the two other men, who had died in prison, win a $101.7 million civil judgment against the government.<ref name=Murphy>{{cite news
Two of the innocent men died in prison. The same year Mueller, who covered up FBI and DOJ abuses in Boston for two decades, was appointed FBI director.<ref>https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140904190742-29817943-doj-complicity-and-cover-up-of-murders-involving-boston-fbi-agents</ref> In 2007, the documents helped the survivors and the families of the two other men, who had died in prison, win a $101.7 million civil judgment against the government.<ref name=Murphy>{{cite news