Excerpt from Black Mass by Dick Lehr, Gerard O'Neill, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Following Bulger into the North End, it was a wonder the troopers did not bump into the FBI. The troopers, of course, didn't realize it at the time, but for most of 1980 the FBI had been putting the finishing touches on its sophisticated plan to bug 98 Prince Street. The operation was code-named "Bostar," and it targeted Gennaro Angiulo and the top tier of Boston's Mafia. Throughout the year FBI agents had been combing the North End, documenting the daily rhythms at 98 Prince. John Morris, as supervisor of the organized crime squad, was in charge, along with case agent Edward M. Quinn. John Connolly and a dozen or more agents were part of the top-secret team.

By the fall of 1980, strike force attorney Wendy Collins had already gone through several drafts of the legal paperwork, known as a Title III application, to win the federal court approval the FBI needed to break into 98 Prince Street to install bugs. Even though Bulger and Flemmi were Connolly's prized informants, the two had not been used to develop the probable cause the FBI needed for Wendy Collins' Title III work-in-progress. Instead, the FBI was mostly relying on five or six other informants, gamblers and loansharks, who -- unlike Bulger and Flemmi -- regularly met with Angiulo inside 98 Prince Street.

Of course, it wasn't as if Bulger had not been discussing the Mafia in his surreptitious meetings with Connolly. He had, but Connolly's FBI reports for those sessions mostly contained second-hand Mafia gossip. Early in 1980, for example, Bulger described a "brawl" that had erupted at a Mafia wedding reception after a young hothead made the stupid mistake of "ridiculing Larry Zannino." Instantly some of Zannino's men attacked the young man, who "suffered multiple lacerations and a couple of broken bones." Bulger told Connolly about Nick Giso, who was Bulger's daily Mafia contact at the Lancaster Street Garage and then at Giro's Restaurant. The Mafia, said Bulger, "is supposed to be upset with Nick Giso also because of Nick's continual use of cocaine." To his credit, Bulger did provide some information about the activities of drug traffickers Caruana, Lepere and Dailey. "Mickey Caruana and Frank Lepere were behind the load that was interrupted recently in Maine," Bulger told Connolly in April. Bulger even gave Connolly Caruana's phone number. But these Bulger reports do not include any disclosures by Bulger about the extent and nature of his own growing business ties to the marijuana and cocaine traffickers.

At Giro's Bulger and Flemmi met with a Who's Who of Mafia associates of Gennaro Angiulo -- Zannino, Danny Angiulo, Nicky Giso, Domenic F. Isabella, Ralph "Ralphie Chong" Lamattina, Vincent "Fat Vinnie" Roberto, and a steady stream of bookmakers and loansharks. In March, armed with a 102-page, sworn affidavit, authored by Fraelick and with accompanying surveillance photographs of Bulger and his Mafia contacts, the troopers went back into court.

Superior Court Judge John T. Ronan authorized their third bid for electronic surveillance on March 19, 1981, a court order that gave them five days to get their bug in the car. But five days later the troopers were back in court seeking an extension to the original court order. They hadn't been able to get near the car long enough to install their one-watt transmitting microphone along with a tracking device. Flemmi kept the Chevy at night, either in Milton or in Brookline at the apartment complex, Longwood Towers. Neither location was accessible. In Milton, each time the troopers approached the car under the cover of darkness Flemmi's dog went nuts. At Longwood Towers, the state police technician actually got into the Chevy, but then a delayed car alarm went off. Fraelick threw a rag over the security camera, grabbed the technician and fled, just ahead of a security guard and Flemmi himself.

Copyright 2000, Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher.