Feature Articles

PROLOGUE

     The investigations into the crimes committed by millionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplices did not end with his death, but only have intensified with each succeeding month since. Investigators in the Media and law enforcement have focused on those in Epstein's inner circle who participated in what Federal Prosecutors in New York may ultimately designate as a Mafia-style �Racketeering Enterprise� involved in the human trafficking sex trade.

     Early last year, Federal Judge Kenneth A. Marra ruled that Federal Prosecutors in 2008 violated the Crime Victims' Rights Act by not informing Epstein's known victims regarding their decision to not pursue Federal charges against Epstein. Former U. S. Attorney Alexander Acosta signed off on the �Non-Prosecution Agreement� that circumvented a Draft 53-page Federal Indictment based upon interviews with numerous of teen-aged girls sexually assaulted by Epstein. Armed with this evidence, the Feds in Miami could have sent Epstein away for the rest of his life.

     Instead, Epstein was offered an agreement by which no Federal charges were pursued, allowing Epstein to plead Guilty in State Court to two Felony charges involving a single female under the age of Consent, a young girl whom Epstein's criminal lawyers had dismissed as a �Prostitute.�

     During his 13-month �incarceration� in a Palm Beach County jail, Epstein was literally given the keys to his cell, leaving for over half of each day to work as a financial planner for wealthy businessmen.

     Only because public interest in this case was elevated by Media reporting, most notably by the Miami Herald newspaper, and because the U. S. Attorney in this case later came under increased scrutiny once he became Secretary of the U. S. Department of Labor, did the American people gradually learn about this latest government scandal.

General Forfeiture Matters, Jeffrey Epstein, WST � Child Prostitution

     Curiously, the FBI has posted on it's website several Internal documents relating to the Epstein investigation from their archives. One such document, entitled: �General Forfeiture Matters, Jeffrey Epstein, WST � Child Prostitution,� states: �On 9/11/08, Case Agent advised Writer that Epstein is currently being prosecuted by the State of Florida. Epstein has also provided information to the FBI as agreed upon. Case Agent advised that no Federal Prosecution will occur in this matter as long as Epstein continues to uphold his agreement with the State of Florida. Case Agent also advised that no further forfeiture assistance will be required for this case.�

Stone Carving Above the Entrance to the Epstein Mansion in Manhattan

     Here's what this means: �Asset Forfeiture� statutes allow the Feds to seize, upon Conviction in a Federal Court, the assets of a convicted criminal. In Epstein's case, his assets included a Mansion in Manhattan appraised at over $50 Million, and others in New Mexico, Florida, and the U. S. Virgin Islands. Epstein also owned corporate jets that he used to fly wealthy and influential friends to his various residences.

     According to this FBI document, all of Epstein's valuable assets were thus safe, as long as he co-operated with the State Prosecutors as well as the Federal Government as an FBI Informant.

     This government scandal, as disturbing as it is, however, is by no means unprecedented. Herein is presented a comparative analysis of Jeffrey Epstein with three other FBI Informants who preceded him; Boston crime boss James �Whitey� Bulger, Ed �Skull� Murphy, and Colombo Mafia Family hitman and drug dealer Greg Scarpa. Their life stories as career criminals, which includes involvement in sex crimes and blackmail, are essentially the same.

     These narratives will also reveal that the Mission of the FBI, carried out by their Agents, most of whom are honest and hard-working, nevertheless has been compromised by a systemic pattern of corruption among the leadership of the FBI, which began with the establishment of this U. S. Intelligence Agency from it's inception, and continues into this new Century.

PART ONE: WHITEY BULGER AND THE FBI

     The FBI's protection of Jeffrey Epstein as an FBI Informant mirrors their prior protection of Boston Crime Boss James �Whitey� Bulger; their stories are essentially the same. The FBI began protecting Bulger as an FBI Informant in 1975, the year he committed his second Domestic Terrorist bombing in Boston that should have sent him to prison for the rest of his life. A life-long racist, his vitriol against African-Americans would eventually lead to his final apprehension and prosecution.

     Bulger was first sent to prison in 1956, upon his conviction for armed robbery and truck hijacking. Once he was released, Bulger embarked in a life-long racist campaign against African-Americans. In 1974 Bulger committed his first known fire-bombing at the Kingsbury Elementary School in Wellesley Hills, the neighborhood in which resided the U. S. District Judge who had ordered the de-Segregation of the Boston public schools. A year later, in September, 1975, Bulger and an accomplice fire-bombed the birthplace of President Kennedy, in protest of the support for de-Segregation being offered publicly by the murdered President's brother Edward, a U. S. Senator. Because the President's birthplace was a National Historic Site administered by the U. S. Parks Service, evidence regarding the fire-bombing was turned over to the FBI for investigation. However, instead of being arrested for these 2 firebombing acts of domestic terrorism, Bulger was signed up as an FBI Informant. ⁽¹⁾

     But there is the FBI, and then there is the DEA; Bulger had no such protection from the Drug Enforcement Administration. In 1994, a Task Force comprised of an alliance between the DEA, the Massachusetts State Police, and the Boston Police Department, compiled a massive case against Bulger on multiple charges, centered on Bulger's trafficking of drugs. However, Bulger had at least two corrupt FBI Agents protecting him, one of whom, John Connolly, tipped him off as to his imminent arrest. So Whitey went on the lam. Years passed, and the FBI seemed to have forgotten him.

     But reporters at two rival newspapers, the Boston Globe and Boston Herald, would not let their readership, nor the Feds, forget about Whitey Bulger. The family members of the numerous people murdered by Bulger, the sources for much of the reporting on Bulger, would not let the Bureau forget. Nor would members of Congress, including those on the House Government Oversight Committee. As the public and Governmental pressure on the FBI to find and Prosecute Bulger increased with each passing year, the FBI finally put together an effective campaign to find Bulger and bring him to Justice. After Bulger's 16 years on the lam, the FBI got their man. In June, 2013, Bulger went on trial in Boston Federal Court. Among the charges against him was his murder of 19 people. Deborah Hussey was one of them.

     On the last day of her life, 26-year-old Deborah Hussey was taken on a shopping spree by her sex partner, Stephen Flemmi, the right-hand man of Bulger. Flemmi was also Deborah's Step-Father. Deborah Hussey was just 2 years old when her mother and Flemmi became �common-law� spouses. Flemmi would later testify in Boston Federal Court that Deborah called him �Daddy.� By the time Deborah reached puberty, Flemmi began to sexually assault her. During a Courtroom interrogation in Bulger's trial, Flemmi tried to soften the brutality of his crimes, denying he was a pedophile, claiming that his sexual relationship with his Step-Daughter was �Consensual.�

     Motioning towards Bulger at the Defense table, Flemmi stated: �You want to talk about pedophilia; look at that table over there!� �He had a young girl, 16 years old; he took her to Mexico.�

     Flemmi also acknowledged that for many years he and Bulger were protected from Federal Prosecution because of their status as FBI Informants.

     Flemmi further revealed in his testimony his role in the murder of his Step-Daughter. By the time Deborah had lost her teen-aged appeal upon attaining adulthood, Flemmi no longer found her to his tastes and Bulger worried that she could be a liability to his crime gang. She had observed too much, she knew too much. Bulger convinced Flemmi that Deborah must die, and Bulger agreed he would personally kill her himself, as this was something he enjoyed doing. But first, on that day of her scheduled execution, Flemmi decided to allay her fears by taking young Deborah on a shopping spree.

     �You took her shopping, knowing you were going to kill her?� an incredulous Attorney asked Flemmi in Boston Federal Court.

     �You are so negative about it!� Flemmi replied. �Why don't you want to hear the positive side of it?�

     �You were her father, Mr. Flemmi!� the Attorney shouted. �Did you defend her?�

     After the shopping spree, paid for in cash from the proceeds of Flemmi's drug dealing, Flemmi drove his Step-Daughter to a house in �Southie,� South Boston. Once inside, Bulger then grabbed Deborah from behind with a rope which he wrapped around the young woman's neck. Bulger then turned an attached wooden stick so that the rope tightened like a vise.

     The last set of human eyes Deborah stared into were those of the man standing in front of her, doing nothing to save her as she was being slowly choked to death; the eyes of a man whom Deborah had for many years called �Daddy.�

     Once Deborah collapsed on the floor, Flemmi knelt on his knees and inserted a pair of pliers inside his Step-Daughter's mouth. Back then, before the widespread advent of DNA testing methods, Flemmi and Bulger perceived that dental records were a likely means of identifying a corpse. Thus, one by one, Flemmi, a Contract employee of the FBI, yanked Deborah's teeth from her skull. ⁽²⁾

     While Flemmi desecrated Deborah's body, Whitey Bulger went upstairs and took a nap, a pattern of behavior that had become his routine. For some men, murder, like sex, can make one exhausted. ⁽³⁾

     In addition to the murder of Deborah Hussey, Bulger was also charged with the murder of another young woman, Debra Davis.

     On the last day of her life, 26-year-old Debra Davis agreed to meet her boyfriend, Steve Flemmi, at a house in South Boston. Like Deborah Hussey, Debra had first entered into a relationship with Flemmi when she was still a teen-ager. Flemmi was then more than twice her age.

     After a few years in this relationship, Davis met a man in Mexico whom she fell in love with and wanted out of her relationship with Flemmi. As in the case of Deborah Hussey, Bulger worried that she could become a liability to his crime gang. She had observed too much, she knew too much. Bulger convinced Flemmi that Debra must die, and Bulger agreed he would personally kill her himself.

     Once they had Davis alone in that house, the 2 men carried out the same scenario they would later re-enact years later with Deborah Hussey. Bulger grabbed Davis and strangled her with his bare hands. He then handed Flemmi, whom he nicknamed �Dr. Mengele,� a pair of pliers. ⁽⁴⁾ It was then time for one of Whitey's post-murder naps.

     Deborah Hussey and Debra Davis were just among over 100 women initially victimized by Whitey Bulger and his gang during their teen-aged years. This story was told in 2001, in a 4-part series, �Stolen Innocence: Whitey Bulger Exploited Teenage Schoolgirls� by the Boston Herald newspaper. This series would have the same impact on the Bulger story as would later the Miami Herald's 3-part series �Perversion of Justice� regarding the Jeffrey Epstein case.

     Part Two of �Stolen Innocence� focused on the 100-plus victims of Bulger's gang, most of whom were between the ages of 12 to 17 at the time they first were recruited. The Herald's primary sources were Bulger's �Enforcer� and drug dealer Edward MacKenzie, an unidentified Mental Health Professional, and many of the females who were now women, some of whom were permanently scarred by the introduction to sex and drugs they were subjected to while obtaining puberty.

     One young girl began her association with the Bulger gang when she was just 14. She was filmed in sex acts with members of the gang, plied with drugs, and would later die of AIDS. Another girl, a beauty contestant, began an affair with Bulger at age 15. She then began taking alcohol and drugs which went on for many years. She wound up in a hospital after a suicide attempt. MacKenzie claimed that Bulger once sent him to the home of the parents of a 14-year-old girl whom had revealed to her parents that she was involved with Bulger. MacKenzie threatened to kill both parents if either of them reported this to law enforcement. To soften the threat, MacKenzie claimed he gave the parents $1,000.00 cash from Bulger as �hush-money.� ⁽⁵⁾

     The pedophile behavior MacKenzie attributes to those in the Bulger gang mirrors that which he himself experienced as a child, described in his 2003 book �Street Soldier.� MacKenzie reported that when he was just 9 years old, he was repeatedly molested by a Tutor, a young man in his mid-30s who was hired by the Foster-parents whom at that time were charged by the State of Massachusetts with raising him. One day, MacKenzie claims, that Tutor asked for permission from his Foster-Father to take young Edward out for ice cream. Edward's Foster-Father agreed. But first, the Tutor took Edward to his apartment, where he raped him. Later, the ice cream was his compensation.

     The Bulger gang not only sexually assaulted teen-aged girls, they videotaped many such assaults, films which were traded among the members of the gang, as MacKenzie revealed.

     In addition to these videos, there was the matter of an infamous photograph of Bulger and a pedophile Priest that was introduced as evidence by Bulger's Defense team during his trial. This photograph was among many submitted to the Court with the intent to demonstrate to the Judge that Bulger was a person of good character. The photos showed Bulger with prominent people, along with 2 showing Bulger cuddling with dogs. Among such photographs was Bulger sitting on a couch next to a smiling Catholic Priest, Monsignor Frederick Ryan. This legal ploy backfired. The Priest in question, Father Ryan, was defrocked by the Vatican in 2006 after their investigation revealed that Ryan had sexually molested teen-aged boys at Catholic Memorial High School in Boston. ⁽⁶⁾ In regards to Whitey Bulger's religious beliefs, it should be noted that one of his favorite sayings to the members of his crime gang was: "Let's all go to Hell together!" ⁽⁷⁾

     For any investigator, such as this reporter, when researching the subject of Whitey Bulger, one encounters problems with sorting out fact from fiction. Bulger and his associates thrived on their expertise in the art of Deception. That deception included waging a public relations campaign that compromised some members of the Media in Boston who covered this story.

     When Whitey Bulger returned to Boston from Alcatraz prison in 1965, there were 2 crime families that ruled Boston's underworld; the Patriarca Family, of the traditional Italian-American Mafia, and the �Winter Hill� gang, primarily Irish-Americans. As the years passed, and his power was consolidated, Bulger and his gang perpetuated a false narrative that was disseminated by some in the Media. That false narrative portrayed Bulger as an Irish-American folk hero, devoted to protecting his fellow Irish-Americans. The �Mantra� of those proposing this false narrative was: �Bulger kept the drugs out of Southie!�

     This simply was not true; Whitey Bulger and his drug dealers flooded South Boston with drugs for decades. Irish-Americans died, many of them young. While some in Boston bought into the narrative of Bulger as folk hero, the simple truth is that most of the people whom Bulger victimized, extorted, brutalized, sold drugs to, and murdered, were fellow Irish-Americans. This history is the true, consistent narrative that arises from the allegations of members of Bulger's gang, including Stephen Flemmi, Kevin Weeks, Edward MacKenzie, John Matorano, and others.

     While Flemmi, his brother, and Bulger were protected by the FBI, there were those outside the Bureau who were determined to bring the Bulger gang down. As a result, they themselves were targeted by both the FBI and the Winter Hill Gang. One such person targeted was organized crime expert Sergeant Detective Frank Dewan of the Boston Police Department. In this case, an anonymous letter, written on Boston Police Department stationery, was mailed to U. S. District Judge Mark Wolf, in which it was alleged that Dewan had fabricated evidence against Whitey Bulger and Stephen Flemmi. The purpose of this letter was two-fold; for one, it was an attempt to discredit Dewan, and, by extension, the evidence in the case developed against Bulger and Flemmi. Secondly, that the letter was written on Boston Police Department stationery suggested that colleagues of Dewan himself within the Boston Police Department were accusing one of their own. A similar letter was written on stationery of the Boston Globe newspaper, making similar allegations against Dewan, but this letter was sent to William Bratton, the Police Commissioner in Boston.

     That letter demanded that Dewan be fired, and that the stationery supposedly came from a newspaper suggested that investigative reporters at that paper, who did not want to go on the record, had determined that Dewan was deranged and was fabricating evidence against Bulger and Flemmi. ⁽⁸⁾

     These letters are in fact what are called "poison-pen letters," a crime developed and perfected by J. Edgar Hoover himself. In this crime tactic, an FBI Agent fabricates a letter, the intent of which is to discredit or injure a targeted individual, or frame them for crimes they did not commit. FBI Agent John Connolly would eventually be charged with several crimes, including fabricating the letter that was sent to Judge Wolf. Connolly was convicted of this and other crimes in Boston Federal Court in 2002. During Whitey Bulger's trial, Bulger Associate Kevin Weeks revealed new information in his testimony regarding Connolly's poison-pen letters. Weeks stated that he was able to obtain 25 sheets of Boston Police Department stationery from a relative, which he gave to Agent Connolly. ⁽⁹⁾

     Perhaps the most famous, or rather, infamous "poison-pen letter" created by the FBI was the one sent to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on November 22, 1964. That anonymous letter, composed in Hoover's office, urged Dr. King to commit suicide - on Christmas Day of that year, no less - otherwise "evidence" of alleged marital infidelity on Dr. King's part would be made public. Included in the envelope was a tape of recorded conversations between Dr. King and various associates in hotel rooms bugged by Hoover's wiremen. Hoover sent an FBI Agent on a plane to Florida where the letter was placed in the mail, so that the Florida postmark would conceal the letter's true origin, that being the Washington, D. C. location of FBI Headquarters.

     From FBI surveillance, Hoover knew that Dr. King's wife performed the task of opening his mail. However, Dr. King had just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and in the prior year had delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech to 250,000 thousand people in the nation's capital. Thus, the volume of mail to him from around the world was such that it was after Christmas before Coretta Scott King came to open the FBI letter. Mrs. King found the letter deeply disturbing and feared for her husband's personal safety. ⁽¹⁰⁾

     Despite the Florida postmark, it was obvious to Dr. and Mrs. King that the tapes, recorded in hotels around the country, could only have been produced by the FBI, and were further evidence of what the couple already knew - that Hoover's FBI was determined to destroy Dr. King. Hoover's third-in-command at the time, William Sullivan, would later admit complicity in the creation of the letter, and refer to Hoover as "the greatest blackmailer of all time!" ⁽¹¹⁾

     As outrageous as these crimes are, such smear campaigns continue to this day against those who have taken on corruption in the FBI, despite the fact that such crimes have been exposed in recent years. Members of Congress themselves have been at the forefront of such revelations. In December, 2001 members of Congress offered a public apology to Boston residents Joseph Salvati and Peter Limone, who spent 30 years in prison after having been framed by the FBI for a murder they had no part of. Key evidence examined were documents prepared by FBI Agent Paul Rico that revealed the names of the real murderers in that case, documents illegally kept by the FBI from the accused as being "exculpatory." Those documents revealed that FBI Informants Joseph "The Animal" Barboza and Vincent Flemmi were the ones who murdered Edward Deegan in 1965. Deegan was an Associate of the Bonanno Mafia Family.

     Barboza had falsely testified against Salvati and Limone and 2 co-Defendants for the murder that he himself, along with FBI Informant Vincent Flemmi, had committed. While a co-operating "Witness" for the FBI, Barboza committed several of his boasted 26 murders, and was himself murdered in 1976 in San Francisco while under cover as a member of the "Witness" Protection Program.

     In 2002, the U. S. House Committee on Government Reform issued a report, �Everything Secret Degenerates; The FBI's Use of Murderers as Informants,� which examined in detail the crimes, including murders committed by protected FBI Informants Joseph Barboza, Jimmy Flemmi, Stephen Flemmi, and Whitey Bulger. From the report: �Beginning in the mid-1960s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began a course of conduct in New England that must be considered one of the greatest failures in the history of federal law enforcement.�

     The report also detailed how Director J. Edgar Hoover was aware of the criminal activities of these Informants: �March 9, 1965�FBI Director Hoover was informed by memorandum that Jimmy Flemmi was targeted to be a Top Echelon Informant. He was also told that Flemmi had murdered three individuals, one of whom was an FBI Informant. This was the same day that Flemmi and Barboza asked Raymond Patriarca for permission to kill Teddy Deegan. March 12, 1965�Jimmy Flemmi was assigned to Special Agent Rico to be developed as an Informant.�

     In a subsequent appearance before Congress, Agent Paul Rico was admonished by Congressman Christopher Shays: "I think you should be sent to jail!" Agent Rico died in 2004 while awaiting trial for his role in the murder of Bulger victim Roger Wheeler. In 2007, U. S. District Judge Nancy Gertner adjudicated in a Federal lawsuit that the FBI was "responsible for the framing of four innocent men" and ordered the payment of $101 million dollars in damages to Salvati and Limone, as well as the surviving family members of Louis Greco and Henry Tameleo, who both died in prison. ⁽¹²⁾

     In addition to his Conviction in Boston Federal Court on racketeering charges, for which Agent Connolly served a 10-year sentence, Connolly was sentenced to 40 years in prison following his conviction in a Florida State Court for his role in helping Bulger and his gang murder John B. Callahan, involved in the Bulger gang's gambling operations. It had been FBI Agent Connolly who had tipped off Bulger regarding his imminent arrest back in 1995. Many years later, a woman in Iceland paid attention to a public service announcement seeking information on a woman she recognized as having been a neighbor of hers back in Santa Monica, California. She distinctly remembered how her neighbor's husband exploded in anger at her when she made a positive statement about President Barack Obama.

     She picked up the phone, and her tip panned out. It was Whitey Bulger's racism against Blacks, first exhibited by his fire-bombing domestic terrorist attacks in Boston back in the 1970s, that eventually became his undoing. Once Bulger went into hiding, it's puzzling that he chose Santa Monica. A 1992 Indictment against several Bulger Associates was brought about by an FBI front company operating in Santa Monica and listed in that public Indictment. The company was also listed in a superseding Indictment against Bulger and his associates in 1996. The front company pretended to be a Hollywood motion picture production firm. ⁽¹³⁾

     Former FBI Agent John Connolly continues to serve out his prison sentence in Florida for his murder conviction of John Callahan. What set Connolly on his ultimate journey to prison began when he was just an 8-year-old boy. One day, Whitey Bulger, then a teen-ager, walked into a Boston store and approached Connolly and 2 of his buddies from Elementary school. Bulger offered to buy them ice cream. Connolly and his friends accepted Bulger's offer, ignoring the advice that every responsible parent in America repeatedly admonishes their children to never do; speak to a stranger, let alone accept any gift from them.

     Even if it's only ice cream. ⁽¹⁴⁾

PART TWO: ED �SKULL� MURPHY AND THE FBI

     The FBI's protection of Ed Murphy began many years before their protection of James �Whitey� Bulger and Jeffrey Epstein, but it is essentially the same story. Murphy was also a pedophile who preyed upon vulnerable youths whom were teenagers. His victims were young boys.

     First, he sexually assaulted these boys, plying them with illegal drugs. Once under his sexual and financial control, Murphy then pimped these boys out to rich and prominent closeted gay men, many of whom he then extorted from significant amounts of cash and commodities as blackmail.

     Like Whitey Bulger, Murphy was sent to prison for several years as a young man and when he got out he vowed to never go back, even though he was committed to his profession; that of a career criminal. Like Bulger after him, Murphy found that he could be protected from Prosecution by serving the FBI as their Informant. Also, like Bulger, Murphy would perpetuate the false narrative that he was some sort of �folk hero� within his own community.

     In Bulger's case, it was the Boston Globe that would expose him as an FBI Informant in their landmark 1988 Feature story. Murphy's double-dealing was outed by the Village Voice in their landmark 1978 Cover Story: �Skull� Murphy: The Gay Double Agent.� ⁽¹⁾ Subsequently, numerous books and Media accounts would reveal Murphy's one claim to fame; his work as a Bouncer at Manhattan's Stonewall Inn, on the night of the riot that marked the birth of America's gay rights movement. And, the substantial evidence of Murphy's recruitment and work as an FBI Informant. ⁽²⁾

     The investigations of Ed Murphy by the Media and law enforcement escalated regarding a notorious American Mafia crime committed in broad daylight in Manhattan in 1971. The man who committed this crime had organized crime connections that led investigators to Ed Murphy and his associates, who were also involved with the American Mafia. And, there were 2 men there that day that witnessed this crime whom are now known to have been FBI Informants. One of them was Greg Scarpa, a hitman for the Colombo Mafia Family whom had secretly worked for the FBI since 1960. ⁽³⁾ The man targeted that day for assassination was Scarpa's �other Boss,� the Godfather of the Mafia Family to this very day known by his name; Colombo; Joe Colombo.

     The date was June 28, 1971; the location, Columbus Circle in Manhattan. It was Colombo's Second �Italian Unity Day� celebration for his �Italian-American Civil Rights League,� an organization he had created the year previous that perpetuated the false narrative that there was no such thing as the American Mafia. As preposterous as that narrative was, it had actually for many years been championed by the Founding Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover was forced to drop this false narrative when Bobby Kennedy became his �Boss� as Attorney General of the United States.

     Godfather Colombo's movement caught on quickly; 50,000 people would jam into Columbus Circle on June 29, 1970, at the League's first public Rally. In November of that year, Frank Sinatra was among many celebrities who appeared in a benefit for the League held at Madison Square Garden. Law enforcement agencies have consistently revealed in the past decades that far less than one percent of Italian-Americans are involved in organized crime. The same can be said for Irish-Americans.

     That being said, many of the members of these two ethnic groups have perceived that they have been stereotyped by the Media and the Hollywood entertainment industry. Colombo, like Whitey Bulger after him, seized upon the frustration held by many law-abiding American citizens among these respective ethnic communities. Colombo's and Bulger's Message had validity; they were just the wrong Messengers, who exploited it to their own advantage.

     At Colombo's second Rally in 1971, in attendance were numerous members of the Media, some armed with cameras, members of the New York City Police Department, Agents of the FBI, members of several New York Mafia Families, and other criminals. One such was Jerome A. Johnson, a young African-American from New Jersey, accompanied by a young African-American female. Adorned with fake Press credentials, nothing seemed out of the ordinary as Johnson followed Godfather Colombo around with his film camera, along with his assistant. Then, the young woman, as if on cue, called out a greeting to the Godfather. Colombo turned to face her. Johnson now held in his hands both a camera and a gun, which may have been secreted to him by his female accomplice. He then opened fire on Colombo at close rang. Several Mafia members then jumped upon Johnson, one of them pumping three bullets into the assassin's back. Despite the presence of dozens of cops, both Johnson's accomplice and the man who killed Johnson managed to get away. ⁽⁴⁾ Somehow, in the presence of dozens of reporters, not a single photograph emerged publicly of the young female accomplice of Johnson as she fled the scene, nor the Mafia Associate who killed her accomplice.

     The shooting of a Mafia Godfather in the heart of Manhattan would become an obsession with the Media - and law enforcement - for many years. History would repeat itself 14 years later when Gambino Family Godfather Paul Castellano was gunned down outside Manhattan's Spark's Steak House. During the investigation of both of these shootings, the New York City Police Department was under enormous public pressure to solve these crimes. From the outset, the NYPD branded the shooting of Colombo a "hit" orchestrated by the Mafia. Carlo Gambino, Joe Gallo, and Carmine Persico, a rising star in the Colombo Family, were all taken in for questioning by the cops, as was a Mob-connected pornographer, Michael Umbers. ⁽⁵⁾

     FBI Informant Greg Scarpa, a hitman and drug dealer for the Colombo Family, who witnessed the shooting of his crime Boss from just a few feet away, also contributed his information to the FBI, as revealed by FBI �302� Documents later obtained by Forensic Intelligence Analyst Angela Clemente through her Freedom of Information Act lawsuits. One such FBI document reveals that on June 6, 1971, 2 weeks before Colombo was shot, Scarpa told the FBI that he had met with Godfather Colombo, who informed him that his personal security team had detected a car inhabited by several African-Americans surveilling his house recently in the early morning hours. Colombo assumed that these men were associates of �Crazy Joe� Gallo, whom had befriended a number of African-American inmates while imprisoned and was now free, and by his own statements and actions hostile towards Godfather Colombo.

     During the investigation into Colombo's shooting, then Chief of Detectives of the NYPD Albert Seedman uncovered evidence that Jerome Johnson was not only involved with members of the American Mafia, but also with members of a domestic terrorist organization that went by the name of the Black Liberation Army. This group, an offshoot of the Black Panthers organization, had, before the shooting of Godfather Colombo, embarked upon a campaign of assassinating Police Officers nationwide that would continue into 1981.

     Thus, there were 3 likely scenarios as to whom the inhabitants of that car monitoring Colombo were; 1. former prison associates of Joe Gallo; 2. members of the BLA; or, 3. associates of both Joe Gallo AND the BLA.

     What first intrigued the Detectives investigating Colombo's shooting was Johnson's connections to the shadowy world of gay pornography in New York as it existed at that time. It was an era in which even the hint of gay behavior could destroy a public person's career. A retail establishment which gays could patronize openly existed in very few places across America during that time. In New York City, however, the large numbers of gays presented a profit potential that the American Mafia simply could not afford to ignore.

     Virtually all of the bars, restaurants, bookstores, and sex clubs that catered to a gay clientele during that time were Mob controlled. That created another problem for gay men; the potential for blackmail. Certain men, in certain professions, possessed the ability to perform certain services which the Mafia could exploit. Compromised doctors, for example, could provide medical services to a mob figure who had a bullet in his body but for obvious reasons did not want to check into a local hospital for it's removal. Compromised Undertakers could help mobsters when faced with the untidy problem of how to dispose of a dead body. Closeted traders on Wall Street could proffer invaluable assistance in "insider trading" and stolen securities scams. Compromised members of law enforcement could provide invaluable "insider information" about law enforcement scrutiny of the Mob.

     Thus, those gay establishments run by the American Mafia were populated with Informants who could profile, identify, and compromise such men to be used as tools of organized crime. This was the world from which Jerome A. Johnson emerged to shoot a Mafia Godfather, and this world is best described by the life story of one man; Ed "Skull" Murphy.

     Murphy had been born in Manhattan's Greenwich Village to Italian and Irish parents. Much of Murphy's youth was spent in the robbing of Dentist's offices for the bounty to be found in the gold that was used to make gold teeth. When Murphy was finally caught, he spent 10 years in prison. Once free, Murphy accelerated the body building habit he had acquired in prison by using anabolic steroids to bulk up. This allowed Murphy, still a young man, to enter the world of "professional wrestling." Such a "sport" existed on the fringes of the American Mafia. Although steroids were not illegal at that time, the drugs were an integral part of operations run by three syndicates in New York that today are known as the Colombo, Gambino, and Genovese Families. These Families would provide steroids to young body builders, and such men could then be exploited into a number of sidelines; work as bodyguards for mobsters, bouncers at bars, the world of professional wrestling, professional prostitution, and the production of X-rated films. The Colombo Family were masters of these rackets, and would eventually change the adult entertainment business forever with their production of the movie "Deep Throat," which would rake in millions of dollars for the Family. The fight over the profits of that movie within the Family led to a shoot-out that killed 2 people, including an innocent bystander, a retired Nun. ⁽⁶⁾

     The October 8, 1967 edition of the New York Times noted that suburban Long Island was the area inhabited by many such mobsters, among them the Colombo's Sonny Franzese, who was reported to be among many such organized crime figures who ran gay bars throughout the New York area and that such operations included a lucrative side-line involving the blackmail of wealthy or prominent patrons.

     By the time of the publication of that story, Ed Murphy had already been arrested as the ringleader of a Mafia-run gay blackmail ring broken up by State prosecutors in Manhattan. Over a dozen such men had been Indicted who were part of a nationwide blackmail syndicate that netted over a million dollars a year. This is how the scam worked; a man would travel to a large city, such as New York, where he would procure the services of a male prostitute. Many of the prostitutes were teen-agers. The prostitute could be solicited at a gay bar, a convention center, or in the bar of an airport. Another venue was through the corrupt auspices of a Concierge at certain hotels. Once the blackmail victim and the teen-aged-boy were alone in the hotel room, one of either two scenarios would be enacted; either the boy would steal the John's wallet and run out of the hotel, or the "Hotel Detective" would burst in and demand cash in exchange for not arresting the visiting man. In the plan where the wallet would be stolen, the wallet would then be turned over to the Mob ring, who, with their corrupt co-horts in law enforcement, would compile information on their new victim. If the "John" was rich or famous or from a prominent family, two "members of law enforcement" would then travel to that person's home and threaten that person with public exposure - even arrest - unless money was forked over to make the case "go away."

     After the existence of the blackmail ring became public in a February 18, 1966 New York Times story, the FBI moved in on the investigations, the predication being that many of those involved crossed State lines in order to commit their crimes. Almost all of the high-ranking members of the blackmail ring were thus convicted, such as John J. Pyne, a retired Chicago police officer, and John Fellenbaum, a bodybuilder from Pennsylvania. Ed Murphy was identified in that Times article as one of the ringleaders. His name, however, did not appear in any subsequent stories. At that time, Murphy faced decades in prison on both Federal and State charges. Yet, Murphy only received 5 years Probation for his Federal Extortion charge. Murphy would be protected by the FBI for the rest of his life, in exchange for providing them information they coveted.

     Among the names Murphy gave up as victims of the extortion ring were that of a Congressman from New Jersey who paid them $25,000 in hush money, and Admiral William Church, the head of the New York Naval Yards in Brooklyn. As a result of the Grand Jury convened to investigate the evidence Ed Murphy had turned over, Admiral Church was then Subpoenaed to testify. At that point the Admiral drove to a motel in Maryland and shot a bullet into his head. ⁽⁷⁾

     Thus, Hoover's recruitment of men such as Ed Murphy was not designed to put an end to his blackmail of gay men, but rather to provide information that Hoover might need to utilize for his own purposes. Such was the man J. Edgar Hoover, his successors as Director - and his Bureau, - that would protect pedophiles such as Ed Murphy, and later, Whitey Bulger, and Jeffrey Epstein, among others.

     Beginning in the 1960s and throughout the 1970s, Ed Murphy and Mike Umbers ran a prostitution ring that pimped underage boys to wealthy pedophiles. Murphy and Umbers both were associated with the Genovese and Gambino Mafia Families. A December 23, 1971 story by the Village Voice revealed that Umbers and two accomplices had previously been arrested on child pornography charges.

     Also that year, NYPD Chief of Detectives Albert Seedman told the Media that Umbers was the link between Jerome Johnson and the Mafia. Johnson had last been residing in an apartment above Christopher's End, the bar managed by Umbers, and owned by Paul DiBella, a member of the Gambino Family. Umbers had used Johnson's skills as a camera man in their production of child pornography. ⁽⁵⁾ Umbers would eventually receive notoriety for his role in the botched New York bank robbery that was depicted in the Hollywood motion picture "Dog Day Afternoon."

     Ed Murphy was the Bouncer at the Mafia-run gay bar the Stonewall Inn, adjacent to Umber's Christopher's End next door on Christopher Street. On the evening of June 28, 1969, when the NYPD, as it had often done in the past, raided the Stonewall Inn, the patrons of the bar fought back, culminating in riots that lasted for several days. Chanting "Get the Cops and the Mafia Out of Gay Bars," the unrest forever changed America.

     Ed Murphy died in 1989 due to AIDS. In addition to the NYPD's investigation of Jerome Johnson's involvement in the gay porn industry, of which Murphy was involved, the NYPD also pursued evidence that Johnson was also associated with the BLA. Two months prior to the shooting of Godfather Colombo, on April 6, 1971, a member of the BLA, JoAnne Chesimard, knocked upon the door of a room at the Statler Hilton Hotel in Manhattan, intending to rob the occupant. The intended victim, however fought back, and Chesimard received a bullet wound from her own gun to her abdomen. ⁽⁸⁾

     6 weeks later, members of the BLA opened fire with a machine gun on two Police Officers guarding the home of the Manhattan District Attorney, Frank Hogan. Both officers, Thomas Curry and Nicholas Binetti, were wounded for the rest of their lives. 2 days later, the gang executed NYPD Officers Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini outside a public housing building in Harlem. One month later, Jerome Johnson and his female accomplice carried out the shooting of Godfather Colombo.

     Two months later, 3 members of the BLA burst into a police station in San Francisco and gunned down Sgt. John Victor Young as he sat at his desk. On November 3rd, 1971, 3 associates of the BLA executed Atlanta Police Officer James R. Greene as he serviced his patrol vehicle at a gas station. ⁽⁹⁾ On December 20th of that year, the gang attempted to murder 2 NYPD cops by throwing a hand grenade under their patrol car. Their car was demolished, but the cops survived. ⁽¹⁰⁾

     On January 27, 1972, the BLA executed 2 more NYPD cops, Rocco Laurie and Gregory Foster. These two Police Officers were shot in their backs with a machine gun. The BLA was a racist organization that did not believe that Blacks should associate with Whites. Officers Laurie and Foster were targeted because one was Black and the other White. Both had bonded as young men while serving in the United States Marine Corps in VietNam. Once home, they both applied for acceptance as members of the NYPD. They were accepted, and later made Partners, as an intentional means by the NYPD to promote better relations between Officers of diverse backgrounds. ⁽¹¹⁾

     A few weeks later, several members of the BLA, including Joanne Chesimard and her then-lover Fred Hilton, got into a confrontation with the St. Louis Police, during which BLA member Ronald Carter was killed.

     Fred Hilton would later be arrested in 2001 on charges he raped a 12-year-old girl. ⁽¹²⁾ Hilton later changed his name to the Marxist moniker Kamau Sadiki; Joanne Chesimard later changed her name to Assata Shakur. In November, 2003, Kamau Sadiki was sentenced to Life imprisonment after his conviction for the murder of Atlanta Police Officer James Green. ⁽¹³⁾

     On May 2, 1973, the BLA murdered New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster. This event began when New Jersey State Trooper James Harper pulled a car over for a traffic violation, and was joined by Trooper Foerster in another patrol car. A gunfight ensued, and when it was over, Trooper Foerster and a BLA member were dead; JoAnne Chesimard and Trooper Harper were wounded. Chesimard was eventually convicted for the murder of Trooper Foerster, but escaped from prison in 1979 with the help of the BLA. BLA members and their associates in the Communist community then facilitated Chesimard's travel to Cuba, where she has been granted asylum to this very day.

     Such was the carnage of violence by criminals of various motives during the 1960s and 1970s. The investigations by the NYPD of the BLA, the American Mafia, as well as Manhattan's gay pornography industry thus intersected in one man; Jerome Johnson, who dared to shoot Godfather Colombo before thousands of people.

     Among those who witnessed this shooting was Mafia hitman and drug dealer Greg Scarpa, who led a double life as an FBI Informant.

PART THREE: GREG SCARPA AND THE FBI

     The FBI's protection of Greg Scarpa began many years before their protection of Jeffrey Epstein, Whitey Bulger, and Ed Murphy, but it is essentially the same story. The FBI began protecting Scarpa as an FBI Informant beginning in 1960.

     Like Whitey Bulger, Greg Scarpa enjoyed murdering young women and joked about doing so.

     On the last day of her life, 31-year-old Mary Bari put on her best clothes for a job interview with Carmine Sessa, an Associate of the Colombo Mafia Family. Sessa owned a social club in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and lured young Bari there under the guise that he needed a new cocktail waitress. Sessa invited Bari to the �interview� at the urging of Scarpa.

     Mary was not entirely innocent of those whom she was associating with. Her connection to the Colombo's began when she was just 15 years old. One day a man cruising by her High School in a Rolls-Royce noticed Mary standing on a street corner. He liked what he saw and stopped to speak to her. His name was Alphonse Persico, whose brother was Carmine �The Snake� Persico, Godfather of the Colombo Mafia Family.

     Alphonse was 24 years older than her, and married. They began an affair, with Persico showering her with expensive gifts. The age of Consent in New York State is 17. Thus, the sexual relationship between Persico and Bari could not be termed �Consensual;� the correct, legal term under the law is �sexual assault,� or �rape.�

     By May, 1980, however, Persico was facing a lengthy prison sentence upon his conviction in Brooklyn Federal Court for Extortion. Rather than go to prison for what he perceived would be a lengthy sentence, Persico decided to go on the lam. Persico hid for 7 years; Whitey Bulger would later hide for 16 years. Both criminals did so after being tipped off by corrupt FBI Agents as to their impending arrest.

     4 years later, Greg Scarpa received information that Bari was involved with someone in law enforcement and thus was at risk of revealing information that could lead to the location where Persico was hiding. Thus, Scarpa decided to murder Mary.

     When Mary arrived at the club, Greg Scarpa, Jr. gave her a big bear hug. He then turned that �hug� into a physical assault, throwing her to the floor, upon which his father knelt down and shot her in the head 3 times with a handgun. This was the culmination of the relationship Greg Scarpa, Sr. had with his son, Greg Scarpa, Jr.; not love, not self-respect, but murder. ⁽¹⁾

     Mary Bari's body was then dumped on the streets of Brooklyn, wrapped in the rug upon which she died. At a Court proceeding in 2007, Colombo member Anthony Scarpati was revealed to have said to Greg Scarpa, Jr., in regards to their murder of Mary: �We�re going to probably go to Hell for this!� ⁽²⁾

     Scarpa was not at all concerned regarding Bari's murder as Scarpati was. Afterwards, he, Sessa, and their wives went out for a celebratory dinner. They all laughed as Scarpa recounted the various details of his execution of this young woman. Scarpa had been killing so many people for so many decades � he once claimed he stopped counting the number of his murder victims when he surpassed the number 50, - that he was certain his protection as an FBI Informant would preclude him from Prosecution. ⁽¹⁾ Scarpa truly believed his work for his employer the FBI had given him a �License to Kill!� Scarpa celebrated each murder by sending the message �666� to the Beepers of those whom he wanted to share the message with. ⁽³⁾

     Scarpa's private life, which he didn't take any great pains to keep private, was also complicated. As a young man, Scarpa married a woman with whom he had 4 children, including his namesake, Greg Scarpa, Jr. By the time Scarpa, Jr. was 16, he was already committing crimes at his father's direction. Scarpa's base of his criminal operations were in Brooklyn and Staten Island.

     In addition to Scarpa's wife, Scarpa became involved with a young woman, Linda Diana, who was 19 years younger than he. Linda had first started dating Colombo Mafia thugs when she was just 15 years old, and through that network she eventually met Scarpa. Scarpa then farmed his wife and kids out to a house in New Jersey and moved in with Linda in one of his homes in New York. They had 2 children, but, for whatever reasons, Linda married another man by the surname of Schiro, convinced him that the 2 children were his, and thus they were born with his surname.

     Then, while still technically married to his wife in New Jersey but living with his common-law wife Linda, Scarpa jetted off to Las Vegas where he married an Israeli woman. When later Scarpa detected his second �legal� wife in an affair with an abortion doctor in Queens, Scarpa had that man murdered. ⁽¹⁾

     One day in 1979, a teenager knocked on the door of the house Scarpa shared with Linda Schiro. His name was Larry, and he was delivering groceries. Having no way of knowing the danger he was in, he accepted Linda Schiro's invitation to come inside her home. There, she seduced him.

     Usually, when a member of the Mob catches a young man in bed with his wife, that young man disappears off the face of the earth. However, in this case Greg Scarpa took a fancy to his wife�s handsome lover, showering him with gifts of clothing and expensive jewelry. Scarpa even set him up in a business, loaning him $10,000 to buy a partnership in an auto body shop. Scarpa later murdered the owner of the shop, making the young man the sole owner. Scarpa then groomed him to become a Mafia hitman, assisting Scarpa in the commissions of 3 murders during a �Mob War� that broke out within the Colombo Mafia Family. That war erupted in 1991 between followers of imprisoned Colombo Godfather Carmine Persico and Underboss Vic Orena. ⁽⁴⁾

     At least 12 people � including an innocent bystander � were murdered as a result of this war. After the Colombo Family War, Federal Prosecutors in Brooklyn were tasked with bringing to trial those involved in these murders for control of the racketeering enterprise.

     The first troubled Colombo war trial began in June 1994. Alphonse "Allie Boy" Persico was charged with instigating the war but his attorney Barry Levin told the jury his client was in prison during the war and suggested it was started by Greg Scarpa, an FBI informant.

     In 1986 Scarpa contracted AIDS, allegedly from the donation of blood from a bodybuilder on his crew named Paul Mele, who would later die of this disease. Scarpa himself would succumb to AIDS in June of 1994, but two days before his death he gave Persico�s attorney two sworn Affidavits that stated that Persico did not instigate the Colombo Family war. In his opening arguments Levin promised the jurors that Scarpa would "clear Persico from the grave!" He was right; the jury cleared Persico of all charges and he walked out of Court a free man.

     At this point, the Media in New York began to pay more attention to this saga.

     The New York Times then joined the chorus of those questioning the relationship between hitman Greg Scarpa and the FBI. The Times noted that "from 1950 to 1985 Scarpa was arrested 10 times on charges like carrying an unlicensed gun, assault, fencing hijacked liquor, heading bookmaking and loan sharking rings and trying to bribe police officers. His scrapes with the law included charges in 1974 that he was a major conspirator in the theft of $4 million in stocks and bonds and in 1985 that he was behind a plot to counterfeit credit cards." The result of all of this was that Scarpa only spent a total of 30 days in jail.� ⁽⁵⁾

     In May, 1995 Vic and John Orena, steel company executive Thomas Petrizzo, and four associates went on trial on murder conspiracy charges relating to the Colombo Family war. In her opening arguments Assistant U. S. Attorney Ellen Corcella admitted to the jury that FBI agent DeVecchio had an unusual relationship with crime boss Greg Scarpa and leaked confidential information to him. Defense attorneys argued that their clients were only acting in self-defense against a renegade FBI Agent and his Mafia hitman friend. FBI Agent Howard Leadbetter testified that he and Agents Chris Favo and Jeffrey Tomlinson reported to their superiors that DeVecchio had tried to obstruct a probe of Scarpa. Favo told the Court that he was convinced DeVecchio had committed crimes by leaking information to Scarpa. Colombo capo Carmine Sessa told the Court he too knew that DeVecchio was giving information to Scarpa.

     The jurors acquitted all Defendants on all charges and demanded of the Prosecutors why it was Agent DeVecchio had not been Indicted for murder. ⁽⁶⁾

     Two people who began following this reporter's stories on Scarpa and Agent DeVeccchio at AmericanMafia.com were Forensic Intelligence Analysts Dr. Stephen Dresch and Angela Clemente. What Analysts such as these do is examine and analyze documentary evidence in order to make Determinations that are considered an expert opinion. Stephen Dresch was a Yale-educated Economist who advised the Carter Administration.

     After several years of research by Dresch and Clemente both Analysts began co-operating with members of the House Government Reform Committee in 2002. This earned them the praise of both Democratic and Republican members of this Committee. One such member, William Delahunt, then forwarded their Colombo Family report to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. In 2006, that office Indicted Agent DeVecchio on charges that he assisted Greg Scarpa in the commission of 4 murders.

     The one person that Dr. Dresch and Ms. Clemente did not interview for their Analysis was Greg Scarpa's common-law wife Linda Schiro. The Prosecutor in the DeVecchio case used Schiro as his primary Witness before the Grand Jury that Indicted Agent DeVecchio. Upon reviewing the evidence in this case, this reporter determined that Ms. Schiro had credibility problems; essentially, her story about DeVecchio had changed over time. Eight months before DeVecchio's trial began, this reporter published �A Troubled Prosecution� as part of an on-going series following this and related cases. In that report I predicted that the case would collapse during trial due to the credibility issues of Schiro. That is exactly what eventually happened after Schiro's Court testimony.

     A Special Prosecutor, Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder, was then assigned to investigate as to whether Schiro had committed Perjury in the DeVecchio trial. In October, 2008, Judge Snyder issued her Judicial Report which determined Perjury charges should not be pursued against Schiro. However, in her ruling, Judge Snyder took the opportunity to condemn the prior Prosecution of Detective Joe Simone, who worked along with Agent DeVecchio on the Organized Crime Task Force. In a 1994 trial, Simone had been accused of selling law enforcement information to a member of the Colombo Family. The jurors in that trial, whom Acquitted Simone of all charges, were outraged over this Prosecution, a fore-cursor to the reactions of jurors in the Colombo Family War trials that were to follow. In her ruling, Judge Snyder ruled that Detective Simone was the likely �Scapegoat for the misconduct of others!�

     Angela Clemente continued her work after the death of Dr. Dresch in 2006. In 2012, Clemente filed a report with Senator Chuck Grassley of the Senate Judiciary Committee, providing evidence that Prosecutorial Misconduct occurred in the trials of Colombo Family members Joseph and Anthony Russo and Joseph Monteleone, Vic Orena, Alphonse Persico, and Michael Sessa. Clemente followed-up that report with a meeting in August, 2013 with officials of the Department of Justice�s Inspector General's office, along with Clemente�s attorney Jim Lesar and retired NYPD Captain Bill Plackenmeyer.

     In 2014, Clemente appeared in Joe Berlinger's documentary �Whitey: United States vs. James J. Bulger.� In that movie, Clemente compared the volume of FBI 302 documents on Greg Scarpa, which numbered over 60,000, with those compiled on Whitey Bulger, which were significantly less in number. What this demonstrated is that the relationship between the FBI and Scarpa was different than the relationship between the FBI and Bulger. The contrast was so different that it had allowed the attorneys during Bulger's trial to try to establish Bulger's claim that he was never an Informant to the FBI, and instead his relationship with the FBI was based upon bribery, not the exchange of information.

     Bulger had a very good reason for denying his work as an Informant: he knew that if he was sent back to prison, he would most likely be murdered by fellow inmates for being a �Snitch!� However, Bulger chose to not testify in his trial, and FBI Informant Stephen Flemmi in his testimony clearly established that Bulger was, like himself, an FBI Informant.

     In the final analysis, it doesn't matter the volume of FBI documents regarding these men, as the result was the same; Whitey Bulger, Greg Scarpa, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ed Murphy all escaped Prosecution for their lives of crime because of their protected status as FBI Informants.

PART FOUR: JEFFREY EPSTEIN AND THE FBI

     (Reporter's note: Some in the Media have focused on the associates of Jeffrey Epstein who are famous, which can divert the focus from the dozens of his victims, many of whom are still anonymous. Such �Boldface� names will not appear in this narrative. )

     The FBI's protection of Jeffrey Epstein began many years after their protection of Whitey Bulger, Ed Murphy, and Greg Scarpa, but it is essentially the same story.

     Jeffrey Epstein was born in 1953 and received a Middle-class upbringing on Coney Island. His teen years occurred during the turbulent 1960s. Young people during that decade faced a variety of influences. One such was television.

     Two popular TV programs during that time dealt with crime and criminals; �The FBI,� based upon real-life investigations by the Bureau, and �It Takes a Thief,� in which career criminal and con artist Alexander Mundy avoids Federal prosecution in exchange for working for the Feds. Another influence that decade was the emerging �Counter-culture,� including the �Hippie� movement. This was of no apparent interest to Epstein; he did not partake of alcohol, tobacco, or drugs. Highly intelligent, Epstein graduated from High School in 1969 at the age of 16.

     After High School, Epstein studied at Cooper Union and then New York University. However, in June, 1974, Epstein dropped out of College without obtaining his Degree. Despite this, 2 months later Epstein, at age 20, landed a job as a Teacher of Mathematics to teen-agers at the Dalton School, a private school in Manhattan. The tuition at this school was not inexpensive, and the parents of those students had every right to expect the employees of that school to at least have the minimum requirements demanded by the public school system in New York City. Epstein did not, and, predictably, his performance was not satisfactory; after 2 years he was asked to leave. However, during that time he had gained the attention of the father of one of his students, of the Bear, Stearns investment firm on Wall Street. ⁽¹⁾

     In 1976 Epstein was hired by this firm and quickly rose up through the ranks, gaining the admiration of numerous wealthy clients. In 1981, however, Epstein left the firm under a cloud of suspicion regarding the professional conduct of both himself and other employees. Testimony by Epstein in 2 separate U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigations revealed that several Bear, Stearns employees were being scrutinized for possible criminal behavior, including insider trading. Despite his testimony, Epstein retained a professional and personal relationship with many Bear, Stearns executives after he left the firm. As a result of his experiences at this firm, Epstein knew how to commit � and thus investigate � fraud in the financial community. In some fields, it takes a thief to best inquire into such matters. Thus, Epstein established �Intercontinental Assets Group, Inc.,� whose clients were those whom had been defrauded by criminals - such as himself - in this industry. Epstein convinced them he could recover their assets, and became accomplished in doing so. ⁽²⁾

     Throughout the 1980s, Epstein traveled the globe, cloaked in his new persona as some sort of covert financial operative. It was during this period in his life that Epstein met a finance industry rising star, Steven Hoffenberg, who hired Epstein in 1987 as a Consultant to his company, Tower Financial Corporation, for $25,000.00 a month. 6 years later, Tower Financial came crashing down, having engaged in the biggest Ponzi scheme up to that time, in which investors were robbed of over $450 million. After Hoffenberg's conviction, he claimed that Epstein was an integral co-conspirator in this financial scheme. However, Epstein had conveniently left the firm just as the FBI's investigation into this company was heating up. ⁽³⁾

     Did Epstein escape Federal Prosecution in this case by providing evidence to the FBI about this Ponzi scheme? Also, did a portion of the millions of dollars stolen from investors end up in Epstein's bank accounts, providing the seed money for the financial scams he would later embark in?

     Epstein was never charged; Hoffenberg spent 18 years in a Federal prison.

     After he left Tower Financial, Epstein founded J. Epstein and Company, the stated purpose of this firm being that clients would only be accepted for financial counseling if they had assets in excess of $1 Billion. The only known client of Epstein's who met this criteria was Leslie Wexner, CEO of The Limited and Victoria's Secret, the lingerie company that hired young Models to wear the company's attire in advertisements. ⁽²⁾

     In 1992, Epstein convinced the U. S. State Department to rent to him a Townhouse in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in America, on East 69th Street in Manhattan�s Upper East Side. The building had a troubled history: it had originally been owned by the government of Iran, but was among their assets seized by the State Department after the U. S. Embassy in Tehran was invaded by militants in 1979, taking 52 Americans inside as hostages. Epstein agreed to a monthly rent of $15,000, an indication of his accumulation of wealth in the preceding years. ⁽⁴⁾

     Epstein lived in the house until 1995, then moving into a Townhouse on East 71th Street. This new location for Epstein, was, in fact, the largest such private house in Manhattan, purchased in 1989 by Leslie Wexner, who spent millions of dollars renovating and upgrading the house. Then, Wexner, upon his marriage, decided to keep his primary residence in Ohio, leaving the house vacant. ⁽⁵⁾

     The house was originally commissioned by a wealthy New York City businessman in the late 1920s. It was never lived in and in 1944 was donated to the Catholic Church. It then became an all-girls school. After Epstein's arrest and the dramatic search of this building by law enforcement, the house became something of a tourist attraction. Many such on-lookers are puzzled, and some disturbed, by the unusual architectural ornamentation of this house. Atop the building on one side are the statues of a man in robes with a naked child, with the statues of a woman in robes and a naked baby on the other side.

     Above the now-infamous oval carved wood doorway is a stone carving of a male figure with pointed ears. After doing some research, and consulting with a national expert on such matters, this reporter and the expert are in agreement that what is depicted here is the face of �Pan,� a God in Greek mythology who was half human and half goat. Pan is a universal symbol of sexual promiscuity, pedophilia, and the world of the Occult.

     Once Epstein moved into this house, he then subleted the property on East 69th Street to lawyer Ivan Fisher for $20,000 a month. Fisher used the ground floor for his law office and the upper floors as his residence. Fisher had become famous due to his representation of Defendants in the �Pizza Connection� and �French Connection� American Mafia drug trafficking trials, as well as Defending Mafia Godfather Joseph Bonanno. Fisher then subleted office space on the ground floor to several other Criminal Lawyers, some of whom represented clients who then were the subjects of investigation by the FBI. When the State Department learned of this violation of their Lease agreement with Epstein, Department Attorneys went to Court to Evict Fisher and the other Criminal Lawyers. ⁽⁶⁾

     In a Florida house which Epstein owned outright, Epstein had his rooms �wired� to record all audio and video of what people said and did inside. For example, when the authorities in Palm Beach raided this mansion in October, 2005, Cops discovered that loose wires and missing computers indicated that Epstein had been tipped off as to their coming raid. ⁽⁷⁾ Epstein also had his house in the Virgin Islands wired for audio and video. ⁽⁸⁾

     Epstein purchased his Florida house in 1990, 2 years before he rented the Manhattan Townhouse from the State Department.

     These curious circumstances raise several pertinent, unanswered questions; among them: 1. Did Jeffrey Epstein install electronic eavesdropping devices inside the Manhattan townhouse he rented from the State Department? 2. If so, did he take these with him when he moved out, or did he leave such hidden devices behind in a building that would soon be the setting for numerous meetings between criminal lawyers and their clients targeted by the FBI?

     There is further evidence that Jeffrey Epstein was acting at that time as, and being protected by the FBI, as one of their Informants. This evidence is to be found in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by Forensic Intelligence Analyst Angela Clemente seeking additional FBI documents regarding the Bureau's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

     In 1993, one year after moving into the State Department building, Jeffrey Epstein appeared before Federal Judge Raymond Dearie in Brooklyn Federal Court facing several counts of stealing from American citizens' mailboxes U. S. Treasury checks, in addition to stealing a check from the New York Office of Child Support Enforcement, the rightful owner of which was a single parent of a child.

     Judge Dearie granted Jeffrey Epstein Probation for his offenses, and Fined him $50.00, which presumably was much less than the one check he stole from that single parent. This very lenient sentence is at odds with the reputation of Judge Dearie, who is known for being tough but fair by those reporters who have covered the American Mafia trials he has presided over, this reporter included. And, it suggests that Epstein's slap on the wrist in 1993 may have been the consequence of the similar treatment he received later in 2008; his providing information to the FBI as an Informant.

     Simultaneously to the FBI's original investigation of Jeffrey Epstein's preying on teen-aged girls, the FBI also launched an investigation of a company that Epstein was involved with, D. B. Zwirn Special Opportunities Fund, founded by Dan Zwirn and his partner Glenn Dubin. Beginning in 2002, Epstein invested $80 million into this Hedge Fund. This company was shut down in 2008 by a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation regarding financial irregularities. One such regarded how a top Officer of this company had used, without the knowledge of Zwirn, company funds to purchase a $3 million Gulfstream jet. Epstein may have seen the signs of the coming real estate and economic collapse then underway, and recognized, as he did when he quit the Hoffenberg firm just as it was about to collapse, years earlier, that his $80 million investment was at risk. ⁽⁹⁾

     Thus, Epstein demanded the return from his partners, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, of his original investment in the company, which he now claimed to be worth $140 million. His 2 partners balked; such funds have little liquidity, being based upon future financial conditions which required such demands in writing at least 60 to 90 days ahead of time. They likely perceived this to be an attempt at Extortion on Epstein's part, knowing full well his investment in the company was not worth $140 million, let alone the $80 million he originally invested. ⁽⁹⁾

     But, Epstein had one card to play that Cioffi and Tannin did not; his ability to play out the �Alexander Mundy� character in real life by dealing with the Feds.

     That is just what Epstein did, co-operating with the Federal investigation of Cioffi and Tannin. ⁽¹⁰⁾

     Subsequently, on June 19, 2008, a Federal Grand Jury in Brooklyn Indicted Cioffi and Tannin on charges of conspiracy and securities and wire fraud, revealing the investors in their company lost $1.6 Billion. ⁽¹¹⁾

     11 days later, Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty in a Florida State Court to 2 Counts relating to his procuring a �prostitute� under the age of Consent.

     After a jury trial in Brooklyn Federal Court in November, 2009, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin were Acquitted of all charges. Jeffrey Epstein may have co-operated in this investigation, but he did not testify, another indication of his status as a Confidential Informant.

     As the years passed, the young girls trafficked by Epstein's ring grew into young women. Each had a story to tell, and it was essentially the same. Many told their stories to reporters for the Miami Herald newspaper.

     In November, 2018, the Herald, led by key reporter Julie K. Brown, began publishing a series on the crimes and non-punishment of Jeffrey Epstein. Public interest in this series escalated when, in February, 2019, U. S. Federal Judge Kenneth Marra ruled that U. S. Attorney Alexander Acosta's non-prosecution agreement violated the rights of Epstein's many teen-aged victims by illegally concealing such a pact from them.

     On July 9, 2019, the Daily Beast magazine published a story on Jeffrey Epstein that has had a worldwide impact on the reporting of this case. Citing an unnamed Washington, D. C. insider, the source claimed to have learned that Alexander Acosta was informed by one individual that Epstein was a salaried employee of the U. S. Intelligence community and thus he, Acosta, should back away from his Federal prosecution of Epstein. ⁽¹²⁾

     The U. S. Intelligence community is comprised of 17 separate organizations; the FBI is one of them.

     In a subsequent press conference on July 10, 2019, the Secretary of Labor did not specifically deny the allegation, nor identify the person whom allegedly urged him to back off from his investigation. 2 days later, Acosta resigned.

     Jeffrey Epstein had been arrested 6 days earlier after stepping off his private jet at a New Jersey airport by members of the FBI-NYPD Crimes Against Children Task Force. A Federal Judge ruled that Epstein was a flight risk and should be held without Bail while awaiting trial. Because government Informants, or �snitches,� or �rats,� as they are called by incarcerated criminals, are often the targets of inmates, Epstein was housed in a special unit of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.

     Epstein's incarceration was a professional victory for the staff of the Miami Herald newspaper, and a personal victory for his many victims, some of whom looked forward to the day they could face him in a Federal Court as Prosecution Witnesses.

EPILOGUE

     On August 10, 2019, Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his MCC prison cell. The NYC Medical Examiner's office ruled his death a suicide.

     However, former NYC Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Baden told 60 MINUTES that according to his examination of the evidence, Epstein's hyoid bone was broken in 3 places, which he had never encountered during the numerous autopsies he had performed on humans who died from hanging themselves. Dr. Baden later stated that photos of Epstein's eyes reveal burst capillaries, which he claimed were more consistent with manual strangulation as opposed to hanging.

     Once James �Whitey� Bulger was incarcerated, it was just a matter of time before inmates would seize upon the opportunity to murder him for having informed on his fellow criminals as an FBI Informant. On October 30, 2018, fellow inmates murdered Bulger inside the Hazelton Federal prison in West Virginia.

     Thus, of the four FBI Informants profiled in this report, Greg Scarpa, Ed Murphy, Whitey Bulger, and Jeffrey Epstein, two, Scarpa and Murphy, died of AIDS; Bulger was murdered inside a Federal prison, and Epstein died inside a Federal Detention Center, either by his own hands, or the hands of someone else.

***
NOTES

Part One

1. "Bulger Linked to 70s Anti-busing Attacks," by Shelley Murphy. The Boston Globe, April 22, 2001.

2. �Whitey Bulger Witness Delivered Stepdaughter to be Murdered,� by Michele McPhee. ABC News, July 23, 2013.

3. �Black Mass,� by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill. Public Affairs, May, 2000.

4. �Whitey Bulger Trial: Victims and Associates Talk Revenge,� by T.J. English. Newsweek, September 13, 2011.

5. �Stolen Innocence: Whitey Bulger Exploited Teenage Schoolgirls,� by Maggie Mulvihill, Jack Sullivan, Jonathan Wells, and Jack Meyers. The Boston Herald, April 9, 2001. (Second in a 4-part series.)

6. �Whitey Bulger Photos Show Him With Defrocked Pedophile Priest,� by Michele McPhee and Elicia Dover. ABC News, August 1, 2013.

7. �What We Learned About Whitey Bulger Today," by Paul Kix. Boston Magazine, June 29, 2011.

8. "Most Wanted: Pursuing Whitey Bulger, the Murderous Mob Chief the FBI Secretly Protected, by Thomas J. Foley and John Sedgwick. Simon & Schuster, 2013.

9. "Honest Cop Gets His Due," by Peter Gelzinis. The Boston Herald, July 14, 2013.

10. "J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and His Secrets," by Curt Gentry. Norton Publishers, 1991.

11 "Mafia Kingfish," by John H. Davis. Penguin Publishers, 1989.

12. �U. S. Must Pay $101.8 Million for Role in False Convictions,� by Pam Belluck. The New York Times, July 27, 2007.

13. "Fourth Superseding Indictment: The United States vs. Francis P. Salemme, James J. Bulger, Stephen J. Flemmi, Robert P. Deluca, and James M. Martorano. Filed in the United States District Court, District of Massachusetts, 7-2-1996."

14. �Black Mass,� by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill. Public Affairs, May, 2000.

Part Two

1. �Skull Murphy: The Gay Double Agent,� by Arthur Bell. The Village Voice, May, 1978.

2. �Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution,� by David Carter. St. Martin's Press, 2004.

3. �Deal with the Devil,� by Peter Lance. Harper Collins, 2013.

4. The New York Times, June 29, 1971.

5. "Chief: Classic Cases from the Files of the Chief of Detectives," by Albert Seedman and Peter Hellman, Avon, 1975.

6. �The Wiseguy and the Nun,� by William Bastone. The Village Voice, February 9, 1999.

7. �J. Edgar's Slip was Showing,� by Murray Weiss. The New York Post, February 11, 1993.

8. �Woman Shot in Struggle With Her Alleged Victim,� by the staff of the New York Times. April 7, 1971.

9. �Officer Down Memorial Page.org.�

10. �Political Violence and Terrorism in Modern America: A Chronology,� by Christopoher Hewitt. Praeger, 2005.

11. �Foster and Laurie,� by Al Silverman. Little, Brown, 1974.

12. �A Break in 1972 Killing of Cops � Former Black Militant Aids Double-Slay Probe,� by Larry Celona. The New York Post, July 23, 2001.

13. �Hilton vx. State: The Supreme Court of Georgia, November 8, 2010. https://casetext.com/case/hilton-v-state-52

Part Three

1. �Deal with the Devil,� by Peter Lance. Harper Collins, 2013.

2. "We're Going to Hell for This: 'Mobsters' Lament Over Moll Slaying," by Alex Ginsberg. The New York Post, August 16, 2007.

3. "The G-Man and the Hitman," by Fredric Dannen, The New Yorker, December 16, 1996.

4. �A Real Sleeper: Mafia Wife's Hubby Took Liking to Him,� by Greg B. Smith. The New York Daily News, March 23, 1994.

5. �The Mobster Was a Mole for the FBI: Tangled Life of a Mafia Figure Who Died of AIDS is Exposed,� by Selwyn Raab. The New York Times, November 20, 1994.

6. �FBI Guilty: Jury Finds Feds Fueled a Mob War.� New York Newsday, July 1, 1995; �7 Cleared in Brooklyn Mob Case,� the New York Daily News, July 1, 1995. �Wiseguys Acquitted in Colombo Murders,� the New York Post, July 1, 1995. �The thin line between Mole and Manager,� the New York Times, July 2, 1995.

Part Four

1. �Epstein's Coney Island Days: From Math Nerd to 'Arrogant' Prick,� by Michael Daly. The Daily Beast, July 15, 2019.

2. �The Talented Mr. Epstein,� by Vicky Ward. Vanity Fair Magazine, March, 2003.

3. �Final Evasion: For 30 Years, Prosecutors and Victims Tried to Hold Jeffrey Epstein to Account. At Every Turn, He Slipped Away,� by Marc Fisher and Jonathan O'Connell. The Washington Post, August 10, 2019.

4. �Legal Eagle's Free Ride,� by Greg B. Smith. The New York Daily News, December 23, 1997.

5. �Jeffrey Epstein: International Moneyman of Mystery,� by Landon Thomas, Jr. New York Magazine, October 28, 2002.

6. �The State Department Once Rented a Townhouse Seized from Iran to Jeffrey Epstein � Then Sued Him for Subletting It,� by Rosie Gray. BuzzFeedNews.com, July 14, 2019.

7. �Ex-Florida Police Chief: Epstein Case 'The Worst Failure of the Criminal Justice System' In Modern Times.� NBC News, September 23, 2019.

8. �'They're Nothing, These Girls': Unraveling the Mystery of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's Enabler,� by Vanessa Grigoriadis. Vanity Fair Magazine, August 12, 2019.

9. �How Jefferey Epstein Lost $80 Million in a Hedge-Fund Bet Gone Bad,� by Michelle Celarier. New York Magazine, July 16, 2019.

10. �How a Future Trump Cabinet Member Gave a Serial Sex Abuser the Deal of a Lifetime,� by Julie K. Brown. The Miami Herald, November 28, 2018.

11. �Prosecutors in Bear Case Focus In on Email,� by Kate Kelly. The Wall Street Journal, June 19, 2008.

12. �Jeffrey Epstein's Sick Story Played Out for Years in Plain Sight,� by Vicky Ward. The Daily Beast, July 9, 2019.