Ex-FBI agent says Bulger denied informant role

BOSTON -- A former FBI supervisor who wrote a book on reputed gangster James "Whitey" Bulger testified yesterday that he tried to end Bulger's role as an FBI informant, but his bosses would not act.

Robert Fitzpatrick, who was an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, said that in 1981 he was told to assess whether Bulger was providing useful information on the Mafia.

When he met with him, Fitzpatrick said, Bulger repeatedly changed the subject, "played the tough guy," and said he would never testify against anyone.

"At one point, he even said he was not an informant," Fitzpatrick said. "Basically, he was not giving me any information that I was out there trying to get."

Bulger, 83, is on trial in a massive racketeering indictment charging him with a role in 19 killings while he allegedly led the Winter Hill Gang in the 1970s and '80s. One of the FBI's most wanted after he fled Boston in 1994, he was captured in 2011 in Santa Monica, Calif. He has strongly denied being an informant.

After his initial meeting, Fitzpatrick said, he recommended that Bulger be terminated as an informant. But he said his supervisor and top brass at FBI headquarters in Washington did not act on his recommendation.

The defense has tried to show Bulger wasn't an informant. They claim his FBI handler, John Connolly, fabricated Bulger's FBI file to advance his own career. Fitzpatrick testified that he revealed misconduct by Connolly, who is now in prison.

Fitzpatrick, the first defense witness called after more than six weeks of prosecution testimony, said he was especially worried about the FBI's relationship with Bulger in the case of Edward "Brian" Halloran, who had provided the FBI with information about Bulger's alleged involvement in a 1981 killing.

Fitzpatrick said he met with a federal prosecutor to try to get Halloran into the witness protection program. Two days later, Halloran was gunned down, along with a man driving him home. Bulger is accused in those killings.