How It All Goes Down
The Bulger Myth
- "Detective Dick Bergeron of the Quincy Police Department" is writing out a proposal to electronically surveil Bulger and Flemmi (2.12.6).
- He's been monitoring Bulger for months, ever since discovering that the gangster had moved to Quincy.
- Bergeron's proposal makes its way to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), who have also been investigating Bulger's drug activity.
- The DEA and Quincy PD start a joint investigation, which they dub Operation Beans.
- Okay, how are we not supposed to laugh at that?
- By the mid-'80s, Southie has been decimated by drug addiction, which is spurned largely by the nominally anti-drug Bulger. He's basically destroyed his community.
- Bulger justifies this through a loophole: he merely forces drug dealers to pay "rent" for selling their wares in Southie, but doesn't actually handle the drugs
- Oh okay. Because that makes it totally all right.
- The FBI learns about Operation Beans in 1984. John Morris no longer works for the Organized Crime Squad, so the matter is dealt with by Connolly and his new supervisor, Jim Ring.
- Of course, the FBI has already heard from plenty of "informants [...] about Bulger and drugs" (2.12.42).
- Connolly blasts these reports away like they were baddies in Call of Duty.
- Bergeron particularly hates Bulger because he blames him for the death of one of his informants, John McIntyre.
- McIntyre had busted open a gun-smuggling operation between Bulger and the IRA, a militant Irish revolutionary organization. Serious stuff.
- Overjoyed with this inside info, Bergeron spread the news across federal agencies. Including the FBI. Uh oh.
- A few days later, McIntyre is dead.
- Bergeron is sure that Bulger is behind the murder, and suspects that the FBI had a hand in it too.
- As a result, they share as little information about Operation Beans with the FBI as possible.
- Still, Bulger and Flemmi remain one step ahead of the fuzz. They become increasingly insular and rarely do business face-to-face with subordinates.
- The investigators make several efforts the bug Bulger and Flemmi, but each fails.
- Somehow, however, they manage to plant a bug in Bulger's car while he's sleeping, which is, like, Jedi-level.
- The only problem is that it's so noisy inside the car that's it's practically impossible to hear what's being said. Well, that defeats the purpose.
- One night, they try to sneak into the car to fix the microphone, but Bulger sees them and runs out to chase them off.
- He doesn't catch them, but a few days later they hear him saying the worst thing they could hear: "'He's right—they did put a bug in the car" (2.12.81).
- He knows about the bug.
- Hearing this, the agents rush over to retrieve the bug. Bulger laughs at them and claims that, while the cops are the "'good good guys,'" he and Flemmi are the "'bad good guys'" (2.12.90).
- This dude is delusional.
- For the DEA and Boston PD, Bulger's knowledge of the bug confirms their suspicions that he's being aided by the FBI.
- And that's scary.
- Bulger and Flemmi, on the other hand, are freaked out.
- They decide to have a meeting with John Morris.