Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI, and a Devil's Deal Chapter 4 Quotes
Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI, and a Devil's Deal Chapter 4 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
(Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
The Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known simply as RICO, would be used in nearly every major prosecution against the Mafia during the 1980's. (1.4.9)
During the '60s and '70s, the FBI makes taking down the Mafia their number one priority. RICO is a big part of that: It allows them to put pretty much any national-level crime boss in prison for a long time. That's a useful tool when you're up against such a finely-tuned and tight-knit criminal organization as La Cosa Nostra (another term for the Mafia).
Quote 2
Dennis Condon and Paul Rico were among the handful of agents picked to staff the city's first-ever Organized Crime Squad. (1.4.5)
In horrendously ironic fashion, the very agents chosen to take down the Mafia end up fostering corruption within the FBI. Funny how things pan out. Paul Rico in particular is the big granddaddy of them all: he brings Flemmi on as an informant and covers for him when he gets in hot water.
Quote 3
Rico had fashioned a "unique" style in his approach to the messy business of managing informants and had set the tone for other handlers in Boston: rules were made to be broken. (1.4.1)
Even before Connolly starts working for the Boston FBI, Agent Paul Rico makes corruption the law of the land for the Organized Crime Squad. In fact, Rico protects Steve Flemmi the same way that Connolly later protects Whitey Bulger. The dude literally writes the playbook on how to inappropriately manage informants. The anti-rulebook, if you will.