How It All Goes Down
Betrayal
- By now, the police strongly suspect that Connolly tipped Bulger off.
- But it wasn't just Connolly—he had only learned about the bug because Morris told him.
- It gets even juicier—Morris supposedly received the intel from O'Sullivan, though most of the participants continue to dispute this.
- There's one man who's skeptical of Bulger, however: Lawrence Sarhatt, "the new FBI boss in town" (2.7.5).
- Buoyed by the police's complaints about Morris, Sarhatt launches an investigation into whether Bulger is even worth the trouble for the FBI.
- Connolly is furious at Morris for being so loose-lipped with the police.
- As for Morris, his life—and not coincidentally, his marriage—is falling apart.
- But Connolly has a plan.
- He's going to get Bulger and Flemmi credit for "the biggest case ever in the history of the Boston FBI office—the bugging of the Angiulo headquarters" (2.7.10).
- To plant the bug, the FBI needs to win permission in court, and to do that, they need to collect evidence.
- A lot of it.
- They have more than enough intel to win the case already, but Connolly slips in a rather irrelevant tip from Flemmi and Bulger to get them credit.
- And it works like a charm.
- Of course, the bugging efforts will surely reveal evidence of Flemmi and Bulger's crimes, but the agents promise them that they won't be prosecuted.
- In a crazy move, Connolly writes an internal memo which claims that the campaign against Bulger is based on political opposition to his brother Billy.
- It's conspiracy theory stuff.
- Not a good look, Connolly. Sarhatt certainly feels that way, at least, and the memo only makes him more skeptical of Bulger.
- At the end of the day, however, Sarhatt signs off on Bulger's contributions to the Angiulo bugging, and the corrupt informant continues kicking butt with the FBI's okay.
- The police, clear losers in this inter-agency battle, are forced to lick their wounds and prepare to fight another day.