- Kevin Weeks
Kevin "Two" Weeks (b.
March 21 1956 ,South Boston ,Massachusetts ) is a formerIrish-American mobster , and former lieutenant to Mob bossJames Bulger of theWinter Hill Gang , anorganized crime family fromSouth Boston, Massachusetts .After his arrest and imprisonment in
1999 , he became a cooperating witness. His testimony is viewed as responsible for the convictions of John Connolly andStephen Flemmi . Since his release from prison, he has written the memoir, "Brutal: My Life inWhitey Bulger 's Irish Mob" (ISBN 0-06-112269-6).Background
Kevin Weeks was born in
South Boston, Massachusetts to a working class family of mixed Irish and Welsh descent. He was the fifth child in a family of six and grew up in theOld Colony Housing Projects .His father, John Weeks, originally hailed from
Brooklyn, New York . His mother, a full-time homemaker, suffered from severearthritis and went about the family's tenement on crutches. John Weeks changed tires for a living and later obtained a position with theBoston Housing Authority . He trained his sons inboxing and earned extra money by coaching prizefighters.Kevin's brother, William, has described the atmosphere of their childhood as follows. :
"Smart was good, but having the ability to beat someone senseless! Now "that" was real power.
Education was often talked about in the apartment, but always with the implied threat that if your marks weren't acceptable, be ready to give up your soul to God because your a-- belonged to our father ... [A] nd As [sic] weren't acceptable." ["Brutal", pp. x-xi.]Throughout high school, Kevin Weeks was involved in extra curricular activities. When he wasn't boxing, he was on a team traveling to swim meets all over New England. His memoirs vividly describe how the busing controversy transformed the previously comparatively peaceful South Boston high schools into zones of race warfare. Weeks also relates how his fights against
African-American gang members eventually led him to lose a post-graduation job at a neighborhood high school.Fact|date=November 2007Criminal career
In
1976 , after he gave up on college, Weeks became a bouncer at a popular neighborhood bar, "Triple O's". This was a frequent hangout of theWinter Hill Gang , anIrish-American crime family which was then bossed by the infamous James "Whitey" Bulger. It was here that Weeks first met Bulger, as well as Bulger'sItalian-American partnerStephen Flemmi . Beginning in1978 , Weeks began working for Bulger part-time as muscle and a personal driver. Impressed by Weeks' knack for making money and genuinely liking him, Bulger decided to bring him in closer than any other associate. Meanwhile, Weeks turned to running a loansharking business on the side.In
1982 , just four years after beginning to work as part of the Winter Hill Gang, Weeks left his legitimate jobs and became a full-time mobster.The Halloran murder
On the night of
May 11 1982 , Bulger was told the whereabouts of a former associate turned Federal informant, Edward Brian Halloran, known on the streets as "Balloonhead". After arriving at the scene, Weeks staked out the Pier Restaurant, where Halloran and construction worker Michael Donahue were dining together. As Donahue and Halloran drove out of the parking lot Weeks signaled Bulger by stating, "The balloon is in the air", over a hand held radio. Bulger drove up with a masked man armed with a silenced Mac 10; Bulger himself carried a .30 caliber carbine. Bulger and the other shooter opened fire and sprayed Halloran and Donahue's car with lead. Donahue was shot in the head and killed instantly. Halloran lived long enough to identify his attacker as James Flynn, a Winter Hill associate, who was later tried and acquitted. Flynn remained the prime suspect until1999 , when Weeks agreed to cooperate with investigators.The Three Murder House
Between 1983 and 1985 Weeks has also confessed to three additional murders; all of which took place between 1983 and 1985. Each killing was carried out at the same house, 799 East Third Street in South Boston. Fact|date=November 2007
The first murder was that of
Arthur Barrett , a safe-cracker and major drug trafficker reporting to Joe Murray ofCharlestown, Massachusetts . Three years earlier, Barrett had masterminded a $1.5 million bank robbery inMedford, Massachusetts . Instead of paying protection to Bulger, Barrett had given $100,000 toFrank Salemme , a "Made man " in thePatriarca crime family and close friend of Flemmi. Out of courtesy to Salemme, Bulger held off on shaking Barrett down. In1983 , however, Bulger learned that Barrett was involved in selling stolen diamonds. Bulger persuaded Weeks to pose as a diamond fence and lured Barrett to a meeting at the house on East Third Street. Bulger then tied him to a chair and spend hours grilling him on Murray's drug business. After he had all the information he needed, Bulger shot Barrett in the back of the head. Flemmi then cut off his feet and hands and pulled his teeth out with a set of pliers. Weeks covered the corpse with lime and buried him in the basement. Fact|date=November 2007The second murder was that of
John McIntyre , a 32-year-old drug runner who, like Barrett, reported to Joe Murray. Like many of Boston'sIrish-American s, he was an avid supporter of theProvisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA). In 1984, Bulger and Weeks were collaborating with Winter Hill associatePatrick Nee in an attempt to smuggle seven tons of arms to the IRA aboard the "Valhalla", a fishing trawler fromGloucester, Massachusetts . McIntyre was a member of the crew which carried the guns to a secret rendezvous off the Irish coast. Fact|date=November 2007However, the British, American, and Irish governments had been warned by an
MI6 mole in the PIRA's Kerry Brigade (reputedlySean O'Callaghan ). As a result, the cargo was intercepted off the Irish coast by a combined force of theIrish Navy and theGarda Siochana . The "Valhalla's" crew was arrested byU.S. Customs agents upon their return to port. Broken under interrogation, McIntyre revealed all he knew and agreed to wear a wire on his associates. Bulger was immediately notified by John Connolly. OnNovember 30 1984 , McIntyre met with Murray and Nee on theSouth Boston waterfront. He was taken to the East Third Street house and turned over to Bulger. Bulger grilled him for hours before offering to smuggle him toSouth America . Fact|date=November 2007Changing his mind, Bulger walked McIntyre to the basement and shot him in the back of the head with a .22 caliber rifle. Fact|date=November 2007 Flemmi then put his head to McIntyre's chest and reported that he was still alive. Flemmi responded by picking McIntyre up by his hair as Bulger fired five or six more shots directly into his face. Weeks was yet again assigned to digging duty and buried McIntyre's remains. Fact|date=November 2007
In 1985, Flemmi walked into 799 East Third Street with a 26-year-old woman by the name of
Debra Hussey . Debra, the estranged daughter of Flemmi'scommon law wife Marion Hussey, had been working as a stripper in the Combat Zone in Boston. Even more serious from Flemmi's perspective, she had also been bringingAfrican-American men to the house Flemmi shared with her mother insuburban Milton, Massachusetts . To make matters even worse, she had threatened to tell her mother about her past affair with Flemmi. Weeks was in a separate room of the house and did not enter the parlor until he heard a thud. When he did so he saw Bulger on the floor with his arms wrapped around Hussey's throat and legs wrapped around her torso. After Bulger released his grip, Flemmi insisted that she was still breathing. Flemmi thengarrotte d her with a length of clothesline. Just as in the previous murders inside the house, Flemmi and Weeks buried her remains in the basement.Fact|date=November 2007Debra Hussey was the last person murdered inside the house on East Third Street; six months later, the house was sold. On Halloween weekend in 1985, the three bodies - Barrett, McIntyre and Hussey - were relocated to an isolated gully overlooking the Southeast Expressway in
Dorchester, Massachusetts .Narcotics
Beginning in the early 1980s Bulger, Weeks, and Flemmi began to partake in the illegal narcotics trade. Their involvement began with shakedowns of major traffickers and branched out into actually
micromanaging the New England drug trade.Ironically, they limited their associates to
cocaine ,hashish , andmarijuana and did not want any other drugs (such asheroin andPCP ) on the streets of South Boston. Weeks stated that, according to Bulger, a cocaine addict can still function, whileheroin addicts become "zombies". Fact|date=November 2007 A carefully chosen crew of prizefighters under John Shea handled most of the work of the drug business. Dealers of heroin and PCP were beaten up and driven out of the neighborhood.Meanwhile, Shea and his associates smuggled large amounts of cocaine from
Colombian andCuban-American drug cartels based inSouth Florida . Fact|date=November 2007Beginning in the late 1980s, a joint
task force of theDrug Enforcement Agency , theBoston Police Department , and theMassachusetts State Police set out to bring the Winter Hill Gang down. In 1990,"Red" Shea and his entire crew was all rounded up and imprisoned. However, Shea and his associates refused to implicate their bosses.Fact|date=November 2007Meanwhile, Bulger and Weeks listened to reports of the arrests on the radio. Weeks would later describe how the drug trade had been good money while it lasted but how after the arrests, the gang returned to more conventional crimes. Fact|date=November 2007
Mob Boss
On
December 23 1994 , after being tipped off by a renegadeFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent, John Connolly, "Whitey" Bulger fled Boston ahead of a massive Federal indictment charging him with shaking downbookmakers throughout the Boston Metropolitan Area. Flemmi was arrested less than a month later. The leadership of the Winter Hill Gang then devolved on Kevin Weeks. Fact|date=November 2007For the next five years, Weeks ruled the neighborhood rackets assisted by Kevin O'Neill, one of his former employers from his days as a saloon bouncer. Fact|date=November 2007 Weeks also remained in frequent touch with Bulger, with whom he had several clandestine meetings in
New York City andChicago .Arrest
On
November 17 1999 , Weeks, Kevin O'Neill, and other Winter Hill associates were arrested in South Boston by agents of the DEA and theMassachusetts State Police . The next afternoon, he was presented with a 29-count indictment under theRICO Act . At first refusing to cooperate, Weeks was transferred to a Federal penitentiary inRhode Island .The informant
Imprisoned in
Rhode Island , it took about two weeks for Weeks to decide to co-operate with authorities, leading some in South Boston to dub him "Kevin Squeeks". He has stated that he was approached by one of his fellow prisoners, aMade man in thePatriarca crime family , who asked him, "Kid what are you doing? Are you going to take it up the ass for these guys? Remember you can't rat on a rat. Those guys have been giving up everyone for thirty years." [ Kevin Weeks, "Brutal", p. 261. ] In addition, Weeks was also deeply affected by the cooperation of John Martorano, a legendary hit man for the Winter Hill Gang.He led authorities to six different bodies buried by the Winter Hill Gang, including the triple grave of Hussey, McIntyre and Barrett. He implicated Bulger in the murder of Edward Brian Halloran, as well as agreeing to testify against Stephen Flemmi, Special Agent Connolly, and Whitey Bulger. He was then sentenced to five years in federal prison. Upon his release in early
2005 , Weeks was given the option of entering theWitness Protection Program , but, he turned the offer down. He has stated that if anyone were to come after him he'd rather face his problems than hide like a coward.Fact|date=November 2007Family
Kevin Weeks married his longtime girlfriend, Pamela Cavelleri, on
April 26 1980 at the Gate of HeavenRoman Catholic Church in his native South Boston. They have two sons, Kevin Barry Weeks, to whom Whitey Bulger stood as godfather, and Brian Weeks. The couple later separated.His older brothers, John and William Weeks, both attended
Harvard University , but have stated in interviews their father was prouder of Kevin's ranking position in theWinter Hill Gang and his close relationship with Bulger. Fact|date=November 2007Current status
Weeks was released from Federal prison in early
2005 . After a major bidding war over his memoirs, he chose to collaborate with journalist Phyllis Karas (of "People" magazine). Weeks' account of his life with Bulger and Flemmi was published in2006 and shot up the bestsellers' list.References
Resources
*Weeks, Kevin (with the assistance of Phyllis Karas). "Brutal; The Untold Story of My Life Inside Whitey Bulger's Irish Mob".
*Shea, John. "Rat Bastards; The Story of South Boston's Most Honorable Irish Mobster". ISBN 0-06-083716-0 (Hardcover), ISBN 0-06-083717-9 (Paperback)External links
* [http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2006/04/02/onetime_mobster_now_tailed_by_readers/ Onetime Mobster Now Tailed By Readers - Boston Globe]
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