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Mother indicts U.S. government for son’s death

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

John McIntyre had been involved in the smuggling effort, helping to load hundreds of weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition worth $1 million on to the Valhalla, which rendezvoused in the Atlantic with another ship, the Marita Ann.
The deadly cargo was transferred to complete its journey to Ireland. But shortly after the transfer, the Irish authorities struck. Among those arrested on the Marita Ann was Martin Ferris, who would spend the next 10 years in prison as a result, and nowadays a Sinn Fein TD. But for McIntyre, the results were far more serious. He disappeared from his home in November 1984. For 16 years, what happened to him remained a mystery. The truth only came to light with the unfolding of the case against the notorious Boston-based gang known as the Winter Hill Gang headed by James “Whitey” Bulger, now on the run from 19 indictments on murder.
McIntyre’s family learned that gang members who suspected McIntyre of talking to the authorities about their smuggling operations had murdered him and buried him in a secret grave, near Quincy. They also learned that two of those involved in his abduction and death, Bulger and Stephen Flemmi, were FBI informers. Most damaging of all, it’s alleged that it was FBI agents who handled Bulger and Flemmi who may have leaked McIntyre’s name to his killers.
Last Tuesday, March 2, the case went before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which heard an appeal filed by the McIntyre family as part of a $50 million lawsuit that they have brought against the U.S. government. The McIntyre suit is one of 17 that relatives of those murdered by members of the Bulger gang who were working for the FBI at the time of the killings are bringing against the government with claims amounting to more than $1.4 billion. One of the judges who heard the McIntyre appeal called it “unique.”
The government has responded to the lawsuits by arguing that the claims were brought too late — in the McIntyre case, it was filed one month after the expiration date for filing such claims had past. According to the law, plaintiffs must file claims either within two years of the alleged injury or within two years of being made aware of the injury. Government lawyers told the families that they should have known of FBI involvement from 1998, when the Bulger case first came before the courts in 1998, even though government spokesmen consistently denied that the FBI was involved in any wrong doing. A lower court found in the government’s favor, a ruling that led to last week’s appeal.
“For 15 years the FBI denied any knowledge of his disappearance and any involvement in it,” said William E. Christie, attorney for the McIntyre family. “And the evidence supports the belief that the FBI had information about his death.”
The family is arguing that since the government withheld vital information about the fate of John McIntyre the ruling that their lawsuit was inadmissible because of the time lapse should not stand.
“The family met with a wall of silence,” said Massachusetts Rep. William Delahunt, himself a former attorney, who has supported the family in their action. He commented that the government’s arguments were “just beyond the pale . . . outrageous” is an understatement. It all hinges on knowledge. But the family did not know the FBI was involved — the government did not inform them. So how could they have taken action?”
The FBI agents involved include John J. Connolly, who was convicted on racketeering charges because of his relationship with the Bulger gang. A gang member, Kevin Weeks, who cooperated with the authorities and led them to the grave where McIntyre’s remains were found, accused Connolly of passing information to Bulger that led to McIntyre’s death. Connolly has denied that he was the source and another FBI agent, James Greenleaf, who was also involved in the Winter Hill Gang, has been named as the snitch that tipped off Bulger.
According to reports, McIntyre had spoken with customs authorities about the Winter Hill gang’s drug-running operation, which had led to the seizure of 36 tons of marijuana two weeks before the arms shipment left for Ireland. McIntyre’s family denies that he passed information about the arms shipment, citing that he was a strong supporter of the IRA. In 1996, IRA informer Sean O’Callaghan claimed that he had betrayed the Marita Ann shipment when he was acting as the IRA’s southern commander.
McIntyre who had been tortured before being murdered was found with the remains of two other Winter Hill Gang victims — Arthur “Bucky” Barrett, a drug dealer, and Deborah Hussey, the daughter of Stephen Flemmi’s girlfriend, who was murdered to prevent her from talking about an affair she had had with Flemmi. Ironically, the burial site was in sight of Mrs. McIntyre’s home. “I can see my son’s grave from the top floor of my house,” she said shortly after his remains had been recovered. “It was as like my son was crying out from the grave.”
Christie, the family attorney, is “confident and hopeful” that the court will find in their favor that “the U.S. government was responsible for her son’s death.”

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