Bulger’s handler before he fled an indictment in 1995, former FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr., is serving a prison sentence after being convicted in Miami in 2008 of second-degree murder for alerting Bulger and an associate about a potential witness against them, who was killed in 1982.
Yesterday, McDonald did not hesitate when asked if he thought that Bulger would accuse more agents of corruption.
“Oh, yeah, definitely,’’ said McDonald. “He’s going to rat them out.’’
McDonald said the code at Old Harbor when Bulger lived there was “you didn’t bother him, he didn’t bother you.’’
He said he remembers Bulger doing “some good things’’ in the development. Once, McDonald said, Bulger helped an Old Harbor resident who had been sexually assaulted move to Florida with her family.
“He bought [plane] tickets, clothes,’’ McDonald said. “I guess he was a good guy in one way and a bad guy in another.’’
Ed Crowley, 84, of Peabody, who grew up in South Boston and remembers seeing Bulger, also said he thought the longtime fugitive could sink more agents.
“That’s a big operation,’’ Crowley, who was sitting on a bench on Castle Island, said of the FBI. “There could potentially be hundreds of people who were involved.’’
Two days after Bulger appeared in federal court in Boston to answer to his alleged involvement in 19 homicides and a roster of other crimes, people were divided on other aspects of the unfolding drama, what shape the legal proceedings will take and what fate he will face in the courts.
Some at Castle Island said Bulger should be sent to a federal prison far from Boston if convicted. Kansas, one woman suggested. Another thought reopening Alcatraz for him might be better.
But wherever he goes, there could be trouble, one man said.
“I would say someone’s going to try and break him out,’’ said James Piana, 53, of Raynham. Then Piana paused and reconsidered. “But he doesn’t have any friends left. He ratted them all out.’’
