By Danny Fenster
ticklethewire.com
John Kerry has joined others in urging the federal government to pay the families of two men allegedly killed by James “Whitey” Bulger, the notorious gangster and FBI informant, reports Boston.com.
As reported in ticklethewire.com previously, Rep. William R. Keating, a Democrat of Massachusetts, has already urged the government to pay the families $8.5 million in compensation they were initially awarded by a federal judge in Boston. He introduced legislation last month to compensate the families after a federal court of appeals tossed out the award on a technicality, saying the families had waited too long to seek restitution.
Now, the Massachusetts senator and one-time presidential Democratic candidate Kerry has filed similar legislation in the senate urging that the original decision be upheld, rewarding the $8.5 million to the families, reports Boston.com.
“We can’t place a time limit on these families’ grief or allow arbitrary restrictions to deny them the court-ordered damages they’re due,” Kerry said in a news release. “It’s our job to make this right.”
Bulger was working as an FBI informant and running wild, and a Boston federal judge back in 2009 awarded the families nearly $8.5 million, saying the government was negligent when it essentially let informant Bulger — under its watch — get away with murder.
Bulger allegedly killed the two men after learning from the FBI that one of them was cooperating with agents against Bulger. Micheal Donahue, a 32-year-old truck driver, was giving Edward “Brian” Halloran, a 41-year-old associate of Bulger’s, a lift home from a waterfront bar in Boston on May 11, 1982 when Bulger and an unidentified associate allegedly opened fire on the car. Halloran was targeted because he was suspected of working with the FBI.
