Judge: FBI must pay for '76 murder

Add another body to the list of official casualties from the FBI's alliance with James "Whitey" Bulger. A federal judge last week found the government liable for Bulger's execution of Revere nightclub owner Richard Castucci in 1976 (Photo: Cadillac where Castucci's body was dumped in the trunk.)

In an 11-page ruling last week that registered barely a blip in Boston media, U.S. District Court Judge Reginald Lindsay ruled on summary judgement for Castucci's family. A future hearing will determine damages.

Lindsay found the Bulger gang killed Castucci after learning from FBI agent John J. Connolly that Castucci had become a federal informant himself. In fact, Castucci had given up the location of a fugitive Winter Hill Gang member. Revenge came with an abduction and a bullet to the head.

Federal prosecutors themselves agree Connolly used his insider information about Castucci to get him killed. But the Justice Department's torts division repeatedly argues that Connolly's crimes were "outside the scope" of his employment, a career spanning more than two decades of bonus checks and official accolades from Washington.

Lindsay said the government can't have it both ways. Connolly was under the supervision of the FBI when he got yet another man killed. (In another case, Lindsay found Connolly also got Winter Hill turncoat John McIntyre tortured and killed by leaking his cooperation to Bulger. That case is now on appeal.)

The string of victims making their way through the courts from this era continues. These suits now total more than $1 billion, an avalanche of human suffering amid excuses, rationalizations and buck-passing at the highest levels of federal law enforcement.