Whitey Bulger Trial Begins Today: a Lesson in Real Life Mafia Crime and How Organized Crime Works (and Succeeds).

Whitey Bulger's Mugshot

Whitey Bulger goes on trial today and while I haven't been following this case before now, I'm suddenly fascinated with what is happening up in Massachusetts starting this week. So I'm going to be posting about the case, sharing what I'm learning with you, Dear Reader.  
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Today, the trial begins in a Boston federal courtroom for James (”Whitey”) Bulger, who was on the lam for 16 years before getting nabbed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Santa Monica, and it’s a big deal.

He’s facing charges of racketeering as well as 19 separate murder charges and his pretty blonde girlfriend, Catherine Greig, has been busted too (she already been convicted and sentenced to eight years incarceration for helping Whitey hide from the law).

Starting tomorrow, 675 people who make up the jury pool will begin the process of making their way to the Moakley Courthouse each morning as the judge and attorneys on both sides work to find 18 people out of that group to serve as the 12 jurors and 6 alternates in a trial that is sure to take months and months to complete.

Whitey Bulger Story is a Fascinating Story to Many:  Best Sellers, Big Movie 

This is a big deal for many people, in many ways. There’s already a couple of bestselling books detailing the life of this alleged mobster, and there’s also a big time movie in the works. (Johnny Depp was cast to play the role of Whitey, but he quit this week in an apparent salary dispute.)

The details of this federal trial are going to be a real-life education for many of us that heretofore learned about organized crime through Mario Puzo’s and Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather series or perhaps watching the TV series, The Sopranos. 

 No fictionalized version of things this time. Follow this trial carefully and it may prove better than any award-winning fiction.  This is the real deal, and it's pretty darn spooky (and this from reading only the pleadings filed in the public record.)

Lessons in Real World Organized Crime: The Structure of the "Cosa Nostra"

Consider this from the live pleadings, the Fourth Superceding Indictment, where I for one learned lots of different descriptions for what the movies refer to as the “Cosa Nostra” in the movies and how the organization works, as well as the charges that have been brought against Whitey Bulger. 

 Summarizing from the first few pages of this indictment:

1. Since1965, both in Massachusetts along with other parts of the country, there has been a “secret criminal organization” which has several nicknames among its membership including:

• "La Cosa Nostra"
• "stu Cosa"
• "The Mafia"
• "This Thing of Ours," and
• “This Thing”.  (Who knew?  I never heard of "this thing" for the Mafia before, did you?)

2. The secret criminal organization is efficiently structured into groups called “Families" which operate all across the United States. The Families are overseen at a national level by a national “"commission" which is headquartered in New York City. The Commission’s membership are the leaders of each “Family” known as their "Bosses."

3. The indictment describes one of these Families as follows:

• “The Patriarca Family of La Cosa Nostra (the "Family"), which operated in the Districts of Massachusetts,on July 11, 1984 and who was then succeeded by his son, Raymond J. Patriarca, aka "Junior," until he was succeeded by the defendant FRANCIS P. SALEMME.“
• “The Patriarca Family existed and acted in conformity with the rules of La Cosa Nostra (LCN).“

4. Within the the Patriarca Family, the organizational chart involved the following:

1. The head man (or CEO as it were) is the "Boss."
2. His right hand man is the "Underboss."
3. His advisor and counselor is the Family’s "Consigliere."
4. Below the Underboss are a number of "Capo Regimes" or "Capos", men who are each in charge of a group of members who are their “crew.”
5. Within the crew, each member is a “made man” known as a “Soldier.”
6. Associates to the family are those who help the organization succeed and act with the Family members but these Associates are not officially “made” members of the Family.

5. The Family’s business operations were definitely for profit. According to the indictment, this Family gained revenue from a variety of illegal operations such as “…illegal gambling, extortion, loansharking, and narcotics distribution businesses and the collection of unlawful debts.”

6. In Massachusetts, there was a separate criminal organization known as "The Winter Hill Gang" and "South Boston." James “Whitey” Bulger was the Boss of the Winter Hill Gang.

7. The Winter Hill Gang acted with “...the purpose of controlling, supervising, financing, and otherwise participating in and deriving income from illegal activities, including illegal gambling, extortion, loansharking, and narcotics distribution businesses and the collection of unlawful debts.”

8. The Winter Hill Gang was competing with La Cosa Nostra in the New England area in these illegal marketplaces (gambling, extortion, drugs, etc.)for many years, viciously and successfully.  Things got ugly.

More in my next post.

I Didn't Watch The Oscars and I Don't Go to the Movies Much Anymore: Doesn't Sound Like Hollywood Notices

I like reading Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood - for one thing, she was a respected traditional journalist who started blogging when that was such a no-no.  I suppose it still is, but I don't think that Nikki Finke cares much (then or not).  Good for her.

Today, I was surfing through her commentary on the Oscars show last night (I didn't watch it) and noticed her reporting that Brian Glazer explained to her that the "theme" of the Academy Awards Presentation Extravaganza this year was to celebrate going to see movies in the theater because so many are opting for "video on demand."

I'll leave it to those who watched the show (Nikki, you) to decide whether or not last night's three hours of stuff achieved that goal.  (Nikki didn't think so.)

My point:  wake up.  It's not just the convenience of watching movies at home that is keeping people out of the theaters.  It's the junk that is being sold to us for very expensive tickets -- not to mention the cost of popcorn. 

You are not competing against the technology with which we watch this stuff so much as the entertainment alternatives we have.  And yes, Mr. Grazer, I mean television.

Some of it is crap, true.  Some of it is not.  One example that comes to mind immediately:  I'm rewatching the Tudors on BBC America, and while it's not exactly 100% accurate (Henry could only hope to look that good, particularly by the time he got to wive number six)  it's well done. 

Another example: The Closer.  It's good entertainment.  I'm sure we can all point to other television programming that we have found to be preferable to the stuff being sold to us at the movie theatres.

Look, I love to go to the movies.  Love it.  Love the experience.  I would like to do this every week.
But I refuse to fill my head with the junk that is being offered to me.  I will not pay for it. 

Looks like film revenues mean lots of other people may share my position on this.  Check out the reviews over at Rotten Tomatoes, Yahoo Movies, etc. and you'll see that there aren't that many five star, home run offerings out there right now either.

Not that every year needs to be 1939, but I mean really. 

Make better movies, and I'll go to the theatre again.  And, maybe, I'll start watching the Oscars, too.

Cuba Gooding, Jr. to play Tiger Woods in a Movie? Cuba, say it isn't so....

It's being reported that Cuba Gooding, Jr. is being cast as Tiger Woods in a new movie that will focus on the continuing Tiger Woods scandal.  This news is showing up on Gooding's IMDB profile as almost a done deal.

Wo Nellie. 

My first thought -- which is a bigger fall from grace, Tiger Woods for obvious reasons or Cuba Gooding, Jr. (an actor whose talents I admire) even being MENTIONED to star in this opportunistic crud? 

You remember Cuba Gooding, Jr. -- he's the guy who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Jerry McGuire, playing the character with the catch phrase "show me the money" ....

Show me the money, indeed. 

It's Complicated - Legally Related Movie Review No. 1

It's Complicated not only has a main character who is a lawyer (Alec Baldwin's role), it deals with lots of stuff that family lawyers will appreciate.  Divorce, the kids after the divorce, adulterous liasons, ... you get the idea.  You never know what kind of law that Baldwin's character practices, but he's gotta be a trial lawyer.     

Family lawyers will probably think this film is a hoot in ways that others won't. Here's what I thought (my background isn't family law) .... 

Hollywood Sues Chinese Company For Pirated Films

Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney, Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and Universal Studios have just sued a Chinese internet cafe and online service, Jaboo.com, for over $400K for offering pirated downloads of movies like "Pirates of the Caribbean."

Jaboo.com purportedly created software for the cafe that gave customers the ability to download the Hollywood movies. Then, the cafe offered the movies to folk interested in viewing films like "Pirates," "Hitch," and "Click."

I wonder ...

Has Jaboo contacted the folks over at The Pirate Bay yet? Shouldn't the same jurisdictional arguments advanced by Swedish The Pirate Bay apply equally as well to Chinese Jaboo?

Seems like they should, and I'd like to know if Chinese law is allowing a suit that Swedish law will not.

Are these Hollywood BigWigs going to use their new outsourcing lawyers over in India to handle things?

SDD offers litigation support .... Why wouldn't they -- they're already using them for transactional work.

Elizabeth with Cate Blanchett Was BAD

Elizabeth: The Golden Age was horrible. I know, it's been out for awhile. Here's what I thought about it. Don't go see it.

Posh Spice, the Crime Doctor, Bette Davis, and Dog the Bounty Hunter

Okay, this Writers' Strike already has my attention.

I'm all for the writers getting what they want (go check out their blog, United Hollywood, for details) but man -- it's already making me fixate on TV, when I'm trying to beat my TV addiction.

Tonight, I've got an extra-thin crispy crust 4-cheese pizza all ready to go when Dog the Bounty Hunter hits the airwaves on Larry King Live.

I want to hear good things, I want this all to be all better, because I like the Dog. I don't know what I expect him to say that will fix all this. Not wanting your daughter to date an African American because of your vocabulary -- is this what I heard? And while I'm here, let me just say that I only recently learned that according to the US Census of 1977, I am supposed to call myself European American. Who knew.

Then, tomorrow, there's the wedding on Ugly Betty and I'm just so happy that Henry and Betty are together. But I really like the Sandwich Guy, too -- you KNOW there's a future relationship there -- and hey, the Wedding is this week with Posh Spice as maid of honor for Willi.

And, today, while I was typing at the keyboard all day long, Turner Classic Movies had a marathon of the old Crime Doctor movies. Have you seen these? Shrink-sleuth combo, it's just fabo. But then again, I love all those 40s mystery shows in black and white: Sherlock Holmes, Mr. Moto, Charlie Chan, The Saint, The Falcon, .... I only recently discovered the Crime Doctor, by the way. Along with the Lone Wolf. Both from Saturday showings on TCM.

Fine. I admit it. I love TV. Did you see The Letter with Bette Davis last week? Nothing better. Just nothing.

Update - American Gangster and Bee Movie: The Pirate Bay Is Terrible Movie Forecaster

Update: As Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily explains so well, American Gangster and Bee Movie both had spectacular opening weekends.

So much for The Pirate Bay being a forecaster of how upcoming movies will do.

Laughing, laughing at me. I really thought it was going to work .... :-)

American Gangster and Bee Movie: The Pirate Bay As Movie Forecaster

American Gangster opens the weekend, and ThoseInTheKnow are predicting great things. There's a hush as American Gangster, combined with Jerry Seinfeld's Bee Movie, are hoped to bring in big bucks to a lackluster American Box Office this year.

Sure, it's got Denzel Washinton and Russell Crowe. But, here's the thing. A full, high-quality pirated version has been available to a world-wide audience over at The Pirate Bay for a couple of weeks now.

American Gangster hasn't held a lead over there -- this morning - as I write this - it's in 6th place, with Death at a Funeral in the #1 spot.

No, I'm not suggesting that you go watch American Gangster for free courtesy of the Pirates. That's stealing.

I'm just curious about TPB as a predictor of how popular a movie really will be, and if my hunch is right, then American Gangster is not going to be a Bourne Ultimatum ($412 million worldwide as of last weekend) nor a Ratatouille ($555 million worldwide as of last weekend). (Both Bourne and Rat are in the top 5 at TPB right now, despite being released several weeks ago.)

Bee Movie? It's not even on TPB top ten -- and it's getting "rotten" reviews over at Rotten Tomatoes.