Fred Weichel Asks: "Whatever Happened to Truth and Justice?"
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Newsletter of the In this issue: Weichel (1), Death Penalty (3), Georgia JUDICIAL PROCESS COMMISSION, INC. justice (4), Prison abuse (8), Drug War (8), Violence of Power (9), Curfew (10), Work release (11) ISSN 1077-6516 Editor: Jack Bradigan Spula July-August, 2006 might spot the man who killed LaMonica, Foley was Fred Weichel Asks: placed in the back of the van with LaMonica’s brothers. At the time, police had reportedly been "Whatever Happened To told by a "reliable informant" that Weichel was the Truth And Justice?" killer, and the police had conveyed this information to the LaMonica family. By Joel Freedman Several months after Weichel’s conviction, Thomas Barrett wrote to Weichel’s mother that it Fred Weichel was convicted of a Braintree, was Barrett who killed LaMonica. "I haven’t had a Massachusetts, murder. In 1981, he was good night’s sleep in almost a year because I know sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of Fred did not kill Bobby LaMonica. I did!!" parole. Shortly after beginning his sentence, he In October 2004, Massachusetts Superior wrote to me to proclaim his innocence. We have Court Judge Isaac Borenstein granted Weichel’s been corresponding for 24 years. motion for a new trial. As to why two decades In his book Brutal: The Untold Story Of My passed before Weichel presented evidence of Life Inside Whitey Bulger’s Irish Mob, Kevin Weeks Barrett’s confessions, Borenstein ruled that describes how Weichel operated on the fringe of Weichel was justifiably afraid of Bulger, who Bulger’s South Boston criminal gang during the warned Weichel not to implicate Barrett. Bulger was months prior to Weichel’s arrest for the 1980 a friend of Barrett’s mother. It was only after murder of Robert LaMonica. Weichel and Billy Bulger’s flight from Boston that Weichel disclosed Shea approached Bulger "to ask if it was all right if Barrett’s letter. (Bulger’s current whereabouts are they started grabbing all the marijuana dealers in unknown and, after Osama Bin Laden, Bulger’s town and put them in line. From then on, wherever name tops the FBI’s most wanted list.) Weichel these dealers might be buying marijuana, they believes that Bulger was the "reliable informant" would be working for the two of them. Now drug who advised police to focus on Weichel and not on dealers would have to buy their marijuana from Billy Barrett. The Norfolk County DA’s Office appealed and Freddie, who would be giving Bulger a large Borenstein’s decision to the Massachusetts percentage of their profits. Billy and Freddie had Supreme Judicial Court. (See the January-February only been in business a matter of months when 2002 and November-December 2004 issues of Freddie got pinched for a murder he didn’t commit." Justicia for further details on Weichel’s case.) The Norfolk County jury that convicted On May 22, Massachusetts’ highest court Weichel did so based primarily on the testimony of vacated Borenstein’s decision. The court decided 21-year old John Foley, who admitted he was that Barrett’s admissions to Mrs. Weichel and to a under the influence of alcohol and caught only a girlfriend, Sherri Robb, were not newly discovered, split-second glimpse of the face of the fleeing killer lacked trustworthiness, and were not sufficiently from a distance of at least 180 feet, on a dark side corroborated. The court also found that any fear street. When police took Foley in a van to drive Weichel may have had of retaliation by Bulger is around South Boston, supposedly in hopes he 1 "not legally relevant". Shortly after the court’s done. decision, Weichel wrote me, "There aren’t any The DA acknowledged the possibility that words at all that can tell you how disappointed I Barrett shot LaMonica, but if so, the DA also am. I’m heartbroken. Whatever happened to truth maintained Weichel was Barrett’s accomplice. The and justice?" DA speculated that Barrett could have shot Is an innocent man destined to die in LaMonica while Weichel stood watch, gun in hand, prison? My own assessment of Weichel’s case has and Barrett could have been faster than Weichel in focused on two questions. Did Weichel shoot getting back to the car, leaving Weichel to be the LaMonica? If not, did Weichel drive the getaway only one positively identified by Foley. Assistant DA car? James Reidy maintained, "If Barrett were not a I believe Foley’s eyewitness identification of scholar of the law of joint venture, he might Weichel was unreliable. I also believe placing Foley truthfully say that he killed Bobby LaMonica, and he alone with LaMonica’s brothers was done so the might truthfully believe that Weichel was ‘innocent,’ brothers could recognize Weichel and perhaps though the law is quite the contrary. Admittedly, this intimidate Foley into "identifying" Weichel. The is sheer speculation, but it is consistent with the police focus on Weichel alone raises concerns that known facts of the murder, there is nothing to the homicide investigation was biased and shoddy. disprove it, and the burden of showing the letter’s Although Barrett was initially a prime suspect, his trustworthiness is the defendant’s, not the photograph was not shown to eyewitnesses to the commonwealth’s." crime. But there is no convincing evidence that Barrett and Weichel were friends. Weichel Weichel was either the shooter or the driver. I can has always been protective, evenly overly find no good reasons to doubt Weichel’s claim that protective, of his friends. Barrett and Weichel were he was in Boston when LaMonica was shot. also part of a criminal subculture. But does all this Weichel’s attorneys have observed that "the mean that Weichel would shoot LaMonica or drive Commonwealth’s briefs make no mention of the the getaway car? It was Barrett, not Weichel, who fact that even though they are so certain that apparently regarded LaMonica as a dangerous foe. Barrett and Weichel acted in tandem, they were Weichel had been on friendly terms with LaMonica recently compelled to question about his possible in the past, and had even corresponded with involvement in driving the getaway car." (The LaMonica’s father while LaMonica’s father was in individual in question was rumored around South prison. Boston to be the getaway car driver for Barrett.) During a 24-year correspondence with It was reported that when Foley was initially Weichel, he and I have discussed many things shown a photograph of Weichel, he picked besides his innocence claim. I have come to know Weichel’s picture as "a pretty good likeness" of the Weichel as a person, not just as a prisoner claiming man he saw fleeing the murder scene. Foley was innocence. Weichel has made his share of wrong not shown a photograph of Barrett. At the time of choices. But Weichel also has a code of honor that the murder, both Weichel and Barrett were 5'7" tall, he cherishes. I am not certain what prompted weighed between 140 and 155 pounds, and both Barrett to write to Weichel’s mother, but I disagree had stocky, athletic builds, and both may have had with the DA’s assertion that "it is not at all similar hairstyles. implausible that Barrett, thinking himself secure in Jonathan Wells, a Boston Herald staff California, at Weichel’s request and upon Weichel’s writer, reported: "Another twist in the case was the promise to protect him, might send Gloria Weichel involvement of two Boston detectives who, sources a letter to ease her pain by falsely exonerating her said, were close to both Bulger and his FBI son." (Judge Borenstein rejected this assertion.) I handler, John Connolly. The now retired detectives, am reasonably certain that Weichel would never Edward Walsh and Walter Derby, were veteran ask anyone else to admit to a crime if Weichel had cops who spent years working crime cases in and actually committed the crime. I also do not believe around South Boston. And they played a key role in Barrett would confess to a murder if he was actually fingering Weichel for the LaMonica murder, innocent of the crime. Barrett’s letter to Mrs. according to a state police report obtained by the Weichel and his statements to Robb indicate ‘Herald’. Sources said Walsh and Derby are Barrett’s conscience was bothered by the fact that already being eyed by a special U.S. Department of Weichel was in prison for something Barrett had Justice Task Force probing Bulger’s dealings with 2 Massachusetts law enforcement." The "Boston Herald" also reported information from sources that Whitey Bulger had a romantic relationship with Veronica Barrett, the mother of Thomas Barrett. If Weichel had really killed LaMonica, my hunch is that he would have accepted an offer to plead guilty to manslaughter. In making his decision to grant Weichel a new trial, Borenstein had an opportunity to preside over several days of live testimony. Borenstein was Death Penalty Potpourri thus able to better assess the credibility of witnesses, including Weichel, than the judges of * North Carolina in August 2006 created an eight- the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. member Innocence Inquiry Commission that will The Whitey Bulger aspect of this case is review new evidence that was not considered in the also worthy of further consideration. While Weichel trials of convicted prisoners who claim innocence. If may never be able to prove his claim that Bulger a minimum of five of the eight members agree that threatened to harm Weichel and Weichel’s mother there is enough evidence that might exonerate the if Weichel ever implicated Barrett - Borenstein individual, the case is then reviewed by a panel of believed Weichel; the Supreme Judicial Court three Superior Court judges.