Mob Hearings Probe FBI Informants
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14–One of the men New Bedford hitman Joseph “The Animal” Barboza accused of murder in 1967, came close to getting what he was after yesterday.
After 30 years in prison it came down to this: Joseph Salvati was asked to stand and Bob Barr, R-Georgia, acknowledged the life and hardship Mr. Salvati faced because of the information Edward Harrington withheld from the FBI in the 1971 murder case of John Deegan.
“I’m not accusing this man. And any inadvertence that my conduct did to cause problems with him, and his wife and his family, I am immensely sorry,” Mr. Harrington said. “But I will tell you this – at that time, I considered myself and conducted myself with confidence and with integrity and I thought I was making a great contribution to the governments fight against organized crime.”
Mr. Harrington, former assistant United States Attorney and currently sitting as a federal court judge in MA, testified in front of the committee that he believed Mr. Barboza, also known as “Joe Baron” under the Witness Protection Program, was telling the truth in the 1971 trial, even though Harrington confessed to having information that Boston mobster Joseph Flemmi asked Patriarca for a “hit on Deegan.”
“Four people who were not guilty of the murder were sent to jail, and you’re the defense attorney and you’re telling us that you had access to this exculpatory information,” said Chairman Dan Burton in a heated debate with Mr. Harrington. “For a defense counsel to have this information and not bring it out in court doesn’t make any sense.”
But according to Mr. Harrington, the FBI and the defense counsel knew about the false testimony Mr. Barboza made.
“They all knew it,” Mr. Harrington confessed. “He was a cold-blooded killer for the mafia. That’s why we used him.”
What makes even less sense, according to the committee, is the kind of relationship Mr. Barboza had with Mr. Harrington.
“He liked me because Joe Barboza came from New Bedford, MA, I came from Fall River MA,” said Mr. Harrington. “We are both from southeast Massachusetts and we had a regional rapport.”
Former FBI Special Agent H. Paul Rico whose testimony before Congress last year shocked house members with its callousness took the Fifth and refused to answer any questions.
Mr. Rico refused to testify a day after the committee was told the FBI’s plan was to help “The Animal” during a 1971 trial for a murder committed while in federal protective custody, and instead sent four innocent men to jail – some with life sentences.
The swearing in of the panel, which included the Mr. Harrington and Jay Bybee, the head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, took place at 10:45 yesterday morning and at 11:32, Rico was excused from the panel, but not before Congress had their chance to speak to Mr. Rico.
“I just want to take a look at you, you’re very interesting,” Mr. Barr, said after Rico made his statement. “I hope you sleep well at night.”
Written for The New Bedford Standard-Times in New Bedford, Mass.
