Paul Rico

Paul Rico
Born	Harold Paul Rico (1925-04-29)April 29, 1925 Boston, Massachusetts
Died	January 14, 2004(2004-01-14) (aged 78) Tulsa, Oklahoma
Occupation	FBI agent
Years active	1951–2003

Harold Paul Rico (April 29, 1925 – January 14, 2004) was an FBI Agent who had an extraordinary career developing and operating high-level informants and witnesses used to prosecute organized crime figures in the 1960s and 70s. He retired from the FBI in 1975 and became head of security for World Jai Alai (WJA) in Miami, Florida, owned by Tulsa businessman Roger Wheeler, a self-made millionaire and owner of Tulsa-based Telex Corp. Paul Rico remained as head of security until the business was sold in 1995.

Rico was born in 1925 in Boston. He served as a gunner on a B-24 in Italy during WWII and, after the war graduated from Boston College with a bachelor's degree in history. Rico joined the FBI in 1951 at the age of 26 and worked in the Boston area. In 1956, he recognized a disguised James "Whitey" Bulger in a Revere bar and arrested him for a series of bank robberies. Later news stories erroneously reported that Rico used Bulger as an FBI informant but Rico had no contact with Bulger after sending him to prison in the 1950's. In 1966, Rico persuaded Joseph Barboza, Jr., aka Joe "The Animal" Barboza, to become as a government witness. Barboza successfully testified for the federal government in the trials of several prominent New England members of La Cosa Nostra and became the first witness to enter the Witness Security (WITSEC) Program. Rico later testified voluntarily in federal and congressional hearings concerning allegations of misconduct by agents in the Boston FBI.

In 1981, John Callahan, (a former WJA president fired in 1976) paid John Martorano to kill Wheeler in Tulsa, with the approval and assistance of notorious Boston mobsters James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi. Wheeler was shot by Martorano point-blank in the face as he was leaving the Tulsa Southern Hills Country Club. Callahan wanted Wheeler murdered to assist Callahan's efforts to gain control of WJA. In 2001, after Martorano began cooperating with federal authorities, Bulger and Flemmi were charged in Tulsa with Wheeler's 1981 murder.

The Tulsa police detective assigned to the case became convinced that former FBI agent Paul Rico was involved in the murder and pursued charges against him for 22 years, culminating in Rico's arrest in 2003 and death in custody on January 14, 2004. Beginning in 2006, two former FBI agents and attorneys conducted a lengthy investigation of the case against Rico and his career, concluding that the charges were based almost entirely on the self-serving false claims of John Martorano and Stephen Flemmi, and that Paul Rico likely had no involvement in Wheeler's murder.

Murder Charge

In October 2003, Rico was charged in the May 1981 murder of Wheeler in Tulsa (where Rico had never been prior to being charged) based on claims by two convicted mob killers offered in an affidavit filed by a Tulsa, Oklahoma police officer before a special judge serving as a criminal magistrate. Rico, then age 78, was held without bond and, as a former law enforcement officer, was subjected to beatings and abuse by jail inmates in Miami before being removed to Tulsa. There, on January 14, 2004 Rico died shackled to a jail bed before any preliminary hearing or other examination of the charges. An autopsy revealed that his immediate cause of death was internal bleeding caused by an overdose of medical blood thinners.

Contrary to some published reports, there was never a grand jury indictment of Paul Rico, but in October 2003 the Tulsa, Oklahoma, district attorney filed an Information (a prosecutor's allegation) charging Paul Rico with the May 1981 murder of Roger Wheeler, the owner of Miami World Jai Alai (WJA). Wheeler had allegedly been negotiating with John Callahan (a former WJA officer) and others to sell WJA and Wheeler rejected the terms offered. Callahan wanted Wheeler out of the way and control of WJA. He agreed to pay John Martorano $50,000 to murder Wheeler. Martorano secured the assistance of James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen Flemmi, members of the Boston criminal underworld, by promising Bulger and Flemmi future payments from WJA.

The case against former FBI agent Paul Rico, who served as WJA head of security from 1975–1995 after retiring from the FBI, is set forth in an affidavit filed by a Tulsa police officer. Based on interviews of the officer (who led the investigation from 1981 through 2003) and others, the bulk of the evidence in the case against Rico is laid out substantially in the officer's affidavit filed October 8, 2003, requesting a warrant charging H. Paul Rico with First Degree Murder and Conspiracy.

The affidavit was presented to a "special judge" or magistrate who had previously served as an intern at the Tulsa District Attorney's Office. The document has twenty numbered paragraphs describing statements made by two admitted mob killers, John Vincent Martorano and Stephen Joseph Flemmi. Both killers provided this information in exchange for substantial benefits received from both federal and state authorities who had previously charged both with capital murder in the Wheeler killing and other crimes.

The Key Points in the Affidavit

Martorano

• Martorano admitted that he shot Roger Wheeler, Sr. on May 27, 1981 in the parking lot of the Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a (by 2003 deceased) Joe Maurice McDonald serving as a getaway driver. Although he had never met Paul Rico prior to the Wheeler murder (and likely never did meet Rico), Martorano claimed that he had conspired with Stephen Flemmi, John Callahan, James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger and Paul Rico in this murder and that John Callahan had paid Martorano $50,000 in "expenses" to travel to Tulsa to kill Wheeler.

• Martorano's most important (and questionable) contribution to the case against Rico is his claim that he received the information needed to locate and murder Wheeler in Tulsa "on an envelope size piece of paper" from John Callahan in Florida. Callahan allegedly told Martorano that this piece of paper was provided by Paul Rico. (The officer's affidavit merely refers to Callahan as "now deceased," but does not explain that he is unavailable to corroborate this key claim because Martorano murdered him a year after killing Wheeler—and discarded the piece of paper.)

Flemmi

• In April 1981 Flemmi in Boston received a telephone call from Martorano in Florida to discuss the attempted purchase of Miami WJA by John Callahan, which would allegedly benefit Bulger and Flemmi. Martorano said Callahan would ensure that "skimmed" proceeds from WJA parking concessions of $10,000 per week would be paid to Bulger and Flemmi "to protect [WJA] from possible action by other organized crime groups.

• In May 1981 Flemmi met with Callahan and Bulger at the Black Rose Restaurant and Bar in Boston, where the murder was planned. Richard Donovan, the president of WJA (and a close friend of Callahan) had “a social relationship with Mr. Wheeler and that relationship would yield details of Wheeler's description, residence, automobile, office location and personal habits" needed for the crime. Flemmi claimed that this information would be passed to Paul Rico, "who would, in turn, pass the information to Callahan." (While Donovan knew Roger Wheeler very well, visited Wheeler in Tulsa and golfed with Wheeler at the club later the scene of Wheeler's murder, Rico had no such relationship with the WJA owner. Additionally, Donovan maintained a close friendship with Callahan, while Rico maintained no contact with Callahan since at least 1976, when Rico recommended Callahan's firing as WJA president—because of Callahan's reported contacts with organized crime figures in Boston.)

• Flemmi further claimed that two days after this meeting, he called Paul Rico in Florida and Rico, by telephone, "confirmed that he and others wanted Mr. Wheeler killed." Flemmi knew Paul Rico because Flemmi had worked as an FBI informant from 1965–1969. (There is actually no other evidence of any communication between Flemmi and Rico from 1969 until the murder in 1981. In a 2004 deposition, Flemmi testified as follows: Q. What relationship did you or [Whitey] Bulger have to Paul Rico while he was employed by World Jai Alai? A. I didn't have any relationship with him at the time he was employed.

• Flemmi also told police that he and Martorano met with Paul Rico at WJA in Miami in August 1982 more than a year after the murder to discuss "the profits [Flemmi and Martorano] had been promised." (Flemmi claimed that this meeting occurred in Miami and Martorano claimed it occurred in Dania, Florida, but their statements are the only available evidence of any meeting.)

(Stephen Flemmi agreed to provide information to the Tulsa District Attorney after a federal appeals court rejected his bid to have his federal racketeering indictment dismissed in October 2003. Flemmi testified at length under oath during hearings on those claims and on appeal, federal prosecutors characterized Flemmi as "a lifelong organized criminal" who gave "belated, inconsistent and inherently implausible testimony . . . concerning events of the distant past." The same prosecutors, who negotiated Flemmi's subsequent plea agreement with the federal government and provided Flemmi as a witness to the District Attorney in Oklahoma, made other explicit representations concerning Flemmi's credibility in their Brief for the United States filed with the United States Court of Appeals:

"[T]he district court [found] that Flemmi repeatedly lied during the evidentiary hearing. . . . (followed by numerous citations to the record of specific perjury by Flemmi) . . . Although these falsehoods had the potential to cause serious damage to others, Flemmi did not hesitate to utter them in court to advance his cause. . . . Uncorroborated testimony from such a witness cannot support an order excluding evidence."

There is no evidence that the Oklahoma court which issued the murder warrant for Paul Rico, resulting in his arrest, jailing and death, was ever advised of Flemmi's perjury in federal court. If Rico had stood trial, Flemmi's credibility would likely have been a significant issue.)

Pressure on the DA to Charge Rico

In July 2003 Tim Harris, then the elected DA in Tulsa, Oklahoma was the subject of Page A-1 criticism in the prominent local "Tulsa World" for his refusal to charge Paul Rico in the murder of Roger Wheeler, who had been a very well-known citizen. Less than three months before having a "special judge" issue a murder warrant for Rico, the “Tulsa World” published an expose' of Harris' allegedly lenient charging policies, entitled "DA, Law Officers in Feud." The long Sunday feature article began with:

• A simmering feud between Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris and law enforcement agencies has boiled over with allegations that Harris' policies are endangering the public. . . .

• Police aren't the only ones complaining.

• The son of slain Tulsa businessman Roger Wheeler said Harris' office suggested that the family should help pay for the cost of prosecuting the 1981 murder case. . . .

Later the article discusses the Wheeler murder case at length:

• Those [cases Harris has refused to prosecute] include a key suspect in one of Tulsa's most notorious murders. In late 2001, Detective Mike Huff presented an affidavit seeking charges against H. Paul Rico and others in the 1981 slaying of Wheeler, who owned the Tulsa-based Telex Corp. Rico, a retired Boston FBI agent, was head of security for World Jai Alai, which Wheeler had bought. Since then, Huff has presented two additional affidavits with new information related to Wheeler's death, but Harris has not filed charges against Rico. The most recent affidavit is a 28-page document written May 28 (2003). It alleges that Rico provided confessed hit man John V. Martorano with details on Wheeler's appearance, whereabouts and a vehicle description.

• Harris filed murder charges in 2001 against Martorano and two other figures in the case: James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi. . . .

• Martorano struck a plea agreement that allows him to serve no time in Oklahoma prison in exchange for testifying against his co-defendants. . . .

• David Wheeler [son of murder victim] said he asked Harris to turn the Rico case over to the state Attorney General's Office.

• "After fighting impossible odds to help bring my father's killers to justice, ultimately winning the battle against both organized crime and a corrupted Boston FBI, it is ironic to find ourselves stopped cold by our own district attorney."

In early October 2003, a few months after the article, top prosecutor Tim Harris personally accompanied Huff to Boston to meet with Stephen Flemmi, then in federal custody, and make a deal for his testimony. Harris and Huff immediately returned to Tulsa and charged Paul Rico with murder.

Deegan murder

In 1965, Rico learned from Barboza that gangster Edward "Teddy" Deegan was killed by members of the New England La Cosa Nostra and the Winter Hill Gang, specifically Vincent James Flemmi. Rico provided Joe Barboza, as a cooperating witness who had participated in the murder, to the Suffolk County, MA, District Attorney, who was the prosecutor. Suffolk County detectives and prosecutors interviewed Barboza and prepared him for his testimony in court against six men including: Peter Limone, Henry Tameleo, Joe Salvati, Ronald Cassesso, Wilfred Roy French and Louis Greco. Tameleo died in 1985 in prison and Greco died in 1995 in prison, too; Salvati was released in 1997, and Limone in 2001.

During U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearings in October 2003 looking into the Deegan killing, Connecticut Congressman Christopher Shays, Republican, repeatedly demanded that Rico respond to his allegation that he knowingly sent an innocent man to prison. Shays demanded, "What is it like?" and "How Do You feel?" Rico first responded that he had faith in the jury system and he thought the jury should decide innocence. When Shays said, "You don't seem to give a shit. Excuse me. You don't seem to care," Rico asked, "What do you want, tears?"

The two survivors and the estates of the deceased were awarded $101.7 million by U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner in Boston on July 26, 2007.

Patriarca family murder trial

Rico was in charge of cooperative witness John "Red" Kelley, an Irish American mobster and sometime associate of the Patriarca crime family, during a murder trial of family boss Raymond Patriarca and four members of the family, Maurice Lerner, Robert Fairbrothers, John Rossi, and Rudolph Sciarra. The five were tried in 1970 for murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the 1968 shotgun murders of Rudolph "Rudy" Marfeo and Anthony Melei. Kelley testified he had been contracted by Lerner to kill Marfeo and Melei, whom Kelley and Lerner allegedly murdered. After the trial, Kelley went into the federal witness protection program.

Patriarca and his associates were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and were sentenced to 10 years in prison. Lerner also was convicted of two counts of murder for which he was sentenced to two life terms in addition to the ten years for conspiracy, all of the sentences to be served consecutively. The jury was unable to reach a verdict for the other four defendants. Lerner's conviction subsequently was quashed by the Rhode Island Supreme Court in 1988. It had been established that Kelley had perjured himself at the trial, as had Rico, who had corroborated Kelley's testimony. The Court vacated his conviction and ordered a new trial.

Death of Paul Rico

Rico died on January 16, 2004 in a Tulsa hospital where he was moved to from jail, still charged for the 1981 murder. He was 78. John Martorano, who admitted he shot Roger Wheeler in the face on May 27 1981, never served prison time for the murder. The "Boston Globe" reported his release from prison in 2008, "When hit man-turned-government witness John Martorano strolled out of prison last year after serving only a dozen years for 20 murders, the federal government gave him $20,000 cash to help him start a new life."

See also

• Murder of Edward Deegan

External links

• FBI Dark Secrets, by Clarence Walker
• RICO How Politicians, Prosecutors and the Mob Destroyed One of the FBI’s Finest Special Agents, by Joe Wolfinger and Chris Kerr with Jerry Seper