Brutal_ The Untold Story of My Life Inside Whitey Bulger's Irish Mob - Kevin Weeks [55]
When Bucky walked into the house, I was standing in the parlor, which was connected to the kitchen, and reached out and shook his hand. Heavyset, maybe five-nine, Bucky was an average-looking guy, wearing dungarees and a long-sleeved button-down shirt with an open collar. When I said, “How you doing? Nice to meet you,” I could tell he didn’t recognize me and assumed I was the diamond guy.
He didn’t get a chance to say anything to me because the minute I stopped talking, Jimmy, holding a Mac-11 nine-millimeter machine gun with a silencer, stepped out from behind the refrigerator, and yelled, “Bucky Barrett, freeze.”
At that moment, Bucky looked panicked. I have no idea what he was thinking, but I still thought this was just a shakedown. Pointing the gun toward Bucky, Jimmy motioned for him to sit down in a kitchen chair and told the guy who had walked him in to get out of there. Before Bucky had come into the house, Stevie had removed chains and handcuffs from a small black zippered carryall bag and placed them near the chair. It didn’t take long for him to handcuff Bucky and put the chains around his legs and waist and manacle him to the chair.
Jimmy sat down on a chair across from Bucky, placing the machine gun on the table in front of him, while Stevie sat down in another chair facing Bucky. At that point, I wasn’t doing anything besides standing there, watching. As Bucky sat there, I could see that he was nervous, but he wasn’t trembling or shaking or anything. He was taking it like a man. I went to sit on the couch in the parlor while Stevie and Jimmy began to interrogate Bucky. Although I could look into the kitchen from the couch, I couldn’t see the table. But I could listen to the conversation, which was going on in a nice calm manner, with no yelling or anything.
Bucky answered their questions for hours, talking about the drug business, how much pot he was selling, how much money he was making. Jimmy and Stevie were particularly interested in Joe Murray, the drug dealer Bucky was involved with who was making millions. Bucky was giving up information for the next crime, probably a shakedown on Murray. Even though Jimmy kept the machine gun on Bucky, since he was well shackled, there was no further need to threaten him.
A couple of times Jimmy came out into the parlor to tell me what was going on, what Bucky was saying about the drug business, how he’d offered to pay us $40,000 a month from now on. But Jimmy rejected that offer and decided instead to pay a visit to Bucky’s house in Squantum to get some more of his money. Using a telephone with a speaker hooked up to it, Jimmy had Bucky call his house. When his wife, Elaine, answered, Jimmy made Bucky tell her he was bringing some friends over and she had to leave for a couple of hours.
After the phone call, Stevie and Jimmy led Bucky down to the cellar and then called me down there. The basement was unfinished, with a cement floor painted military gray and overhead lighting. Off that main room was a small room with hot water heaters. A little step led up to another small room, maybe 12 feet by 12 feet, with a dirt floor and a ceiling so low you couldn’t stand up in it. A bulkhead opened to the backyard, with a driveway to the side. Handing me the machine gun, Jimmy told me to watch Bucky while he and Stevie went over to his house. Bucky and I were down there for about an hour, but I didn’t say a word to him during that time. I didn’t think it was appropriate for me to talk to him. He was sitting there, softly saying his prayers to God. That whole time, I didn’t think about anything