BOSTON — Mob informant Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi pleaded guilty today to racketeering charges to avoid the death penalty under a deal in which he accused his former FBI handler of helping to set up a murder.
Flemmi appeared in U.S. District Court and changed his plea to guilty on a federal indictment that charges him in connection with 10 murders. The plea deal calls for him to serve life in prison.
"I'd like to extend my deepest apologies to the families, the victims, my family, the public at large and the court," Flemmi, 69, said after pleading guilty to 17 charges. "I truly am sorry. I hope they forgive me."
Prosecutors described graphic details of the slayings, as many of the victims' relatives watched from the courtroom benches.
A brother of one victims, Debra Davis, had to be removed from courtroom after hearing grisly details of his sister's murder. Steve Davis repeatedly shouted expletives at Flemmi and said: "You make me sick."
Earlier this month, Flemmi cut a deal with prosecutors in which he accused the man who recruited him to become an FBI informant in the 1960s, a law enforcement source, speaking only on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press.
Flemmi backed up a story provided by a mob hitman who told investigators that former FBI Agent H. Paul Rico helped him and others set up the killing of Tulsa, Okla., businessman Roger Wheeler in 1981, the source said. Rico was arrested Thursday.
In exchange for Flemmi's cooperation in the Wheeler case, state prosecutors in Oklahoma agreed to drop their bid for the death penalty against Flemmi in Wheeler's killing. Florida prosecutors also agreed to remove the death penalty in another mob killing in which Flemmi was charged.
The federal indictment to which Flemmi pleaded guilty covers the killings in Oklahoma and Florida.
Rico was a star in the FBI's war against the Mafia during the 1960s and '70s, recruiting Flemmi and other gangsters from the Winter Hill Gang to inform on the rival New England Mafia. He retired from the FBI in 1975 and worked as directory of security for World Jai Alai in Miami.
After Wheeler, the owner of World Jai Alai, ordered an audit of the company's books when he suspected profits were being skimmed by Flemmi and Winter Hill Gang leader James "Whitey" Bulger, he was gunned down in his car at a Tulsa country club.
Rico, 78, is accused by Oklahoma authorities of providing the gang with information on Wheeler's schedule and other personal details to help set up his killing.
An extradition hearing for Rico today in Miami was postponed until Friday because his attorney said he has not had the chance to speak to Rico since his arrest.
Rico's arrest was another turn in a long-running scandal over the cozy relationship between the Boston FBI and its underworld informants. Last year, former FBI Agent John Connolly Jr. was convicted of protecting gangsters, including Bulger, who is on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list and is sought in connection with 21 murders.
Confessed hitman John Martorano testified last year that Flemmi and Bulger ordered the Wheeler killing and Rico helped by giving the gang details of his schedule.