News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 30, 2004

Winter Hill Associate Kevin P. O'Neil Sentenced

Boston, MA... An associate of James “Whitey” Bulger’s Winter Hill Gang was sentenced today in federal court for racketeering, extortion and money laundering.

Mark R. Trouville, Special Agent in Charge of the U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration; United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan; Joseph A. Galasso, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation; and Colonel Thomas G. Robbins, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, announced today that U. S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns sentenced KEVIN P. O’NEIL age 56, of 15 Woodbriar Road, Quincy, to 1 year and 1 day in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, and a $10,000 fine. Judge Stearns also ordered that O’NEIL pay $25,000 in restitution to Raymond Slinger.

O’NEIL pleaded guilty in October of 2000 to a Superseding Indictment charging him with racketeering, extortion and money laundering.

From about 1975 and continuing until 1999, O’NEIL was an associate of the Winter Hill Gang (also known as the “Bulger Group”) led by Bulger and Stephen J. Flemmi. The Bulger Group earned its income from a variety of sources, including long- term collection of so- called “rent” or extortion payments from persons who were given permission to engage in drug dealing, loansharking, and illegal gaming activities within the orbit of the Bulger Group free from economic and physical reprisals; short- term extortion of large lump- sum “fines” from persons engaged in both illegal and legal activities who were targeted for extortion for a variety of reasons, including that they were unlikely to report being victims of extortion; marijuana and cocaine distribution at both the wholesale and retail levels; and the operation of loansharking and illegal gambling businesses. O’NEIL’s role in the Bulger Group was primarily to help launder illicit profits. On occasion, O’NEIL accepted “rent” payments from bookmakers on behalf of Bulger and Flemmi.

O’NEIL began associating with Bulger in the early to mid- 1970's. O’NEIL owned and operated Triple- O's Lounge, a South Boston tavern that was frequented by Bulger and his associates. On a number of occasions over the course of approximately the following twenty years, O’NEIL aided and abetted Bulger and others in the Bulger Group in the commission of extortion and in money laundering. The government never alleged that there was evidence of O’NEIL personally committing any acts of violence or drug dealing nor that he was involved in the day- to- day decision making of the Bulger Group.

Additionally, pursuant to his plea agreement with the government, the Court today ordered O’NEIL to forfeit all interests in the South Boston Liquor Mart and 25% of the proceeds from his prior sale of Triple- O’s Lounge, $16,421.13, to the government.

The case was jointly investigated by Special Agents of the U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U. S. Internal Revenue Service with the Special Services Unit of the Massachusetts State Police with assistance from the Boston Police Department’s Major Case Unit and the U. S. Department of Labor’s Office of Investigations, Division of Labor Racketeering.