‘Whitey’ Bulger victim’s family says FBI knew of slaying

Paul McGonagle Sr. vanished in 1974 after dropping his son off at a South Boston skating rink, leaving his family to agonize about his fate until his remains were discovered 26 years later buried under a pile of rocks on a Dorchester beach.

Notorious gangster James “Whitey” Bulger was convicted two years ago of McGonagle’s slaying, and 10 others, and sent to prison for life.

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Now, the McGonagles are urging a court to find that the US government — and the FBI in particular — is to blame for their years of suffering.

In a civil suit filed earlier this month, McGonagle’s widow, Mary, and sons Paul Jr. and Sean, allege that former FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. knew for decades that Bulger and his crew killed McGonagle and buried him at Tenean Beach in Dorchester, yet did nothing. They are seeking $9.9 million for negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

A former Bulger associate who became a government witness led investigators to McGonagle’s grave in 2000, yet, according to the suit, the family didn’t learn until Bulger’s 2013 trial that “the FBI knew of the location of Mr. McGonagle’s remains for decades but did not provide that information to the family.”

Bulger’s longtime sidekick and fellow FBI informant, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, testified at the trial that he and Bulger periodically met Connolly at Tenean Beach when he was their handler from 1975 to 1990.

“And when you went to that location, at Tenean Beach, for those meetings, would Mr. Bulger make comments about Mr. McGonagle?” Assistant US Attorney Fred Wyshak asked while questioning Flemmi on July 19, 2013.

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“He told me where he buried him,” said Flemmi, adding that Bulger gestured toward the end of a small fence along the beach, located near the Southeast Expressway.

Flemmi said Bulger killed McGonagle, the former leader of Mullens, a rival South Boston gang. Bulger also confided, according to Flemmi, that he was gunning for McGonagle in 1971, but accidentally killed McGonagle’s brother, Donald, who was not involved in criminal activity.

A spokeswoman for the FBI declined to comment on the suit.

Bulger, 85, who is serving two life sentences in a federal penitentiary in Florida, is appealing his 2013 conviction for participating in the murder of Paul McGonagle and 10 other people while running a sprawling criminal organization from the 1970s to the 1990s.

On Monday, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit agreed to hear arguments on Bulger’s appeal on July 27 at the federal courthouse in Boston.

The former South Boston crime boss asserts that he did not get a fair trial because the judge refused to let him tell jurors that a now-deceased federal prosecutor had promised him immunity for all of his crimes, including murder, decades ago. Prosecutors have argued that Bulger offered no proof that he had immunity, and there was overwhelming evidence of his guilt.

The families of 13 other people killed by Buger and Flemmi during their years as informants filed civil suits against the government between 2001 and 2003, arguing that the FBI was responsible for the deaths because the FBI protected Bulger and Flemmi from prosecution and in some cases agents leaked information that led directly to the slayings.

Eight of those suits were ultimately dismissed because they were deemed to have been filed too late. The government paid about $13 million for the wrongful deaths of five people.

The Justice Department, which defended the government against those suits, did not respond to a request for a comment on the McGonagle lawsuit.

Attorney Timothy C. Foley, who represents the McGonagles, said the family’s lawsuit is different from the others because it seeks damages for McGonagle’s widow and children because of the decades they suffered not knowing what had happened to him.

Connolly, Bulger, and Flemmi “are actually standing on top of his body having these meetings,” Foley said. The McGonagle family, Foley said, could have been told back then about the location of the body, “even with an anonymous phone call.”

Connolly was convicted in 2008 of helping Bulger and Flemmi orchestrate the 1982 slaying of a Boston businessman in Florida and sentenced to 40 years in prison. A Florida Appeals Court is weighing a request to overturn his conviction.

Shelley Murphy can be reached at shmurphy@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @shelleymurph.