40TH Anniversary Year of Depositors Trust: The Death that Followed the Medford Bank Robbery

 

His voice was strained over the speaker phone when Arthur "Bucky" Barrett called his wife on a July afternoon in 1983, and told her to take their two boys, a 2-year-old and the other just 13 weeks, and leave their Quincy house.

The last time Elaine Barrett spoke to him was at 11 that night, when he called to check on her and their children, saying, "I just want to make sure you're OK. I won't be home for a while. I have to get some money together."

But he never came home. Yesterday, on his birthday, Barrett, who was 45 when he disappeared July 26, 1983, was positively identified through dental records as one of three victims unearthed in January from a gully alongside the Southeast Expressway in Dorchester.

Investigators were led to the grave by Kevin Weeks, a longtime associate of fugitive South Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger. Weeks is now cooperating with authorities and has implicated Bulger and his sidekick, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi - both longtime FBI informants - in the slayings, according to sources familiar with the investigation.  http://archive.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2000/03/09/burglar_caught_in_violent_web/