Bretta and Callahan part 1

Following are excerpts from transcripts of FBI tape recordings filed in court yesterday in the Bretta case: The first $6000 payoff to Bretta was made by undercover FBI agent John J. Callahan in March of 1982. Callahan: I got the bucks here. Bretta: Make sure you don't mention that we've seen each other. Callahan: Oh no, no, no. This is between you and I. Callahan: It's for services renderded and I appreciate it. I don't know whether you want to count it or not, Larry. But when this time comes around next year, you give me a holler. The second payment was made in May 1983, and at a restaurant meeting Callahan and Bretta discussed how the money should be delivered. Callahan: Your package is in the trunk (of Callahan's Lincoln). If you just want to drive by, I can put it right in your hands. I don't want to bring it in here. Bretta: No, no, no, no. Callahan: I don't want to do it in a restaurant, Larry. Bretta: I tend to agree with you. Callahan: I'll drive up the alley there. Just drive by me and I'll pop the trunk and hand you your package. Bretta: OK. In another conversation, April 29, 1982, Bretta, according to the transcripts, discussed a $10,000 payment the prosecution claims he wanted forhelping locate a Jordan Marsh store at the Assembly Square mall. Callahan: When Jordan Marsh came in here. . . . Bretta: Yup. Callahan: You used your influences, whatever. Bretta: Whatever. Callahan: Whatever you call it. OK, and for that amount of dollars through your connections with Jordan Marsh, who's a fellow who is a vice president there . . . Bretta: Well, Dick Duca, I guess was the guy that finally . . . Callahan: OK, whatever... Anyway, X amount of dollars was owed to you. Bretta: Yeah. Callahan: All I know is that is $10,000 somewhere coming to you. Bretta: Correct. Callahan: Maybe the figure is wrong and maybe it's right. Bretta: No, that is correct, Actually it is owed to Dick, but that's OKbecause we get (unintelligible). In the FBI reports filed with the court there were several references, none of them incriminating, to House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill Jr., who helped Bretta land his GSA job. Raymond Coots, the late president of East Bay Development Corp., which built Assembly Square Mall in Somerville, is quoted by a report as saying Bretta told him, "Somerville is O'Neill's territory, and Bretta thought he could possilbly help (in obtaining a federal UDAG grant for the area surrouding the mall.) Coots stated that he does not know if O'Neill helped or not." Coots said, according to the report, he had seen Bretta and O'Neill together at social events such as the annual Tip O'Neill Clambake held by the Somerville Chamber of Commerce. On a Sept. 24, 1982, tape Callahan asked Bretta about the possibility of meeting O'Neill. Callahan: Will I have an opportunity to talk with, ah . . . . Bretta: Of course. Callahan: Tip. Bretta: Sure, sure. There is only going to be about 20 guys. Callahan: Will I be able to bring up that UDAG thing (unintelligible) and that Somerville thing, and ask him about that? Bretta: Sure, positive, yah, yah, no problem, with that. OK. Callahan: Good, good. Bretta: It might be well if you and I just took a plane trip down. Callahan: Yah. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission. Abstract (Document Summary) The first $6000 payoff to [BRETTA] was made by undercover FBI agent John J. Callahan in March of 1982. Raymond Coots, the late president of East Bay Development Corp., which built Assembly Square Mall in Somerville, is quoted by a report as saying Bretta told him, "Somerville is [O'Neill Jr.]'s territory, and Bretta thought he could possilbly help (in obtaining a federal UDAG grant for the area surrouding the mall.) Coots stated that he does not know if O'Neill helped or not." On a Sept. 24, 1982, tape Callahan asked Bretta about the possibility of meeting O'Neill. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.