Problem with the auction, it is just parts from an old NEC phone system that happens to have the words “Bulger phone switch” written on the side. The claim is that it came from surplus FBI parts although they deny it. $3500 is bit steep for busted phone parts.
‘Bulger wiretap’ electronics on eBay
From the Boston Herald, by Laurel Sweet
A Connecticut history buff is selling a pile of electronic stuff on eBay that he claims was the surveillance equipment used “to tap phone conversations” and gather evidence against convicted mob killer James “Whitey” Bulger while he was on the lam — and which was later salvaged from a scrap heap — but the FBI says it’s not what it is purported to be.
Available on eBay for $3500, sold by universityarchives02
John Reznikoff of Westport is asking nearly $4,000 for the collection of circuit boards, wires and digital cards, marked “Bulger/Phone Switch,” and touted as “FBI equipment used to tap phones of James ‘Whitey’ Bulger.”
“We’ll listen to offers. Obviously, I’d love to get the moon, but sometimes I settle for the sky,” said Reznikoff, president of University Archives.
But FBI Boston Special Agent Gregory J. Comcowich told the Herald yesterday the equipment “is not authentic with respect to any allegation or inference that it was used to intercept Top Ten Fugitive James ‘Whitey’ Bulger’s telephone while he was a fugitive. Any conclusion drawn from the eBay description that the FBI knew where James Bulger was located from the time he fled until his arrest is absolutely false.” He declined to comment on whether any Bulger associates were tapped in the hunt for Whitey.
Brian Camgemi, president of Boston Commodities International, an electronics recycling company, said he sold the equipment to Reznikoff for $500 “two or three years ago.” Camgemi said a third party recovered it from a pallet of “obsolete” surveillance equipment, stating “it came from a government agency in Boston. It wasn’t of any interest to me.”