Joseph Burke was an experienced criminal.
The squads had developed evidence
that he was planning on committing criminal acts.
I was the undercover coordinator.
But, you know, how do we get to this guy,
how do we make a case?
Out of the blue, he says...
"Mike, I'm broke.
I'll kill people for money." - People for you.
- So now you're looking at potential murder for hire.
- We gotta get him off the street
as soon as humanly possible.
[dramatic music]
- In the FBI, we make a lot of headlines.
♪ ♪
Drug busts,
mob stings,
terrorist takedowns.
- Get down! Get down!
- We understand why people want to tell stories about us.
- Mark it.
- Freeze! - FBI.
- FBI! - Action!
- But they don't know the half of it.
[indistinct radio chatter]
What really goes down,
we save that for each other
when we're talking agent to agent.
♪ ♪
This is "FBI True."
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Cindy Coppola is a 23-year veteran of the FBI.
She worked on cases that included
organized crime and terrorism
and took part in multinational investigations
into drug trafficking and money laundering.
Coppola finished her career with the Los Angeles division
running two offices, supervising investigations,
and providing undercover security for special events.
[indistinct chatter]
- Mike, it's so awesome to finally meet you.
Thanks for stopping in and having a beer with me today.
- Yeah, thank you for having me.
- Mike McGowan participated
in over 50 undercover operations.
He was the undercover coordinator
at the FBI's Boston office.
McGowan helped infiltrate the Mafia,
drug cartels, and biker gangs.
- You're, like, a legend.
Tell me about your last hurrah
before, you know, retiring.
- In the summer of 2014,
I'm approaching mandatory retirement.
And I'll never forget, I was literally in my office
putting stuff in a box to leave,
and one squad came up and said they wanted to work a case
against Joseph Burke.
♪ ♪
- Joseph Burke is a notorious criminal from Boston
and a known associate of organized crime boss
Whitey Bulger.
- He's from Charlestown.
It's a very violent, small part of Boston.
Charlestown is the ground zero for bank robbers.
- Robbery in Charlestown--
- Modern day Bonnie and Clyde
wanted for bank robberies.
- Considered armed and dangerous.
- Burke went to federal prison for a bank robbery.
But the squads had developed evidence
that he was already planning on committing criminal acts
when he was released from jail.
He was ready to go back into the game.
- So did they have any inside informants from the jail,
or way there any information
that he's talking to people on the outside?
Phone calls... - Yeah, yes.
- To know that he might be still committing crimes,
even though he's in jail. - Yeah, we have--
as you know, we have a nice pipeline into the jails.
- Sure. - Calls are recorded.
But, you know, how do we get to this guy,
how do make a case?
I was the undercover coordinator.
So we submitted a proposal
in order to have an undercover operation.
And I said, if you're gonna do an undercover operation,
you can't use a junior agent.
You need to have an experienced agent handle it.
And I probably shouldn't have said that,
because the ASAC turned around
and basically said, well, you do it.
- Just days from retirement,
McGowan agrees to take on the undercover role.
McGowan and the FBI soon learn that Burke is looking
to leverage his criminal past for a big payday.
- We learned information that, while in prison,
Burke had drafted a story about his life.
And he was interested in publishing
a book and maybe a movie.
- So he wants to be famous for his criminal activity?
- Immediately, I was like, this is it.
So we're dealing with the people on the outside.
He has minions and family and associates
all getting ready for his release.
And so the plan is to become this Hollywood investor.
[funky music]
- But McGowan must first sell his new undercover persona
to Burke's inner circle.
- Before he got out of jail,
we actually asked his associates,
hey, we don't know this Charlestown place.
Can you take us and show us around?
Again, because we knew that if we could
convince them we were the real deal,
that Joe would probably bite.
And he did. - Yep.
- So we came out as if we're coming from LA.
We ended up getting a huge town car.
I brought a young undercover with me
who posed as a writer. - Sure.
- And we went with five of his boys and associates,
and they took us to Charlestown.
[tense music]
I've worked in Boston all my life.
I know every street in Charlestown.
But we had to make as if we didn't know
anything about it.
My undercover writer is their age.
- Sure. - So he forms a relationship
right off the bat with them.
And we drive around for,
you know, an hour or two.
He's all over them, and they love him.
- Yeah, you tag teamed it. - Burke's boys,
they bought it hook, line, and sinker.
♪ ♪
- It isn't long before they reach out to McGowan
and arrange a call with the convict.
Burke is interested in arranging
a movie and book deal.
- So I said, you know, when you get out, Joe,
here's the number, get in touch.
- I can make it happen.
- And within 24 hours of his release,
he had reached out for us.
So it was all set before he got out.
We set up a personal meeting.
I'm all dressed up. I'm playing the part.
We rent a suite at a hotel.
- What was your first impression of Burke?
- I've dealt with a lot, a lot of bad guys.
But his eyes scared the shit out of me.
Right?
He had these evil eyes, these demented looking eyes.
I never got within reaching distance.
I didn't want him ever to grab me by the neck.
The purpose of an undercover meet,
other than staying alive for the next one...
- Yep. - Is you wanna set up
the next meet. - Yeah.
So you just wanna build report? - Pretty much.
- You just wanna get to know him, right?
- We hit it off that first day.
And then to end that meeting, I said,
well, again, if you're in LA, look me up.
And he did. - And he did.
- Burke takes the bait and arrives in LA
with one of his associates.
It's clear to McGowan
the ex-con has stars in his eyes.
- You could tell they were very interested
in the Hollywood scene.
I had the ability to get access to studio lots,
in this particular case, Warner Brothers.
- Sure.
- Brought him to a writing room.
All the scripts were up on the wall,
the notes, the index cards.
- Nice.
- I took him to the right restaurant.
They saw some people I wanted them to see.
Just painted a picture for them.
It's all a façade. - Of course.
But he doesn't know that, you know?
- Not at that point. - Not--[laughs]
Not at that point.
- One month later, a turning point in McGowan's case.
He meets with Burke back in Boston.
What the criminal doesn't know
is that it's in a controlled setting
with FBI surveillance cameras recording everything.
- Okay. Mm-hmm.
- And then he tells me--
out of the blue, he says,
"Mike, I'm broke."
- He then tells me, "You know, Mike,
you know a lot of rich people."
- And he literally motions a shooting motion.
He's basically saying, "I'll kill people for money."
- Wow. - All right?
- So now you're looking at potential murder for hire?
- That changes the investigation.
The violent changes everything. If you know--
because what's to prevent him from going out the next day,
hitting an armored car, killing a guy,
and then we find out the FBI knew about it the day before?
My job at that point as an FBI agent
is to deescalate any potential acts of violence.
- Sure. - So I warn him,
explicitly, don't do this.
Joe, don't do anything stupid.
Don't go out and do anything
because it's gonna fuck up your movie.
- Unsure how to proceed after Burke's murderous offer,
McGowan and his team regroup.
Incredible, but there still isn't enough to arrest Burke.
- Because, you know, there's such a thing
as the First Amendment, people can say anything they want.
So now we're scrambling and the pressure is on.
- The FBI collectively made the decision
that I was gonna specifically ask Joe to murder an FBI agent,
because we gotta get him off the street
as soon as humanly possible.
We're like, okay, who are we gonna murder?
- [laughs] Yeah. - And it didn't--
it took me 30 seconds and I knew who I wanted to use.
A very experienced undercover.
We arranged to have a party on a boat.
[funky music]
♪ ♪
This is where I introduce my undercover business partner
and the murder victim.
I tell the agent, I don't care what you do,
just piss Burke off.
He's an incredible undercover,
and you will despise him in 30 seconds.
- [laughs] - He has that ability.
- All right, well, that's good. So you got the right guy.
- Yeah, perfect. It was a role made for him.
So we have some female undercovers on the...
- As extras, yeah. - Party.
- At the yacht.
- My business partner comes on,
and he just--he just goes after these female agents.
He said things that you wouldn't say on TV.
- No, so he called them a bunch of names, and they--
did they say anything back? - Whores, everything.
- Yeah. - You know, "You ever made
a dollar that wasn't made on your back?"
You know, just-- - Yeah, all that--
[laughs] Jeez.
- But Joe Burke flips his wig right away.
- 'Cause he doesn't know. - And he starts
to jump over the table to attack this guy.
And I literally have to grab Burke and pull him away.
I have to spend pretty much the rest of the day with him,
calming him down
so that Joe doesn't go and do anything crazy.
- McGowan keeps Burke under control
and carefully plans his next move.
- I'm gonna ask him to murder my business partner.
But I just can't say I wanna kill him
'cause he insulted the girls.
We come up with, my business partner has now
anonymously reported me to the IRS...
- Shit, okay. - Who has frozen my assets.
And now all of my funding is cut off.
I made Joe buy me lunch 'cause I can't pay for it.
This was the first time I was asking somebody
to commit a murder for me. - Murder for you.
- So what's the plan now?
I tell Joe, my business partner snitched
to the IRS, and now I'm screwed.
And I'm screwed, Joe, which means you're screwed.
And instantaneously,
before I even had a chance to ask him,
you know, "I'll kill the guy."
- He just blurts it out? - Yeah.
Right away. Right away.
- If Joe had said, "I'm not doing it,"
the case was over.
You know, I got case agents
sitting out in the parking lot listening to this.
Now I'm engaged with him to kill my business partner.
Okay, this gives us an opportunity now
to have another meeting to further the murder
and discuss how he's gonna do it,
where he's gonna do it... - Sure.
- Why--you know, all these things.
- So going into this meeting with him,
you've gotta make sure you're not, like,
entrapping him, right? - No, we actually--
- That's something the Bureau has to be...
- 100% - You know, careful about.
- The only defense in undercover operations
are entrapment.
You have to understand what entrapment is
and how to avoid it.
So in this case, we put out the feeler,
hey, if you're interested, get in touch with us.
And then we backed away.
And all he had to say was, "Not interested,"
and we were done.
- But he didn't, right?
- No, he jumped all over it.
There goes the entrapment.
So I set up a meeting in New York
for about ten days later. - Okay.
- He has me get a hotel room in a fake name.
- Oh, so wait, step back. So the--
your business partner that Joe wants to kill for you,
he lives in New York, so he's not in the Boston area?
- He's in New York. - He's in New York, okay.
So interstate commerce. - It's exactly interstate--
- You know, he's coming from Boston--
- That's exact-- and that's why--
- That's an awesome charge.
- The murder itself was gonna happen in New York.
He was leaving from Massachusetts.
The interstate aspect is clearly established.
♪ ♪
- Burke meets McGowan in New York
with weapons in tow,
a Glock and a Scorpion machine gun,
the tools of a seasoned hitman.
- And then he demonstrated how each weapon--
you gotta remember, I have to play dumb
like I don't know what he's talking about.
- Like you don't use a weapon, you've never used one.
- Right. And so I made him demonstrate.
He was educating me
on the weapons that he had planned to use.
- I give him a down payment. I give him some cash.
I'm gonna take him to the location
where the murder's gonna be committed.
We want to do surveillance on the building.
And again, you can't do it in the middle of the day.
So we wait until--I tell him,
you know, we'll go do it in the middle of the night.
Well, Joe tells me he wants to go to the movies.
Okay, so Joe Burke and I go to the midnight movie.
- When's the last time you went to a movie with your wife,
and you're going with the bad guy.
I mean, that's screwed up.
- We go to see "Black Mass."
- Oh, jeez. - And "Black Mass,"
for those Boston people, is the Whitey Bulger story.
- Yeah. - Joe used to work for Whitey.
So Joe buys popcorn and sodas.
And we're sitting there, and Joe's now telling me,
in the Whitey Bulger movie,
"Oh, that's true," or "That's not true,"
or "This guy did that."
- You can't make this stuff up.
- I remember sitting in that movie theater,
saying, no one would believe this
right now. - Absolutely. No one.
- And I'm like, this is my last case.
I'm sitting in this movie theater...
- Having popcorn. - With a guy
who's gonna kill somebody...
- At midnight. - Eating popcorn.
- It's past 2:00 a.m.
McGowan takes Burke to a building in Queens,
which Burke believes to be the residence
of the business partner.
♪ ♪
- So I say, here's where he parks.
This is the door he uses.
You're gonna have to take out that security camera.
We basically do a loop of the building...
- Sure. - You know, pointing out
all the things, you know,
where the murder was gonna occur.
And again, the New York guys and office were great,
because everything I wanted him to see
is magically there.
- But Burke needs a favor from McGowan
before he can execute the murder.
- He tells me that when he used to rob armored cars,
he would use a company in Hollywood
that would provide masks.
And he wanted two masks to resemble African Americans.
At this point, I think we got everything.
But the FBI want one more meeting
to have him handle the mask.
- The mask is delivered to Boston.
Agents capture every moment on camera.
Now the masks have been delivered to me.
Okay, and they're very lifelike.
They were very believable.
So before Joseph Burke arrived,
the case team members made sure
that everything was ready to go.
- [voice distorted]
- So I tell him that my business partner's mother,
like, her 80th birthday is coming up in New York.
And that's how I know the business partner will be
at a certain location in New York.
And so Joe agrees
that we'll kill him on his mother's birthday.
- [laughing] Oh, my God.
- So-- - Can you imagine?
That's horrible. - You know, and--
- Ruthless.
- Burke basically said,
"I'm gonna--I'll wait till he gets there."
- Oh, shit. - That was his plan.
So he wanted him to know as he was dying
that I had ordered his murder.
- It's the last time McGowan will meet with Joseph Burke.
The US Attorney's Office now has all the evidence it needs.
- We set up the mother's birthday for October 17th.
And I tell Joe that's the day it's gonna happen.
In the meantime, the FBI is securing arrest warrants.
About three days later,
the FBI wanted to make the arrest.
So it was my job on arrest day to make sure Joe was available.
♪ ♪
We knew he had an appointment weekly
with his probation officer. - Okay.
- He's not gonna bring a gun to a meeting
with his probation officer. - Probation officer, yep.
- So I tell him that after he meets with probation,
we'll get together for another sit-down
just to make sure he's in Boston.
And like clockwork, he goes to his probation meeting.
The agents were there to arrest him.
♪ ♪
- He's probably freaking out, right?
Does he understand why he's getting arrested?
- He doesn't, but our case agents tell him
he was charged with murder for hire.
But when he was arrested,
he consented to an interview.
He told them about me as if I was...
- A bad guy. - A bad guy.
But everything we did was on tape.
He chose to plead guilty.
- I got one last question though.
How do you keep the beer off the mustache?
- You don't. - You don't?
Do you just suck on it later? - It's just like,
put the shirt in the cleaners the next day.