Family of mob hit victim wants trial to stay out of Tulsa

KRMG News has learned that the family of Tulsa murder victim Roger Wheeler does not want the case handled in Tulsa County and is urging the U.S. Attorney in Boston to keep the case from being tried here.

Roger M. Wheeler was gunned down in the parking lot of Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa in 1981.  It is believed that the murder was ordered by Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger.  Bulger was arrested in June in California after 16 years on the run.

Now, there are several jurisdications who would like their pound of flesh from Bulger.

Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris says he is pursuing charges against Bulger in the slaying of Wheeler.

Yet, today's Boston Globe reports that Roger Wheeler's son, Lawrence (who goes by Larry) doesn't want the case brought to Tulsa because the family has lost  faith and cites how a prior case related to Wheeler's murder, former FBI agent H. Paul Rico, was handled and the proven corruption already at the federal level related to the murder of his father.

From the Globe:

Lawrence Wheeler wrote in his letter that authorities in Oklahoma violated protocol for the death of a prisoner when former FBI agent H. Paul Rico died in their custody in 2004 while awaiting trial on state charges that he helped plot the elder Wheeler's murder.

Wheeler wrote that among the irregularities, contractors - and not local law enforcement - were guarding Rico at a Tulsa hospital; attending physicians were not notified when he died; and his body was rushed to a funeral home just hours later.

From this morning's Boston Herald:

Larry Wheeler began his letter to U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz by asking that she keep Whitey out of Oklahoma.

"Past trials involving our local authorities on this case show this environment is too corrupt and too self-motivated for a case of this magnitude," Wheeler wrote. "I have sat through (John) Martorano's and (Stephen) Flemmi's (Oklahoma) to see nothing accomplished except some posturing and speeches. We need justice and solutions, not politics."

David Wheeler, son of Roger Wheeler, tells KRMG that the he would be happy with his father's murder case moved to Oklahoma City and handled by the Oklahoma Attorney General even though Tulsa County has jurisdiction.  Wheeler said by phone his family's dealings with Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris have been difficult and disappointing.  He also says his family has been 'beaten up and abused' by the FBI and the federal government but David Wheeler sings the praises of former Tulsa Police Sergeant Mike Huff and the Tulsa Police Department.  Huff, before his retirement in May, worked on the Wheeler case since 1981.

Contacted this morning in Tulsa, District Attorney Tim Harris tells KRMG News that he had not seen the letter and could not comment on it.