# The Millionaire Murder That Exposed a Criminal Empire | 225

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 7 May 2026, 15 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO7551267755.mp3

Roger Wheeler was a wealthy businessman, a casino owner, and a respected figure in Tulsa, Oklahoma. But on May 27, 1981, after a quiet round of golf at Southern Hills Country Club, he was shot dead in his car. At first, it looked like a shocking local murder. But the truth led investigators far beyond Oklahoma, into the world of World Jai Alai, hidden embezzlement, corrupt insiders, and the violent reach of Boston’s Winter Hill Gang. Wheeler had discovered money was being skimmed from his business, and that discovery may have signed his death warrant. This is the story of Roger Wheeler’s murder, the criminal empire tied to Whitey Bulger, Stephen Flemmi, Johnny Martorano, and H. Paul Rico, and the decades-long search for justice after one assassination exposed something much bigger than anyone first imagined. Episode 225 of the true crime podcast btw. 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill History Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillHistory Lazy Chill Zone Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillZone 👇 Support My Work: 🛍️ Merch: https://lazy-chill-zone-shop.fourthwall.com ❤️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lazychillzone 👇Social Media Links: https://www.instagram.com/lazychillzone/ 👇 Podcast links: ⚡History Video Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/7km5pLWpYWEj1mrPpEfRUr?si=0FHYnZf-Qs2FY1GyLevfig ⚡True Crime Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/0klIz08pAr7wR4we0Ia4sk?si=68qZxCeAQkysXzMZrHE0Iw 🍏 True Crime Podcast on Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lazy-chill-true-crime/id1815534472

## Transcript

[0:00] In the early 1980s, Rodger Wheeler spent millions buying a
[0:04] business that he hoped would be the basis for his sports empire.
[0:08] What he didn't know is that this purchase meant that he had
[0:10] entered into a fatal entanglement with the Boston Mob
[0:13] and Whitey Bulger, one of the most feared gangsters in
[0:17] American history. Wheeler was a self-made
[0:21] multimillionaire who came from humble beginnings, who had
[0:24] established himself as a well known figure in Tulsa, OK.
[0:29] By 1981, the 55 year old father of five had built a business
[0:34] empire, notably as the chairman of Telex, a communications
[0:38] company that employed thousands in the Tulsa area.
[0:42] Wheeler had a reputation as a shrewd, confident businessman
[0:45] who thrived on competition and always seemed to come out on
[0:48] top. Beyond Telex, he had diversified
[0:52] his ventures and a few years earlier he made a fateful
[0:56] decision. He purchased World High Lye, a
[1:00] Florida based gaming and sports entertainment company.
[1:06] At first glance, World High Lye might have seemed like an
[1:09] exciting new opportunity. High Lye is a fast-paced sport
[1:13] that was popular in parts of Florida and New England, drawing
[1:17] crowds who enjoyed betting on the games.
[1:20] As the new owner and president, Wheeler aimed to legitimize and
[1:24] grow the business and attract mainstream audiences to the
[1:27] game. However, what he didn't know was
[1:31] that the organization he purchased was harboring an
[1:33] extremely dark secret behind the scenes.
[1:37] An organized crime group from Boston, the Winter Hill Gang,
[1:41] led by the notorious James Whitey Bulger, had infiltrated
[1:45] the company. They were running a lucrative
[1:48] skimming scheme, siphoning off cash from the operations
[1:52] proceeds, particularly from parking lot revenues and
[1:55] concessions. The scheme was made possible by
[1:59] an inside man, H Paul Rico, a former FBI agent who had retired
[2:05] and taken a job as head of security for the organization.
[2:09] As a former FBI man, Roger Wheeler initially trusted Rico
[2:13] implicitly in what would turn out to be a grave mistake right
[2:17] from the start. Rico had once cultivated Bulger
[2:20] and other mobsters as informants in Boston, and now he was
[2:24] helping them line their pockets by stealing from Wheeler's new
[2:27] venture. Roger Wheeler wasn't someone to
[2:33] let money slip away unnoticed, and within a couple of years of
[2:36] buying World High Lie, he grew suspicious.
[2:40] He noticed irregularities in the financial records, profits that
[2:44] didn't add up and cash that vanished before it could be
[2:48] reported. Wheeler voiced concerns that
[2:51] something wasn't right at the company, and he even confided to
[2:55] family that he was considering selling the business.
[2:57] Sensing deeper problems, in early 1981 he fired several key
[3:03] employees at the companies Connecticut and Florida
[3:06] operations, including financial officers.
[3:10] Suspecting them of involvement in an embezzlement ring.
[3:14] He sent his own son on a discreet trip to Florida to
[3:17] inspect the books and the computer systems for evidence of
[3:20] theft. Wheeler's relentless probing
[3:23] into the company's affairs signaled to Rico that the scheme
[3:27] was in jeopardy. The Winter Hill Gang ended up
[3:31] catching wind of this and decided to eliminate the problem
[3:34] at its source. On May 27th, 1981, a sunny
[3:41] Wednesday afternoon in Tulsa, Roger stuck to his routine.
[3:46] Each week he enjoyed a round of golf at the exclusive Southern
[3:49] Hills Country Club, where he was a prominent member.
[3:53] That day, Wheeler played golf with friends, had his usual
[3:57] drink at the clubhouse, and then headed to the parking lot to
[4:00] leave. He walked to his Cadillac,
[4:04] likely tired from the game but relaxed in the familiar comfort
[4:08] of his club. As he sat in the driver's seat,
[4:12] something unexpected and horrifying happened.
[4:16] A man approached the car and, without any warning or chance
[4:19] for Wheeler to react, raised a weapon and fired a single blast
[4:23] at point blank range through the window.
[4:26] The bullet struck Roger Wheeler between the eyes.
[4:29] Club patrons nearby heard a loud crack echo across the lot, but
[4:33] no one immediately investigated what was going on.
[4:39] By the time anyone realized what happened, the shooter had calmly
[4:42] walked away. Within minutes, club staff and
[4:46] friends rushed to Wheeler's Cadillac.
[4:49] They found him slumped in the front seat, unresponsive.
[4:52] Paramedics and police were called, but there was little
[4:54] anyone could do. Roger Wheeler died at the scene,
[4:58] the victim of a professional job.
[5:03] Tulsa police launched an investigation immediately, but
[5:07] they faced A perplexing mystery. Who would want Roger Wheeler
[5:11] dead and why? Initially, detectives looked for
[5:15] local enemies or business disputes that might have led to
[5:18] this brutal act. Wheeler was powerful and
[5:21] straightforward. Perhaps someone held a grudge
[5:24] from a business deal gone bad. Yet from the start, signs
[5:29] pointed away from the typical motives.
[5:32] This was a meticulous, calculated slaying by an unknown
[5:35] assailant who appeared to vanish without a trace.
[5:39] One of the Tulsa detectives assigned to the case quickly
[5:42] sensed this wasn't a simple local crime.
[5:45] The method, a single shot between the eyes, and the lack
[5:49] of obvious personal motive suggested a pro had been
[5:52] retained. There were composite sketches
[5:56] made from witness descriptions of 2 middle-aged men, one
[5:59] believed to be the shooter, the other the driver, but these
[6:03] yielded no immediate matches. The two men wore the same
[6:07] glasses, the same style of beards, and had their hair done
[6:12] in a similar way, suggesting that they may have been members
[6:15] of an organized crime syndicate. Detectives learned from
[6:21] Wheeler's family and colleagues that he had been worried about
[6:24] the Florida operation of his high live business.
[6:28] When they dug into this angle, they uncovered evidence of
[6:31] skimming at the company's Connecticut venue.
[6:34] The fraudsters had skimmed money from parking and concessions in
[6:38] a way that pointed to a sophisticated organized fraud.
[6:42] In the early 1980's. The notion that the Boston mob
[6:45] could reach into the heart of Oklahoma seemed far fetched to
[6:49] some. Despite these suspicions, the
[6:52] case went cold and a cloud of fear and silence hungover anyone
[6:56] with knowledge. Potential informants were
[6:59] terrified, and for good reason. In the months following
[7:04] Wheeler's death, other gangland executions hinted at a wider
[7:08] issue in the high lie world. One was Brian Halloran, a low
[7:15] level Boston criminal who reportedly approached the FBI
[7:18] claiming he had information on Wheeler's slaying and that a man
[7:22] named John Callahan was involved.
[7:25] Halloran was executed on a South Boston waterfront in May 1982
[7:30] alongside an innocent friend who just happened to give him a ride
[7:34] that night. The other was John Callahan
[7:37] himself, the former president of World High Lie, who had sold the
[7:41] business to Roger Wheeler. In August 1982, Callahan's body
[7:46] was found stuffed in the trunk of his Cadillac in a Miami
[7:50] airport parking garage. It appeared that anyone who knew
[7:54] too much about the skimming operation was being
[7:56] systematically eliminated, but unsurprisingly, no one seemed
[8:02] willing to talk about it anymore.
[8:07] As the 1980s progressed, the Roger Wheeler case remained
[8:10] unsolved, frustrating his family and the Tulsa police.
[8:15] Eventually, Tulsa detectives began to suspect that the very
[8:19] people who should have been their allies were hindering the
[8:23] investigation. The FBI had jurisdiction over
[8:27] Interstate crime and organized crime, and given the emerging
[8:31] Boston mob connection, one would expect federal agents to be
[8:35] deeply involved in helping Tulsa police.
[8:38] However, they were largely kept in the dark about the
[8:41] investigation. Unbeknownst to Tulsa detectives
[8:44] at the time, this reluctance had a sinister explanation.
[8:49] Agents in the FB is Boston office were themselves
[8:52] compromised. It later emerged that certain
[8:55] Boston FBI agents had extraordinarily close
[8:58] relationships with Whitey Bulger.
[9:01] Bulger, incredibly, had been acting as an FBI informant since
[9:06] the 1970s, feeding agents information on rival gangs while
[9:11] he was effectively given license to commit crimes.
[9:17] Throughout the investigation, one name kept surfacing, H Paul
[9:21] Rico, the former FBI agent turned world high lie security
[9:26] chief. By 1982, Tulsa detective
[9:30] suspected that Rico might have played a role in Wheeler's
[9:33] demise and that the FBI may be compromised.
[9:37] That said, at the time, more level headed investigators in
[9:41] Tulsa dismissed this as a virtual impossibility.
[9:47] As time went on though, those suspicions were bolstered as the
[9:51] truth about the Winter Hill gangs infiltration of the FBI
[9:55] trickled out. In the late 1990s, John
[9:59] Connolly, a Boston FBI agent who was a handler for Bulger, was
[10:04] arrested and later convicted of multiple charges related to his
[10:08] corruption and protection of Bulger.
[10:12] Investigations by the Justice Department exposed that Bulger
[10:15] had been shielded for years. This shift finally gave the
[10:19] Roger Wheeler case new momentum after almost 2 decades.
[10:23] What had once been dismissed as a crazy theory that Boston
[10:27] mobsters ordered a hit done in Tulsa and that FBI insiders
[10:31] might have been complicit, was proving to be reality.
[10:35] And with Bulger on the run since 1995 to avoid an indictment,
[10:39] some of his former cronies began to talk, hoping to avoid life or
[10:45] the chair. The breakthrough in the Wheeler
[10:50] case came as the new Millennium dawned.
[10:53] In the late 1990s and 2000, federal prosecutors and
[10:57] investigators managed to flip some key Winter Hill Gang
[11:00] members. One of them was Johnny
[11:03] Martorano, A feared enforcer who had been part of Bulger's inner
[11:07] circle. Martorano had been implicated in
[11:10] a string of gangland slayings. Facing the possibility of the
[11:14] chair or life behind bars, he agreed to cooperate.
[11:19] In a plea deal, Martorano admitted to carrying out over 20
[11:23] slayings at the behest of the crew, and one of those was Roger
[11:26] Wheeler's. He revealed the chain of events
[11:29] behind it all. Whitey Bulger and his closest
[11:32] allies were alarmed that Wheeler's investigation was
[11:35] getting too close to their skimming operation and decided
[11:39] that Wheeler had to be eliminated.
[11:42] Mardarano flew to Oklahoma under an alias, and it was Rico who
[11:46] helped by providing inside information of the details of
[11:50] Wheeler's habits and schedule. On that fateful day at Southern
[11:54] Hills, Mardarano lay in wait and executed the plan.
[11:59] He then slipped away, returned the rental car and flew out,
[12:03] leaving Tulsa authorities baffled.
[12:09] In March 2001, nearly 20 years after the slaying, a Tulsa grand
[12:14] jury finally indicted all those responsible for the slaying of
[12:17] Rodger Wheeler. By that time, two other men
[12:21] allegedly central to the crime were already dead.
[12:25] By way of refresher, Brian Halloran, the low level Boston
[12:30] career criminal, had been snuffed out in 1982 on that
[12:34] South Boston shoreline, while John Callahan, the former World
[12:39] High Lie president, was stuffed into a trunk in Miami.
[12:45] Bulger, the mastermind of the operation, was still a fugitive
[12:49] when the indictments came down, and he had slipped away in 1995
[12:54] after a tip off about pending charges.
[12:58] Another stunning development was the indictment of former agent
[13:01] Paul Rico. In 2003, at age 78, Rico was
[13:06] arrested and charged with aiding in the slaying of Roger Wheeler.
[13:11] Rico maintained his innocence and he would never face trial.
[13:15] He died of natural causes in 2004 while in custody awaiting
[13:19] proceedings. Notably, Martorano, with 20
[13:24] bodies to his name, including Roger Wheeler's, was given only
[13:28] a 15 year sentence as part of his plea bargain.
[13:33] In June 2011, thirty years after Rodger Wheeler was slain in that
[13:38] Tulsa parking lot, news broke that Whitey Bulger had been
[13:42] captured. He was arrested in Santa Monica,
[13:45] CA, where he had been living and hiding with his longtime
[13:49] girlfriend. Bulger's arrest made headlines
[13:52] worldwide. After years of being one of the
[13:55] most high profile wanted people in the country, federal
[13:59] authorities decided to try all his cases together.
[14:02] As is usual in such complex interjurisdictional matters.
[14:07] In 2013, Whitey Bulger went on trial for the slaying of Roger
[14:12] Wheeler amongst numerous others. The jury found he had
[14:16] participated in Wheeler's slaying and he was sentenced to
[14:19] two life terms plus five years, ensuring the 83 year old mobster
[14:24] would die in prison. Bulger would go on to meet a
[14:28] violent and horrific end behind bars in 2018 at the hands of his
[14:32] fellow inmates, his life of crime finally having caught up
[14:36] to him in his old age.

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