Although adamantly denied by Bulger, the FBI admitted that he served as an informant for several years starting in 1975. Bulger provided information about the inner workings of the Patriarca crime family, his Italian-American Mafia rivals based in Boston and Providence, Rhode Island. In return, Connolly, as Bulger's FBI handler, ensured that the Winter Hill Gang effectively went ignored. Beginning in 1997, the news media exposed various instances of criminal misconduct by officials tied to Bulger from federal, state, and local law enforcement. This caused great embarrassment to each of these agencies, but none more so than the FBI.