Support for the Big Dig comes from MIT Federal Credit Union, with a full range of financial services, their financial advisors, are committed to helping members money work for them.

Memberships open to the public. More at MITFCU.org, federally insured by NCUA.

By 1991, Fred Salvucci had championed the Big dig for almost 20 years, and when he finally laid

that mantle down, he didn't know who, if anyone, would pick it up next. And he certainly had no

idea that it would be an old adversary, someone about as unsalvucci as you can imagine who would take that mantle on.

A man named Jim Caraciotis.

I have to admit, I was a little nervous when I met for the first time with Jim Caraciotis

because I had heard the stories about Jim Caraciotis,

and most of them were not flattering.

He's a real nasty piece of work as far as I'm concerned.

Brilliant, driven, unfortunately, sadistic.

If the stories were to be believed, this was a man who ruled the Big Dig by fear and

intimidation, a man who prowled the hallways of the transportation building, casually firing

people, while proudly displaying a hatchet on his desk as a warning to whoever might be next.

I remember the hatchet. I saw the hatchet.

These stories have been repeated so many times that they feel both unquestionable

and at the same time a little unbelievable, like mythology.

But now, here was Jim Caraciotis, the man, walking into the studio in a gray suit with just a little shine to it and a stack of binders under one arm, like a lawyer showing up for court.

All right, how are we on sight lines? I feel like that's always a challenge here. Can you see me okay?

Yeah.

But it very quickly became clear that the Caraciotis I was sitting across from

was not going to live up to all the stories I had heard.

...