James Whitey Bulger Guilty
The FBI have finally caged James
“Whitey” Bulger, once the most-wanted gangster in America, and protected by
rogues within the premier law enforcement agency in America, was convicted of
racketeering in Boston yesterday and will spend the rest of his life in prison.
While some FBI officers
certainly let the side down, it was the relentless work of solid FBI officers
that finally brought down the curtain on a criminal of relentless proportions, Bulger's close association with Sinn Fein and his support of Sinn Fein with drug money shows that Bulger was no Robin Hood character, simply a greedy murderer.
A jury sitting in federal
court in Boston found Bulger guilty of 11 of the 19 murders he was charged
with. Most of the murders he was acquitted of happened in the 1970s and the
jury found the evidence too weak.
But the jury found Bulger
guilty of nearly all the racketeering counts, which included murder as an act
of racketeering and the violent extortions of bookmakers and drug dealers.
Bulger showed no emotion as
the verdict was read, and with each passing moment the enormity of the verdict
against him sank in. He had denied killing two women whose murders were among
the 19 with which he was charged. But the jury found him guilty of murdering
Deborah Hussey, the stepdaughter of his partner in crime, Steve Flemmi. The
jury issued no finding in the murder of Flemmi’s girlfriend, Debra Davis, which
was short of finding him not guilty.
‘Good bad guy’
Bulger’s attempt to rescue
his “good bad guy” image, by copping to most of the charges but denying he
killed the women, was in shambles with the jury’s finding, though he may find a
grain of solace in the “no finding” in the Davis murder.
Bulger’s brother, Jack,
watched from the front row. His other brother, Bill, the former president of
the Massachusetts senate and the University of Massachusetts did not attend.
Judge Denise Casper set
sentencing for November 13th, but it is almost moot. Bulger, who turns 84 next
month, is certain to die in prison.
The eight-man, four-woman
jury returned its verdict after five days of deliberation that saw them sift
through a mountain of evidence.
“Thank God,” said Pat
Donahue, whose husband, Michael, was murdered by Bulger in 1982 after he
unwittingly gave a ride home to a potential witness against Bulger. “This has
been a long time coming, but it’s a relief that it’s over.”
Donahue’s sons Michael jnr,
Shawn and Tommy, who had grown up without their father, hugged each other as
their mother spoke.
Bulger’s conviction followed
a two-month trial marked by a parade of admitted killers and drug dealers who
pointed their finger at a man with whom they had worked or paid off.
Corrupt FBI agents
His defence rested on asking
the jury not to believe his former criminal associates who got immunity or
reduced prison terms in exchange for testifying against him. Bulger’s lawyers
pointed to the corrupt FBI agents and cynical justice department that tolerated
Bulger’s crimes for decades, asking jurors to acquit him as a rebuke to the
government.
But the jury apparently did
not want to release one of the most prolific killers in Boston’s history just
to send a message about FBI corruption.
But the jury apparently did
not want to release one of the most prolific killers in Boston’s history just
to send a message about FBI corruption.
Bulger was one of the most
infamous American criminals of the 20th century, having served time on Alcatraz
before he emerged in the 1960s and became untouchable a decade later when the
FBI recruited him as an informant in their war against the Mafia.
Evidence showed he exploited
that relationship for all it was worth. And the FBI did more than look the
other way when Bulger engaged in murder, often helping identify potential
witnesses against him so that he could kill them.
Bulger’s FBI handler, John
Connolly, the son of Galway immigrants, is serving a 40-year prison sentence
for helping Bulger and his gang murder Boston businessman John Callahan in
1982.
Connolly was a protege of Bulger’s brother, William, key in the
Massachusetts senate and
University of Massachusetts
Underscoring the incestuous
nature of Boston, and its intersections of politics and crime, Whitey Bulger’s
trial unfolded in a courthouse named for the late congressman Joe Moakley, who
grew up in the same south Boston neighbourhood as the Bulgers and was a family
friend.
Bill Bulger and other family
loyalists were among those who insisted that Whitey Bulger was not nearly as
bad as his detractors made out. They portrayed him as a benevolent gangster,
almost a Robin Hood character, and claimed he kept drugs out of Southie, as the
neighbourhood is known.
But a series of drug dealers
took the witness stand to describe how Whitey Bulger shook them down at
gunpoint, demanding they pay him for the privilege of selling drugs in and
around south Boston.
There was considerable
evidence showing Bulger set up his own drug dealing operation, run by a career
criminal named Billy Shea. Shea testified that, at the height of the cocaine
distribution ring, he was paying Bulger $10,000 a week.
Rather than deny the
charges, Bulger’s lead counsel, Jay Carney, admitted in his opening and closing
statements that his client made millions of dollars from the drug trade.
Many legal observers
suggested Carney’s strategy was to admit to most of the 32-count racketeering
indictment, hoping it would lend more credibility to Bulger’s adamant
insistence he did not kill two women whose murders are among the 19 he was
charged with.
Bulger’s defence focused on
denying that he killed Debra Davis and Deborah Hussey, the girlfriend and
stepdaughter, respectively, of his partner in crime, Steve Flemmi, as well as
denying something for which he didn’t face charges: being an informant for the
FBI.
Carney elicited some guffaws
when, during his opening statement, he insisted that Bulger could not be an
informer because he was Irish. Carney argued that being an informer was the
worst thing in the Irish consciousness. Bulger denied he was an informant,
insisting that the 700-plus pages of informant files attributed to him were
falsified by his FBI handler, Connolly.
The jury apparently believed
most of the testimony against him provided by criminals, but they rejected
testimony from John Martorano, an admitted killer of 20, who put Bulger in the
middle of a group of murders of rival gangsters in the early 1970s.
However, the jury did
convict Bulger of murders that Martorano implicated him in the 1970s and 1980s,
the key difference being there was corroborative evidence provided by others.
Bulger case factfile
Whitey Bulger: arrested in
2011 after being on run for 16 years. The mobster, who terrorised south Boston
in the 1970s and 1980s, ran the city’s notorious Winter Hill Gang. The
authorities found him in 2011 in Santa Monica, California, with an arsenal of
weapons and $822,000 in cash secreted in the walls of his retirement bungalow.
Racketeering offences:
comprised 38 criminal acts which included 19 murders, extortion, drug dealing
and money laundering.
Case proven: in only 11 of
the 19 murders he was accused of carrying out or ordering in his days as head
of the Winter Hill Gang. Seven murders were not proven and there was no finding
on one.
Length of trial: more than
two months. The eight-man, four-woman jury arrived at their decisions on fifth
day of deliberations.
Sentence: set by Judge
Denise Casper for November 13th. Bulger is certain to die in prison.
