Boston mobster ‘Whitey’ Bulger awaits verdict
After three days and 20 hours of deliberation, jurors in the trial for murder and extortion of James J “Whitey” Bulger – described as “vicious, violent and calculating” – return for a fourth day.
On Thursday jurors returned to their homes without reaching a verdict. However, their request to view the ex-mobster’s gun – a 9mm MP40 – indicates that they could be closer to deciding on the murder, extortion and other charges held against him.
The German-made WWII-era sub-machine gun was one of many weapons viewed during the eight-week trial, and was said to have been seized from the infamous “Winter Hill Gang” allegedly led by Bulger.
Underworld figure
Bulger, whose career in organised crime was a partial inspiration for the Oscar winning film The Departed, was a major figure in the Boston underworld.
FBI agents turned a blind eye to his crimes in return for information about the Italian Mafia.
The mobster fled from Boston in 1994 after receiving a tip-off from a corrupt agent of his impending arrest. He spent 16 years on the run as one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives, until he was apprehended in June 2011 in Santa Monica, California.
Bulger was reportedly living in an apartment which had a stash of guns and more than $800,000 in cash. Also arrested was his long-term girlfriend Catherine Grieg, on charges of identity fraud and the harbouring of a fugitive.
Merciless killings
His former business partner, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, was one of 72 witnesses the jury heard testimony from during the eight-week trial.
Other contributors included FBI agents, drug dealers and former hit men, who conveyed to the jury Bulger’s merciless killings and the drug and weapons heists he had engaged in.
US District Court Judge Denise J Casper told the jury: “You may believe all of the testimony of a witness or some of it or none of it.”
Bulger, called by a prosecutor “one of the most vicious, violent and calculating criminals ever to walk the streets of Boston”, could spend a maximum sentence of life plus 30 years if he is convicted of some of the charges. They include 19 murders which he allegedly ordered or committed in the 1970s and 80s.
