Boston mobster Bulger guilty of gangland crimes

A legendary figure in Boston’s underworld, Mr Bulger ran the “Winter Hill” crime gang after coming to power in a mob war that resulted in the death of members of rival gangs.

He cemented his grip on Boston’s crime scene through ties with corrupt Federal Bureau of Investigation officials who shared his Irish ethnicity and turned a blind eye to his crimes in exchange for information they could use against the Italian Mafia.

During the two-month-long trial, the 12 jurors heard vivid descriptions of Mr Bulger’s crimes.

The 83-year-old, dressed in a grey shirt, dark trousers and white trainers , stood quietly as the verdict was read, showing little emotional response to the decision by jurors to convict him after five days of deliberation in Boston federal court. His sentencing was scheduled for 13 November.

16 years on the run

Nicknamed “Whitey” because of the shock of light-colored hair he had as a young man, Mr Bulger fled Boston in 1994 after a tip from a corrupt agent that his arrest was imminent.

He spent 16 years on the run, many of them on the FBI’s “10 most wanted” list along with 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. Agents caught up with Mr Bulger in June 2011, living in a seaside apartment in Santa Monica, California.

This is a fabulous result for the government. Michael Kendall, former federal prosecutor

The jury convicted him of all but one of 32 criminal counts.

“Thirty-one out of 32 counts in such a complicated case covering such a long period of time is a fabulous result for the government,” said Michael Kendall, a former federal prosecutor in Boston who is now with the law firm McDermott Will & Emery. “He’s going to go to jail for the rest of his life.”

Never expected freedom

Defence lawyer JW Carney told reporters afterward that his client was pleased by the outcome, and noted that Mr Bulger had avoided the death penalty.

That would have been a possibility if he had been tried on state charges in Oklahoma or Florida, where two of the murders were committed.

“This trial has never been about Jim Bulger being set free,” he said.

As far as I’m concerned… this is a sham – and do what you want with me. James ‘Whitey’ Bulger

Mr Carney said that from the moment FBI officials arrested Mr Bulger, his client knew “he was going to die behind the walls of a prison or on a gurney, getting injected with a chemical that would kill him”.

Bulger’s lawyers, who on the first day admitted their client was a drug dealer, extortionist and loan shark and later described him as an “organised criminal”, mounted an a typical defence, rarely directly addressing many of the charges.

Most of their efforts focused on denying prosecutors’ assertion that Mr Bulger had served as an FBI informant, or “rat,” for more than a decade. On Monday, Mr Carney called that assertion a “myth.”

Appeal

Mr Carney said he planned to appeal the conviction, citing a claim by Mr Bulger that he had a deal with federal prosecutors that gave him immunity for his crimes.

He said he would appeal on those grounds, but he did not discuss a reason Mr Bulger would have been given an immunity deal.

He reiterated his earlier assertion that Mr Bulger had never been an informant. Mr Bulger has contended that he paid a corrupt FBI agent for tips but provided none of his own.

Before the trial began, US District Judge Denise Casper had told Mr Carney that he could not argue immunity, saying no deal that allowed a person to commit murder without consequence would be legally valid.

Mr Bulger declined to take the stand during the trial and told the court earlier this month: “As far as I’m concerned… this is a sham – and do what you want with me.”