Whitey Bulger gets life for racketeering, killings

Whitey Bulger gets life for racketeering, killings
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In this courtroom sketch, James “Whitey” Bulger sits at his sentencing hearing in federal court in Boston, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013. Bulger was convicted in August in a broad indictment that included racketeering charges in a string of murders in the 1970s and ’80s, as well as extortion, money-laundering and weapons charges. (AP Photo/Jane Flavell Collins)

In this courtroom sketch, James “Whitey” Bulger sits at his sentencing hearing in federal court in Boston, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013. Bulger was convicted in August in a broad indictment that included racketeering charges in a string of murders in the 1970s and ’80s, as well as extortion, money-laundering and weapons charges. (AP Photo/Jane Flavell Collins)

In this courtroom sketch, Steven Davis, second right, brother of slain Debra Davis, is comforted by his wife, right, as he testifies at the sentencing hearing for James “Whitey” Bulger, left, at federal court in Boston, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013. Bulger was convicted in August in a broad indictment that included racketeering charges in a string of murders in the 1970s and ’80s, as well as extortion, money-laundering and weapons charges. Jurors could not agree whether Bulger was involved in Debra Davis’ killing. (AP Photo/Jane Flavell Collins)

Sean McGonagle, the son of James “Whitey” Bulger victim Paul McGonagle, speaks with reporters after a sentencing hearing for Bulger at federal court in Boston, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013. Bulger was convicted in August in a broad indictment that included racketeering charges in a string of murders in the 1970s and ’80s, as well as extortion, money-laundering and weapons charges. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

David Wheeler, left, son of Roger Wheeler, speaks with reporters next to his attorney, Frank Libby Jr., after a sentencing hearing for James “Whitey” Bulger at federal court in Boston, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013. Bulger was convicted in August in a broad indictment that included racketeering charges in a string of murders in the 1970s and ’80s, as well as extortion, money-laundering and weapons charges. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Steven Davis, center, brother of slain Debra Davis, speaks with reporters after James “Whitey” Bulger’s sentencing hearing at federal court in Boston, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013. Bulger was convicted in August in a broad indictment that included racketeering charges in a string of murders in the 1970s and ’80s, as well as extortion, money-laundering and weapons charges. Jurors could not agree whether Bulger was involved in Debra Davis’ killing. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

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BOSTON (AP) — Former Boston crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for his murderous reign in the 1970s and ’80s, bringing to a close a case that exposed FBI corruption so deep that many people across the city thought he would never be brought to justice.

Bulger, 84, was defiant to the end, calling his trial on racketeering charges a sham and refusing to testify or provide information to probation officials preparing a sentencing report for the judge.

A jury convicted Bulger in August in a broad racketeering indictment that included murder, extortion, money-laundering and weapons charges. The jury convicted Bulger in 11 of the 19 killings he was charged with participating in but acquitted him of seven and could not reach a conclusion on an eighth.

Judge Denise Casper heard testimony Wednesday from a dozen relatives among the 19 slaying victims. They called him a terrorist, a punk and even Satan. Prosecutors called him a sociopath.

On Thursday, Casper delivered a blistering speech before sentencing Bulger to two consecutive life sentences plus five years, as prosecutors had requested.

She called his crimes “almost unfathomable” and the human suffering he inflicted “agonizing to hear” and “painful to watch.” She said at times during the trial she wished she and everyone else in the courtroom were watching a movie, because the horror described seemed unreal.

She read off the names of Bulger’s 11 victims. “Each of these lives came to an unceremonious end at your hands or at the hands of others at your direction,” Casper said.

Bulger stood and folded his hands in front of him, expressionless, as the judge imposed his sentence. Relatives of the victims remained quiet.

His attorney Hank Brennan promised an appeal of the conviction, though he didn’t say on what grounds. He railed against the plea deals given to Bulger associates who testified against him.

“Why in the world do we have a handful of murderers walking the streets?” Brennan asked.

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said prosecutors had to make difficult decisions to get Bulger, who they believe was the organization’s kingpin.

“Was it worth it? I believe so, but it’s not something you enjoy doing,” Ortiz said. She added that Bulger “deserves nothing less than to spend the rest of his life in prison for the harm, the pain and the suffering that he has caused to say many in this town.”

Bulger, the inspiration for Jack Nicholson’s sinister character in the 2006 movie “The Departed,” was seen for years as a Robin Hood figure who bought Thanksgiving turkeys for working-class South Boston residents and kept hard drugs out of the neighborhood. But that image was shattered when authorities started digging up bodies more than a decade ago.

Prosecutors at his two-month trial portrayed him as a cold-blooded, hands-on boss who killed anyone he saw as a threat, along with innocent people who happened to get in the way.

Corrupt Boston FBI agents protected Bulger for years while he worked simultaneously as a crime boss and an FBI informant who ratted out the rival New England Mafia and other crime groups.

Former Boston FBI agent John Connolly Jr. — Bulger’s handler when he was an informant — was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of tipping him off ahead of an indictment. After receiving the tip in 1994, Bulger fled Boston and remained a fugitive for more than 16 years until he was captured in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2011.

Connolly was later convicted of second-degree murder in Florida for leaking information to Bulger that led to the slaying of a gambling executive.

Tommy Donahue, whose father, Michael, was killed by Bulger said he had been waiting 31 years for someone to be convicted for it.

“That old bastard is finally going to prison. He’s going to die in prison,” he said.

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Mobster "Whitey" Bulger gets two life terms; "Finally," say families

1 of 17. A courtroom artist’s sketch shows convicted mobster James ”Whitey” Bulger in federal court during the first of two days of his sentencing hearing in Boston, Massachusetts November 13, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Jane Collins

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Mobster "Whitey" Bulger gets two life terms; "Finally," say families

Prosecutor: Bulger is a sociopath, should get life

Prosecutor: Bulger is a sociopath, should get life
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BOSTON (AP) — A prosecutor called James “Whitey” Bulger a “little sociopath” Wednesday as he urged a judge to sentence the infamous South Boston gangster to life in prison, but Bulger himself declined to speak.

“The defendant has committed one heinous crime after another,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Kelly. “The carnage that he has caused is grotesque.”

Bulger, now 84, was convicted in August in a broad indictment that included racketeering charges in a string of murders in the 1970s and ’80s, as well as extortion, money-laundering and weapons charges.

At least a dozen family members of people Bulger was involved in or accused of killing spoke Wednesday.

The first to do so was Sean McGonagle, the son of Bulger victim Paul McGonagle. He called Bulger “Satan,” a “domestic terrorist” and a “sad, lonely and irrelevant old man.”

Several family members of victims also blasted the Boston office of the FBI and the Justice Department for corruption that allowed Bulger to continue his reign of terror for years.

“My family and I have nothing but contempt for you,” said David Wheeler, the son of Roger Wheeler, an Oklahoma businessman who was shot between the eyes after a round of golf at a Tulsa country club.

Bulger, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, stared down at the defense table and mostly did not look at victims’ relatives as they spoke. He was given the opportunity to speak but declined.

His attorneys said he refused to provide any information to probation officials preparing a report for Judge Denise Casper, who will sentence him Thursday. Attorney J.W. Carney Jr. said he would make no sentencing recommendation because his client believed his trial was a sham.

Bulger also called his trial a sham in August after he was not allowed to use as a defense his claim that a now-deceased federal prosecutor gave him immunity to commit crimes. He did not testify.

The federal jury that convicted Bulger found prosecutors proved he played a role in 11 of 19 murders.

Jurors found the government had not proven Bulger participated in seven other killings and were unable to reach a verdict in another. But Casper ruled Wednesday that relatives of all 19 people could speak at the sentencing if they wanted, despite objections from Bulger’s attorneys.

Bulger, the former head of the Winter Hill Gang, fled Boston in 1994 ahead of an indictment and spent more than 16 years as a fugitive before being captured in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2011.

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For families, Bulger verdict brings closure, angst

Steven Davis, brother of Debra Davis, wipes his eyes while speaking outside federal court where a jury found James “Whitey” Bulger guilty on several counts of murder, racketeering and conspiracy Monday, Aug. 12, 2013 in Boston. Jurors could not agree whether Bulger was involved in Debra Davis’ killing. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

Steven Davis, brother of Debra Davis, wipes his eyes while speaking outside federal court where a jury found James “Whitey” Bulger guilty on several counts of murder, racketeering and conspiracy Monday, Aug. 12, 2013 in Boston. Jurors could not agree whether Bulger was involved in Debra Davis’ killing. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

FILE – This June 23, 2011 booking file photo provided by the U.S. Marshals Service shows James “Whitey” Bulger, who fled Boston in 1994 and was captured 2011 in Santa Monica, Calif., after 16 years on the run. A jury found Bulger guilty on several counts of murder, racketeering and conspiracy Monday, Aug. 12, 2013 in federal court in Boston. (AP Photo/ U.S. Marshals Service, File)

FILE – This 1953 Boston police booking file photo combo shows James “Whitey” Bulger after an arrest. A jury on Monday, Aug. 12, 2013 found Bulger guilty on several counts of murder, racketeering and conspiracy in federal court in Boston.(AP Photo/Boston Police, File)

A motorcade carrying James “Whitey” Bulger departs the Moakley Federal Courthouse, Monday, Aug. 12, 2013, in Boston. A jury found Bulger guilty on several counts of murder, racketeering and conspiracy. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

In this courtroom sketch, James “Whitey” Bulger, second from right, stands with defense attorneys Hank Brennan, third from right, and J.W. Carney, right, as the jury submits its verdicts before Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler Monday, Aug. 12, 2013 in federal court in Boston. Bulger was found guilty on several counts of murder, racketeering and conspiracy. (AP Photo/Jane Flavell Collins)

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BOSTON (AP) — The guilty verdicts against James “Whitey” Bulger brought catharsis and closure to relatives of the 11 victims in whose killings he was convicted of playing a role, but for the families of the eight people whose deaths couldn’t be definitively linked to the Boston mob boss, peace will be harder to come by.

Steve Davis didn’t wait for the jury to be dismissed before he walked out of the courtroom, appearing upset it had issued no finding in the 1981 strangulation of his sister Debra.

Outside court, Davis said he doubted whether Bulger personally strangled his sister, as Bulger’s former partner and his sister’s boyfriend, Stephen Flemmi, testified. But he’s certain Bulger was part of it, and the jury’s inability to make a finding left him “stuck in the middle like I have been for 32 years.”

“Who’s winning here?” Davis asked. “I lost my sister. All these people lost family members. He’s losing his freedom. What do you really win here?”

The jury’s decision came more than two years after Bulger’s electrifying capture in California and 19 years after he became one of the nation’s most notorious fugitives. It means Bulger, 83, is all but certain to spend the rest of his days in prison after sentencing in November, when even a term short of a life sentence could amount to one.

Bulger was charged primarily with racketeering, which listed 33 criminal acts — among them, 19 killings that he allegedly helped orchestrate or carried out himself during the 1970s and ’80s while he led the Winter Hill Gang, Boston’s Irish mob.

The federal jury decided he took part in 11 killings, along with nearly all the other crimes on the list, including acts of extortion, money laundering and drug dealing. He was also found guilty of 30 other offenses, including possession of machine guns.

One woman exclaimed, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” after the jury said prosecutors hadn’t proved Bulger’s role in the 1975 death of Francis “Buddy” Leonard, who was shot in the head. And a visibly angry Billy O’Brien told reporters that prosecutors “dropped the ball” after the jury didn’t convict Bulger in the 1973 shooting death of his father, William O’Brien.

“Five minutes they spent talking about his murder” during the trial, he said.

Patricia Donahue wept, saying it was a relief to see Bulger convicted in the murder of her husband, Michael Donahue, who authorities say was an innocent victim who died in a hail of gunfire while giving a ride to an FBI informant marked for death by Bulger.

Thomas Donahue, who was 8 when his father was killed, said: “Thirty-one years of deceit, of cover-up of my father’s murder. Finally we have somebody guilty of it. Thirty-one years — that’s a long time.”

He said that when he heard the verdict: “I wanted to jump up. I was like, ‘Damn right.’”

Bulger, nicknamed “Whitey” for his bright platinum hair, grew up in a gritty housing project in the blue-collar, Irish Catholic stronghold of South Boston. His notoriety grew parallel to the rise of his younger brother, William Bulger, who became one of the most powerful politicians in Massachusetts and led the state Senate for 17 years.

Whitey Bulger began clashing with police as a teenager, when he stole from the back of trucks on the South Boston waterfront. His thievery escalated, and by 1956, he was convicted of robbing banks in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Indiana. He served nine years in prison.

Investigators say he later began organizing truck carjackings, taking payments to allow others to carry them out on his territory. At a time of gang conflict in the 1960s, he brokered a truce with the Somerville-based Winter Hill Gang, and he increasingly came under scrutiny as he rose to lead the largely Irish gang.

As a crime boss, Bulger was smart, controlling and vicious, said Bob Long, a retired Massachusetts state police detective.

“He was focused,” he said. “He wasn’t somebody who went out late at night and got drunk. He kept a very low profile in his personal life, not flashy or showy.”

Bulger, who became the model for Jack Nicholson’s sinister crime boss in the 2006 Martin Scorsese movie “The Departed,” cultivated an image as a benevolent tough guy in his working-class neighborhood, someone who would help old ladies across the street and give turkey dinners for Thanksgiving. But as the bodies of his victims piled up, he was revealed as a ruthless killer.

Among the killings Bulger was accused of committing or orchestrating were two men who were chained to chairs for hours, interrogated, then shot in the head; two women who were strangled, including Davis; and two men who died in a hail of gunfire as they left a South Boston restaurant.

“He enjoyed killing,” Massachusetts state police Detective Lt. Stephen Johnson said after Bulger’s arrest. “We know from people who were there that post-murders, he would act super-relaxed. His associates said he would be in a good mood for a long time after he killed someone.”

For years, investigators say, government corruption kept them from building a case against Bulger. In 1985, federal prosecutors tried to nail him for controlling betting and loan-sharking rackets in the Boston area, but no charges were filed.

At his trial, prosecution witnesses and Bulger’s own lawyers said he gave payoffs to a half-dozen FBI agents, at least one state trooper and Boston police officers to get information on search warrants, wiretaps and investigations so he could stay one step ahead of the law.

In 1994, Bulger vanished. A former FBI agent, John Connolly, was later convicted of tipping off Bulger that he was about to be indicted.

William Bulger was forced to resign as president of the University of Massachusetts system in 2003 after it was learned he got a call from his fugitive brother and didn’t urge him to surrender.

After more than 16 years on the run, Bulger was captured at age 81 in Santa Monica, Calif., where he had been living near the beach with his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig.

At the trial, with Bulger at last held to account for his crimes, he took notes on a legal pad and traded occasional profanities with the former associates testifying against him. But Long, the retired investigator, said the trial didn’t reveal anything he didn’t already know about Bulger, who faces life in prison.

“He looked,” Long said, “like the self-absorbed psychotic that he is.”

___

Melia reported from Hartford, Conn. Associated Press writers Bridget Murphy and Denise Lavoie in Boston contributed to this report.

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For families, Bulger verdict brings closure, angst

Bulger deliberations drag on

U.S. Marshals Service

James “Whitey” Bulger in a 2011 booking photo.

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

The jury in the Whitey Bulger trial has deliberated for five days without a verdict, but legal experts say that doesn’t offer any clue to whether they will acquit or convict the accused Boston mob boss.

“The length of time means nothing,” said Anthony Cardinale, a Boston defense lawyer who has closely followed the federal trial.

He said he once sweated through three weeks of deliberations on another case only to find out jurors agreed to drag out their talks because one of them couldn’t be laid off if he was still serving past a certain date.

Conventional wisdom may hold that the longer a jury is behind closed doors, the lower the chance of a conviction, but that hasn’t been the case in some high-profile murder trials.

A Los Angeles jury took just four hours to acquit O.J. Simpson of murdering his wife and her friend in 1995, while jurors deliberated 36 hours before finding actor Robert Blake not guilty of killing his wife in 2004.

Casey Anthony was acquitted of the murder of her daughter by a jury that deliberated 10 hours in 2011. A panel that met for 14 hours in 2012 convicted Drew Peterson of murdering his third wife.

In May, after 15 hours of jury deliberations, Jodi Arias was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of her ex-boyfriend. Two months later, a jury deliberated 16 hours before acquitting George Zimmerman of second-degree murder in the shooting of Trayvon Martin.

The Bulger jury has 48 counts to sift through, and for one of those counts, they have to decide if the government has proved he committed 33 individual racketeering acts, including 19 murders.

On Thursday afternoon, there was some indication the panel was considering one of the last counts in the indictment, possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, when they asked to examine the weapon, a submachine gun.

But they spent all day behind closed doors on Friday before telling the judge they had not reached a verdict. The eight men and four women, who are not sequestered, return to court Monday.

Boston defense attorney Harvey Silverglate, who has been keeping tabs on the Bulger case, said that even though the evidence against him appeared strong and he didn’t put on a robust defense, he is not surprised the jury hasn’t announced a verdict yet.

The hangup, he said, may be the evidence that rogue FBI agents were in bed with Bulger’s Winter Hill Gang as he allegedly held sway over South Boston with a mix of murder and menacing.

“Some of the jurors must be offended and shocked by the behavior of the FBI that has come to the fore,” Silverglate said.

“Some of the jurors may be interested in nullifying — voting to acquit even in the face of overwhelming evidence of guilt on at least some of the charges.”

Silverglate predicted that the jury would eventually convict Bulger of enough crimes to put the 83-year-old behind bars for the rest of his life but find him innocent of others — “sending a message to the Department of Justice and the FBI that citizens expect better from their government.”

Cardinale said the jurors might be stuck on whether Bulger strangled two women: his partner’s girlfriend, Debbie Davis, and his partner’s stepdaughter, Deborah Hussey.

The partner, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, testified that Bulger ordered and then carried out the killings, but he faced a withering cross-examination from the defense.

“But I don’t see him beating the racketeering charge and many of the other murders,” Cardinale said. “They didn’t even put a defense up.”

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(CNN) — If you lived in South Boston from the late 1970s through the mid-1990s you either loved or loathed Whitey Bulger.

He could be colorful and generous or, if you were his enemy, he could be cutthroat and cruel.

On Wednesday, James “Whitey” Bulger finally stands trial, charged in the murder of 19 people. The federal trial in Boston is expected to take as long as three months and has the potential to reveal sensational details about the mob and FBI corruption.

Opening statements begin Wednesday morning.

Bolger rose to the top of the notorious Winter Hill gang, prosecutors say, before he went into hiding for more than 16 years after a crooked FBI agent told him in December 1994 he was about to be indicted on federal racketeering charges.

He was captured in Santa Monica, California, two years ago, living under a false name with his girlfriend in an apartment in the oceanside city.

At his arraignment in July 2011 he pleaded not guilty to the 19 murder charges and 13 other counts.

Through his lawyers, the 83-year-old defendant had argued he was given immunity by the FBI and a former prosecutor. The judged dismissed the claim — saying any purported immunity was not a defense against crimes Bulger faces.

Besides the slayings, Bulger is accused of using violence, force and threats to shake down South Boston’s bookmakers, loan sharks and drug dealers. The Irish mob allegedly laundered its ill-gotten gains though liquor stores, bars and other property it owned in South Boston.

“The guy is a sociopathic killer,” Tom Foley, the organized crime investigator who spent most of his career with the Massachusetts State Police trying to put Bulger behind bars, told CNN in 2011. “He loved that type of life. He’s one of the hardest and cruelest individuals that operated in the Boston area. He’s a bad, bad, bad guy.”

Former Boston Globe reporter Dick Lehr, who wrote a book about Bulger, described him as a cold-blooded killer whose gang went to lengths to avoid detection.

“When they killed someone — this is pre-DNA — they pulled the teeth out, cut the fingers off, tried to make it so the victims, if they were discovered from their graves, couldn’t be identified. There’s just no bottom. It doesn’t get much uglier than someone like Whitey Bulger,” Lehr said.

Few people knew Bulger was a rat.

FBI agent John Connolly, who was raised in the same housing projects as Bulger, cut a deal with the alleged mob figure in 1975. Bulger would give information about the Italian mob — the FBI’s prime target — authorities said.

Protected by the rogue FBI agent, Bulger got names of other informants who had dirt on him and rival gang members — people he is accused of killing.

He knew when police were watching, knew when they were moving in.

After he fled Boston, he spent more than a decade on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list before he was captured in June 2011.

His girlfriend, Catherine Greig, was sentenced to eight years in prison last summer for helping him evade capture.

Connolly is is serving a 50-year sentence for second-degree murder and racketeering.

Prosecutors plan to call as many as 80 witnesses. Among them will be Connolly and Bulger’s alleged No. 2, Stephen Flemmi, who was also an informant for the FBI. He is serving life terms without parole but avoided a possible death sentence by cooperating in the hunt for Bulger.

Other former Bulger associates are expected to be called by the prosecution.

Last August, Bulger’s lead attorney, J. W. Carney, said his client planned to testify.

“At this point in his life, his goal is to have the truth come out regarding how he was able to act with impunity for so long in the city of Boston,” Carney told CNN affiliate WCVB.

CNN’s Deborah Feyerick, Ann O’Neill and Michael Martinez contributed to this report.

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At trial, Whitey Bulger described as "hands-on killer"