Federal Jury Convicts James 'Whitey' Bulger

The U.S. Justice Department released the below statement on the conviction of Whitey Bulger yesterday:

BOSTON—Following a two-month long trial in U.S. District Court, a federal jury today convicted James J. Bulger, holding him responsible for the murder of 11 people, as well as numerous counts of extortion, money laundering, drug dealing, and firearms possession.

After deliberating for over 32 hours, over five days, the jury found the former fugitive guilty of racketeering conspiracy and numerous racketeering acts of murder, extortion, narcotics distribution, money laundering, and possession of firearms, including machine guns. With this verdict, the jury has found that Bulger played a role in the murders of Deborah Hussey, Paul McGonagle, Edward Connors, Thomas King, Richard Castucci, Roger Wheeler, Brian Halloran, Michael Donahue, John Callahan, Arthur Barrett, and John McIntyre.

Bulger, the former leader of the Winter Hill Gang, ran a vast criminal network that emanated from South Boston and controlled much of the city and the surrounding areas during the 1970s and 1980s. In order to generate money and maintain dominance among other criminal enterprises, Bulger and his associates engaged in numerous illegal activities such as loansharking, extortion of local business owners and bookmakers, trafficking of narcotics and firearms, and murder. Bulger, and associates under his direction, used violence, threats, and intimidation to carry out these illegal activities.

In late 1994, upon learning of his impending indictment, Bulger fled Massachusetts. On June 22, 2011, Bulger and his companion, Catherine Greig, were arrested in Santa Monica, California, after 16 years on the run. Greig was later convicted of conspiracy to harbor a fugitive and is currently serving eight years in federal prison.

U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper scheduled sentencing for November 13. He faces a maximum of up to life, plus 30 years in prison.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Colonel Timothy P. Alben, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; John J. Arvanitis, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Boston Field Division; William P. Offord, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston; Michael E. Horowitz, Inspector General for the Department of Justice; Vincent Lisi, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Field Division; and U.S. Marshal John Gibbons made the announcement today.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Fred M. Wyshak, Jr., Brian T. Kelly, and Zachary Hafer of Ortiz’s Public Corruption and Special Prosecutions Unit.

Note: The above photos of Whitey Bulger were released by the FBI.

Feds: FBI-Bulger Deal 'Cancer' In Boston's Past

Laurel J. Sweet is covering the Whitey Bulger trial for the Boston Herald.

The corrupt connection between mobster James “Whitey” Bulger and disgraced FBI agent John “Zip” Connolly was “a cancer” in the city, a prosecutor declared today in the closing arguments in Bulger’s murder and racketeering trial.

Federal prosecutor Fred Wyshak said in U.S. District Court in Boston that the horrific details in the case tells of a time when the city was in a rut.

He said the Bulger/Connolly partnership was “a cancer” in the city of Boston. He all but choked back tears as he went through the 19 alleged murders once more. “It tells you all you need to know about the evil” of Bulger, he said.

Wyshak also said Connolly was hoping to land the police commissioner’s job in Boston — and Whitey’s plugged-in political brother William “Billy” Bulger would help. 

Billy was his ticket,

Wyshak added.Wyshak is painstakingly going through each of the 32 counts against Bulger, especially each of the 19 murder counts. And he said the jurors should not think of him as a "Robin Hood" keeping "angel dust and heroin out of South Boston."

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/08/feds_fbi_bulger_deal_cancer_in_boston_s_past

Howie Carr On Whitey Bulger Trail: Dirty Rat Goes Out Yellow - Killer Coward At End

Author and Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr is covering the Whitey Bulger trial.

Whitey Bulger, you dirty rat!

In the end, he didn’t have the stones to take the stand. Not much of a surprise, but quite a disappointment, the trial ending not with a bang but a whimper.“I didn’t get a fair trial,“ he told the judge, “This was a sham. Do what youse want with me.

”Don’t worry, weese will. But what’s up with the word “youse,” Whitey? You’re supposed to be Irish, or so your lawyer Jay Carney said in his opening statement approximately 65 witnesses ago, 50 or so of whom swore under oath Whitey was indeed a rat.

And why did you call the trial a “sham?”

Surely Whitey meant to use Woody Allen’s classic description of his trial from the movie “Bananas:”

“It’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.”

Whitey also complained his defense was “choked off” — a very poor choice of words, given how he’s charged with murdering the two Debs.   

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/howie_carr/2013/08/carr_dirty_rat_goes_out_yellow_killer_coward_at_end

Whitey Bulger Won't Testify At His Trial As Defense Rests

Laurel J. Sweet is overing the Whitey Bulger trial in Boston for the Boston Herald.

A defiant James "Whitey" Bulger said today he will not testify in his own defense, calling his murder and racketeering trial "a sham."

Pat Donahue, the widow of one of the Southie mobster's 19 alleged victims, blurted out in court: "You're a coward!"

"As far as I'm concerned I didn't get a fair trial and this is a sham. Do what youse want with me," Bulger told U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper. 

A visibly peeved Bulger maintained the late former U.S. Attorney Jeremiah O'Sullivan "promised to give me immunity." Said for those reasons he was choosing not to testify "involuntarily." He claimed he "protected" O'Sullivan's life. 

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/08/whitey_bulger_wont_testify_as_defense_rests

Howie Carr On The Whitey Bulger Trial: Gump-Like Testimony Says Run, Whitey, Run

Author and Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr is covering the Whitey Bulger trial.

Whitey Bulger got a glimpse yesterday of what awaits him if he takes the witness stand in his own defense later this week.

His taxpayer-funded legal team called their first witness, Robert Fitzpatrick, an ex-FBI agent turned private eye turned author. And maybe it’s a good thing these federal trials aren’t on television, because you wouldn’t want an impressionable young child to watch what happened to the 73-year-old fed.

Not that Fitzie’s performance was exactly stellar when he was testifying for Bulger. He kept referring to him as an “informant,” which is exactly what King Rat claims not to be. But then prosecutor Brian Kelly got up for the cross-examination, and this was his first question:“Mr. Fitzpatrick, is it fair to say you’re a man who likes to make up stories?”

“I beg your pardon,” Fitzpatrick responded.Then Kelly asked him if it was “fair to say” that he claimed to have arrested Mafia underboss Jerry Angiulo way back when?Fitzpatrick: “I put the arrest on Angiulo.”Kelly: “That is a bold-faced lie.”It went downhill from there.

Not only did Fitzpatrick claim to have “arrested” Angiulo, he also found the rifle that killed Martin Luther King Jr. He’s a veritable federal Forrest Gump.

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/howie_carr/2013/07/gump_like_testimony_says_run_whitey_run

Howie Carr: Stevie Flemmi, Whitey Bulger's Former Partner In Crime, Takes Bubba Cue

 

Author and Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr is covering the Whitey Bulger trial in Boston.

Stevie Flemmi, meet Bill Clinton.Turns out, the cold-blooded serial killer claims he never had “intercourse” with his common-law stepdaughter before his partner Whitey Bulger strangled her to death at the age of 26.

“She was a very fragile woman,” Flemmi said, wistfully, almost as tenderly as he’d earlier described Whitey’s double-edged knife, and the gang’s old grease gun that the cops found in Whitey’s Santa Monica lair.

But now it was the cross-examination, and Flemmi admitted, yet again, to having oral sex with Deborah Hussey. Bill Clinton claimed that wasn’t real sex. He read it in the Bible, he claimed. Apparently so did “The Rifleman.”

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/howie_carr/2013/07/carr_stephen_flemmi_takes_bubba_cue

Note: Howie Carr wrote Rifleman: The Untold Story of Stevie Flemmi, Whitey Bulger's Partner.

Flemmi: Whitey Bulger Was A Pedophile

Laurel J. Sweet is covering the Whitey Bulger trial for the Boston Herald.

Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi accused former Winter Hill Gang partner James “Whitey” Bulger of being a pedophile this morning on his third day of testimony, charging his fellow aging mobster once spirited a 16-year-old girl away to Mexico.

“You want to talk about pedophilia, right over there at that table,” Flemmi, 79, angrily gestured at Bulger, 83, from the witness stand as the accused killer of 19 shot him a cold glare.

Flemmi’s frustrated outburst came as Bulger’s defense attorney Hank Brennan hammered Flemmi for a second day about his sexual relationship with and subsequent murder of his common-law stepdaughter Deborah Hussey.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/07/flemmi_bulger_was_a_pedophile

Note: You can read more about Flemmi and Bulger in Howie Carr's book Rifleman: The Untold Story of Stevie Felmmi, Whitey Bulger's partner.

In Whitey Bulger Trial, It's Down To Rat Vs. Rat

 

Howie Carr, the Boston Herald columnist and author of Rifleman: The Untold Story of Stevie Flemmi, Whitey Bulger's Partner, is covering the Whitey Bulger trial in Boston.

The feds weren’t kidding. Stevie Flemmi is ready, and “The Rifleman” came out swinging yesterday, in his first 10 minutes on the stand at the end of the session.

Stephen Rakes mourned as death probedIf I’m Whitey Bulger, I don’t think I slept very well down in Plymouth last night. This is going to be a very long day in the courtroom for the rat who claims he’s not a rat.

This is going to be the heavyweight championship of rats. Today decides who is the King of Ratville.

The line that Flemmi delivered that got all the play was when he was asked the nature of his relationship with Bulger, and he replied, “Strictly criminal.”

Whitey can live with that. What he can’t abide is the answer Stevie gave when he was asked how many times he and Whitey met with the FBI, specifically Zip Connolly.“Numerous, numerous times. Hundreds of times.”

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/howie_carr/2013/07/in_whitey_trial_its_down_to_rat_vs_rat

The Whitey Bulger Trial: Juror Cries As Steven "The Rifleman" Flemmi Testifies On Girlfriend's Death

 

Laurel J. Sweet is covering the Whitey Bulger trail for the Boston Herald.

Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi testified today he was a man torn apart by the intense jealousy of his partner James “Whitey” Bulger and his needy young lover Debra Davis — a tug-of-war he said Bulger won by throttling Davis in 1981.

“It affected me. It’s going to affect me until the day I die,” Flemmi said of his reluctant decision to help kill the bombshell in a house his mother had just purchased in South Boston next door to Bulger’s brother, former state Senate President William “Billy” Bulger.

“I loved her,” Flemmi said dispassionately of Davis, “but I wasn’t in love with her.”

... At least one juror broke down in tears, no doubt recalling the stomach-turning photographic images from state police of Davis’ skeleton wrapped in rope and her skull, still matted with blond hair, in a plastic bag, as she was found in her crude grave.

The second day of the 79-year-old Flemmi’s testimony against the accused 83-year-old mass murderer with whom he claimed he took multiple lives right under the noses of the FBI they served as secret top-echelon informants was not punctuated by any of the profanity laced fireworks that went off yesterday during their first 10 minutes together.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/07/juror_cries_as_flemmi_testifies_on_girlfriend_s_death

Note: The above photo shows the cover of Boston Herald columnist and author Howie Carr's book Rifleman: The Untold Story of Stevie Flemmi, Whitey Bulger's Partner.   

The Whitey Bulger Trial: Agent Testifies FBI Threatened Halloran

Laurel J. Sweet at the Boston Herald is covering the Whitey Bulger trial.

Two weeks before Brian Halloran was allegedly shot dead by James “Whitey” Bulger on Northern Avenue, the FBI decided he needed a “reality check” to boost his cooperation, according to a former agent who testified yesterday that he promised to protect Halloran if he gave up Bulger’s Winter Hill Gang.

As federal prosecutors build toward the climax of their mass murder and racketeering case against Bulger, 83, Halloran’s FBI debriefing discussing his fear of Bulger helped set the stage for this week’s hotly anticipated testimony by the witness who could be Bulger’s greatest threat — former confidante and fellow FBI informant Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi.

Yesterday, retired Special Agent Gerald “Jerry” Montanari related how Halloran was threatened with removal from an FBI safe house if he didn’t provide more useful information against Bulger. Bulger’s defense team is expected to seize on that today as part of its ongoing campaign to inflame juror disgust toward the government’s mishandling of the Bulger gang.

You can read the rest of the story and watch a video clip via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/07/agent_testifies_fbi_threatened_halloran  

You can also read my interview with Dick Lehr, the author of Whitey: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/06/crime-beat-column-q-with-dick-lehr-co_17.html

Whitey Bulger, Ex-Protege Erupt In Courtroom

Laurel J. Sweet is covering the Whitey Bulger trial in Boston for the Boston Herald.

Forensic anthropologist Ann Marie Mires, who assisted with the January 2000 exhumation of three of James “Whitey” Bulger’s alleged murder victims from the mud flats by the Southeast Expressway, takes the stand today on the heels of yesterday’s raging, expletive-laced courtroom exchange between Bulger and Kevin Weeks, the protege he raised from teenhood to hatchet man.

Until Monday, Bulger and Weeks had not laid eyes on each other in more than 16 years. But after first coldly refusing to even acknowledge Weeks’ presence, Bulger yesterday lashed out at the heavy he mentored for 20 years when Weeks, 57, snapped from defense attorneys’ taunts that he was a self-serving, unremorseful back-stabber.

You can read the rest of the story and watch a local TV news clip via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/07/whitey_bulger_ex_protege_erupt_in_courtroom

Feds Want Kevin Weeks To ID Whitey Bulger's Handwriting

Laurel J. Sweet at the Boston Herald is covering the Whitey Bulger trial in Boston.

James “Whitey” Bulger’s henchman Kevin Weeks is expected to take the stand against his former mob boss when Boston’s trial of the century resumes Monday in U.S. District Court.

And when he does, prosecutors want Judge Denise J. Casper to permit Weeks, 57, to identify the 83-year-old Bulger’s handwriting on notes that were found by state police years ago in a safe amid a slew of handguns and submachine guns on Pilsudski Way in South Boston, the street where Weeks grew up.

In a motion filed today, prosecutors pointed out that “Weeks has extensive familiarity with James Bulger’s handwriting” as a result of “their longtime friendship and criminal association that began years before this case was indicted.” 

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/07/feds_want_kevin_weeks_to_id_whitey_bulger_s_handwriting

Former FBI Agent Makes Dramatic Apology To Slain Man's family At Whitey Bulger's Racketeering Trial

At FoxNews.com you can read about John Morris, a former FBI Special Agent who apologized to the family of an alleged murder victim of James "Whitey" Bulger.

Boston - A former FBI agent who admitted taking payoffs from James "Whitey" Bulger offered a tearful apology Monday to the family of one of Bulger's alleged murder victims, but the man's widow said his words "didn't mean anything."

The apology came as John Morris was being cross-examined by a defense lawyer at Bulger's racketeering trial. Bulger, 83, is charged with participating in 19 murders in the 1970s and '80s while he allegedly led the notorious Winter Hill Gang.

Morris testified that he told fellow FBI agent John Connolly that Edward "Brian" Halloran had given authorities information about a murder Bulger's gang was suspected of committing. At the time, both Morris and Connolly — his subordinate — had corrupt relationships with Bulger, who he said was a longtime FBI informant at the same time he was committing a litany of crimes.

Prosecutors say Halloran and Michael Donahue — an innocent bystander who had offered Halloran a ride home — were killed in 1982 after Connolly leaked the information to Bulger. Bulger is accused of opening fire on the car as the two men left a Boston restaurant.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/07/01/former-fbi-agent-makes-dramatic-apology-to-slain-man-family-at-bulger/

You can also read my Q&A with Dick Lehr, the author of Whitey: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss, via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/06/crime-beat-column-q-with-dick-lehr-co_17.html 

He Quit Whitey Bulger's Gang And Almost Didn't Live To Tell

Howie Carr, author and columnist for the Boston Herald, is covering the Whitey Bulger trial.

Billy Shea is the hood who got away — from prison, from the cops and, most of all, from Whitey Bulger.

Or maybe Whitey Bulger is the guy who got away from Billy Shea.The two gangsters met yesterday for the first time in almost 30 years, the 74-year-old Shea on the witness stand just a few feet away from his old boss, to whom he often addressed his answers, starting with, “Jim ...”  

Shea was a self-described paranoid ex-con when he met Bulger in 1977. Less than a decade later, he was running Whitey’s multimillion-dollar drug operation.

But then Shea wanted out, and relations deteriorated to the point where he found Whitey, Stevie Flemmi and Kevin Weeks knocking on his front door at 262 E Street.

“This is the first time I’ve ever talked to Jim with someone else around, and now he’s got Stevie Fleming — that was his street name — who’s just as dangerous as Jim. I ran upstairs and got a gun.”

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/howie_carr/2013/07/carr_he_quit_whitey_s_gang_and_almost_didn_t_live_to_tell

Note: The above photos of James "Whitey" Bulger were released by the FBI.

Jurors May Hear Whitey Bulger Recordings

Laurel J. Sweet at the Boston Herald is covering the Whitey Bulger trial in Boston.

After two weeks of listening to underworld associates and a corrupted FBI agent, jurors in the murder and racketeering trial of James “Whitey” Bulger could hear this week from the mobster himself — chatting about money and a murder on a recorded prison phone line.

Ken Brady, an investigator with the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department, may be called by prosecutors today or tomorrow to testify about jailhouse recordings seized from the Plymouth County Correctional Facility, where the accused killer of 19 has been held in solitary since his 2011 capture.

The recorded calls are from Sept. 25 and Oct. 13, 2012, and pertain to “exchange of cash” and “the murder of Edward Connors,” according to the government’s exhibit list. The list doesn’t divulge who was on the other end of the line.

Bulger is accused of riddling Connors with machine-gun fire in 1975 as Connors stood in a Dorchester phone booth, to stop the former boxer from implicating him in a murder.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/06/jurors_may_hear_whitey_bulger_recordings

The Whitey Bulger Trial: Saucy Survivor Tells Tales Of 'Blue Eyes'

Laurel J. Sweet at the Boston Herald is covering the Whitey Bulger trial in Boston.

Among the hit men, bookies and other characters captured on state police surveillance video of James “Whitey” Bulger’s Lancaster Street headquarters in 1980, one stood out — the only woman seen in that gangster sanctum in the images released so far, the unsinkable blond bombshell Eva “Liz” McDonough, moll of the late Mafioso Nicky Giso.

McDonough, 56, survived an unsolved hit on her life in 1984 — her cowboy hat got the worst of it.
Yesterday, decked out like a high-fashion model, McDonough turned up at U.S. District Court and flashed her first smile at Bulger, 83, in 22 years.

“Blue eyes!” she called out to the aging mobster, causing Bulger to start to turn toward her before U.S. Marshals took him away for the night.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/06/saucy_survivor_tells_tales_of_blue_eyes

You can also read my Q&A with Dick Lehr, the author of Whitey: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/06/crime-beat-column-q-with-dick-lehr-co_17.html

Whitey Bulger's Informant File Gets Read For 3 Hours

Laurel J. Sweet is covering the Whitey Bulger trial in Boston for the Boston Herald. 

It’s still unclear whether James “Whitey” Bulger plans to testify, but the aging mobster couldn’t help but blurt out a retort yesterday after prosecutors opened the 700-page diary of FBI Informant BS-1544-TE in a bid to undermine his claim that he was an upstanding wiseguy.

“I am not a (expletive) informant,” Bulger, 83, grumbled in frustration, people seated near him confirmed.

From 1975 to 1990, the files indicate Bulger pinned murders on other men that his own associates now say he had a hand in; that he gave up secrets about criminal rivals and that he provided alibis for his own gang — since refuted by his former associates’ admissions after they learned he had turned on them. The files also indicate that the FBI — with disgraced Agent John Connolly Jr. as go-between — passed on false information to other law enforcement to divert attention from Bulger.

Special Agent James Marra of the Office of the Inspector General read the file for three hours.

“Dozens and dozens of people the South Boston ‘hero’ has been ratting out for years. I was laughing the entire time,” said Tommy Donahue.

You can read the rest of the story and watch a local TV news clip via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/06/whitey_bulgers_informant_file_gets_read_for_3_hours

The Whitey Bulger Trial: Bulger Angrily Denies He Spilled As Feds Open His Informant Files

Laurel J. Sweet at the Boston Herald is covering the Whitey Bulger trial in Boston.

Prosecutors threw the best book they have at James “Whitey” Bulger today — the 700-page diary of FBI Informant BS-1544 — in a bid to undermine the mobster’s insistent claim that he was an upstanding wiseguy, a gambit that forced them to reveal to jurors that the Boston FBI office had rotten agents who shielded him.

“I am not a (expletive) informant,” Bulger, 83, grumbled in frustration during a recess in the trial, people seated near him confirmed.

During his 15-year relationship with the FBI from 1975 to 1990, the files indicate that Bulger pinned murders on other men that his own associates now say Bulger and his own gang committed. He gave up secrets about criminal rivals, such as where they could be found. And he provided alibis for his own gang — since refuted by his former associates’ admissions in plea deals after they learned he had turned on them. The files also indicate that the FBI — with Agent John Connolly Jr. acting as the primary go-between — passed on false information to other law enforcement to divert attention from Bulger and his gang.

You can read the rest of the story and watch a local TV new clip via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/06/bulger_angrily_denies_he_spilled_as_feds_open_his_informant_file

You can also read my Q&A with Dick Lehr, the author of Whitey: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/06/crime-beat-column-q-with-dick-lehr-co_17.html

The above photos of Whitey Bulger were provided by the FBI. 

The Whitey Bulger Trial: Evidence, Dirt Burying Whitey Bulger

Howie Carr, author and columnist for the Boston Herald, is covering the Whitey Bulger trial in Boston.

The feds are burying Whitey Bulger, shovelful by shovelful, just like his tubby gravedigger Kevin “Two” Weeks used to do with his boss’ 26-year-old female strangling victims. The only difference is, Whitey is being buried alive, smothered by an avalanche of facts and pictures and evidence.

Consider yesterday. The defense finally got Johnny Martorano off the witness stand, but the cops came back and released photos of more of his victims, including two guys who were shot two years apart, on the same street — Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester.The more gruesome Morrissey Boulevard photo is of Eddie Connors, former Marine, former boxer, owner of two gin mills across the street from each other on Savin Hill Avenue — Bulldogs and Connors Taverns.

He was allegedly shot to death by Whitey and Stevie Flemmi as he spoke to another Winter Hill gang boss in the phone booth at the old Texaco station on Morrissey. He’d apparently been bragging about his role in setting up one Spike O’Toole back in December 1973. Whitey’s charged with that slaying, too.Talking to strangers about a hit — no better way to rocket to the top of the Hit Parade.

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/howie_carr/2013/06/evidence_dirt_burying_whitey_bulger

And you can read other Howie Carr columns via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/howie_carr

The Whitey Bulger Trial: Johnny's Bad, But He's Not The Real Rat, Says Boston Herald Columnist & Author Howie Carr

Howie Carr, the Boston Herald columnist and author of Hitman: The Untold Story of Johnny Martorano, offers his take on John Martorano, who testified against his former partner-in-crime Whitey Bulger.

The worst word you can ever use against Johnny Martorano is “rat,” so you can bet that Whitey Bulger’s lawyers will be throwing it up against him again this morning within 30 seconds or so of resuming their cross-examination.

They’ll be trying to make him lose his cool. Good luck with that.Stipulated, I wrote a book with Martorano, and we split the profits. I get along pretty well with him. So does just everybody else I know who knows him, believe it or not.   

I’m not making excuses for the 20 murders. Neither is he.But let’s consider what a real rat is. There’s an old joke that a gangster can always close a business deal with these magic words: “I’ll kill you.”The feds have their own magic words: “You’re going to spend the rest of your life in prison.” 

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/howie_carr/2013/06/carr_johnny_s_bad_but_not_the_real_rat