James “Whitey” Bulger, who replaced Osama Bin Laden after he was slain at the top of the FBI’s ten most wanted list, is heading to prison for the rest of his life.
In courtroom 11 in the mid-afternoon Monday, the 83-year-old mobster stood up as instructed by Judge Denise Casper. He was convicted on 31 of 32 counts of racketeering and conspiracy, including 11 0f 19 murders. And in the time it took for the jury to respond to each individual charge read aloud, Bulger’s outsized image was diminished from mythical public enemy number one, to convicted felon in a bland grey shirt.
Outside the courthouse the families of the victims spoke to reporters. Patricia Donahue responded to the jury’s verdict confirming that Bulger killed her husband, Michael.
“I wonder if he’s looking down to see how hard they’ve worked for this. How strong they are in this whole situation.
Michael’s son, Tommy Donahue, said he and his brothers took unpaid leave of absences to be in the court everyday.
The August 12 verdict brought some relief he said, but it did not bring closure.
”After 31 years, it was an overwhelming feeling,“ he said outside the courthouse. ”Dealing with this court - I can’t even describe the words and the emotions that you get built up coming up here everyday and listening to this, and then finally have the verdict that we were searching for... it was a very good feeling. But, it’s also bittersweet because my heart goes out to the families, as well.“
For one, the jury ruled no finding in the murder of Debra Davis in 1981. She was strangled after her boyfriend, Stephen ”The Rifleman“ Flemmi lured her to a South Boston home where Bulger was waiting. Davis’ brother Steve believes Flemmi may have been just as culpable than Bulger.
Bulger had spent 16 years on the run - hiding in plain sight in a rent controlled apartment; a five minute walk from the Pacific Ocean in sun-drenched Santa Monica, Cali. Bulger was known for being able to keep a low profile, but when Barack Obama was elected president, Bulger, whose alias was Charlie Gasko, caught the attention of a neighbor when he used the ”N“ word to describe America’s new Commander in Chief.
The neighbor remembered the slur, and when the FBI wanted posters were circulated on CNN in the spring of 2011 showing Bulger’s girlfriend, Catherine Grieg, known as Carol Gasko, the neighbor made the connection to Greig and to her husband who uttered the slur.
The neighbor, Icelandic model Anna Bjornsdottir, contacted the FBI and Greig and Bulger were arrested on June 22.
The legal stage was set to begin. On the day of his arraignment in 2011, as a convoy of Massachusetts State Police and U.S. Marshal vehicles sprinted through South Boston toward the Moakley Courthouse, John ”Red“ Shea was watching from a scaffold over a building site on the Seaport. Now a construction worker, Shea had once been a member of Bulger’s Winter Hill Gang.
”I was going up the side of the building on a hoist - and I was looking out,“ Shea said. ”I heard sirens. And, I seen state police and black vehicles, and I said to myself, 'there goes Whitey’. He’s goin’ to trial ... And this was the guy I looked up to.“
When the trial finally began, the families of Bulger’s victims sat in the front row of the court, just a few feet from the defendant. Prosecutors described a man who basked in his brutality, and introduced witnesses just as brutal but they were needed to make the case against Bulger, according to the government.
One of the witnesses, Kevin Weeks, a Bulger lieutenant, had revealed where several of the victims were buried and how they died, and thus it was necessary to make a deal with thugs, said U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz.
”When you’re prosecuting individuals like Mr. Bulger, he’s not hanging around with the upstanding citizens of the community, he’s hanging around with people who are just like him,“ she said outside the courthouse on Monday. ”So, we need to do what we have to do, unfortunately, to get to the bottom.“
Ortiz said new guidelines have been implemented regarding he use of informants, but the defense characterized the quid pro quo arrangements of a few years in jail in exchange for testimony as an example of what they see as government corruption, and it became clear it was not just Whitey Bulger that on trial here.
”Mr. Bulger knew as soon as he was arrested that he was gonna die behind the walls of a prison, or on a gurney getting injected with a chemical that would kill him,“ said Bulger attorney J.W. Carney. ”This trial has never been about Jim Bulger being set free and coming out of this courthouse.“
So what was this trial about for the defense?
”Our objective in this trial when we started was transparency and to try to find the truth,“ said Bulger attorney Hank Brennan. ”It was important for the public to know how the federal government operated during that time, and how they’re operating today.“
The Bulger trial conclusively revealed that some police and FBI agents including John Connolly, John Morris, Paul Rico and others worked hand in hand with gangsters and helped them make millions through extortion and loan sharking. The trial also showed that law enforcers were very much aware of the murders carried out by informants Bulger and his associate, Stephen Flemmi.
I asked Vincent Lisi, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Field Division, how the agency could push back against the defense’s allegation of ”systemic corruption.“
”It’s our job to try to regain the trust of people out there that lost trust and faith in us because of the actions of a few, not a lot,“ Lisi said. ”The system has been completely revamped and it was all because of looking at Whitey Bulger and seeing what happened there. And we want to make sure it doesn’t happen again.“
Now courtroom No. 11 has been emptied of easels, charts, gun displays and all signs of Bulger, but his story is far from over.
Defense attorneys said they will appeal the verdict and some victims families plan to pursue civil actions against the government. Meanwhile, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office is considering filing new charges against Bulger for the killing of Debra Davis. Because her murder was part of a racketeering charge covered by federal statutes, Bulger can be tried separately in state courts.
In tears outside the courthouse after the verdict was read on Monday, Steven Davis said he will pursue the case until, “I’m in the ground.”
On Monday night at a dinner for the families at a restaurant in Boston’s Seaport there were tears from some, anger about murder cases unproven, and a cheer to Steven “Stippo” Rakes, the man who was allegedly murdered in an unrelated case during the trial. Rakes, who was in courtroom 11 most days, was poisoned by a business associate. Rakes and his ex-wife Julie were vindicated by the jury, which concluded that Bulger and his gang did indeed take Rake’s liquor store from him in the early 1980’s under threat of force.
That victory and others against Bulger were worth cheering, said Tommy Donahue at the private gathering.
Bulger will be sentenced in November.
Read more about the Bulger verdict here.
