Two Bookmakers Testify They Were Forced To make Payments To Whitey Bulger's Gang

The Boston Globe is covering the Whitey Bulger trial in Boston.

Two former bookmakers from the 1970s and 1980s told a federal jury Friday that they were forced to make payments to James “Whitey” Bulger and his crew, and that the gangster and his cohorts had a reputation for hurting anyone who did not follow their demands.

“I had heard about them because their reputation preceded them. They were very capable,” said Richard O’Brien, 84, who ran gambling rackets for years and said he was forced into a meeting with Bulger in the mid-1970s.

“You’re working alone ... you ought to be with us,” Bulger told him, O’Brien recalled.

“They were laying down the law,” he told a jury in federal court in Boston.

James Katz, another bookmaker, said he dealt often with Bulger’s right-hand man, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, and it was his understanding that Flemmi and Bulger ran their gang together.
“You knew Stevie Flemmi had a reputation that he had killed several people?” Bulger’s lawyer, J.W. Carney Jr. asked.

“I would never want to run into him,” Katz acknowledged.

Bulger, 83, is on trial in US District Court, charged in 32 counts of a racketeering indictment that alleges that while running a criminal enterprise from 1972 to 2000, he participated in 19 murders; extorted bookmakers and drug dealers, and businessmen; laundered his criminal profits through real estate transactions; and stockpiled an arsenal of weapons.

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

http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2013/06/14/whitey-bulger-trial-enters-third-day-two-bookmakers-slated-testify/e6IvGhTh4u3xSxOATTytAK/story.html

You can also read my Washington Times review of Whitey: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/13/whitey-bulgers-horrific-crime-span/?page=all#pagebreak