Whitey Bulger Defense Grills Investigator About Hit Man Witness, FBI Interference

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

James “Whitey” Bulger’s defense attorney sought to raise questions about the credibility of a key witness in the trial of the notorious gangster, winning an acknowledgment from a retired State Police official that the witness, a convicted hit man, had not agreed to testify about everything he knew.

“There were some people he was not going to offer evidence against,” said Thomas Foley, the retired State Police colonel who sprearheaded the investigation that resulted in charges against Bulger in 1995 that ended Bulger’s alleged reign of terror in Boston’s underworld.

Defense attorney Hank Brennan cross-examined Foley about John Martorano, one of three former associates of Bulger who are expected to offer crucial but flawed testimony — crucial because they were once in league with Bulger, but flawed because they have been convicted of crimes themselves, including murder or being an accessory to murder.

Martorano admitted to committing 20 murders between 1965 and 1982, some at the behest of Bulger or his right-hand man Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi. Martorano served 12 years and 2 months in prison after agreeing to testify for the government.

Bulger, 83, is 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.

His legend grew when he eluded a worldwide manhunt for 16 years after the indictment in 1995 and when it was learned that he had been protected by the FBI, which considered him a prized informant.

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

http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2013/06/13/whitey-bulger-trial-resumes-with-testimony-from-retired-detective-who-led-surveillance/7vDYG6RTx6d8Nl6jHhxUQK/story.html

Note: I reviewed Thomas Foley's book Most Wanted: Pursuing Whitey Bulger, the Murderous Mob Chief the FBI Secretly Protected for the Washington Times.

You can read the review via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2012/08/most-wanted-pursuing-whitey-bulger.html