ECHO'S OF 'THE GODFATHER' - 'Whitey' Bulger

"Notorious crime boss James ‘Whitey’ Bulger dies in W. Va. prison" PBS NewsHour 10/30/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Boston crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger has died, one day after being transferred to a West Virginia federal prison.  A notorious lifelong criminal who ran gambling and drug rackets for decades, he fled Boston in 1994 but was eventually caught.  In 2013, Bulger was convicted of involvement in 11 murders in the 1970s and 1980s.  WGBH’s Emily Rooney joins Judy Woodruff to discuss his violent legacy.

MOB BOSS TRIAL - Updated Testimony by Hitman

"Will "Whitey" Bulger's "private code" prompt him to take stand?" by Amanda Cochran, CBS News 7/23/2013

Convicted killer Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, a former confidante of the reputed mobster, is back on the witness stand in the trial of James "Whitey" Bulger on Wednesday.

On his third day on the stand on Monday, Flemmi said Bulger brutally choked a 26-year-old woman in 1986.  During his testimony, Flemmi said Bulger "stepped out from behind the top of the basement stairs, grabbed her by the throat, started to strangle her.  They lost their balance and fell on the floor."

The woman was Deborah Hussey, the daughter of Flemmi's longtime girlfriend.  According to Flemmi, Bulger was concerned over her drug problems and her tendency to drop their names when she got into trouble.  "It didn't take long.  She's a fragile woman," Flemmi said.  "I was there, I didn't do anything."

Flemmi, who admitted to having a sexual relationship with Hussey, as well as her mother, added that Bulger took a nap after he killed her.  Flemmi was Bulger's longtime friend and former right-hand man.

Earlier, Flemmi testified he witnessed Bulger strangle another woman with his own hands.  Debra Davis, who was then Flemmi's girlfriend.  She was murdered, Flemmi said, after she learned both men were FBI informants.

Legal analyst Gerry Leone said:  "(Flemmi) is the person who can talk in very direct terms about what Bulger did, not just what he ordered, and not just what he conspired and agreed to, but what he did."

The issue at the center of this case is Bulger's own private code, CBS News legal analyst Rikki Klieman pointed out on "CBS this Morning."  Bulger, she said, doesn't want it known that he may have killed women.

"I still maintain that Whitey Bulger has to testify because this is his show," she said.  "This isn't a normal trial.  This is a story of Gangsterland in Boston.  And only Whitey can tell his story, and expose the government corruption and say 'Stevie killed those women.  I didn't.'

"What Stephen Flemmi is trying to show, is that he is, is in essence, a clean, cold-blooded killer," Klieman said.  "That is, 'I killed them, I popped them, I cleaned them up, this is what I do for a living.  And why do I do it?  Because Whitey insisted.  Someone else insisted.  I never had any of these ideas of my own.'  It's why it's a cross examiner's dream."

Flemmi has admitted to lying on the stand before and has apologized.

"These are the things that I think when you're in the courtroom just make your blood boil," Klieman said.  "He apologized because he had once committed perjury in the courtroom.  I am sorry, this is the time, where no matter whether or not Whitey Bulger is convicted of all of these crimes, Stephen Flemmi needs to be exposed for who he is."

"Flemmi, to me, not only is not credible...but he is someone that is far more repulsive to me as a human being than the stone-cold killer Whitey Bulger.  And I think they both need to be kept away from society for the rest of (their) days."