Mobsters pack witness list as Bulger trial begins

James ‘Whitey’ Bulger is no longer the feared man who swaggered around south Boston and later became one of America’s most-wanted fugitives.

At 83, the bright platinum hair that earned Bulger his nickname is all but gone and his reputed status as the leader of a violent gang has passed.

But as Bulger’s long- awaited trial finally gets under way, it is clear that the passage of time has done little to diminish Boston’s fascination with Bulger.

“He’s a survivor. He’s had a very long shelf life in a profession where that is not typical,” said Dick Lehr, who has co-written two books about the mobster, including the biography Whitey: The Life of America’s Most Notorious Mob Boss.

“The many faces of Whitey make him intriguing,” Lehr said.

Those faces include his early image as a modern-day Robin Hood and harmless tough guy who gave turkey dinners to his working-class neighbours at Thanksgiving and kept drug dealers out of the area. That image was crushed when authorities began digging up bodies.

Bulger would eventually be charged with playing a role in 19 murders but fled in late 1994 after former FBI Agent John Connolly Jr tipped him off that he was about to be indicted.

He remained a fugitive for more than 16 years before finally being captured in Santa Monica, California, in 2011.

Bulger’s trial, set to begin today with jury selection, promises to have all the glamour and gore of a TV mob drama. Prosecutors plan to call a collection of infamous mob figures, including Bulger’s former partner, Stephen ‘The Rifleman’ Flemmi, who is now serving a life sentence for 10 murders and admitted pulling the teeth out of some of the gang’s victims, including his own girlfriend.

Former hit man John Martorano, who admitted killing 20 people, will also take the stand, as will Kevin Weeks, a former Bulger lieutenant who eventually led authorities to half a dozen bodies.

Bulger’s lawyers have made it clear they will attack the credibility of men they describe as “once-reviled criminal defendants” whom prosecutors have eagerly transformed into “loyal government witnesses”.

“The government now offers these men as witnesses against James Bulger with no apparent regard for their complete lack of credibility,” attorneys JW Carney Jr and Hank Brennan wrote in a recent court filing.

Bulger, who grew up in a South Boston housing project, earned his first arrests as a juvenile and went on to serve time in Alcatraz and other federal prisons for bank robberies. He became one of the most notorious criminals in Boston. His younger brother, William Bulger, became one of the most powerful politicians in Massachusetts, leading the state Senate for 17 years. William Bulger is expected to attend his brother’s trial.

Bulger, an inspiration for the 2006 Martin Scorsese film, The Departed, headed the Winter Hill Gang, a largely Irish gang that ran loan-sharking, gambling, and drug rackets.

After Bulger went on the run, the public learned that he had been working as an FBI informant for years, providing information on the New England Mob — his gang’s main rivals — even while he was committing a long list of his own crimes, including murder, prosecutors say.

The revelations of the corrupt relationship embarrassed the FBI and led to Connolly being convicted of racketeering.

Law enforcement officials who felt thwarted for years as they investigated Bulger say the trial may give them a long overdue sense of justice.