Ex-hitman: Bulger’s FBI dealings ‘broke my heart’

A former criminal associate of James “Whitey” Bulger told jurors at the accused mob boss’s trial that he agreed to testify against his old friend after learning that his former gang pals had begun co-operating with law enforcement.

Bulger, 83, is on trial in Boston Federal Court on charges including racketeering and 19 murders he is alleged to have committed or ordered while running Boston’s “Winter Hill” gang in the 1970s and ’80s. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted.

Confessed hitman John Martorano, 72, is the first of Bulger’s former associates to take the stand in a trial that is expected to last three to four months, with two other members of Bulger’s alleged gang, Kevin Weeks and Stephen Flemmi, also due to testify.