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Feds To Name Witnesses For Bulger Trial

The racketeering trial involving 19 murders against Whitey Bulger begins in two weeks on June 6, and today the government will release its witness list which will include about 70 names as reported by Brett Connolly FOX 25.

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Bulger-Enforcer-Turned-Church-Official Charged With Looting Congregation

Edward MacKenzie, Jr. once provided muscle for mob boss Whitey Bulger, and later became the operations director for a Boston church.  However, he apparently couldn't understand that collections in a church wasn't quite the same as collections on the street. 

The feds have charged MacKenzie with racketeering for allegedly "systematically loot[ing] the church of its considerable financial assets through a combination of fraud, deceit, extortion, theft and bribery" as reported by The Associated Press. 

MacKenzie chronicled his mob years in the 2003 memoir Street Soldier in which he expressed "get[ing] sexual pleasure out of breaking the bones of other men" as reviewed by John W. Dean for The New York Times. 

In June 2012 MacKenzie wrote in the church's newsletter "I believe that salvation and redemption come to different people in different ways" as reported by Akilah Johnson for The Boston Globe.

Maybe the poor soul just needs to pray a little harder next time around.

Federal Judge Rules Whitey Bulger Cannot Assert Immunity Defense At Murder Trial

A federal judge has ruled that Whitey Bulger cannot argue at his racketeering trial next month that he had legal immunity for his alleged crimes as reported by The Boston Globe:

US District Court Judge Denise J. Casper, who took over the case in March, wrote in a 31-page opinion that Bulger's "claimed immunity is not a defense to the charged crimes to be presented to the jury at trial."  Casper said Bulger’s claim of immunity was a question of "contract law," which he should have asked the court to resolve prior to trial as part of a motion to dismiss the sweeping federal racketeering indictment that alleges he participated in 19 murders in the 1970s and 1980s.  Bulger's failure to ask the judge to rule on his immunity assertion does not give him the right to present it to a jury, she wrote.

Bulger's defense lawyer J. W. Carney Jr. claimed that some time prior to December 1984 Jeremiah O'Sullivan, the former U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, granted Bulger immunity for his crimes in exchange for information to nail the Italian Mafia which was public enemy number one during the 1970s and 1980s.

Boston lawyer Harvey Silverglate says Judge Casper's "decision is unfairly protective of the Department of Justice in that the public will never get to learn in more detail about the department's relationship with Whitey Bulger."

FBI Files Reveal Enforcer Stephen Flemmi Was Better Informant Than His Boss Whitey Bulger

The FBI's 1,600 page informant files on Winter Hill boss James "Whitey" Bulger and his one-time enforcer Stephen "the Rifleman" Flemmi reveal that Flemmi "provided more intelligence on the New England mob than Bulger" as reported by Tim White for WPRI:  "the files show Bulger was an informant from 1975 to 1990 while Flemmi's years date back to approximately 1967," and "Flemmi's access to members of the Patriarca crime family was evident in several references."

Of couse, as an Italian Flemmi obviously would have had "far better access" to the wise guys as aptly noted by Boston Globe investigative reporter Shelley Murphy who has co-authored a book on Bulger: 

"Flemmi, the son of Italian immigrants, had been offered membership in the Mafia," Murphy said. "[Flemmi] politely declined because he didn't really like them that much and it was more lucrative for him to work with Whitey with the protection of the FBI."

The murder trial against Bulger is set for this June, and among the government's witnesses will be Flemmi.  There's "no love lost between these two," and "Flemmi claims he thought about killing Whitey" as reported by Howie Carr for the Boston Herald.

Report: Rifleman Wanted To Kill Whitey

The murder trial against Winter Hill gang boss James "Whitey" Bulger is set for this June, and among the government's witnesses will be former Bulger enforcer and convicted murderer Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi.

The one-time Bulger crony may not be the most credible witness since "there's no love lost between these two," and "Flemmi claims he thought about killing Whitey" as reported by Howie Carr for the Boston Herald.

Carr is the author of a newly-published book about Flemmi.