The return to Boston of fugitive gangster James “Whitey” Bulger after 16 years on the run was met on Friday with high security at a courthouse not even built when he fled the city.
Bulger, now 81, was scheduled to be in the waterfront courthouse in South Boston at about 4pm (8pm GMT), said a spokesperson for federal prosecutors in Boston. His longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig, who was captured with him Wednesday in Santa Monica, California, was to make her initial appearance shortly afterward.
Bulger appeared briefly in federal court on Thursday in Los Angeles, agreeing to waive extradition. He was released from downtown’s federal Metropolitan Detention Centre into the custody of US marshals early on Friday, said jail spokesperson Steve Gagliardi.
In Boston, the courthouse security included at least two Coast Guard boats, one state police vessel and a police boat patrolling the harbour directly behind the building.
Bulger’s arrest ended a long, frustrating manhunt that had embarrassed the FBI and raised questions about its efforts to find one of its most wanted fugitives.
But his capture could become a new chapter in an old scandal for the Boston FBI and others.
If Bulger decides to cut a deal with prosecutors, he could implicate an untold number of local, state and federal law enforcement officials, according to investigators who built a racketeering indictment against Bulger before he fled in 1995.
Skeletons
“If he starts to talk, there will be some unwelcome accountability on the part of a lot of people inside law enforcement,” said retired Massachusetts state police Maj. Tom Duffy. “Let me put it this way: I wouldn’t want my pension contingent on what he will say at this point.”
Bulger is charged in connection with 19 murders. He had lived in Santa Monica for 15 of the last 16 years, according to his landlord.
Bulger’s flight in early 1995 allegedly came after a tip from former Boston FBI Agent John Connolly Jr, who was convicted of racketeering and obstruction of justice in 2002 for protecting Bulger and his cohort Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi from prosecution. Both Bulger and Flemmi were FBI informants who ratted out members of their main rivals, the New England Mob.
During Connolly’s trial, Bulger’s right-hand man, Kevin Weeks, testified that Bulger boasted that he had corrupted six FBI agents and more than 20 Boston police officers. At holiday time, Bulger stuffed envelopes with cash, Weeks testified.
“He used to say that Christmas was for cops and kids,” Weeks said.
Edward J MacKenzie Jr, a former drug dealer and enforcer for Bulger, predicted that Bulger would disclose new details about FBI corruption and how agents protected him for so long.
“Whitey was no fool. He knew he would get caught. I think he’ll have more fun pulling all those skeletons out of the closet,” MacKenzie said.
“I think he’ll start talking and he’ll start taking people down.”
Connolly, the retired FBI agent who was convicted of protecting Bulger, also was found guilty of murder in Miami for helping to set in motion a mob hit in 1982 against a business executive.
The Bulger arrest could have a huge impact on whether Connolly spends the rest of his life in a Florida prison. Connolly is set for release next Tuesday from a federal penitentiary after serving nearly 10 years for his Boston racketeering conviction.
But Connolly will be whisked to Florida right away to begin serving a 40-year sentence for his role in the slaying in Miami of gambling executive John Callahan. Connolly was convicted of murder in 2008 for tipping Bulger that Callahan was about implicate Bulger and Flemmi in the 1981 killing of Oklahoma businessman Roger Wheeler.
Connolly, who is appealing the conviction, insists he never fingered Callahan. Now, if Bulger backs up Connolly’s story, it could change the outcome of the Florida case. – Sapa-AP