Whitey Bulger Convicted On Racketeering, Conspiracy Charges

According to multiple breaking reports, reputed Boston mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger was convicted of racketeering and conspiracy in a Boston courtroom on Monday. Bulger, 83, led authorities on a manhunt that lasted 16 years.

A report by Boston.com goes into further detail about how Bulger did his business. Witnesses testified that Bulger would take naps after committing murders. Bulger also was an FBI informant, using corrupt federal agents to help him keep his grip on Boston’s underworld. However, he repeatedly denied any FBI involvement.

The racketeering allegation is the most severe of the 32 total charges Bulger was facing. In it, the jury only had to prove that he committed two of the alleged crimes in a ten-year span. They found that he committed 11 murders, along with conspiring to traffic in cocaine and marijuana. Former associates testified in gruesome, gritty detail about killings by Bulger. A witness was killed before he could testify in the trial.

The jury deliberated for 30 hours over five days in order to reach their verdict. NBC reports that Bulger turned over $822,000 to the FBI but was allowed to keep a Stanley Cup ring. It was not known how he got the ring.

Bulger terrorized Boston from the late 1970s until 1994 when he left Boston. He has appeared on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List in that time frame. Bulger was on the lam until his capture in June 2011.

There was rampant speculation regarding Bulger’s location while he was in hiding, but he was captured in Santa Monica, CA. Bulger’s story has been the inspiration for various TV shows, books and movies. The most notable of these is perhaps “The Departed,” in which Jack Nicholson plays a character widely thought to be the convicted mob boss.

His brother William had a rise to power as well, albeit a legal one, becoming the president of the Massachusetts Senate at the same time.