'Hands on killer' Whitey Bulger tortured, strangled, chained and murdered 19 people - then buried then in mass graves

Prosecutor Brian Kelly told jurors that Bulger, pictured, 'ran amok' in Boston for nearly three decades, killing 19 people, extorting millions from drug dealers and other criminals, and corrupting police and FBI agents

Gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger was a 'hands-on killer' responsible for 'murder and mayhem' in Boston for almost 30 years, a federal prosecutor told a jury Wednesday as Bulger's highly anticipated racketeering trial began.
Prosecutors told the jury he was responsible for 19 murders and they heard from witnesses how he tied people to chairs, tortured them at gunpoint and dumped his victims in mass graves.
Bulger's lawyer acknowledged that Bulger made millions through drugs, illegal gambling and loan-sharking, but told the jury that three ex-mobsters who have pinned murders on Bulger cannot be believed.
Each of the men received 'extraordinary' deals from prosecutors in exchange for their cooperation, defense attorney J.W. Carney Jr. said.
The defense also denied prosecution claims that Bulger was an FBI informant for years and provided information on the rival New England Mafia.
Bulger, now 83, was one of the nation's most wanted fugitives when he fled Boston in 1994 after receiving a tip from his former FBI handler, John Connolly, that he was about to be indicted. He was finally captured in 2011 in Santa Monica, Calif., where he had been living with his longtime girlfriend in a rent-controlled apartment.
The defense went after the three once-loyal Bulger cohorts who are expected to be the prosecution's star witnesses: convicted hit man John Martorano, former Bulger partner Stephen 'The Rifleman' Flemmi and former Bulger lieutenant Kevin Weeks.

This courtroom sketch depicts James 'Whitey' Bulger during the first day of his racketeering trial in U.S. District Court in Boston on Wednesday

Defense attorney J.W. Carney, left, and Jackie Bulger, brother of accused mob boss James 'Whitey' Bulger, right, pictured entering court in Boston on Wednesday

Rolling over: Stephen 'The Rifleman' Flemmi, Whitey's former partner, will take the stand for the prosecution along with former lieutenant John Martorano (right)

Carney said Martorano, who served 12 years in prison after admitting to killing 20 people, was able to dictate the terms of his deal with prosecutors.
'The federal government was so desperate to have John Martorano testify ... they basically put their hands up in the air and said, 'Take anything you want,'' Carney said.
Kelly said Bulger headed the Winter Hill Gang, a violent group that 'ran amok' in Boston for three decades, killing 19 people, extorting millions of dollars from drug dealers and other criminals, and corrupting police and FBI agents.
'At the center of all this murder and mayhem is one man — the defendant in this case, James Bulger,' Kelly said.

Prosecutors began by recounting their version of the July 1983 murder of Arthur 'Bucky' Barrett, a reseller of stolen jewelry.
They said Bulger invited Barrett to a house in Boston, where he and associate Stephen 'The Rifleman' Flemmi interrogated Barrett until they learned where he kept his money. They then told him to walk down the basement steps.
'Bulger made a joke, "Barrett's going downstairs to lie down for a while,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Kelly told the jury.
'As Barrett walked down the stairs, this man over here, Bulger, shot Barrett in the back of the head, killed him.'
Barrett's body was buried in the house's dirt-floored basement, Kelly said.

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