UPDATES:
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Closing arguments in Whitey’s case like theater
No verdict on first day of Bulger deliberations
South Boston shuns ‘protector’ myth of Bulger
After 8 weeks of trial, Bulger’s fate in jurors’ hands
Signs appear of a split in Bulger jury
If the government is shit you must acquit!
Waiting for the unknown
Bulger jury dismissed today without verdict
Bulger jury to resume deliberations on Monday
Bulger judge urges jurors to reach verdicts
‘Whitey’ Bulger guilty in 11 murders
‘Whitey’ Bulger got his clock cleaned
Relatives of victims react to verdict
DAY AFTER VERDICT:
‘Whitey’ Bulger verdict puts end to historic saga
For convicted Whitey, no more references to ‘alleged’
In Santa Monica, no neighborly feelings for ex-residents
Range of emotions among victims’ families
For many in South Boston, conviction was a formality
Bulger’s trial was fair and his guilt is clear
Two views of government in Bulger trial
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
DA may seek to try ‘Whitey’ Bulger and allies
Witnesses raised Bulger jurors’ ire, suspicions
They may have convicted Bulger, but the government was also found guilty!
The discussion in the jury room(?):
"Federal overreach — then and now" by Jeff Jacoby | Globe Columnist, August 11, 2013
Whitey Bulger wasn’t the only one on trial in Boston’s federal courthouse. So was the government trying him.....
That is why I would have acquitted.
It would be comforting to believe that this was a one-off, that law enforcement agencies never abuse their authority, that the immense powers of the federal government are always deployed with scrupulous integrity. But no one believes that.
No, quite the opposite. It's standard operating procedure, from the intelligence agency drug-running to the cold-blooded murder of kids in their apartment in the middle of the night (Todashev).
As Bulger’s racketeering prosecution was playing out in Boston, other stories of federal overreach, secrecy, and obstruction were making headlines: The scandal at the Internal Revenue Service, which for more than two years had targeted conservative grass-roots groups for intimidation and harassment.
An impeachable scandal that has all but disappeared from the discussion.
The Justice Department’s unprecedented designation of national-security reporter James Rosen as a “coconspirator” in order to trawl through his personal e-mail, and its surreptitious seizure of telephone records from up to 20 Associated Press reporters and editors. The disclosure that the National Security Agency’s collection of domestic communications data is far more intrusive than was previously known, with the NSA reportedly collecting billions of pieces of intelligence from US internet giants such as Google, Facebook, and Skype.
You would think those things would raise more of a ruckus with the corporate pre$$, but since it is mostly an agenda-pu$hing intelligence operation it becomes a house of mirrors.
President Obama insists that none of this should undermine confidence in the federal government. “You’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity,” he told Ohio State’s graduating class in May. “You should reject these voices.” In June, he likewise assured Americans that they needn’t worry about the NSA’s vast data-mining operation being abused.
I know I have links somewhere regarding what he said, but I don't want to waste the time looking for them.
According to Gallup, nearly half of Americans believe that the federal government poses a “threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens.”
Which means it's really about 75% or more.
And what do you mean Gallup was ripping off the taxpayers?
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"Key moment in trial arrives: Will ‘Whitey’ Bulger testify?" by Milton J. Valencia and Shelley Murphy | Globe Staff, August 01, 2013
As the trial of James “Whitey” Bulger nears its end, a key question will finally be answered Friday: Will the 83-year-old gangster testify on his own behalf, or will he let the word of others seal his fate?
J.W. Carney Jr., one of Bulger’s lawyers, gave no indication Thursday, saying only that the defense team is still deciding. But a series of photos of Bulger over his life that the team introduced as possible exhibits Wednesday night intensified speculation.
“I took them in anticipation of Mr. Bulger taking the stand,” US District Court Denise J. Casper said Thursday, after jurors had left for the day.
She warned Carney that he will have to decide whether Bulger testifes by Friday, and he responded, “I’ll be ready.”
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The question of whether Bulger will testify remains perhaps the last great mystery in his high-profile trial, after 71 witnesses over 34 days of testimony described a world in which Bulger ruled for decades through murder and extortion while being protected by corrupt FBI handlers....
And corrupt higher-up enablers.
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"Testimony ends without Bulger taking the stand" by Shelley Murphy and Milton J. Valencia | Globe Staff, August 02, 2013
In an anticlimactic end to testimony in his seven-week racketeering trial, James “Whitey” Bulger announced Friday that he would not take the stand....
Bulger, who had repeatedly vowed to testify after his capture two years ago, blamed his change of heart on the judge’s refusal to let him tell jurors that a now-deceased federal prosecutor had promised him immunity for all crimes, past and future, including murder....
The suspense had been building as defense lawyers waited until the last of 72 witnesses had appeared during 35 days of testimony to announce that Bulger would not testify....
Minutes after Bulger announced he would not take the stand, jurors were ushered back into the courtroom. Bulger lawyer J.W. Carney Jr. told them: “The defense calls no further witnesses, and we rest at this time.”
Jurors are expected to hear closing arguments Monday, and begin deliberations Tuesday....
Carney said outside the courthouse: “We just did what we could to help Jim Bulger make the right decision, for him. It was his decision alone to make, not his lawyer’s, not his family, not anyone else.”
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Before testimony began Friday, Carney said Bulger would not oppose forfeiture of $822,000 seized from him if the government agreed to give it to the Donahue and Halloran families.
Both families had won judgments against the government because of the FBI’s mishandling of Bulger and Flemmi, but an appeals court overturned the awards, saying the suits were filed too late.
The courts have dismissed other lawsuits by victims on the grounds they were not filed in a timely fashion.
Prosecutors wrote Friday that they will ask the jury to approve forfeiture of the money, then work with the victims’ families to distribute the funds, noting that it is not up to Bulger “to decide who gets to keep his ill-gotten gains.”
Patricia Donahue and her three sons were startled by Bulger’s effort to steer some of his seized money to them....
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"Last words for, against James ‘Whitey’ Bulger; Prosecution cites crimes; defense rips government; jurors get case today" by Shelley Murphy and Milton J. Valencia | Globe Staff, August 05, 2013
Defense lawyers, in their final words to jurors Monday, portrayed him as a victim of government corruption and scheming former associates. To prosecutors, he is a “murderous thug” who terrorized the city for decades.
On Tuesday, the jurors will begin deciding the fate of James “Whitey” Bulger after 35 days of testimony by 72 witnesses and six hours of closing arguments.
Bulger, 83, is “one of the most vicious, violent criminals ever to walk the streets of Boston,” Assistant US Attorney Fred Wyshak told jurors Monday in a voice that occasionally cracked with emotion during his 3½-hour closing.
He ridiculed defense lawyers’ efforts to paint Bulger as a gangster with a code, who barred heroin from his South Boston neighborhood, even as they conceded that Bulger raked in millions of dollars from extortion and from dealing marijuana and cocaine.
Related: Heroin is Here
Also see: Sunday Globe Special: The New York Times Smokes Opium
Where is the new Whitey Bulger?
“This is not some Robin Hood story about a guy who kept angel dust and heroin out of Southie,” Wyshak said.
Bulger’s lawyers aggressively attacked the government for cutting lenient plea deals with three former associates who admitted to participating in gruesome and unprovoked murders and blamed Bulger for their crimes.
“I ask you to find strength in the oath you took,” J.W. Carney Jr., one of Bulger’s lawyers, told jurors. “You have the power to stand up to government abuse.”
They didn't.
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From day one, his defense made the tactical decision to concede Bulger was responsible for many of the lesser charges. But his lawyers contended he did not commit several of the murders and spent much of their time trying to prove something that was not part of the indictment: Bulger was not an FBI informant; instead, he paid his handlers for information.
Related: FBI Thinks Frame-Ups Are Funny
You know, he probably wasn't.
This assertion was a centerpiece of their case, despite a hefty file that indicates Bulger provided information to the FBI from 1975 to 1990.
That the defense argued was created as a separate file by the corrupt FBI slime handling his case.
For 2½ hours Monday, Carney and Hank Brennan argued the government’s key witnesses — John Martorano, an admitted hit man; Kevin Weeks, Bulger’s protégé; and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, Bulger’s partner — were liars.
A given.
They contended that the government gave them lenient plea deals and in exchange, the men pointed their fingers at Bulger....
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One murder of which Whitey will be found innocent:
"Bulger foe was poisoned; attempted murder charges filed" by Stephanie Ebbert and Travis Andersen | Globe Staff, August 03, 2013
Stephen “Stippo” Rakes, a potential witness in the trial of James “Whitey” Bulger who was found dead two weeks ago, was allegedly poisoned by a business associate who owed him money and who laced his McDonald’s iced coffee with potassium cyanide, authorities said Friday.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan said William Camuti, 69, lured Rakes to a Waltham McDonald’s with the promise of a lucrative investment deal. He allegedly ordered two iced coffees and laced one with cyanide, serving it to Rakes, prosecutors said. Camuti then allegedly drove his associate around for several hours before dumping his body in a wooded area in Lincoln near a walking path where it was found the next day.
Camuti was arrested in Boston Friday, was arraigned in Concord District Court, and pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and other charges. Judge J. Elizabeth Cremens ordered him held without bail and scheduled a dangerousness hearing for Tuesday.
Ryan said the charge could be upgraded to murder when the state medical examiner completes an autopsy. Camuti also faces charges of misleading police and unlawful disposal of human remains.
Rakes was a frequent presence at the Bulger trial. At one point, he was expected to testify against Bulger who allegedly extorted ownership of his South Boston liquor store in the 1980s.
Despite that, Ryan said, officials believe that Rakes’s killing had no connection to Bulger.
“Our evidence indicates that Mr. Camuti acted alone, and the evidence we’ve developed thus far indicates that this involved a business transaction,” she said. “The investigation showed us that Mr. Rakes and the defendant have known each other for many years and had been involved in a number of business transactions.”
According to the district attorney, Camuti owed Rakes a “significant amount of money.” Though she declined to specify how much, Ryan said the two men’s business transactions included land deals on various pieces of property, some in Middlesex County.
When Rakes spoke with Camuti July 16, Camuti asked to meet that day to discuss a potential investment property in Wilmington, the district attorney said. “Mr. Rakes was lured to this meeting on the promise of a real estate deal in which he could invest to make a significant amount of money,’’ Ryan said. “However, that deal did not, in fact, exist.”
Ryan said they met about 1:45 p.m. at a McDonald’s restaurant in Waltham. Camuti purchased two cups of iced coffee and gave Rakes one laced with two teaspoons of potassium cyanide.
The chief medical examiner’s office is still conducting an autopsy, and toxicology tests are ongoing, Ryan said.
She did not specify when Rakes died, but alleged that Camuti drove him around for several hours in Waltham, Woburn, Burlington, and Lincoln, before dumping his body in a wooded area in Lincoln where it was found the next day.
Rakes’s body was found wearing the clothes he had worn at the Bulger trial the day he disappeared.
According to a Lincoln Police Department report, Camuti told investigators in two separate interviews that he met with Rakes in the parking lot of the McDonald’s in Waltham for about 15 minutes to discuss a potential real estate deal. He told police, however, that he left directly after their meeting and did not see Rakes again.
But the GPS from Camuti’s car showed that on the night of July 16, Camuti drove to the area of 90 Mill St. in Lincoln, “where he disposed of the body,” the police report said. Lincoln police and State Police executed a series of search warrants for Camuti’s home, vehicle, cellphone, and car GPS unit, the report said.
There is that global surveillance grid again. They know I am right here, and may even be reading along.
At the press conference, Ryan said there was evidence Camuti had sought information online about acquiring cyanide. She declined to elaborate....
Didn't think there would be a record?
Prosecutors would not comment on Camuti’s criminal history, but a man of the same name and age faced federal mail fraud charges in Boston in the 1990s over a mortgage brokerage scheme, Globe archives show.
Yeah, those were going on before and are continuing after the alleged economic crisis.
The former owner of The Loan Depot, that William Camuti was a familiar presence on television and on radio as pitchman for his company, which marketed so-called mortgage pools.
In 1993, a federal jury in Boston convicted him of 11 counts of mail fraud in connection with a program to market mortgage pools to 60 people who invested more than $3.8 million with Camuti or his companies, the Globe reported at the time.
Can't hold Whitey responsible for those crimes, and the too-big-to-fail banks stole so much more than he ever did.
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