Accused mobster laughs out loud during trial

Boston (CNN) — People it had been just like a meeting of old buddies: James “Whitey” Bulger listening carefully — laughing heartily at some point — to colorful memories of former Boston bookie Richard O’Brien, who went a effective bookmaking operation he inherited from his father.
However this wasn't any remember-when reunion between two seniors males.
The 84-year-old O’Brien, who resides in Florida and utilizes a wheel chair,Julietta by Mori Lee 3146 Bridal Dress claimed Friday like a prosecution witness in the federal trial of Bulger, who's billed within the deaths of 19 people throughout the nearly 2 decades that prosecutors say he was the mind from the Irish mob in Boston.
O’Brien referred to a conference between Bulger along with a guy who owed him money. Once the guy balked at having to pay, Bulger responded, “We possess a business besides bookmake.” “What’s that?” the guy requested. “Killing (expletive) as if you.”
The 83-year-old Bulger, that has proven little emotion within the first times of trial, put his mind back and discrete fun.
Whitey Bulger in hiding
O’Brien stated he was an “independent” bookmaker, or unaffiliated having a crime organization, when Bulger summoned him to some meeting to go over joining the Bulger group.
O’Brien stated have been employed by an italian man , mafia in Boston’s North Finish but Bulger told him, “Forget its northern border Finish. If you wish to maintain business, you need to be around.”
He'd no choice but to become listed on Bulger’s Winter Hill gang, O’Brien claimed, saying, “Their status preceded them.”
O’Brien then recommended Boston’s violent gang wars saying, “A large amount of everyone was shot. Mr. Bulger wound up on the top. You are able to draw your personal conclusions.”
Thus started a 14-year relationship, with O’Brien testifying he compensated Bulger’s group a few 1000 dollars, cash, in “rent” just about any month.
Requested why, O’Brien responded, “I valued my existence in addition to individuals beside me.”
The payment per month went more than $2,000, O’Brien stated, and was sometimes greater because Bulger and partner Steven “The Rifleman” Flemmi would charge random “taxes” if, for instance, certainly one of O’Brien’s employees found themself in the finish of the government wiretap.
Bulger never personally required the cash, that was always compensated in cash. It had been always handed to Bulger’s partner, Flemmi. “Maybe he never wanted it joined into evidence,” O’Brien offered.
O’Brien stated he gone to live in Florida in early ’90s, generating your day-to-day procedures of his bookmaking business to 1 of his six kids. Many years later, he stated, he was summoned to some ending up in Flemmi among rumblings that Bulger affiliates — together with a “father-and-daughter team” — were beginning to cooperate using the government.
He stated before he left for that meeting he told his daughter, “If I am not in 12 hrs visit the FBI in Miami. Don’t go back home (to Boston). Don’t visit the FBI there.”
O’Brien is anticipated to carry on testifying Monday.
Jurors earlier heard testimony from upon the market Massachusetts Condition Police Col. Thomas Foley, who on Thursday referred to the FBI’s informant program as “poorly run.”
“The FBI place a greater priority safeguarding their informants” compared to what they did safeguarding “public safety,” Foley stated.
Bulger’s lawyers are attempting to show Bulger was permitted to do something with impunity, approved by corrupt FBI agents and federal prosecutors.
On mix-examination Bulger attorney Hank Brennan asked Foley concerning the integrity of Bulger’s FBI informant file, which will probably be introduced at trial, asking the upon the market investigator why he'd accept the informant file as accurate if this was put together through the same FBI agents Foley thought were laying to him.
Foley stated he'd other sources but acknowledged he'd never checked the validity from the entire file.
Bulger’s lawyers also are attempting to establish that Bulger never was a compensated informant for that FBI which rather Bulger was the main one having to pay rogue agents for information.
The trial is anticipated to consider to 3 several weeks and can reveal sensational particulars concerning the mob and FBI corruption, particularly if Bulger selects to testify.
Bulger was at hiding for 16 years before he was taken in Santa Monica, California, 2 yrs ago, living within false title together with his girlfriend within an apartment within the oceanside city.
At his This summer 2011 arraignment, he pleaded not liable towards the 19 murder charges and 13 other counts.