James "Whitey" Bulger, arrested 25 months ago, has been found guilty of assorted serious crimes, including 11 murders. He's due to be sentenced in three months, on 13 November 2013.
Justice can be slow. Now that Bulger (who'll be 84 in a couple of weeks) has been found guilty of crimes he committed about 30 years ago, will justice be done?
Probably not.
In fact, Bulger might still pull a Kenneth 'Kenny Boy' Lay maneuver. If Bulger "dies" conveniently before exhausting his appeals, his conviction might be abated - perhaps even vacated automatically, such that "the law views it as though he had never been indicted, tried and convicted" (link).
Stranger things have happened in Boston. A key potential witness (Stephen Rakes) was already murdered during the trial; he'd threatened to further tarnish brother "Billy" Bulger's name (William served for decades as a senior official in Massachusetts state government).
Can victim families split the $822,000 in cash that police seized with Whitey Bulger? Don't hold your breath... Very little Bulger wealth has been officially recovered, though Whitey's net worth could be $200 million or more (it was estimated by Boston magazine as US$50,000,000) - see Howie Carr (2006) The Brothers Bulger: How they Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century (NY, NY: Grand Central Publishing); p. xii; also photo below
Justice can be slow. Now that Bulger (who'll be 84 in a couple of weeks) has been found guilty of crimes he committed about 30 years ago, will justice be done?
Probably not.
In fact, Bulger might still pull a Kenneth 'Kenny Boy' Lay maneuver. If Bulger "dies" conveniently before exhausting his appeals, his conviction might be abated - perhaps even vacated automatically, such that "the law views it as though he had never been indicted, tried and convicted" (link).
Stranger things have happened in Boston. A key potential witness (Stephen Rakes) was already murdered during the trial; he'd threatened to further tarnish brother "Billy" Bulger's name (William served for decades as a senior official in Massachusetts state government).
Can victim families split the $822,000 in cash that police seized with Whitey Bulger? Don't hold your breath... Very little Bulger wealth has been officially recovered, though Whitey's net worth could be $200 million or more (it was estimated by Boston magazine as US$50,000,000) - see Howie Carr (2006) The Brothers Bulger: How they Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century (NY, NY: Grand Central Publishing); p. xii; also photo below
