BOSTON MOBSTER'S LAWYERS WANT CRIME REPORTERS TO TESTIFY
BOSTON, June 6 (Reuters) - Lawyers for James “Whitey” Bulger, the accused gangster whose story inspired the award-winning film “The Departed,” are fighting to have a half-dozen veteran Boston journalists listed as potential witnesses at his murder trial, effectively barring them from covering it.
Two of the journalists are a top crime reporter and a columnist for The Boston Globe who wrote a book about the now-83-year-old Bulger who is accused of committing or ordering 19 murders while running Boston's "Winter Hill" crime gang in the 1970s and '80s and was on the run for 16 years. Bulger had featured prominently on the FBI's “Ten Most Wanted” list of fugitives before his June 2011 arrest in Santa Monica, California.
His story inspired Martin Scorsese's 2006 Academy Award-winning film “The Departed” in which Jack Nicholson played a character loosely based on Bulger.
Bulger's notoriety is expected to attract crowds of spectators to court who will want to hear details of his life of crime, which includes a three year stint on the island prison of Alcatraz off the coast of San Francisco from 1959 to 1962. Bulger has plea-
Bulger who is accused of committing or ordering 19 murders while running Boston's "Winter Hill" crime gang in the 1970s and '80s and was on the run for 16 years
ded not guilty to all charges. He faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted. Bulger's attorneys argued in court papers that they may need to call the journalists as witnesses if their prior reporting contradicts the testimony of government witnesses including Kevin Weeks, a former criminal associate of Bulger; Stephen Rakes, the victim of an extortion attempt, and Thomas Foley, a former Massachusetts State Police official.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Grant McCool)