"Whitey" Bulger Pleads Not Guilty To Murder Charges

Jul 6, 2011, 17:30 by Sarah Long

Reputed mobster James "Whitey" Bulger has plead not guilty in a Boston Court Wednesday to all counts against him, including the 19 murder charges.

Bulger is named in a 32-count indictment handed up by a grand jury while he was on the run. He and his longtime girlfriend were tracked down in Santa Monica, Calif., in June.

Speaking softly, Bulger said "not guilty" over and over, the Boston Globe reported. His two brothers, one of them former state Senate President William Bulger, watched the arraignment.

Bulger is represented by an experienced defense lawyer, J.W. Carney Jr., who was appointed last week after U.S. Magistrate Marianne Bowler ruled Bulger is indigent. Bowler denied a request by Carney to add his partner to the defense team.

Carney said Bulger, 81, shows no signs of Alzheimer's disease, though neighbors at Bulger's Santa Monica, California, apartment told CNN two weeks ago that Bulger's girlfriend spoke of his exhibiting signs of the disease, CNN reports.

Dick Lehr, who wrote a book about Bulger, described him as a cold-blooded killer whose gang went to lengths to avoid detection.

"When they killed someone -- this is pre-DNA -- they pulled the teeth out, cut the fingers off, tried to make it so the victims, if they were discovered from their graves, couldn't be identified. There's just no bottom. It doesn't get much uglier than someone like Whitey Bulger," Lehr said, as reported by CNN.



Source: UPI