Former associate of Boston crime boss Bulger to return to stand

By Scott Malone

BOSTON (Reuters) - An admitted murderer and former top associate of reputed Boston mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger is due to return to the witness stand on Tuesday to detail Bulger's crimes.

Kevin Weeks, 57, is the second top-ranking member of the once-feared "Winter Hill" gang to take the stand in Bulger's trial on charges he committed or ordered 19 murders in the 1970s and 1980s.

Weeks, who spent just five years in prison after confessing to five murders but agreeing to testify against Bulger, on Monday recounted his role in some of the murders Bulger is accused of committing.

He described Bulger, one of Boston's most notorious gangsters, as an intimidating figure who once aimed a machine gun at a muscle-bound man in a successful extortion bid.

"Those muscles aren't going to do you any good now," Weeks recalled Bulger saying. The threat worked and the gang extorted some $480,000 from the man, Weeks said.

The 83-year-old Bulger, who spent years on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list of fugitives, has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges, though on the first day of the trial his attorneys said Bulger did commit extortion, loansharking and drug dealing.

His attorneys have argued Bulger was never an informant for the FBI in the defense's effort to undermine the 700-page file the bureau amassed on Bulger over more than a decade as he regularly met with John Connolly, a FBI special agent .

Bulger's lawyers have argued that Connolly, who is serving a 40-year prison sentence for racketeering and murder, fabricated much of the contents of the file to provide cover for his frequent meetings with Bulger. The lawyers said Bulger paid Connolly for information but gave none of his own.

Providing information to the FBI was considered a major breach of the underworld code. The revelation that Bulger had cooperated with investigators came out after he fled Boston on a tip from Connolly, and led many of his associates to turn against him.

Bulger spent more than 16 years in hiding before authorities arrested him in Santa Monica, California, in June 2011.

Weeks is the second of three close associates of Bulger who are key prosecution witnesses in the trial, which is now in its fifth week. John "The Executioner" Martorano took the stand last month and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi is also due to testify.

Bulger's life story inspired Martin Scorsese's 2006 Academy Award-winning film "The Departed," with Jack Nicholson playing a character loosely based on Bulger.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Lovering; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-associate-boston-crime-boss-bulger-return-stand-121823215.html

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