Henchman tells 'Whitey' Bulger's lawyer: prison is no Club Med

By Richard Valdmanis

BOSTON (Reuters) - Confessed killer Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi told the lawyer defending mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger on Thursday that spending life in prison in return for testifying against his former partner in crime is no picnic, at least not a very good picnic.

Flemmi, who is serving a life sentence for 10 murders he confessed to a decade ago, disputed Bulger's attorneys' assertion that he was housed in "The Club Med of Prisons."

"If I gave that food to my dog, he'd bite me," Flemmi told the jury when asked by Bulger's defense team whether he got gourmet food in jail.

What about the July 4 barbecue put on by the prison? "You know something, the hotdogs were burnt, the hamburgers were burnt."

Flemmi's testimony on Thursday was a rare moment of comic relief in a macabre trial that has detailed a slew of brutal killings by members of the Winter Hill Gang, which ruled Boston's criminal underworld during the 1970s and 80s.

Defense attorneys have been trying to undercut the testimony of three close associates of Bulger, including Flemmi, the prosecution's star witness. Bulger, 83, has pleaded not guilty to all charges related to 19 murders that prosecutors say he ordered or committed in the 1970s and '80s.

Flemmi spent nearly a week on the stand, delivering vivid accounts of murders he said he saw Bulger commit. These included murders of Flemmi's girlfriend, Debra Davis and Flemmi's stepdaughter. He said Bulger strangled both women because he believed they knew too much about the gang's dealings.

Asked by defense attorney Henry Brennan whether he expected a reduced sentence for his testimony, Flemmi said: "I don't know what the future holds ... Everybody hopes that at some point in the future something beneficial will happen to them. I'm still alive and that's the hope."

The two other associates who have testified against Bulger received short sentences in exchange for their cooperation with prosecutors. Flemmi drew a life sentence, but he did avoid the death penalty.

Bulger, who headed the gang, faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted. Despite his not guilty plea, his attorney has admitted Bulger was a drug dealer, extortionist and loan shark, in other words an "organized criminal."

Bulger's story inspired the 2006 Academy Award-winning film "The Departed," in which Jack Nicholson played a character loosely based on Bulger.

Flemmi's past testimony has already won him agreements with the government to keep several of his bank accounts, a laundry business, and numerous condominiums - many acquired during his years in crime.

Flemmi said on Thursday that he purchased some of the properties before he turned to crime, using a GI loan he received after he returned from Korea and making loan payments with income from roofing.

For more than a decade, Bulger and Flemmi met regularly with corrupt FBI agent John Connolly, who shared Bulger's Irish ethnicity and a South Boston upbringing. Connolly turned a blind eye to the gangsters' crimes in exchange for information about the Italian Mafia, which was a top FBI target at the time.

Bulger denies being an informant, insisting that he paid Connolly for information but offered none of his own.

After fleeing Boston in 2004, Bulger spent 16 years in hiding, evading capture even while on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list. Agents arrested him in June 2011 in a seaside Santa Monica, California home where he lived, keeping a cache of guns and $800,000 cash.

(Reporting by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Scott Malone)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/henchman-tells-whitey-bulgers-lawyer-prison-no-club-164254769.html

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