Final arguments were due Monday in the trial of alleged Boston mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger, after weeks of grisly testimony about murders and other crimes attributed to him.
The jury is to begin deliberations Tuesday on the fate of 83-year-old Bulger, charged with 19 murders as well as extortion, money laundering and arms trafficking.
Bulger was arrested in California in 2011 after spending 16 years on the run.
He declined to testify on Friday, calling the trial a sham. Bulger has asserted that federal agents granted him immunity from prosecution during his years operating as boss of the Boston underworld.
Bulger denies having been an informant for the FBI but close links between his Winter Hill Gang and some FBI agents in the 1970s and 80s are well documented.
Prosecutors were giving their final arguments first on Monday, followed by the defense in the afternoon.
Friday was the 35th day of a trial in which the jurors heard evidence from 72 witnesses. Some recounted harrowing tales of murder victims having their teeth removed and a mobster’s girlfriend being strangled to death because she “knew too much.”
Bulger’s case was the inspiration for Jack Nicholson’s character in the Oscar-winning Martin Scorsese film “The Departed,” which came out in 2006.
Closing arguments in Boston mob boss trial
