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Boston Ex-bookie Testifies He Paid Tribute Money To Whitey Bulger
A former Boston bookmaker testified on Friday that accused mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger forced him and many others to pay thousands of dollars a year as “rent” in order to stay safe.
“You had to comply,” said James Katz, a 73-year old former bookmaker who took bets on sporting events like National Football League games.
Katz said on the witness stand that the choice of withholding payments from the gang “was up to you but if they caught you you’d get into trouble, you could wind up in the hospital.”
Katz spoke on the third day of the trial where Bulger, reputed former leader of Boston’s Winter Hill Gang, faces a 32-count indictment on charges of racketeering and either committing or ordering 19 murders in the 1970s and 1980s.
Katz, said he was expected to pay Bulger and his associates $1,000 a month during football season and $500 a month for the rest of the year. He said he paid the “rent” every month for decades from the early 1970s until 1992.
Katz said he saw Bulger, nicknamed “Whitey” for the shock of blond hair he had as a child, and his associate, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi hanging around a Boston garage where he made his monthly payments.
“I would never want to run into Stephen Flemmi,” Katz said in a raspy voice which the judge asked him to make louder. Earlier, he described being forced once to meet Flemmi in a car in a parking lot to try an explain a disagreement. “He said next time he’d see me I would be in a lot more trouble than I was in now.”
Katz told the jurors that he was well aware of the Winter Hill Gang’s reputation for violence during its heyday. “At that time it was murder and a lot of beatings,” Katz said.
As police tried to crack down on the violent gangs in Boston in the 1980s, they cultivated bookmakers like Katz as informants to provide their best leads on Bulger.
Bulger, 83, fled Boston in 1994 after being tipped off that he would soon be indicted. In his 16 years on the run he was on the FBI’s Most Wanted List of criminals. He was captured in 2011 in California.
Bulger’s lawyer J.W. Carney worked to discredit Katz’ testimony, suggesting the former bookie finally cooperated with the government to escape the boredom and loneliness of prison where he was serving a sentence for racketeering and fraud.
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SOURCE: Reuters
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