Bulger $822,000 Donation: Requests Assets to Be Donated to Victims Before Conviction
Whitey Bulger, accused of murdering at least two men, has offered to donate the $822,000 found in his apartment to the families of the men killed.
Bulger, revered by local folk lore as a "Robin Hood" styled bandit in the Boston, MA. area, said Friday that he would not take the stand in his defense. The decision however, was not his own he noted while addressing a judge. In a courtroom that had no jury, Bulger called the trial a "sham."
"I feel that I've been choked off from having an opportunity to give an adequate defense," he told Judge Denise Casper. "As far as I'm concerned, I didn't get a fair trial. This is a sham."
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Bulger, an alleged Irish mob boss, is accused of participating in 19 murders in the 1970s and `80s as leader of the Winter Hill Gang. A number of families filed lawsuits regarding the murder, some of which earned monetary gains. In the case of two families however, who filed after the statute of limitations had passed, the lawsuits were thrown out.
Bulger's lawyer informed the judge that he would donate the money confiscated from his Santa Monica, California apartment at the time of his arrest in 2011, to the families of those two men: Michael Donahue and Brian Halloran.
"My client is prepared to have all the money forfeited to the victims' family that prevailed at trial first, but had it reversed because of ... a highly technical (court) process," J.W. Carney said Friday.
Halloran was an alleged associate of Bulger. Bulger is accused of shooting Halloran and Donahue, an innocent bystander who offered Halloran a ride home, in May 1982.
If Bulger is convicted he would be required to give up his assets, regardless. Prosecutor Brian Kelly noted however, that it is not clear whether Bulger can dictate where those assets go.
