"Whitey" Bulger transferred to federal prison in Florida

BOSTON - Former Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger has been transferred to a federal prison in central Florida.

The 85-year-old is serving two life sentences after an August 2013 racketeering conviction tying him to 11 murders and other gangland crimes in the 1970s and '80s.

Bulger had been incarcerated in Arizona. His attorney Hank Brennan said Thursday he hasn't been told why his client was moved.

Bulger still faces a Florida murder charge in the 1982 killing of gambling executive John Callahan. Brennan said he hopes the case goes to trial so Bulger will have a fair opportunity to testify.

"We had nothing to do with the movement of Whitey Bulger," Miami-Dade prosecutor Michael Von Zamft told the Boston Globe. Zamft said the state attorney's office is awaiting the outcome of Bulger's federal appeal before determining whether to bring him to trial on the state murder charge, which carries the death penalty.

The former crime boss didn't testify at his Boston trial. His lawyers say he believed it was a "sham" because he wasn't allowed to argue that a now-deceased federal prosecutor gave him immunity in exchange for protection.