Prosecutors Want To Know If Whitey Bulger Will Testify
BOSTON (CBS/AP) — An answer should be coming soon about whether reputed Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger will testify at his trial.
A racketeering indictment charges the 83-year-old Bulger with participating in 19 murders.
Prosecutors told the judge Wednesday that the government deserves to know if Bulger will testify and Bulger has had time to think about it.
The judge says she'll hear from lawyers about it after Wednesday's testimony ends.
Former FBI agent James Crawford is on the stand. He testified that the mother of alleged Bulger victim Debra Davis said after her daughter disappeared that she suspected boyfriend Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, not Bulger, may have killed her.
Flemmi is Bulger's former partner in crime. He testified that Bulger killed Davis, but the defense has pointed out inconsistencies in his story.
Family of Bulger's alleged victims are eager to see him on the stand.
"I'd love to hear his side," said Steve Davis, Debra's sister. "Will we ever? I don't know."
"I want to see him on the stand more than anything," said Tommy Donahue, the son of an alleged Bulger victim. "I don't think he has any choice. If he wants to save whatever name he has left, he has to take the stand. And more and more as it comes closer to the end, I think he is going to take the stand."
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