The notorious Boston mobster James J. ‘Whitey’ Bulger was convicted by a federal jury in Boston. The jury found Bulger guilty of 31 of 32 counts after over 32 hours of deliberations over five days. It ends Bulger’s 16 years evading justice.

“So many people’s lives were so terribly harmed by the criminal acts of Bulger and his crew. … Today’s conviction does not alter that harm, and it doesn’t lessen it,” US Attorney Carmen Ortiz commented after the verdict, reports Boston.com. “However, we hope they find some degree of comfort in the fact … that Bulger is being held accountable for his horrific crimes.”

Bulger, 83, was seen giving a thumbs up to family as he was taken out of the courtroom. Victims’ families also attended, with one woman yelling “Rat-a-tat-tat, Whitey!” at him in reference to comments he made about killing her father during a jailhouse discussion.

According to The Boston Herald, bulger’s attorney, J.W. Carney Jr., said that Bulger had “regrets regarding several of the killings.” He added that Bulger “was aware that family members of those victims were attending the trial. This was not the forum for him to make these feelings known. It doesn’t mean that there won’t be an appropriate way to do it sometime in the future.”

Carney said that Bulger hoped to show that he wasn’t a government informant and that the police force was corrupt. In addition, he wanted to show “that he was actually not involved in many of the murders independently done” by hit man John Martorano and Kevin Weeks and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, other members of the mob. It’s obvious that the jury thought long and hard about these issues. And for that reason alone, Jim Bulger has no regret about going 
to trial.”

Scott Hotyckey, one of the jurors, told CBS News affiliate WBZ that the deliberations were “stressful.”

“If you could believe the testimony, and believe what you heard, I don't see how you couldn't find the person guilty,” Hotyckey said.

He did say that some found the testimony, especially that from Martorano, unbelievable. “There was one juror that constantly said that his testimony was not believable. (He said) over and over again that you couldn't believe anything (Martorano) said because of the government,” Hotyckey said.

The jury could only find that Bulger was responsible for 11 of the 19 murders he was linked to, which did disappoint family members of the victims. The racketeering charge was at the center of the case, stating that he took part in an enterprise from the '70s to the '90s and committed 33 criminal acts.

Sentencing is set for Nov. 13.

image: Wikimedia Commons