‘Whitey’ Bulger’s involvement hinted in unsolved slaying
Weeks testifies in wrongful death suit
No one has ever been charged with the 1980 slaying of South Boston bar owner and bookmaker Louis Litif.
But yesterday, a former top deputy of James “Whitey’’ Bulger testified in federal court that the notorious gangster and longtime FBI informant hinted he had been involved.
Kevin J. Weeks recalled that shortly before his April 1980 wedding, he told Bulger that he had invited Litif, but didn’t know where to seat him because Litif was a loud, outgoing guy and might offend some of his “short-tempered’’ organized-crime guests.
Weeks said Bulger told him, “Don’t worry, he probably won’t show.’’
Litif, 45, was shot to death and stuffed in the trunk of his car on April 12, 1980. Later, Weeks said, Bulger joked about Litif’s absence at the wedding and dropped more hints that he had killed him.
The testimony was given on the second day of trial in US District Court on wrongful death suits brought against the government by Litif’s family and the families of two other victims, 26-year-old Debra Davis, killed in September 1981, and Deborah Hussey, also 26, who was killed in early 1985.
The families assert that the FBI is responsible for the slayings because agency officials knew Bulger and his sidekick, Stephen “The Rifleman’’ Flemmi, were vicious killers. The agency had a duty to control them, but protected them from prosecution because they were FBI informants, the families say.
Justice Department lawyers contend that the FBI was not obligated to control the gangsters and did not know they planned to kill the victims.
The families are seeking unspecified damages in the nonjury trial before Judge William G. Young.
Litif’s widow and two children allege that Bulger killed Litif because Bulger’s handler, corrupt FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr., warned him that Litif was an FBI informant and was poised to cooperate against him.
Weeks testified yesterday that Bulger was angry that Litif had been charged with one murder and was suspected in another and warned him weeks before his slaying that they were no longer friends. About a month after the slaying, according to Weeks, Bulger told him that Litif’s last words were a lie because, “He said he came alone, but somebody was with him.’’
The comments bolstered a report by Edward “Brian’’ Halloran, who told the FBI in 1982 that he dropped Litif off at a South Boston bar and was waiting outside when he saw Bulger and an associate dump Litif’s body in the trunk of Litif’s car. The FBI deemed Halloran unreliable and refused to cut a deal with him. Bulger is accused of killing Halloran months later.
During cross-examination yesterday, Weeks acknowledged that he didn’t really know who killed Litif and that Bulger also told him that two East Boston men killed him.
Flemmi is serving a life sentence for killing 10 people, including Davis, his girlfriend of nine years, and Hussey, the daughter of his common law wife, Marion Hussey. He has told investigators that Bulger strangled the women, then he helped dispose of their bodies. Their remains were discovered in 2000.
Davis’s late mother, Olga, reported her daughter missing to Randolph police shortly after she disappeared. In October 1981, the report was entered into an FBI-operated computer database that shares criminal information with authorities nationwide.
State Police Detective Lieutenant Stephen P. Johnson testified yesterday that someone canceled Davis’s missing person report from the national computer system in March 1982 and falsely reported that she was in Houston.
The Davises allege the FBI purposely removed the report after Flemmi fabricated a story that Davis had gone to Texas.
Flemmi is expected to testify during the trial. Bulger, who is wanted for 19 killings, has been a fugitive since 1995. 