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Victims' families call Bulger 'Satan,' 'terrorist'

 
David Wheeler, left, son of Roger Wheeler, speaks with reporters next to his attorney, Frank Libby Jr., after a sentencing hearing Wednesday for James “Whitey” Bulger in Boston.
David Wheeler, left, son of Roger Wheeler, speaks with reporters next to his attorney, Frank Libby Jr., after a sentencing hearing Wednesday for James “Whitey” Bulger in Boston.
Published Nov. 14, 2013

BOSTON — The families of people killed by South Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger and his gang finally got the chance Wednesday to tell Bulger how his long reign of terror damaged their lives, calling him a "terrorist," a "punk" and even "Satan."

A stone-faced Bulger refused to look at them, again declared his trial a sham and didn't take his opportunity to address the judge.

Bulger, his back to the families, stared straight ahead and scribbled on a legal pad as a dozen relatives stood one by one in a packed courtroom and poignantly described the loss of their loved ones and their contempt for Bulger.

The son of a man who was gunned down by Bulger in 1974 addressed Bulger as "Satan" and described how his father, a member of a rival gang, first disappeared in 1974 but wasn't found until decades later when his body was discovered in a watery grave.

Sean McGonagle was 11 when his father, Paul, disappeared. He said Bulger called his family's house the following year and said, "Your father won't be coming home for Christmas." When he asked, "Who's this?" Bulger responded, "Santa Claus," McGonagle said.

"You're a domestic terrorist fueled by greed and sickening evil," McGonagle said.

Several family members blasted corrupt FBI agents for protecting Bulger for years while he was working simultaneously as a crime boss and an FBI informant.

David Wheeler, the son of a Tulsa, Okla., businessman who was shot between the eyes by a hit man for Bulger's gang, delivered a blistering condemnation of both the FBI and the Justice Department.

"They are as responsible for that murder as the defendant here sitting before you," Wheeler said.

He called Bulger a "government-sponsored assassin" but said the "greatest shame of all" falls on the FBI.

Former Boston FBI agent John Connolly Jr. was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of tipping Bulger off ahead of an indictment. After receiving the tip in 1994, Bulger fled Boston and remained a fugitive for more than 16 years until he was captured in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2011. Connolly was later convicted of second-degree murder in Florida for leaking information to Bulger that led to the slaying of a gambling executive.

Judge Denise Casper asked Bulger, 84, if he wanted to speak, but he declined. She is slated to hand down Bulger's sentence today.

Prosecutors have recommended two consecutive life sentences, plus five years.