Things got very heated in the Whitey Bulger trial as Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, Bulger's right-hand man for years, accused Bulger of being a pedophile as well as a murderer on Tuesday, according to the Boston Globe.
While undergoing fierce cross-examination from Hank Brennan, Bulger's lawyer, Flemmi became irate after repeatedly being asked about his relationship with his stepdaughter Deborah Hussey. Flemmi has testified that Hussey was strangled by Bulger. Flemmi has admitted to having a sexual relationship with Hussey when she was older, according to WGBH.
"This little girl who would call you Daddy is the same little girl just a decade later that you'd start abusing sexually, wasn't it, Mr. Flemmi?" Brennan asked.
"I didn't inflict any abuse on her," Flemmi said. "That was consensual."
Later during the examination Flemmi snapped.
"You want to talk about pedophilia, right over there at that table," Flemmi said while pointing at Bulger. "He had a young girl, 16 years old. He took her to Mexico."
Hussey was spending a lot of time in what was known as the "combat zone," a hotbed of prostitution, and was having problems with drug addiction. She would cause trouble at a bar that was frequented by Bulger and that is what made the mob boss decide that she had to be killed according to Flemmi's testimony, reports the Boston Globe.
"I took her shopping. She wasn't aware she was going to be killed," Flemmi said. "He [Bulger] could have prevented it. All he had to do was say, 'Pass.' I would have been so happy."
According to Flemmi Bulger came up from behind Hussey and strangled her, killing her quickly. Flemmi rebutted the testimony given earlier in the trial by Kevin Weeks that Flemmi had wrapped a rope and stick around Hussey's neck because he thought she was still alive, according to the Boston Globe.
Brennan will do his best to discredit the testimony of Flemmi, the key witness for the state's case. Michael Coyne, associate dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, spoke with the Christian Science Monitor about this issue.
"Each of the witnesses the government brings forward has their own baggage," Coyne said. "You have rapists, loan sharks and drug dealers who poisoned their own community for years. These are really bad people. But when the jury looks back at the totality of the testimony, they're going to find a consistent thread - it was Whitey in charge of the criminal enterprise."
