John Martorano is one of three former Bulger loyalists who agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and testify against Bulger at his racketeering trial. Bulger is accused of playing a role in 19 killings during the 1970s and ’80s.

On Wednesday, Martorano’s third day on the witness stand, he endured a stinging cross-examination by Bulger attorney Hank Brennan, who repeatedly challenged his truthfulness and his motives in testifying against Bulger.

Martorano insisted that he told prosecutors the truth about the role of Bulger and his partner, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, in various killings, but Brennan suggested that Martorano was a chronic liar who fabricated or exaggerated Bulger’s involvement so he could get a reduced sentence for his own crimes.

Martorano served 12 years in prison after he cut a deal with prosecutors and agreed to testify against Bulger.

Brennan brought up the 1982 killing of John Callahan, a Boston businessman who Martorano described as a close friend.

“You even lied to your best friend Jon Callahan before you murdered him,” Brennan said.

“Correct,” Martorano replied.

“To me that was a necessity,” the ex-hit man said. “I couldn’t tell him I wanted to shoot him.”

Brennan also pointed out inconsistencies between what Martorano told investigators in the late 1990s and what he told jurors in Bulger’s trial this week.

Martorano acknowledged that he originally told investigators that Flemmi was sitting next to him in a car and fired shots at James “Spike” O’Toole as he stood behind a mailbox on Dec. 1, 1973. O’Toole was killed because he had shot and wounded Flemmi’s brother.

Flemmi was a fugitive hiding in Montreal at the time of the shooting.

“It was somebody else in the back seat, not Flemmi,” he said. “I was in error and corrected it.”

Jurors were shown photos of the mailbox riddled with bullets, as well as images from seven other killings, showing shot-up cars with shattered glass and blood visible on the seats.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Wyshak tried to rehabilitate Martorano in the eyes of jurors. Wyshak went through 11 murders and asked him if he and Bulger were involved in each. “Correct,” Martorano replied each time.

Bulger, now 83, was one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives when he fled Boston in 1994 after being tipped to an upcoming indictment by former FBI Agent John Connolly. He was finally captured in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2011.

Prosecutors say Bulger was a longtime FBI informant who was protected by Connolly and other agents in the Boston office. Bulger’s lawyers deny that he was an informant and say he paid FBI agents to warn him about investigations of him and his gang’s illegal activities, including bookmaking, extortion and loan-sharking.

Relatives of some of the victims are expected to testify Thursday.

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Judge Debra Nelson read the second-degree murder charge before the potential jurors who are moving on to the second round of questioning of what they know about the case.

“The object is to obtain a jury who will impartially try this case based on the evidence presented in the courtroom,” Nelson told the jurors.

The 17-year-old’s death prompted public outrage around the nation, with some accusing Sanford police of failing to investigate the shooting thoroughly from the beginning because of Martin’s race and because he was from the Miami area.

Prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda then started asking individual jurors about how long they have lived in Florida; whether they supervised workers; their hobbies; if they had previously served on juries; if they’re married; and what their spouses did for a living. He also warned jurors that they would have to forget about anything they knew about the case previously and base their information only on what they heard in the courtroom.

“What you heard and saw anywhere outside the courtroom can’t factor into your decision,” he said. “What you saw on TV or on the Internet or read or what the media said is completely irrelevant.

Twenty-seven of the 40 potential jurors are white, seven are black, three are mixed race and three are Hispanic. Twenty-four are women and 16 are men.

The potential jurors shared personal details about their lives during Wednesday’s questioning. Several were involved with rescuing animals, and the pool included a competitive arm-wrestler and a man who enters barbecue competitions.

The racial and ethnic makeup of potential jurors is relevant, prosecutors say. They have have argued that Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer for his gated community in Sanford, Fla., profiled Trayvon Martin when he followed the black teen last year as Martin was walking back from a convenience store to the house of his father’s fiancee.

Zimmerman, who identifies himself as Hispanic, fatally shot Martin a short time later following a confrontation that was partially captured on a 911 call.

Zimmerman, 29, is charged with second-degree murder. He is pleading not guilty, claiming self-defense.

The 40 potential jurors represent a cross-section of people from all walks of life and ethnic backgrounds who have varying levels of familiarity with the case’s basic facts.

Through an initial round of interviews that included questions focused on pretrial exposure to the case via the news media or other means, lawyers were able to find a group of potential jurors who said they could focus on testimony provided in the courtroom.

Nelson said attorneys for both the prosecution and the state would be allowed to ask much broader questions in the second round than they did in the first.

Nelson said last week that once pared down, the final jury would be sequestered throughout the trial to protect it from outside influence.

A white man in his 50s who described previously serving on a jury said he enjoyed the experience.

“Everybody hear that?” de la Rionda asked the jurors with a smile.

“It was one day. We weren’t sequestered,” the juror shot back.

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John Martorano made the statements in his second day on the witness stand during an aggressive cross-examination by a lawyer for Bulger, who is charged in a racketeering indictment with participating in 19 killings in the 1970s and ’80s as leader of the Winter Hill Gang.

Bulger’s lawyer, Hank Brennan, went after Martorano, sarcastically asking him about an assertion that he did not consider himself a hit man.

Brennan asked Martorano whether mass murderer or serial killer were more appropriate descriptions for him.

“You’re different from a serial killer how?” Brennan asked.

“A serial murderer kills for fun. They like it,” Martorano said. “I don’t like it. I never did like it.”

Martorano served 12 years in prison after he cut a deal with prosecutors and agreed to testify against Bulger. He is one of three former Bulger loyalists who are expected to be the prosecution’s star witnesses against Bulger.

Bulger fled Boston in 1994 and was one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives for more than 16 years until he was captured in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2011.

In testimony Monday, Martorano said he decided to become a government witness after learning that Bulger and Flemmi had been working as FBI informants.

Bulgers’ lawyers deny that he ever provided information to the FBI. In opening statements to the jury last week, attorney J.W. Carney Jr. said Bulger paid FBI agents to tip him and his gang about investigations so they could avoid prosecution.

Martorano said he killed people when they hurt or threatened his family, or if they threatened to tell authorities about the gang’s illegal activities. He said he always tried to help people he was close to, either by giving them money or in other ways.

“I always tried to be a nice guy,” he said.

But Bulger’s lawyer grilled Martorano about several instances where he killed the wrong person or innocent people who were with the intended target.

Brennan asked Martorano whether he regretted killing a 19-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy who were in a car with Herbert Smith, a man who had beaten up Flemmi, when he jumped into the car and shot all three.

Martorano said he saw three silhouettes as he approached the car. Since he expected Smith to be alone, he thought Smith may have planned to ambush him when he got in the car, so he killed all three people, he said.

“I did feel bad. I still feel bad. It’s the worst thing I did, but I can’t change it,” he said of the 1968 killings.

Bulger glanced briefly at Martorano as he took the witness stand for a second day. Before he testified Monday, the two men had not seen each other since 1982, Martorano said.

Brennan questioned Martorano extensively about the killing of John Callahan, a Boston businessman whom Martorano described as a close friend. Martorano said he reluctantly agreed to kill Callahan at the insistence of Flemmi and Bulger, who said Callahan would likely finger the gang in the 1981 killing of Tulsa, Okla., businessman Roger Wheeler.

Martorano testified earlier that he waited in the parking lot of a Tulsa country club until he saw Wheeler get in his car, then shot him between the eyes.

“I agreed to go along with (killing Callahan) because they were my partners and I couldn’t vouch for him not getting everybody in trouble,” Martorano said. He said he offered to pick Callahan up at a Florida airport, where he killed him.

“Did you look him in the eye?” Brennan asked Martorano.

“I did,” Martorano replied.

He said he told Callahan to sit in the front seat, then he got in the back seat and shot Callahan once in the back of the head.

The defense is set to continue cross-examining Martorano on Wednesday.

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Prosecutors and defense attorneys whittled down the pool from hundreds of prospects on the seventh day of jury selection. The attorneys had been questioning jurors about their exposure to media coverage of Zimmerman’s fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin in February 2012. Starting Wednesday, they will be able to ask those invited to the next round more detailed questions about how they feel about the case.

Attorneys ultimately need six jurors and four alternates for the trial. In Florida, 12 jurors are required only for criminal trials involving capital cases, when the death penalty is being considered.

Of the 40 potential jurors, 27 are white, seven are black, three are mixed race and three are Hispanic. Twenty-four are women and 16 are men.

The racial and ethnic makeup of potential jurors is relevant because prosecutors have claimed Zimmerman profiled the 17-year-old Martin when he followed him through the gated community where both the neighborhood watch volunteer and the fiancee of Martin’s father lived. The unarmed teen was fatally shot a short time later.

The case prompted public outrage, as some critics believed authorities initially didn’t investigate the case thoroughly because Martin was a black teen from the Miami area.

The potential jurors include an older white man who works as an unemployed contractor and said he felt compassion for both Martin and Zimmerman; a middle-aged black man who owns vending machines and didn’t like the racial overtones assigned to the shooting by civil rights leaders; a mixed-race woman in her 20s who is more than five months pregnant; and a white man in his 30s who said Zimmerman sounded like “a concerned neighbor.”

Zimmerman, 29, is charged with second-degree murder. He is pleading not guilty, claiming self-defense.

Four prospective jurors questioned Tuesday morning expressed no strong opinions about the case. They included a mixed-race man in his 50s, a mixed-race woman in her 20s, a white woman in her 20s and a black man in his 50s.

When asked what his impressions were about the case, the mixed-race man in his 50s said, “You had a family grieving for the loss of their son. You have another family grieving for the potential loss of their loved one to this process. You had supporters on both sides, and some people were very angry.”

KYLE HIGHTOWER and MIKE SCHNEIDER

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John Martorano gave short answers and spoke nonchalantly when questioned by a prosecutor about a string of murders he committed while he, Bulger and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi were members of the Winter Hill Gang.

The only flash of sentiment came early in his testimony, when he was asked to describe his relationship with Bulger and Flemmi.

“They were my partners in crime, they were my best friends, they were my children’s godfathers,” Martorano said. He said he named his youngest son James Stephen after Bulger and Flemmi.

Martorano said he was stunned to learn years later that Bulger and Flemmi had been providing information to the FBI at the same time they were committing crimes for the gang.

“After I heard that they were informants, it sort of broke my heart,” he said.

Martorano, 72, served 12 years in prison after striking a cooperation deal with prosecutors. He was released in 2007.

Bulger, now 83, is charged in a broad racketeering indictment that accuses him of participating in 19 murders in the 1970s and ’80s. He is also charged with extorting bookmakers, drug dealers and others running illegal businesses.

Martorano, 72, is one of three former Bulger cohorts who cooperated with the government and agreed to testify against Bulger and others in return for reduced sentences.

Bulger’s attorneys did not get the chance to question Martorano on Monday, but are expected to aggressively attack his credibility once they get to cross-examine him. In opening statements last week, Bulger’s lead attorney, J.W. Carney Jr., told the jury that prosecutors were so desperate to get Martorano to testify that “they basically threw their hands up in the air and said, ‘Take anything you want.’”

In his testimony Monday, Martorano described what he said was Bulger’s involvement in several killings, saying that while he shot someone from a car, Bulger and others would ride in a second car to intervene if anyone tried to stop the shooting.

He described the death of one victim, Alfred Notarangeli, in 1974.

Martorano said Bulger’s gang decided to kill Notarangeli to help the Italian Mafia in Boston, a sometime rival, whose leadership said Notarangeli had killed one of their agents and was a “loose cannon.”

On March 8, 1973, Martorano said, he drove in the lead car while Bulger followed, both tailing a Mercedes they believed was driven by Notarangeli.

“We pulled guns and we were shooting at it,” Martorano said, referring to himself and another member of the gang.

They later learned that it was not Notarangeli in the car, but instead a man named Michael Milano, who was shot to death. Martarano said they continued to chase Notarangeli and ended up killing him and his brother, Joseph Notarangeli.

Bulger is charged in the killings of both brothers, as well as Milano’s killing.

Martarano also described how he said Bulger first became involved with former FBI Agent John Connolly Jr.

He said Connolly met with Bulger’s brother, former Massachusetts Senate President William Bulger, in the mid-1970s to express his gratitude for being a mentor to him and to offer him help if he ever needed it.

Martorano said Whitey Bulger told him that his brother had told Connolly, “If you could keep my brother out of trouble, that would be helpful.”

Martorano said that after that, Connolly helped the gang by tipping them off to investigations and said Connolly suggested to Bulger that he give Connolly money.

“Down the road, he said he takes good care of him,” Martorano said. He recalled Bulger giving Connolly money as well as a 2-carat diamond.

Connolly was convicted of racketeering for tipping off Bulger to an indictment, causing him to leave Boston in 1994. He was one of the nation’s most wanted fugitives until he was finally caught in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2011.

Martorano was scheduled to resume his testimony Tuesday.

Source: AP

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