BOSTON, July 22 (UPI) -- Stephen Flemmi, a key witness in the James "Whitey" Bulger trial in Boston, said Monday Bulger strangled a woman he feared had become a liability.
Flemmi, a convicted murderer who prosecutors say was Bulger's partner in crime, described the murder of Deborah Hussey, 26, in graphic detail in Bulger's murder, extortion and racketeering trial, The Boston Globe reported.
Flemmi said Hussey, the daughter of his longtime girlfriend, had developed a drug problem, had run-ins with the law and stole money from a bookmaker.
"She had become a problem," Flemmi testified before explaining how Bulger "grabbed her by the throat and began strangling her," in a South Boston home in 1985.
"It didn't take long. She was a very fragile woman," Flemmi said, noting he and Bulger buried her beneath the dirt floor of the basement.
Bulger, 83, is charged in a sweeping federal indictment with participating in 19 murders, extortion, money laundering and stockpiling of weapons. Prosecutors said he was protected for years by corrupt FBI agents. Bulger has said the allegations he most wants to see refuted are those claiming he was an informant, and that he killed Hussey and another woman, Debra Davis, the newspaper said.
