Whitey Bulger/fbi

John Martorano, a star witness in the prosecutor’s murder and racketeering case against mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger, described chilling details of killing people, sometimes the wrong ones, The Boston Globe reports.

Martorano, a friend-turned-foe of Bulger’s, implicated the mob boss in six slayings in the 1970s on Wednesday and is expected to reveal more today.

“I went in and shot him . . . in the heart,” said Martorano, recounting how he wore a white meat cutter’s coat and yellow construction hat to ambush one victim in 1973.

It was the first time Martorano, 72, testified against Bulger, 83, who sat nearby in U.S. District Court in Boston.

Bulger is charged with participating in 19 murder in the 1970s and ’80s.

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An aging mobster and star government witness testified Tuesday that his heart was broken after learning that mob boss and friend James “Whitey” Bulger was an FBI informant, CNN reports.

“It broke my heart. It broke all loyalties,” said John Martorano, an alleged hit man who described the people he said he murdered. 

Bulger is accused of killing 19 people during nearly two decades.

Martorano, who lives on Social Security after serving 12 years in prison, testified that he pulled the trigger while Bulger was along to ensure a successful “hit.”

Steve Neavling

The defense attorney for a man accused of plotting to bomb a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Oregon said his client was coerced by over-enthusiastic undercover FBI agents who were bent on getting a terrorism arrest, the AP reports.

The trial continued Thursday in the case of Mohamed Mohamud, who thought he was detonating what turned out to be a phony bomb devised by the FBI. 

The prosecution’s narrative of the case was hammered by the defense who had pointed to recorded conversations between the FBI and Mohamud.

“We are fortunate in this case that the government forgot to turn off its microphones,” federal public defender Steve Wax said, the AP reported.

The case continues today.

Mohamed Mohamud

The Somali-born man charged with pulling the trigger on what he thought was a bomb at a Christmas tree event in  Portland, Ore., first attracted attention from authorities by discussing martyrdom in email exchanges with Islamist extremists, according to opening testimony Monday in the trial, Reuters reports.

Supervisor of the FBI sting, Miltiadis Trousas, testified that agents intercepted communication between Mohamed Osman Mohamud and Islamist militants.

But under cross-examination from a defense that wants to show that Mohamud was entrapped, Trousas acknowledge there’s no evidence that the defendant sought bomb material until after he met undercover FBI agents, Reuters reported.

Mohamud faces up to life in prison on a charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction to blow up a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Portland in November 2010 when he was 19.

Mohamud is a naturalized U.S. citizens and former Oregon State University student, Reuters wrote.

The second day of testimony begins today.

Ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick/official photo

DETROIT — The other day ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick tweeted: “If this case was in another State, not paid for by taxpayers, & my life was not on the line, this ish would be laughable.”

Well, yes, perhaps almost laughable for Kwame.

Depressing for the rest of us.

For the past two weeks, the government has delivered some damaging testimony in his public corruption trial. Ultimately it will be up to the jury to decide if Kwame walks or sulks behind bars for many years. If convicted, count on him going off to prison for at least 12 years. I don’t sense this judge has a lot sympathy for the defense.

As an observer, the longer I watch the trial, the more I can’t help but see Kwame as man who reigned supremely over this impoverished kingdom, whose concerns about living a lavish lifestyle overrode his concerns of his subjects.

I’m not laughing.

To read full column click here.

Steve Neavling

Depending on whom you ask, Mahamud Said Omar is either a well-connected member of an Islamist terror group or he’s mental ill and incapable of being an integral part of a terrorism recruiting network, the Star Tribune reports.

Today the 46-year-old Somali man who immigrated to Minnesota in 1993 is expected to stand trail for assisting terrorists in Somolia.

Omar is accused of being an entrenched member of Al-Shabab, an Islamist insurgency group with suspected ties with Al-Qaida.

Omar will be the third Minnesota man to stand trial on aiding terrorists in Somalia.

Allan Lengel

Some federal cases are too complicated for jurors. Some may be borderline illegal. And some may end up being a waste of taxpayer money.

The trial against ex-presidential hopeful John Edwards was probably all of the above.  A jury on Thursday acquitted him on one count and deadlocked on five others in a scandal that involved using nearly $1 million  – in what should have been declared as campaign funds — to help hide an extra-marital affair during the 2008 campaign.

It had a lot of gossip appeal, which made for good press, but in the end it seemed to lack the appropriate outrage quotient necessary to get all the jurors to jump into the guilty pool.

Who’s the loser.

The list is long.

For one, Edwards paid some serious bucks for a top-flight legal team.

Additionally, his reputation, which was already pretty poor, got tarnished even more. If you had any doubts that he was a sleaze, the trial helped put those to rest.

And he had to bear responsibility watching his family suffer through the trial.

The Justice Department once again looks bad. Granted, federal prosecutors shouldn’t fear losing. They should just worry about standing on solid ground. Some how, this one didn’t ever feel right to me.

The feds should have gone after some hefty civil fines. Edwards has lots of money. He would have gladly paid to make it go away. Maybe the money could have been put to good use.

And then there’s the former U.S. Attorney George Holding, who stuck around in his post to make sure that Edwards was indicted. He’s running for Congress and is expected to win.

But there’s talk of him jumping into the Senate race in North Carolina in 2014. A conviction of Edwards could only have bolstered his political capital. Now, sorry George, no added points for you.

So at this point, the question is: Should the feds go for a retrial?

I say absolutely not. In a case like this, one bite of the apple is enough. It’s not like the Rod Blagojevich case, which was certainly worth going after a second time after Blago was convicted on only 1 of 24 counts. The feds nailed him the second time.

This one is not worth going after again. Was Edwards a sneak? Yes. Is he a sleaze? Yes.

As the Washington Post noted:

“The mixed result in a trial that laid bare Edwards’s sexual indiscretions and serial deceptions came after nine days of jury deliberations.”

There are bigger crimes out there. And he’s paid  for his digressions. Let’s move on, and let’s forget we knew a Presidential candidate named John Edwards.

He is not worthy.

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