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Cold Case: Homicide Arrest Involved Whitey Bulger

BOSTON –

Suspect in a nearly four-decade murder in South Boston that authorities linked to notorious gang boss James “Whitey” Bulger and his iron fist over the neighborhood drug trade. Neighbor was detained without bail on Tuesday.

Michael Lewis, 61, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder while on trial at Suffolk Supreme Court in connection with Brian Watson’s death in a July 1984 shooting, whose body was found alongside the New Hampshire highway about two months after he went missing.

Lewis “firmly denies the charges and looks forward to his day in court,” said defense attorney James Sultan.

The murders took place as Bulger, who was killed in a federal prison in West Virginia in 2018, terrorized the neighborhood. And although neither the suspect nor the victim had a direct connection to Bulger, his influence played a role, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said after the settlement.

“We had a glimpse in the courtroom today of a very different Boston, a Boston that we could never allow that to happen again,” Hayden said. “After nearly 40 years, we are reminded of the mayhem and murder perpetrated by ruthless and ruthless men.”

New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella, who attended the dispatch on behalf of several law enforcement agencies in the state contributing to the investigation, said.

“I think it’s a stark reminder that while Hollywood and others tend to glorify that era, the crime actors of that era weren’t Robin Hoods, they weren’t,” he said. is a hero. “The human suffering and the payment for the crimes committed during that era are still felt today, and this case is an example of that.”

Watson, 23, was last seen alive on July 16 or 17, 1984, and was reported missing by his mother on July 28 of that year, authorities said. His body was found in the bushes and bushes by a motorist who pulled over on Interstate 93 in Manchester, New Hampshire, on September 16, 1984.

According to prosecutors’ account of events, then 24-year-old Lewis and another man involved in the drug trade were driving around the neighborhood in July 1984 looking for a drug dealer who they allegedly told Bulger that Lewis’ associates were selling angel dust. in South Boston.

As a result, Bulger requested a payment of $5,000 plus another $1,000 per week from the man, whose name was not released by the prosecutor. Bulger, who was also an informant for the FBI, is known for taking down drug dealers doing business in South Boston.

Prosecutors said the pair encountered Watson, who agreed to help them find another dealer and get into their car.

“While the three were driving around South Boston, Lewis turned around, shot and killed Watson,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement.

Bulger, the role model for ruthless crime boss Jack Nicholson in the 2006 Martin Scorsese film, “The Departed,” fled Boston in 1994 after an FBI investigator warned he was about to be prosecuted. Bulger spent 16 years on the run before being caught. He was convicted in 2013 for his part in 11 murders.

Federal authorities developed a “substantial loophole” in Watson’s case in 2009, but not enough to warrant an indictment, the district attorney said. But new information has been developed over the past year leading up to Lewis’ indictment on Friday.

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