Latest news with #WhiteyBulger
The Guardian
25-05-2025
- The Guardian
Forensic evidence takes center stage in Karen Read murder retrial
During week five of the retrial of Karen Read, a Massachusetts woman accused of killing her police officer boyfriend, prosecutors continued to present forensic evidence to prove that she intentionally ran over the victim. Meanwhile, defense attorneys tried to illuminate potential flaws in their case, according to legal experts. The case, which has attracted true crime fans around the globe and was the subject of an HBO Max docuseries, previously ended in a mistrial in July 2024 after a jury could not reach a verdict. This time around, Hank Brennan, who represented notorious mobster James 'Whitey' Bulger in a murder trial, is leading the prosecution, but much of the evidence is the same as during the first trial, according to the experts. 'There is a steady drip of problems with the government's case,' said Rosanna Cavallaro, professor of law at Suffolk University. 'The defense doesn't have to have a clear counter-narrative. They just have to be able to poke holes and say that the government's case is not beyond a reasonable doubt.' To review the incident that precipitated the trials, on 29 January 2022, John O'Keefe, a Boston police officer, was found dead in the snow on a fellow officer's lawn. Read had dropped him off there after a night of drinking. Prosecutors allege Read, in a drunken rage, then purposely backed over him in her Lexus SUV. Read pleaded not guilty to charges including second-degree murder, manslaughter while under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of a deadly crash. The defense has claimed that Read was framed by officers who beat O'Keefe to death. During the retrial, both sides appear to be focused on the forensic evidence to make their case, per legal experts. 'There was no collision,' Alan Jackson, Read's defense attorney, said during his opening statement. 'The evidence will show that. The data will show that. The science will show that.' In his opening, Brennan also said the 'facts, science and data', including information from a navigation app and the temperature of O'Keefe's cellphone battery, would show that after an argument, Read put her car in reverse and ran over O'Keefe. This week, prosecutors called a digital forensics expert, Shanon Burgess, to testify about data from Read's car and O'Keefe's phone. The data seemingly indicated a synchronization between when Read moved the Lexus and when O'Keefe last used his phone, which prosecutors suggest indicates that Read struck O'Keefe while in reverse. During a cross-examination, defense attorney Robert Alessi tried to raise questions about Burgess's credibility. Alessi pointed out that Burgess claimed in multiple documents that he had a bachelor's degree in mathematics and business administration; he does not. 'Are you familiar with the phrase academic dishonesty?' Alessi asked Burgess. The prosecutors also called Dr Aizik Wolf, a neurosurgeon, who testified that the only way O'Keefe could have obtained his head injuries was a fall backwards and that the injuries did not indicate that he was attacked with a weapon. That came after medical examiner Dr Irini Scordi-Bello testified that she could not determine the cause of O'Keefe's death. The defense raised questions about whether injuries on the victim could have come from a source other than the vehicle. Scordi-Bello said some of the other injuries could have been caused by a punch. 'The defense theory is that there was some kind of confrontation or brawl inside the house, and maybe a fall backwards, and then, once they realized that he was dead,' they decided to 'put him out in the driveway and blame her', Cavallaro said. 'They are trying to put that together with bits and pieces.' Christina Hanley, a forensic scientist, also testified this week that pieces of plastic in the victim's clothing were consistent with plastic from Read's taillight. During cross-examination, Jackson, the defense attorney, asked Hanley whether the plastic could have come from another source besides the taillight. Hanley said it was possible. Still, Hanley's testimony was 'pretty effective' for the prosecution, according to Daniel Medwed, a professor of law at Northeastern University. 'In a case like this that has so many big-picture, hyperbolic advocates, opponents and thinkers, having pedestrian, very technical testimony' to 'ground it, I think is helpful', Medwed said. Prosecutors also appear to be more focused on forensic evidence than during the 2024 trial, which Shira Diner, lecturer and clinical instructor at Boston University School of Law, says is because the defense focused on that evidence the last time. 'The government is trying to counter what they anticipate the defense will be doing by putting on experts to talk about forensic issues,' Diner said. Notably, the trial has not focused entirely on science. Yuri Bukhenik, an investigator in the case, also testified about Michael Proctor, a Massachusetts state trooper and the lead investigator in the case, who was fired over text messages he sent about Read. During the first trial, Proctor read texts he sent to friends in which he described Read as 'babe' and 'a whack job cunt'. 'We're gonna lock this whack job up,' Proctor said in another text. When cross-examined during this trial about the former officer's handling of the case, Bukhenik said, 'the investigation was handled with integrity by Michael Proctor.' But during the last trial, 'missteps in the police investigation really overshadowed the case', Medwed said. 'This time around, the prosecution, oddly enough, seems to have the advantage of knowing that there were missteps in the investigation … so it's almost like they could plan accordingly to pre-empt some of the defense strategies'. After the court proceedings on Wednesday, the judge dismissed the jury until next week. The prosecution only has one remaining witness, Read told reporters, according to CBS News. Then the defense will present its case. 'I feel great,' Read said after the hearing. 'I'm ready to put on our case, which will be more robust than it was last year.'
Skift
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Skift
Make Alcatraz a Prison Again? The Impact on San Francisco's Iconic Tour
Trips to Alcatraz represent big business for San Francisco-based tour operators, so they're paying close attention to President Trump's plan. President Donald Trump has long vowed to bring America back to an earlier era. His latest retro idea: Make Alcatraz a prison again. 'REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ!' he wrote Sunday on Truth Social. Setting aside whether the plan is feasible, it would effect of one San Francisco's most popular tours. Alcatraz, which once housed the gangsters Al Capone and Whitey Bulger, closed in 1963 because the penitentiary was too expensive to operate. A decade later, Alcatraz opened to the public as a national park. Today, the site welcomes 1.2 million visitors a year and generates over $60 million in revenue for the National Park Service. 'I always like to say, Alcatraz was kind of the beginning of a museum movement, which we have worl
The Independent
07-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
One of Alcatraz's last living inmates speaks out on Trump's plan to reopen prison
Charlie Hopkins, one of the last living to have served time in Alcatraz San Francisco 's notorious island prison, has dismissed President Donald Trump 's order that the jail be reopened. 'I don't think he wants to reopen it, he's trying to draw attention to the crime rate,' Hopkins, now in his 90s, told ABC7 New York. 'When I was on Alcatraz, a rat couldn't survive.' Hopkins, a native of Jacksonville, Florida, who was hailed in his youth as a Golden Gloves boxer, was sentenced to 17 years behind bars in 1952 for his part in a robbery ring responsible for a string of carjackings. He served 11 years in jail – three of which were spent at Alcatraz, where he was known as Inmate #1186 – before reforming and finding work as a carpet fitter and then as a hospital security guard. Later in life, Hopkins became a pen pal of the infamous Boston gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger, another Alcatraz veteran, a story he shared in his memoir Hard Time (2019) and in the TV series Alcatraz: The Last Survivor (2020). Despite Hopkins' scepticism, the president appeared to be in deadly earnest when he posted on Truth Social over the weekend: 'REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ! 'For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering. 'When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. That's the way it's supposed to be.' He added that he would be directing the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, the FBI and Homeland Security 'to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America's most ruthless and violent Offenders.' The California maximum security penitentiary was opened in 1934 but closed again in 1963 after it was found to be three times more expensive to run than other jails and too costly to maintain, not least because of the extreme weather it was exposed to from the Pacific. The facility has since enjoyed a second act as a lucrative tourist attraction, with visitors drawn by its reputation acquired during its three decades of service, when it housed legendary criminals such as Al Capone, George 'Machine Gun' Kelly, 'Creepy' Alvin Karpis, and Robert Stroud, a psychopathic amateur ornithologist known as 'the Birdman of Alcatraz.' One of the first to reject Trump's suggestion was former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco resident, who wrote on X: 'The president's proposal is not a serious one.' On Tuesday, Florida Democrat Rep. Jared Moskowitz ridiculed Trump in the House by calling the plan 'just another distraction to divert attention away from the tariffs, rising prices, or the struggle on Main Street.' Moskowitz went on to suggest that the president had gotten the idea from watching reruns of old movies on late-night television. 'Perhaps he was watching Escape from Alcatraz,' he suggested, referring to Don Siegel's 1979 Clint Eastwood hit. 'The funny part about that is that it was actually on television in South Florida. It was on PBS South Florida over the weekend when Trump was at Mar-a-Lago. In fact, he made his announcement just hours after it aired.' The congressman's reference to the scheduling is correct. A number of tourists visiting the prison this week sounded out by ABC were equally withering, with one commenting: 'I think it's one of the stupidest ideas I've ever heard in my life. 'It would cost billions to refit this building. It's not even earthquake proof.' But U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, for one, has defended the idea, telling Larry Kudlow on Fox Business the venture would yield 'cost savings', without explaining how, and insisting it would serve as a powerful deterrent to would-be criminals.
Daily Mail
06-05-2025
- Daily Mail
I lived on Alcatraz…here's what Trump must do in order to re-open the notorious prison
The ghosts of Alcatraz Island, once home to the likes of Al Capone and Whitey Bulger, still shadow Jolene Babyak today. As a young girl she grew up on the infamous prison island - known as 'The Rock' - in San Francisco Bay where her father worked as a warden among the notorious inmates.
