Hitman John Martorano expected to face ‘Whitey' Bulger at reputed gangster's trial today

By Shelley Murphy, John R. Ellement and Milton J. Valencia, Globe Staff

One of the crucial prosecution witnesses in the trial of James “Whitey” Bulger is expected to take the stand in US District Court today as the trial of the reputed South Boston gangster enters its first full week of testimony.

Confessed hitman John Martorano spent just 12 years in prison even though he admitted to committing 20 murders, under a plea bargain that was arranged after he agreed to testify against Bulger and his cohorts, including former FBI agent John Connolly.

Boston Globe reporter Shelley Murphy was in a Miami courtroom in 2008 when Martorano testified against ex-FBI agent John Connolly, who was convicted for the murder of John Callahan, a Boston businessman whom Connolly had told that Bulger was about to be targeted by the FBI.

Martorano is expected to be called after a retired bookmaker, Richard O’Brien, now 84, completes his testimony.

On Friday, O’Brien described paying monthly “rent” to Bulger, who called a meeting at a bar in the mid-1970s after learning that one of his agents, George LaBate, had walked away from his job without paying thousands of dollars in gambling debts.

“It was a no-no in the business,” said O’Brien, and Bulger was not pleased that LaBate had gone to work for another bookmaker, presumably one who wasn’t under the South Boston gangster’s protection.

As they sat drinking coffee at the bar, Bulger politely pressed LaBate about whether O’Brien had treated him all right. When LaBate conceded that he had, Bulger asked, “What are you doing? You owe him a big amount of money. That isn’t right.”

LaBate promised to pay up, saying, “I’ll take care of it and go my own way.”

“Oh, you’re going to go your own way?” said Bulger, asking LaBate if he was aware that his gang had another business besides bookmaking.

“What’s that?” LaBate asked.

“Killing [expletives] like you,” Bulger said.

The anecdote made Bulger smile in court, the first display of emotion by the 83-year-old since testimony began Wednesday in his racketeering and murder trial where he is accused of participating in 19 murders.

Bulger has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is being held without bail.

Follow Globe coverage from the Bulger trial on boston.com’s live blog.

Shelley Murphy can be reached at shmurphy@globe.com. John R. Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @JREbosglobe. Milton J. Valencia can be reached at mvalencia@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @miltonvalencia.