The courtroom drama surrounding James “Whitey” Bulger’s trial reached a pivotal moment when John Martorano, a self-confessed hitman, took the stand. Martorano, who admitted to an astonishing 20 killings during his career in organized crime, became the prosecution’s star witness, offering a chilling glimpse into the violent world of the Boston underworld. His testimony, a consequence of a deal struck with law enforcement in 1999, placed him in a controversial position: a mass murderer seeking reduced jail time in exchange for incriminating his former associates, including the notorious Bulger and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi. Bulger’s defense team, however, painted Martorano as an unreliable narrator, alleging his continued criminal activities even after his release from prison, suggesting manipulation by his police handlers.
From Football Field to Combat Zone: The Making of a Mob Enforcer
John Martorano’s life took a sharp turn away from a promising athletic future towards the dark alleys of organized crime. Reportedly, he declined seven football scholarships after graduating from Milton High School in 1959, a decision that rerouted him to a life mirroring his father Luigi’s involvement in the Patriarca family and the Winter Hill Gang. Born in 1940, Martorano’s trajectory in the 1960s led him straight into Boston’s infamous Combat Zone. This adult entertainment district, a hotbed of prostitution, drug trafficking, illegal gambling, and human trafficking, all fueled by violence, became his training ground.
Howie Carr, a Boston Herald columnist and defense witness in the Bulger trial, who co-authored Hitman: The Untold Story of Johnny Martorano, offered insight into Martorano’s early allure to this dangerous lifestyle. “I think he just fell under the sway of the Combat Zone,” Carr explained in an interview. “His father had this place Luigi’s. He owned it with Sarkis, the famous gambler in Boston and Johnnie just liked hanging around there. It was the bright lights of the Combat Zone that attracted him.” Beyond his father, Stephen Flemmi, then a rising figure in the Winter Hill Gang, also played a significant role in shaping Martorano’s path in organized crime.
“The Cook,” “The Executioner,” “The Basin Street Butcher”: A Hitman’s Grim Resume
Martorano’s initiation into murder came at the age of 24 with the killing of a Patriarca associate suspected of turning informant. This first act of violence marked the beginning of his notorious career as a hitman, earning him grim nicknames like “The Cook,” “The Executioner,” and “The Basin Street Butcher.” Despite his brutal reputation, Martorano attempted to distance himself from the “hitman” label in a 60 Minutes interview, years after his prison release.
MARTARANO: The hitman. That sounds like to me somebody getting a paid contract. You couldn’t pay me to kill anybody.
KROFT: But a lot of people would say you’re a serial killer.
MARTARANO: I might be a vigilante but not a serial killer. Serial killers you have to stop them. They’ll never stop. And they enjoy it. I never enjoyed it.
Regardless of his self-perception, Martorano was widely feared and respected within criminal circles. Testimony from the 2008 trial of FBI agent John Connolly, Bulger and Flemmi’s protector, highlighted Martorano’s status as the go-to killer when a job needed to be done effectively. His willingness to travel across state lines to commit murder further cemented this reputation. In May 1981, he journeyed to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to assassinate Roger Wheeler, the owner of World Jai Alai, who had uncovered a skimming operation linked to Whitey Bulger within his company.
The Normandy Street Murders and a Chilling Nickname
While some of John Martorano’s victims were fellow mobsters caught in gangland conflicts, others were tragically collateral damage, victims of circumstance. The 1968 Normandy Street murders in Roxbury/Dorchester starkly illustrate this point. Amidst Boston’s escalating racial tensions, a bar fight involving Stephen Flemmi and an African American man in the South End ignited a chain of events that led to unspeakable violence. Flemmi, having lost the fight, tasked Martorano with retaliation. Martorano tracked Herbert Smith to Dorchester and opened fire with a .38 caliber snub-nose revolver, killing Smith and also fatally wounding his passengers: 17-year-old Douglas Barrett and 19-year-old Elizabeth Dickson. The senselessness of these deaths, particularly the killing of innocent bystanders, led Martorano’s gangster associates to bestow upon him a chillingly racist nickname: Sickle Cell Anemia, a disease predominantly affecting African Americans.
Turning State’s Evidence: Martorano’s Deal and Legacy
In 1978, John Martorano initially fled Massachusetts to evade race-fixing charges, resurfacing in Florida while maintaining his mob ties. The Boston Globe’s 1988 exposé revealing Bulger as an FBI informant marked a turning point. Eleven years later, after his arrest in Florida, Martorano made a pivotal decision. He struck a deal with authorities in Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and Florida, agreeing to testify against his former boss, Whitey Bulger. This agreement led to a significantly reduced prison sentence – just over 12 years – for his extensive list of crimes.
Since his release, Martorano has publicly expressed remorse for the murder of Elizabeth Dickson, the young woman killed in the Normandy Street incident. However, the central question in the Bulger trial remained: could a jury trust the testimony of a man who confessed to 20 murders to convict a man accused of similar, albeit slightly fewer, crimes? Martorano’s testimony, strategically presented early in the trial, which was expected to extend beyond Labor Day, suggested a calculated move by the prosecution to distance themselves from their morally compromised star witness as the legal proceedings progressed towards a verdict in this high-stakes drama.
