Bulger Tapes Played at Trial

If you wanted to know what James "Whitey" Bulger, 83, sounds like now, Tuesday's court proceedings provided the answer.

The prosecution in Bulger's trial played audio recordings from September, October and December of 2012, made during conversations Bulger had with relatives from Plymouth County House of Corrections, where he's been held since his capture in 2011.

You can listen to the conversations at BostonHerald.com.

And you can read transcripts of them at WBUR.com.

In one of the recordings, Bulger talks to his niece and nephew—the children of William Bulger, former president of UMass and the Massachusetts Senate.

The gangster tells them about an old Dorchester Bar, "Bulldogs," owned by Eddie Connors, one of the 19 people Bulger is accused of murdering.

At one point in the recorded conversation, Bulger makes a reference to Connors' death in a phone booth, mimicking the sound of the machine gun that killed him: "pa-pa-pa-pa-pow."

Bulger didn't incriminate himself in the recording, saying, "Somebody threw my name in the mix" in regard to the murder.

According to WBUR the jury heard this recording moments after Connors' daughter testified, painting the scene of when, at the age of 7, she saw her dad for the last time.

By the way, if you want to visit the bar, it's now called Savin Bar + Kitchen, according to the tavern's website.

On another recording, the jury heard Bulger talk about three "black guys" in a Rhode Island car who were about to rob one of Bulger's liquor stores. Bulger, who was upstairs in a sliding window overlooking the showroom, aimed a shotgun at the men and "put one in the chamber" while Stephen Flemmi had a .45, "waiting' for them to make a move."

When the would-be robbers saw the shotgun, they asked for "a bag of peanuts, please," Bulger said, laughing.

In the last recorded conversation, Bulger talked with his brother, John, about payments made to John Martorano, an admitted killer who testified earlier in the trial.

Also in court Tuesday, jurors heard from Joseph Tower and Billy Shea, who said they dealt drugs under Bulger's protection

According to WBUR, Shea testified that at one point he was paying Bulger $10,000 a week. He and Bulger even shared a laugh in the courtroom, WBUR reported, when Shea said he was making $100,000 a week, adding, "Jim's looking at me probably thinking: that SOB was making THAT much?"

Also according to WBUR, Tower told the jury about an incident in which his brother, who had been sent to pick up a payment in Lynn, was taken hostage.

Bulger made a phone call or two, and the issue got resolved, Tower said.