Their photographs were displayed to a gallery

So said a federal prosecutor yesterday as he laid out the extraordinary case against James "Whitey" Bulger, 83, the former king of the Boston underworld who went on the run in 1994 and was once the most wanted man in America after Osama bin Laden. He was apprehended in 2011 in California after living a seemingly quiet life under an assumed name.

In response to charges that his client was involved in no fewer than 19 murders, Mr Bulger's lawyer appeared to agree that his client was a crook.

"James Bulger was involved in illegal gambling, he was involved in illegal loans, drug trafficking and extortion," the defence attorney, James Carney, told a jury.

He said his client had made "millions upon millions upon millions of dollars", but that large chunks of the income were paid to agents at the FBI to ensure that his nefarious activities were not interrupted by anything as inconvenient as a criminal indictment.

"From 1972 to 1995 James Bulger was never once charged with anything by a federal prosecutor," said Mr Carney.

Both sides offered insights into the dark period in the city's history when Mr Bulger rose to prominence as the leader of the Winter Hill Gang.

Brian Kelley, for the prosecution, said the gang had "run amok in the city of Boston for almost 30 years. At the centre of this murder and mayhem was one man, the defendant".

He recalled a man named Arthur "Bucky" Barrett, "by all accounts a likeable guy", a seller of stolen jewellery, who was lured to a house in south Boston and "chained to a chair" and told to call his wife and persuade her to leave the house, so that gang members could steal $40,000 Mr Barrett had stashed there. Mr Kelley said Mr Bulger then told his gang: "Bucky's going downstairs to lie down for a little while." He added: "As Barrett walked downstairs, this man here killed him."

He also alleged that Mr Bulger had strangled a gang member's stepdaughter and machine-gunned a local man who had boasted too openly of working with his gang.

Mr Kelley read out a list of all 19 alleged victims of Mr Bulger's gang: their photographs were displayed to a gallery that included relatives of the deceased.

Mr Bulger cut a frail figure, flanked by his two defence attorneys.

Mr Carney portrayed a key witness, John Martorano, who has admitted killing 20 people, as a "psychopath" who "would kill people as easily as we would order a cup of coffee". He suggested that Martorano, who served only 12 years in prison, had been willing "to say anything" to cut a deal with prosecutors.The trial continues.

It's been almost two weeks since eminent filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh passed away and there is now an attempt to preserve his non-cinematic legacy as well.

Rituparno was known for his flamboyance and fine and eclectic taste in art. His residences (a sprawling ancestral home and two other apartments elsewhere) are a treasure trove of books and paintings, jewellery and trinkets, lampshades, watches and sunglasses, crockery, shawls and scarves-valued at a few crores to say the least.

At a memorial service held in Kolkata late on Tuesday, there were discussions about conserving the artefacts the late director had handpicked over the years and Aparna Sen, Rituparno's senior colleague and mentor, appealed to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to turn his ancestral home into an archive, "to make these accessible to the public, including students researching his works." Banerjee, who was present at the event, promptly accepted the proposal.
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