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Report: Bulger Backs Man's Quest For Exoneration

A Boston man who has spent more than 30 years in prison for a killing he says he did not commit has an unusual ally in his quest to exonerate himself — convicted mobster James "Whitey" Bulger.

Robert LaMonica was gunned down in Braintree in 1980. The now 62-year-old Fred Weichel was convicted the following year based largely on the eyewitness testimony of a teenager who briefly saw a gunman jump into a waiting car and identified Weichel as the shooter.

The Boston Globe reports that in a series of letters sent from jail last fall, Bulger wrote that the real killer was an unnamed friend of Weichel.

Bulger says he's familiar with the slaying because he played an indirect role in it.

Weichel's lawyer shared the information with the Globe.

This article was originally published on April 07, 2014.

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