Bulger Expected Back In Mass. Friday

Gangster James "Whitey" Bulger, nabbed in California this week after 16 years as a fugitive, is making a quick return to Boston.

A spokeswoman for federal prosecutors says Bulger is scheduled to be in federal court in Boston at 4 p.m. Friday. His longtime girlfriend Catherine Greig, who was captured with him in Santa Monica, Calif., will make her initial appearance in a different courtroom shortly afterward.

Bulger, the former leader of the Winter Hill Gang, faces charges in connection with 19 murders.

Bulger's fled Boston in early 1995, allegedly after a tip from former Boston FBI Agent John Connolly Jr., who was convicted in 2002 for protecting Bulger and his cohort Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi from prosecution. Both Bulger and Flemmi were FBI informants.

Former Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Donald Stern was in office when Bulger was indicted in 1995.

Stern said he's hopeful that Bulger's ability to elude law enforcement all these years will not compromise the case against him.

“You know there's an old adage that justice delayed is justice denied. My hope here is that this is an exception and this will be a case of justice delayed being justice,” Stern told WBUR.