( CNN ) -- Jury selection began Tuesday in the trial of reputed Boston mob boss and longtime fugitive James `` Whitey '' Bulger on murder and racketeering charges . Bulger was arrested in California in 2011 after 16 years on the run . Now 83 , he 's charged in the killings of 19 people during his days as the leader of south Boston 's Winter Hill gang . Federal prosecutors say Bulger led the Irish mob from the late 1970s through the mid-1990s . But after Bulger fled impending racketeering charges , investigators found he had been an FBI informant whose handler tipped him off about the charges -- a tale that became the inspiration for the Oscar-winning 2006 drama `` The Departed . '' Judge removed from Whitey Bulger trial . His lawyers tried to get the case against him tossed out , arguing that Bulger had been given immunity by the FBI . A federal judge denied that request in March , finding Bulger had no immunity for crimes committed after he cut a deal with the feds . Bulger 's onetime FBI handler is serving a 50-year sentence for second-degree murder and racketeering . Bulger 's brother William -- a former state Senate leader -- was forced to step down as president of the University of Massachusetts after then-Gov . Mitt Romney accused him of being evasive during congressional testimony about the whereabouts of his brother . Whitey Bulger 's longtime girlfriend , Catherine Greig , went on the run with him and was arrested with him in Santa Monica . She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to harbor a fugitive and two counts of identity theft , in 2012 . Landmark U.S. manhunts . CNN 's Ross Levitt contributed to this report .
`` Whitey '' Bulger faces racketeering charges and 19 murder counts . He was arrested in 2011 after 16 years on the run . The reputed Boston mob boss had been an FBI informant for years .