A former self-proclaimed henchman of James “Whitey” Bulger blew kisses and smiled at his family in US District Court on Monday, as formal racketeering and consipiracy charges were read against him. Edward J. MacKenzie Jr. was arraigned on charges that he helped to defraud the Swedenborgian Church on the Hill from 2002 to 2012. Prosecutors allege that MacKenzie and his coconspirators developed a pattern of building trust among the members of the church and using their positions of authority to take control of the church and loot it by a combination of fraud, deceit, extortion, theft, and bribery. At his scheduled detention hearing Monday, Mackenzie requested a public defender. The hearing was continued until June 26.
BOSTON