BOSTON – As closing arguments begin Monday morning in the murder and racketeering trial of James “Whitey” Bulger, the notorious Boston mobster ranks among those not expecting an acquittal.

“I feel that I’ve been choked off from having an opportunity to give an adequate defense,” Bulger said in court Friday, dismissing his trial as “a sham.”

He claims a former Justice Department strike force chief promised him immunity from prosecution in exchange for protection against deadly threats, but Judge Denise Casper wouldn’t allow that argument. On Friday, Bulger declined to testify.

Now, as the trial nears its climax, success for the Bulger defense could mean something less than a “not guilty” verdict on all 32 counts.

Bulger’s lawyers have acknowledged that he was involved in extorting victims, laundering money and committing “crimes of violence” during his decades in the notorious Winter Hill gang. What’s more, the defense hasn’t disputed most of the charges or testimony alleging that Bulger participated in 19 murders during the 1970s and ’80s.

Most important to Bulger’s side are two narrow contentions that could have more bearing on his legacy than anything else. Bulger was never an FBI informant, his attorneys insist, and he did not kill two women, Deborah Hussey and Debra Davis, who are named in his indictment.

On those select matters, a former prosecutor says, the defense did well last week, calling witnesses who pinned the women’s murders on Bulger’s partner, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi. After six weeks of hearing prosecution witnesses, jurors heard just one week of targeted testimony from defense witnesses.

“There was no chance ever (for the defense) to win,” said Matt Connolly, a retired prosecutor who pursued Bulger for 20 years. Bulger’s lawyers’ goal “was to cast doubt onto whether he killed the women and cast doubt on whether he was an informant. They did an excellent job.”

In the trial’s eighth week, 12 jurors are expected to begin deliberating Tuesday. They’ll consider whether Bulger is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of involvement in 19 murders, extortion, money laundering and firearms violations.

Prosecutors are seeking more than enough convictions to send Bulger, 83, to prison for the rest of his days. Indicted back in 1994, Bulger was a most-wanted fugitive for more than 16 years before FBI agents arrested him in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2011.

The three prosecutors left no stone unturned, it seemed, in bringing 63 witnesses — confessed killers, drug smugglers, bookies, gangsters and others — to testify.

“The prosecution is looking for a sweep — a conviction on all counts,” Connolly said. “Anything less will be a disappointment.”

Perhaps the best scenario for the defense would be for at least one juror to hold out on the premise that key witnesses in the trial can’t be trusted and therefore leave reasonable doubt on some or all of the charges. Connolly says a hung jury or mistrial are more likely than an outright acquittal, but he expects jurors to convict.

“Guns and bodies and gangsters — that’s all the jurors are going to see” when they deliberate, Connolly says. “They don’t have to believe any of these witnesses, but how are they going to not talk about the six bodies that were dug up and the other bodies that are missing?”