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WHITEY BULGER: AMERICA'S MOST WANTED GANGSTER AND THE MANHUNT THAT BROUGHT HIM TO JUSTICE

November 1, 2013
Kevin Cullen & Shelley Murphy

By Kevin Cullen & Shelley Murphy

Reviewed by Dennis Bianchi

The authors of this true crime story, Mr. Cullen and Ms. Murphy, have been journalists for the Boston Globe for more than twenty years.  In addition to their  many other assignments, they have been investigating and reporting about James "Whitey" Bulger for most of those years.  One would think that journalists with that type of tenacity would be over-zealous in informing the American public that a depraved criminal like Mr. Bulger and his closest murderous associate, Steven Flemmi,  were in custody and facing charges that would, at best, keep them incarcerated for the rest of their lives.  Such is not the case, however, with this book.  The book is a straight-forward telling of what happened, who did it, why these things happened and the gruesome and ugly way they occurred.  Their story is not just a recitation of murder and brutal actions, but also a depiction of how easily government workers, whether officers of the law or elected members of political positions, can delude themselves into committing and abetting crimes. 

The South section of Boston was a neighborhood filled with blue-collar working Irish immigrants and their offspring.  That neighborhood, according to the authors, was also a prime breeding ground for young James Bulger to become not only a criminal but a manipulator of people and situations.  Mr. Bulger's rise from small thefts to bank robberies led him to being incarcerated at Alcatraz Federal Prison, among other prisons for nine years.  After his schooling at these institutions  in the brutal arts of criminality, he returned to Southie, as it is described even today, where he began putting together his power base of organized crime.  It is also where his family and childhood friends came into play in keeping him in power.  They later made it difficult to capture him when he was forced to run and hide from capture.

James Bulger never liked being called Whitey until the nickname gained him national fame.  He never liked much of anything except that which gave him power and/or money.  And as this book lays out in clear prose, he would stop at nothing to gather as much power and money as he could amass.  There is nothing to like about Whitey Bulger.  However,  after his capture he wanted to go to trial, not to clear his name of being a murderous sociopath but to make himself seen as a noble gangster, one who wouldn't hurt women and gave back to his community.  What gall.  He was accused in the death of 19 people but tried to remove himself from only two of those, the deaths of two young women.  Even then, he was unable to avoid the fact of his presence at the scene when those two murders occurred.  

The authors give the reader a quick but thorough historical background of the criminal gangs of Boston, of the wars that took place between the gangs and how James Bulger and Steve Flemmi, by use of manipulating the FBI, rose and remained in power in that environment.

William Bulger, James' younger brother, deserved much worse treatment than he has incurred at this point of the investigation and incarceration of James.  Known as Billy, William Bulger never engaged in the brutal killing fields of his brother.  He studied diligently  in school and learned to glad-hand his way to success in the fields of education and politics.  But his first loyalty was always to his brother James.  Billy Bulger intervened on James' behalf on numerous occasions in order to have his sentence shortened or  charges altogether dropped.  He refused to cooperate with official investigations of his brother's crimes.  With the help of his brother and an FBI agent named John Connolly, James "Whitey" Bulger was able to avoid arrest and eliminate criminal competitors. 

John Connolly grew up in the same Southie neighborhood as the Bulgers, albeit a few years later.  He remembered idolizing James Bulger's flashy life-style and bravado.  When Connolly became the FBI agent assigned to this same neighborhood it seemed natural to both men that they could be of use to one another.  There is credible evidence that the system worked out quite well for Bulger for some time.  The FBI felt it more important to have Bulger and Flemmi on their side in its war against the Mafia.  The authors write, " Whitey was able to cement his power precisely because the FBI considered the Mafia the only worthwhile organized crime target for law enforcement.  Agents got commendations and promotions for developing informants against the Mafia, not for taking down murderous, small-time Irish thugs."  Both gangsters were informants, but Mr. Connolly preferred to refer to them as strategists.    Mr. Connolly is currently incarcerated in a Federal prison and will likely never be released.   

There has been much recent coverage in the newspapers of Mr. Bulger since his arrest and trial.  The book was published before the trial finished, so readers may have some ideas of their own about this sordid criminal enterprise, involving gangsters, police and politicians, but there is still much to be learned from reading the book cover to cover.  Side stories such as Bulger's involvement with the civil rights riots in Boston over school busing,  and the contempt that Irish Republic Army members held for Bulger, in spite of his maintaining his belief in their cause, all add to a very readable and informative book.