Whitey Bulger

Whitey Bulger
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive
Charges	Racketeering influenced and corrupt organizations (RICO): Murder (19 counts) Conspiracy to commit murder Conspiracy to commit extortion Narcotics distribution Conspiracy to commit money laundering Extortion.
Alias	Thomas F. Baxter, Tom Harris, Tom Bulger, Mark Shapeton, Thomas Marshall, Jimmy Bulger, Whitey Bulger
Description
Occupation	Mobster
Parents	James Joseph Bulger, Sr., Jane Veronica Bulger
Siblings	William Bulger, John P. Bulger
Spouse	Teresa Stanley (common-law wife), Catherine Elizabeth Greig (mistress)
Status
Added	August 19, 1999
Number	458
Currently a Top Ten Fugitive

James Joseph Bulger, Jr. (born September 3, 1929) — known as "Whitey" Bulger — is a wanted fugitive and alleged leader of the Winter Hill Gang, an Irish-American crime family based in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the older brother of William Michael Bulger, a former President of the Massachusetts State Senate and the University of Massachusetts.

On August 19, 1999, Bulger became the 458th person added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. He is currently wanted for racketeering (under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)), murder, conspiracy to commit murder, extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion, money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering and narcotics distribution. In October 2007, Interpol released a "red notice" for Bulger.

Early life

Bulger was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, to Roman Catholic Irish American parents. His father, James Joseph Bulger, Sr., worked as a longshoreman. The elder Bulger has been described as an honest, hardworking man who was well respected by all who knew him. His mother, the former Miss Jane Veronica McCarthy, was a full-time homemaker.

James Bulger was one of six children. When he was a small child, his parents moved the family to South Boston, Massachusetts. They moved into a new public-housing project called Old Harbor, also known as Mary Ellen McCormack projects. James Bulger attended St. Mark's, a parochial school in Dorchester, for first grade, before transferring to St. Margaret's School in South Boston. According to radio shock jock Howie Carr, Bulger experienced child abuse and sexual abuse while attending St. Margaret's. This is not referred to in any other source, however. The memoirs of his brother, former Massachusetts State Senator William Bulger, describe "Jimmy" as a mischievous child fond of pranks.

James Bulger was first arrested in 1943, at the age of 14, for larceny. He then went on to be arrested for assault and battery and armed robbery. At this time, he was associated with a juvenile street gang known as the Shamrocks. Between 1943 and 1947, Bulger was arrested for larceny, forgery, assault and battery, and armed robbery. For all these crimes, he was sent to a juvenile reformatory from 1943 until 1948.

Shortly after release in April 1948, he joined the Air Force. After completing basic training, he was stationed at the Smoky Hill Air Force Base in Salina, Kansas, and later in Idaho. He spent time in the stockade for a number of assaults. In 1950, he was arrested for going absent without leave. On August 16, 1952, he received an honorable discharge and returned to Massachusetts.

Criminal career

Early career

On returning to Boston, Bulger soon resumed his criminal activities. In 1952, he was involved in the hijacking of a liquor truck. By 1955, he had joined a crew that robbed a string of banks in Rhode Island and Indiana. In January 1956, a federal warrant was issued for his arrest. Bulger then went on the run, was arrested in March 1956 and sentenced to 25 years in prison in June of that year.

Prison

Bulger was first in federal custody at Atlanta Penitentiary (1956–59) for armed robbery and hijacking. There, according to Kevin Weeks, he was involved in the MK-ULTRA program, the goal of which was to research mind-control drugs for the Central Intelligence Agency, headed by CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb. For eighteen months, Bulger and eighteen other inmates who had volunteered to lessen their sentences were given LSD and other drugs. As a result of the experiments, Bulger is said to have suffered from frequent insomnia and nightmares.

He was then transferred from Atlanta to Alcatraz Island, arriving at Alcatraz on November 2, 1959, as prisoner #AZ1428. He became a close friend of fellow inmate Clarence Carnes, alias "The Choctaw Kid." In November 1962, he was transferred to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary (1962–63), and in the following year to Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary (1963–65). He was released after serving nine years in prison.

The Killeen Gang

After his release, Bulger worked as a janitor prior to becoming an enforcer for Donald Killeen, the boss of the dominant crime family in South Boston. In 1971, Donald Killeen's younger brother bit off the nose of Michael Dwyer, a member of the rival Mullen Gang. A gangland war soon resulted, leading to a string of slayings throughout Boston and the surrounding suburbs. The Killeens quickly found themselves outgunned and outmaneuvered by the younger Mullens.

The end of the war has usually been related as follows. Bulger, realizing that he was on the losing side, secretly approached Howie Winter, the leader of the Winter Hill Gang. He allegedly told Winter that he could end the fighting in South Boston by murdering the leaders of the Killeen gang. Shortly thereafter, Donald Killeen was gunned down outside his home in suburban Framingham, Massachusetts.

Former Mullen Gang boss Patrick Nee, however, disputes this claim. According to Nee, the slaying of Donald Killeen on May 13, 1972, was carried out not by Bulger but by Mullen Gang enforcers James Mantville and Tommy King.

Also according to Nee, Bulger and his fellow Killeens fled the city in the aftermath of their boss's murder, fearing that they would be next. Instead of murdering Bulger, however, Patrick Nee arranged for the dispute to be mediated by Howie Winter and Patriarca crime family captain Joseph Russo. After a sit-down at Chandler's restaurant in the South End, Boston, the two gangs joined forces, with Winter as overall boss.

According to Nee,

Nobody talked fault, although at first it was tense while we ran down the 'who killed who' list. Whitey was a defeated warrior looking to keep as much honor as possible. He knew the Mullens had courageous, fierce men willing to die for theirs, and he was perceptive. Deep down, Whitey knew that he couldn't take over for the Killeens without cutting the Mullens in on their bookmaking and loansharking. Tommy [King] and I felt victorious, but we didn't want to gloat. The meeting lasted for six hours. We ate good steaks, chasing them down with nothing stronger than ginger ale. It was business, and contrary to media stereotype, we weren't a bunch of lowlifes who sat around drinking beer all day and all night.

Also according to Nee,

The balance of the meeting was spent forming an alliance, and by far the hardest part was deciding whom to protect. After a war, each side usually gets to protect so many people from harm. Those who aren't protected are fair game for retribution and 'shake-downs.' Everything was split down the middle. All the horses, dogs, bookmaking, and loansharking were now going to be under our mutual control. This was the beginning of our relationship. Whitey and I were now officially partners and nobody at that table could ever have possibly imagined how this treacherous f--- would treat his partners.

The Winter Hill Gang

Further information: Winter Hill Gang

According to radio talk show host Howie Carr, Bulger rapidly became Howie Winter's man in South Boston by helping the Winter Hill Gang shake down the bookmakers in the North End, Boston. To do this, they had to remove the Notarangeli crew, headed by "Indian Joe" Notarangeli. Bulger allegedly played an important role in the Winter Hill Gang's victory and subsequent domination of organized crime in the Irish-American neighborhoods of Boston. It has been alleged that he was involved in the shooting of two members of the Notarangeli crew that killed Al Plummer and wounded Hugh Shields. Because of this, he became an influential member of the Winter Hill Gang. This cannot be confirmed by any other source, however.

By 1973, Bulger and Nee were in control of the rackets in South Boston. FBI Special Agent Condon noted in his log in September 1973, that Bulger had been heavily shaking down the bookmakers in the area.

After the end of the gangland war, Bulger began to use his influence to remove opposition by persuading Howie Winter to sanction the killings of those whom he viewed as having "stepped out of line." These included Mullen Gang veterans Spike O'Toole, Paulie McGonagle, and Tommy King. It is also alleged that he had direct involvement in the murder of Eddie Connors and Buddy Leonard in November 1975. After 1975, he began to also use his FBI deal to send his rivals to prison.

In 1979, Howie Winter was arrested, along with many members of his inner circle, on charges of fixing horse races. Bulger and Stephen Flemmi, who were left out of the indictments, stepped into the vacuum and took over the leadership of the gang. They transferred its headquarters to the Lancaster Street Garage in Boston near the Boston Garden in the city's North End. As of early 2008, this historic garage is up for sale.

Consolidating power

While Howie Winter and most of his organization's leadership were sentenced for fixing horse races in 1979, the FBI persuaded federal prosecutors to drop all charges against Bulger and Flemmi. Bulger and Flemmi then took over the remnants of the Winter Hill Gang and used their status as informants to eliminate competition.

The information they supplied to the FBI in subsequent years was responsible for the imprisonment of several Bulger associates whom Bulger viewed as threats; however, the main victim of their relationship with the federal government was the Italian-American Patriarca crime family, which was based in the North End, Boston and in Federal Hill, Providence. After the 1986 RICO indictment of underboss Gennaro Angiulo and his associates, the Patriarca family's Boston operations were in shambles. Bulger and Flemmi stepped into the ensuing vacuum to take control of organized crime in the Boston area.

By 1988, Bulger headed an organization that ran all of the rackets (e.g., extortion, loansharking, bookmaking, truck hijackings and arms trafficking) throughout New England. They were also the main cocaine and marijuana distributor in the state, receiving their drugs from a Cuban-American gang based in South Florida.

Both State and Federal agencies were repeatedly stymied in their attempts to build cases against Bulger and his inner circle. This was caused by several factors. Among them was Bulger's paranoid fear of wiretaps, South Boston's code of silence, and also corruption within the Boston Police Department, the Massachusetts State Police, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Although disgraced FBI agent John Connolly remained Bulger's most infamous friend in law enforcement, Kevin Weeks has insisted that Lieutenant Richard J. Schneiderhan was valued far more highly. According to Weeks, this was because Schneiderhan was the Winter Hill Gang's only source inside of the Massachusetts State Police.

Drug trafficking

Federal Bureau of Investigation surveillance photograph of Bulger (right) with lieutenant Stephen Flemmi (left) circa 1980s.

Bulger, Weeks, and Flemmi became heavily involved in narcotics trafficking in the early 1980s. Bulger began to summon drug dealers from in and around Boston to his headquarters. Flanked by Kevin Weeks and Flemmi, he would inform each dealer that he had been offered a substantial sum to assassinate them. He would then demand a large cash payment not to do so.

Eventually, however, the massive profits of drugs proved irresistible. According to Kevin Weeks,

Jimmy, Stevie and I weren't in the import business and weren't bringing in the marijuana or the cocaine. We were in the shakedown business. We didn't bring drugs in; we took money off the people who did. We never dealt with the street dealers, but rather with a dozen large-scale drug distributors all over the State who were bringing in the coke and marijuana and paying hundreds of thousands to Jimmy. The dealers on the street corner sold eight-balls, ...grams, and half grams to customers for their personal use. They were supplied by the mid level drug dealer who was selling them multiple ounces. In other words, the big importers gave it to the major distributors, who sold it to the middlemen, who then sold it to the street dealers. In order to get to Jimmy, Stevie, and me, someone would have had to go through those four layers of insulation.

In South Boston, most of the neighborhood's drug trade was managed by a handpicked crew of prize fighters led by John Shea. Edward MacKenzie Jr., a former member of Shea's crew, has stated that this was done because Shea viewed athletes as less likely to abuse the drugs they were selling.

According to Weeks, Bulger enforced strict rules over the dealers who were paying him protection.

The only people we ever put out of business were heroin dealers. Jimmy didn't allow heroin in South Boston. It was a dirty drug that users stuck in their arms, making problems with needles, and later on, AIDS. While people can do cocaine socially and still function, once they do heroin, they're zombies.

Weeks also claims that Bulger strictly forbade PCP and selling to children. and that those dealers who refused to play by Bulger's rules were violently driven out of the neighborhood. However, this assertion was definitively debunked when FBI wiretaps, as well as those of the Massachusetts State Police, the DEA, and the US Attorney's office, were made publicly available; this was detailed Howie Carr's 2006 book The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century. In 1990, "Red" Shea and his associates were arrested as part of a joint investigation involving the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Boston Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police. According to Weeks,

Of course, Jimmy lost money once the drug dealers were removed from the streets in the summer raid, but he always had other business going on. Knowing I had to build something on the side, I had concentrated on my shylocking and gambling businesses. The drug business had been good while it lasted. But our major involvement in it was over."

It would not be until the 1999 cooperation of Kevin Weeks that Bulger, by then a fugitive, was conclusively linked to the drug trade by investigators.

Downfall

In April 1994, a joint task force of the DEA, the Massachusetts State Police, and the Boston Police Department launched a probe of Bulger's gambling operations. The FBI, by this time considered compromised, was not informed. After a number of Jewish-American bookmakers agreed to testify to having paid protection money to Bulger, a Federal case was built against him under the RICO Act.

Fugitive

Retouched photo done in 2004.

The following December, Bulger was informed by mobbed-up FBI Agent John Connolly that sealed indictments had come from the Department of Justice and that the FBI were due to make arrests during the Christmas season. In response, Bulger fled Boston on December 23, 1994 accompanied by his common law wife, Theresa Stanley.

According to Kevin Weeks,

In 1993 and 1994, before the pinches came down, Jimmy and Stevie were traveling on the French and Italian Riviera. The two of them traveled all over Europe, sometimes separating for a while. Sometimes they took girls, sometimes just the two of them went. They would rent cars and travel all through Europe. It was more preparation than anything, getting ready for another life. They didn't ask me to go, not that I would have wanted to. Jimmy had prepared for the run for years. He'd established a whole other person, Thomas Baxter, with a complete ID and credit cards in that name. He'd even joined associations in Baxter's name, building an entire portfolio for the guy. He'd always said you had to be ready to take off on short notice. And he was.

He had also set up safe deposit boxes, containing cash, jewelry, and passports, in locations across North America and Europe including Florida, Oklahoma, Montreal, Dublin, London, Birmingham (UK) and Venice.

Bulger and Stanley initially spent four days over Christmas in Selden, New York before spending New Year's Day in a hotel in New Orleans' French Quarter. On January 5, 1995, Bulger prepared to return to Boston, believing that it had been a false alarm. That night, however, Stephen Flemmi was arrested outside a Boston restaurant by the DEA. Michael Flemmi, a Boston police officer and Stephen Flemmi's brother, informed Kevin Weeks of the arrest. Weeks immediately passed the information on to Bulger, who altered his plans.

Bulger and Stanley then spent the next three weeks traveling between New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco before Stanley decided that she wanted to return to her children. They then traveled to Clearwater, Florida, where Bulger retrieved his Tom Baxter identification from a safety deposit box. Bulger then drove to Boston and dropped off Theresa Stanley in a parking lot. He then met Kevin Weeks, who had brought with him one of Bulger's favorite mistresses, Catherine Greig. Bulger and Greig then went on the run together.

In his memoirs, Weeks vividly describes a clandestine meeting with Bulger and Greig in Chicago, Illinois. Bulger reminisced fondly about his time hiding out with a family in Louisiana. He told Weeks, who had replaced him as head of the Winter Hill Gang, "If anything comes down, put it on me." As they adjourned to a nearby Japanese restaurant, Bulger finally revealed how exhausted he was with life on the run. He told Weeks, "Every day out there is another day I beat them. Every good meal is a meal they can't take away from me."

A rolling stone

In mid-November 1995, Weeks and Bulger met for the last time, at the lion statues at the front of the New York Public Library, and adjourned for dinner at a nearby restaurant. According to Weeks,

At the end of our dinner, he seemed more aware of everything around him. His tone was a little more serious, and there wasn't as much joking as usual. He repeated the phrase he'd used before that a rolling stone gathers no moss, which told me that he knew he was going to be on the move again. I got the feeling that he was resigning himself to the fact that he wasn't coming back. Up until then, I always believed he thought there was a chance he'd beat the case. However, at that point, there was something different going on with him. I didn't fully understand all the aspects of his case. It would be another six months before it became clearer. Yet at that moment, in that restaurant in New York, I sensed that he had moved to a new place in his mind. It was over. He'd never return to South Boston.

On November 17, 1999, Weeks was arrested by a combined force of the DEA and the Massachusetts State Police. Although by this time he was aware of Bulger's FBI deal, Weeks was determined to remain faithful to the neighborhood code of silence. However, while awaiting trial in Rhode Island's Wyatt Federal prison, Weeks was approached by a fellow inmate, a "made man" in the Patriarca crime family. The wiseguy told him, "Kid, what are you doing? Are you going to take it up the ass for these guys? Remember, you can't rat on a rat. Those guys have been giving up everyone for thirty years." In the aftermath, Weeks decided to cut a deal with Federal prosecutors, and revealed where almost every penny and body was buried.

According to Weeks,

I had known all along, however, that it would not be easy for anyone to capture Jimmy. If he saw them coming, he would take them with him. He wouldn't hesitate. Even before he went on the run, he'd always say, 'Let's all go to hell together.' And he meant it. I also knew that Jimmy wouldn't go to trial. He would rather plead out to a life sentence than put his family through the embarrassment of a trial. If he had a gun on him, he'd go out in a blaze of glory rather than spend the rest of his life in jail. But I don't think they'll ever catch him.

Current status

Retouched photo done in 2008.

James J. Bulger is currently on the FBI Ten Most Wanted list. A reward of US $2 million is being offered for information leading to his capture. Bulger has been featured on the television show America's Most Wanted 14 times, first in 1995 and last on July 26, 2008.

The last confirmed sighting of Bulger was in London in 2002. Since then, however, there have been unconfirmed sightings elsewhere. FBI agents were sent to Uruguay to investigate a lead. FBI agents were also sent to stake out the 60th memorial of the Battle of Normandy celebrations, as Bulger is an enthusiastic fan of military history.

Reports of a sighting in Italy in April 2007 have proven false. Two persons on video footage shot in Taormina, Sicily, formerly thought to be Bulger and his lover, Catherine Greig, walking in the streets of the city center, were finally identified as a tourist couple from Germany. Evidence was provided by viewers of the German television programme Aktenzeichen XY … ungelöst, which had aired an episode containing a film about Bulger.

FBI informant

In 1971, the FBI, searching for reliable information in their battle against the Patriarca crime family, approached Bulger and attempted to recruit him as an informant. FBI Special Agent Dennis Condon was assigned to make the pitch. Although some information is alleged to have been passed on, Condon noted that Bulger was too concerned about his own safety to start working with the FBI.

In 1974, Bulger became partners with Stephen Flemmi, who had been an FBI informant since 1965. Although it is a documented fact that Bulger soon followed Flemmi's example, exactly how and why continues to be debated.

Special Agent John Connolly frequently boasted to his fellow agents about how he had recruited Bulger at a late night, beachfront meeting inside an FBI issue car. Author Howie Carr writes that Bulger had been an off-the-books informant since his teenage years and that, like Flemmi, he had been recruited by Special Agent H. Paul Rico. However, Kevin Weeks considers it more likely that Flemmi had helped build a federal case against him. He writes of his belief that Bulger was caught between a rock and a hard place: supply information to the FBI or return to prison.

In 1997, shortly after the Boston Globe disclosed that Bulger and Flemmi had been informants, former Bulger confidant Kevin Weeks met with retired Agent John Connolly, who showed him a photocopy of Bulger's FBI informant file. In order to explain Bulger and Flemmi's status as informants, Connolly said, "The Mafia was going against Jimmy and Stevie, so Jimmy and Stevie went against them."

According to Weeks,

As I read over the files at the Top of the Hub that night, Connolly kept telling me that 90 percent of the information in the files came from Stevie. Certainly Jimmy hadn't been around the Mafia the way Stevie had. But, Connolly told me, he had to put Jimmy's name on the files to keep his file active. As long as Jimmy was an active informant, Connolly said, he could justify meeting with Jimmy and giving him valuable information. Even after he retired, Connolly still had friends in the FBI, and he and Jimmy kept meeting to let each other know what was going on. I listened to all that, but now I understood that even though he was retired, Connolly was still getting information, as well as money, from Jimmy. As I continued to read, I could see that a lot of the reports were not just against the Italians. There were more and more names of Polish and Irish guys, of people we had done business with, of friends of mine. Whenever I came across the name of someone I knew, I would read exactly what it said about that person. I would see, over and over again, that some of these people had been arrested for crimes that were mentioned in these reports. It didn't take long for me to realize that it had been bullshit when Connolly told me that the files hadn't been disseminated, that they had been for his own personal use. He had been an employee of the FBI. He hadn't worked for himself. If there was some investigation going on and his supervisor said, 'Let me take a look at that,' what was Connolly going to do? He had to give it up. And he obviously had. I thought about what Jimmy had always said, 'You can lie to your wife and to your girlfriends, but not to your friends. Not to anyone we're in business with.' Maybe Jimmy and Stevie hadn't lied to me. But they sure hadn't been telling me everything.

Personality

Bulger and his associates were revered by several generations of South Boston youth. Those who have worked for him describe him as a benevolent, but ruthless father figure who took very few steps without carefully considering all possible consequences.

In spite of his many violent acts, Bulger was capable of genuine acts of kindness toward South Boston's poor. Weeks' memoirs list a number of incidents, including handing out turkeys for Thanksgiving to poor families in the area and tenderly presenting the gift of a new puppy to a young boy whose dog had recently been killed.

Bulger watched very little television, preferring to read books, especially true crime and military history. He led a very disciplined life, according to Weeks, and the majority of his time was devoted to making money through criminal activity. Although he had taken LSD while in prison, he did not drink to excess, smoke, or use drugs during the time that Weeks knew him.

Family

Beginning in 1967, Bulger began a common law marriage lasting almost thirty years with Theresa Stanley, a South Boston divorcee with several children. Bulger bought her an expensive house in suburban Quincy, Massachusetts, and acted as father to her children while commuting to "work" in South Boston. Like many other mobsters, however, he was repeatedly unfaithful to her with a host of other women and was often absent overseeing the running of his organization. Teresa Stanley has stated that she is planning to publish her memoirs.

Bulger is the older brother of John "Jackie" Bulger, a retired Massachusetts court clerk magistrate who was convicted in April 2003 of perjury to two grand juries regarding sworn statements he gave concerning contacts with his fugitive brother.

Another brother William Bulger, was formerly an influential and deeply popular leader within the Democratic Party in Massachusetts. In a long political career, he rose from obscurity to become President of the Massachusetts State Senate. After his retirement he was appointed President of the University of Massachusetts. In his 2002 testimony before the United States Congress, William Bulger was grilled by legislators from both parties. When asked what he thought his older brother did for a living, Bulger responded: "I had the feeling that he was in the business of gaming and... or whatever. It was vague to me, illegal but I didn't... not all that violent... For a long while he had some regular jobs but ultimately it was clear that he was not, he wasn't doing what I'd like him to do. Let's just say I was naive in retrospect". He also stated that he loves his brother and hopes that the most brutal rumors concerning him will be proven false. In addition, he grudgingly admitted to visiting an isolated pay phone in order to speak to his older brother, who was by then a fugitive. As fall-out from these remarks, Billy was forced to resign as president of the University of Massachusetts in 2003.

Urban legends

Due to Bulger's tendency to remain a mystery even to those closest to him, a number of urban legends have grown up around his rise and fall, especially since he was revealed to have been an FBI informant.

Howie Carr

A prime source of such stories is conservative author and radio talk show host Howie Carr's 2006 book The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century. However, some critics have suggested most of Carr’s real motivations stem from his dislike of former State Senator William Bulger, whom he has dubbed "The Corrupt Midget," on his radio program and in print. According to Kevin Weeks, "Over the years, Howie has made a career writing about the Bulgers every chance he gets. Even if the article has nothing to do with either Jimmy or Billy, he puts them in. Without this subject, he would have little to talk or write about. His hatred of Jimmy and Billy probably started with Billy, who never was the darling of the press."

Black Mass

According to the 2000 book Black Mass by Boston Globe writers Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill, Bulger once extorted a winning lottery ticket from the real winner, who had purchased the ticket at one of his stores. Black Mass also relates Bulger's involvement in the attempted smuggling of AK-47s to the Provisional IRA. However, O'Neill and Lehr accuse Bulger of using his FBI deal to betray the arms shipment. The source of the leak, however, has since been revealed as Sean O'Callaghan, a mole in the IRA's West Kerry Brigade.

Alleged bisexuality and pedophilia

Bulger is alleged to have been a predatory bisexual by persistent rumor. Howie Carr alleges that, while a teenager, Bulger worked as a male prostitute in Boston's gay bars. He further claims that Bulger's acquaintance with mobbed-up FBI agent H. Paul Rico dates from this time. Rico allegedly recruited Bulger as an informant after following him into a gay bar.

Edward MacKenzie Jr., a former member of the "Red" Shea crew of the Winter Hill Gang, has gone even further in his 2003 memoir Street Soldier: My Life as an Enforcer for Whitey Bulger and the Irish Mob, accusing Bulger of being a cross dresser and a pedophile who preyed on the young boys and girls of South Boston. These allegations are repeated almost verbatim in Carr's book.

However, longtime friend and confidant Kevin Weeks, insists that there is no truth to any of these claims. "All the stuff and rumors that questioned Jimmy's sexuality were lies spread by the media. He had more women than Hugh Hefner. Guys like Donald Trump weren't even in his league. Whenever we went out to bars and clubs, women of all ages were after him. 'Variety is the spice of life,' he'd say as he enjoyed all of them."

Satire

In 2007, a New Hampshire newspaper published a story in an April Fool's Day edition claiming that Bulger had been captured. The Berlin, New Hampshire Daily Sun published an account of FBI agents taking Bulger into custody after a stand-off at the trailer park where he had been hiding. The article jokingly claimed that the FBI was able to force Bulger into surrender by blasting Barry Manilow tunes at the trailer where he was hunkered down.

In popular culture

Bulger's mugshot was famously featured in the 2001 film Hannibal, as one of the FBI's Most Wanted alongside the fictitious Hannibal Lecter.

Characters based on Bulger have also appeared in a number of movies, books and television programs:

• In the Law & Order episode "Brother's Keeper", Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Ed Green investigate a string of murders linked to "Cally Lonegan", a devious, but charming Irish mob boss dubbed, "The Last of the Westies." Sharing Bulger's FBI deal, but lacking his exceptionally high intelligence, Lonegan is described as having worn a wire on a Mafia sitdown. The Lonegan character is eventually stabbed to death in the Riker's Island jail in New York City prior to his arraignment. In the aftermath, Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy is certain that Lonegan's murder was ordered by the Italian mobsters whom he had previously handed over to the FBI.

• People have speculated that Bulger is also the inspiration for the ruthless crime kingpin Francis "Frank" Costello, played by Jack Nicholson in Martin Scorsese's Academy Award-winning film The Departed (2006). In fact, the Costello character is a combination of Bulger, and the fictional Chinese Triad boss Hon Sam from the 2002 Hong Kong action movie Infernal Affairs (2002), on which the film is based. The character of Costigan is said to live in Somerville, Massachusetts, where the Winter Hill Gang was founded during the 1960s. Thomas Duffy, the film's technical advisor, is a former Major in the Massachusetts State Police who was assigned to investigate the Winter Hill Gang. Kevin Weeks also worked as an advisor on the film.

• Another popular portrayal appears on the TV series Brotherhood, which is inspired by Bulger's rumored alliance with his politician brother William. The series, takes place on "The Hill", an Irish-American neighborhood in Providence, Rhode Island. Actor Jason Isaacs, who plays a character based on Bulger, describes his character as follows: "Well actually, "Michael Caffee" is not a bad guy. I wouldn't have done this if he was a bad guy. He's a really interesting man. He has a really strict ethical code that he adheres to and he thinks he is better for the neighborhood and the future of the city than his brother is. He thinks his brother is corrupt, he's part of the system."

• In the 2007 mystery novel Along Comes A Stranger, author Dorie McCullough Lawson offers a suspenseful tale about a stranger who shows up in a small town in Wyoming, who may or may not be Whitey Bulger.

• The character Whitey Sorkin in David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest (1996), a Boston-area loan shark, is partly inspired by Bulger.

• George V. Higgins' last novel At End of Day (2000) contains the best literary, though highly fictionalized, depiction of the entire Bulger/FBI scandal.

• In January 2009, it was announced that award-winning Irish director Jim Sheridan will be directing a film about Bulger based on the biography Black Mass. Titled Emerald City, its production dates and cast remain to be announced.

• In February 2009, a character called Whitey Doyle was introduced into the TV series Human Target. Like Bulger, this character had been on the run "for years" and was involved in numerous criminal activities as head-honcho of a fictional crew called the Westland Gang, which sounds quite similar to the Winter Hill Gang.

Press relations

According to former confidant Kevin Weeks,

Most of the time, the Boston Globe wasn't as inaccurate as the Herald. They just knocked the people from Southie during busing. They also liked to describe me as, 'Whitey's surrogate son,' another example of the media putting labels on people they wrote about. Jimmy and I were friends, not like father and son. Even though he was the boss, he always treated me equally, like and associate, not a son. The reporter who seemed to do the most research and put real effort into getting the true story without having been there was Shelley Murphy, who had been at the Herald for ten years when she went to work for the Globe in 1993. But Jimmy and I usually ended up laughing at most of the news stories, as time and time again the media had in wrong, over and over again holding to their pledge to never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Paul Corsetti

Bulger did have a breaking point with the press, however. A week or so after the 1980 slaying of Louis Litif, Boston Herald reporter Paul Corsetti began researching an article about the murder and Bulger's suspected involvement in it. After several days of reporting the story, he was approached by a man who told him, "I'm Jim Bulger and if you continue to write shit about me, I'm going to blow your f—ing head off."

Corsetti attempted to seek out help from the Patriarca crime family, but was informed that Bulger was outside their control.

According to Kevin Weeks, "The next day, Corsetti reported the meeting to the Boston police. He was issued a pistol permit within twenty-four hours. The cop who gave him the permit told him, "I'm glad my last name is not Corsetti.' A couple days later, Jimmy told me about the scene with the cop and was glad to hear how uncomfortable he'd made Corsetti."

Howie Carr

Also according to Weeks,

There were a lot of things that brought out Jimmy's violent nature, but the one that never failed to enrage us was the name Howie Carr, a piece-of-shit reporter. I called him Howie Coward because he hid behind his computer at the Boston Herald and the microphone of his Boston radio talk show, writing and speaking words that he would never dare say in person, one on one to whoever he was writing or talking about. Lots of reporters and radio hosts write and speak untrue and nasty things, but Howie never has a nice word to say about anybody. His radio show attracts the same crowd as Jerry Springer. As far as I am concerned, Howie Carr and his big mouth have no journalistic value. He's just one of those loudmouths who like to dig up dirt on people and invoke controversy.

In his memoirs, Kevin Weeks relates his participation in an attempt to assassinate Carr at his house in suburban Acton, Massachusetts. He states that, although several plans were considered, all were abandoned because there was too much risk of injuring Carr's family.

Weeks has stated that, although he is fully aware of the public outcry that would have followed, he regrets not murdering Howie Carr. "His murder would have been an attack on the system, like attacking freedom of the press, the fabric of the American way of life, and they would have spared no expense to solve the crime. But in the long run, Jimmy and I got sidetracked and the maggot lived. Still, I wish I'd killed him. No question about it."

FBI rebuked

A US District Court judge found on September 5, 2006 the mishandling of Bulger and his associate Stephen Flemmi caused the murder in 1984 of John McIntyre in a lawsuit brought by the victim's family who will receive more than $3 million from the US government. The judge stated the FBI failed to properly supervise their own agent John Connolly (convicted and jailed in 2002) and also failed to investigate numerous allegations that Bulger and Flemmi were involved in drug trafficking, murder, and other crimes over decades.

Alleged murder victims

• Louis Litif
• Donald McGonagle
• Paul McGonagle
• Roger Wheeler (businessman)
• Edward Brian Halloran
• John McIntyre (drug smuggler)
• Debra Hussey
• Debra Davis
• John Callahan
• Arthur Barrett (mobster)
• Richard Castucci
• James O'Toole (mobster)
• Edward Connors

Alleged associates

• Stephen Flemmi
• John Connolly
• H. Paul Rico
• Kevin Weeks
• Patrick Nee
• Richard J. Schneiderhan
• William S. O'Sullivan
• Donald Killeen

See also

• FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
• Irish mob
• Winter Hill Gang
• William Bulger
• America's Most Wanted
• The Departed
• Brotherhood (2006 TV series)
• The World's 10 Most Wanted

References

• Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill, Harper, 424 pp., ISBN 0-06-095925-8
• Brutal; My Life Inside Whitey Bulger's Irish Mob by Kevin Weeks and Phyllis Karas, Regan Books, 304 pp., ISBN 0-06-112269-6
• The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston For a Quarter Century, by Howie Carr, Warner, 352 pp., ISBN 0-446-57651-4
• Street Soldier; My Life as an Enforcer for "Whitey" Bulger and the Boston Irish Mob by Edward MacKenzie and Phyllis Karas, Steerforth, 256 pp., ISBN 1-58642-076-3
• Rat Bastards: A Memoir of South Boston's Most Honorable Irish Mobster by John "Red" Shea
• Paddy Whacked; The Untold Story of the Irish-American Gangster, by T. J. English, 2005.
• A Criminal and an Irishman: The Inside Story of the Boston Mob-IRA Connection, by Patrick Nee, 2006.

External links

• Bulger's FBI Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitive Alert
• Bulger's profile on America's Most Wanted
• Boston Globe articles and current news
• Info on FBI connections to mob
• Whitey World
• Whitey Bulger on crimelibrary.com
• Law Firm who brought first successful suit, on behalf of John McIntyre, finding the Boston FBI liable for the actions of Bulger and Flemmi