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The alias

Down-on-his-luck vet befriended by Bulger

By Maria Cramer

 |  Globe Staff  

  October 09, 2011

James William Lawlor was a loner, the perfect mark for a gangster looking for another identity. An Army veteran who struggled with alcoholism, he lived alone in a cheap hotel, four miles from James “Whitey’’ Bulger, who paid his rent in exchange for using Lawlor’s identity.

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