It is fitting that in Whitey Bulger’s years on the run, the federal courthouse was moved from downtown to the South Boston waterfront, on the edge of the neighborhood Boston’s most infamous criminal had so long haunted with impunity.
Southie, as Globe reporters Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy note in the opening pages of their definitive “Whitey Bulger: America’s Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice,’’ is where the kingpin’s “legend as the good bad guy began.’’ And there it probably will end. “He will most likely die in prison, no matter how he plays his final hand,” they write. “Nothing seems more certain to die there with him than that legend.”
Comments
I will buy this book. I have read several books about Whitey Bulger written by Kevin Weeks, Pat Nee and also Howie Carr's book "Hit Man"about John Matorano . I hope it is evenhanded in dealing with the story of this criminal. He was always known in South Boston to be a lone wolf. Feared but not liked or respected.
I have several opinions about those times and people on both sides of the law. The US Attorneys at the time Mr Bill Weld and his Federal Prosecutors (now Federal District Court Judges Mark Wolf and Stearns) were very diligent in pursuing Whitey Bulger. None of these participants should be involved in the Federal Trial of Bulger. They should recuse themselves because of their prior involvement in the case.
It was very prejudicial early on when Judge Wolf narrowed the scope of the Bulger trial by eliminating the earlier years when Bulger and Flemmi were working with the FBI in wiretapping and prosecuting the Anguillo brothers. I have a strong suspicion that Jeremiah O'Sullivan of the Strikeforce (now deceased) and John Connolly the imprisoned ex FBI agent have been thrown under the bus by the FBI. This reallly looks like a cover up.
Bulger alleges that he had immunity but can't prove it. What Federal Bureaucrat would ever give such a written commitment? The FBI at Washington DC level had known of these "protected" informants. Such cases similar to this involving the FBI have surfaced around the country.
The FBI is covering up their past sins and should not be allowed to get away with it. This is a very sad story of a Federal FBI Agency run wild. My father was right J. Edgar Hoover was an egotistical bureacrat who posed as the national crimefighter and American Hero when John Dillinger was arrested. The same J. Edgar Hoover who insisted that the Mafia didnt exist!
Let's not forget that they are government workers who work for us! They are no better or worse than we are. Let's just ask the Boston Globe and other news agencies to shine the light where it belongs. All the way up the line to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, DC.
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The facts, just to be clear, the writer of the review Sean Flynn is not and never has been employed by The Globe and does not know the authors at all.