NO “LOVE STORY”

The subtitle of the otherwise excellent February 24 article “Whitey & Cathy’’ reads, “The most remarkable thing about the brutal gangster’s 16 years on the run isn’t that he evaded arrest for so long. It’s that he ended up in a love story.’’ Why did you describe Bulger’s relationship with Catherine Greig as a “love story’’? Greig was Bulger’s second choice for his companion in flight. He chose to take a woman as he would choose to take a draft animal, and when the first proved balky, he took another. This was the story of a woman who expected to be abused and who was raised to treasure being “needed’’ above all else. It’s a common story, but it is not truly a love story. To call it that romanticizes abuse and the idea that a woman’s love and devotion can change a “bad boy’’ into a good man. It cannot.