The Great White(y) Bulger

Mikey Burke

Black Mass
By Dick Lehr

How much power can a singular man possess? Lifelong South Boston resident James “Whitey” Bulger showed that the only limits to his authority were where he chose them to be. Whitey was no Senator (though his brother was the president of the Massachusetts Senate and University of Massachusetts), he was no athlete, he didn’t own much, and wasn’t too rich. Bulger is none but the most notorious mobster in the prided history of the city of Boston. His gang, the Winter Hill Gang, ran rampant through the streets of New England, committing murder, armed robbery, and drug distribution everywhere from their home streets of Southie all the way out to places like Miami and the shores of their ancestors in Ireland.
 
While it is the tale of the adventures of notorious mobster Whitey Bulger, it is just as much about FBI agent John Connolly. Connolly, also a native of South Boston, is trying to climb his way up the authoritative ladder of the FBI, so he cuts a deal with Bulger in order to do so. What starts as an innocent informant’s deal turns into a hunt for power, and leads to full-fledged gang involvement for Connolly. Agent Connolly and Bulger become a pair,  “They saw only what they wanted to see. It was a moment built on a shared premise: the future belonged to them” (5).

I have yet to finish the book, but from what I have read I can conclude that it will just get better. I am getting to the point where an agent-informant relationship is turning into straight corruption, and Whitey’s Senator brother Billy Bulger is becoming tied into Whitey’s actions. “1980 was a time when both Bulgers were consolidating their power and fast approaching the top of their games (24).” Billy may have officially run Massachusetts, but there was only one man who controlled the people-- Whitey.



    As crazy as the story goes, there’s one thing that anyone can take away from reading this: how sick people can be. Any sane person would never want to harm an innocent person. To Bulger, all of the poor people that he guns down are “just another guy in Whitey Bulger's way” (30). As purely inexcusable as all of Whitey’s acts may be, the narrator will take you down the darkest roads of the twisted mind of Whitey Bulger and why he saw his actions as justified. As a child of a family that grew up in the Whitey-run Boston, his rampant crime sprees are what shaped the culture and the people that I was raised by.
    Although I truly believe that this story can cater to many audiences, I think that true crime fanatics can especially enjoy this book. Whatever classifies a true crime fanatic applies, whether it be someone who watches Cops, someone in law enforcement, or someone who enjoys reading stories on crime. Other than that, the only other group that I can expect to appreciate this more than the average reader may be a history buff. I know many people who are very interested in the history of where they come from, so I could definitely see someone of that type going out of their way to educate themselves on a topic such as this, and I could assure that they would be very satisfied with their decision.

If you would like to learn more about the story of Whitey Bulger, press on the link here.