'Whitey' Bulger and the Winter Hill Gang: Not So Fast, Says Local Author

Bobby Martini, author of , said he's been approached by "People Magazine," the "Today Show" and even a Canadian TV show, among other media outlets, since alleged gangster was captured earlier today.

Martini's book is a personal memoir of growing up in Somerville's Winter Hill in the 1960s and '70s, when the so-called Irish Gang Wars led to scores of murders in the neighborhood.

His father ran the Marshall Street garage—the Winter Hill Gang's headquarters—and was a friend of the gang's reputed leader, Howard "Howie" Winter.

Bulger was connected to the Winter Hill Gang—in fact, the two are all but synonymous in some accounts of Bulger's alleged criminal career—but as far as Martini is concerned, that connection is overblown. 

That gang, he said, was composed of Joe McDonald, James "Buddy" McLean and Winter. McLean was murdered in 1965, and at that point Winter allegedly took over the gang until going to jail in the late 1970s.

"We still feel that Whitey put him in jail," said Martini, alluding to Bulger's role as an FBI informant.

Bulger is also an alleged murderer. "He did put 22 bullets in my brother-in-law," Martini said of the man captured in California earlier today.

"To us, [Bulger] was not Winter Hill," Martini said. "He disrupted the lives of so many people."

Bulger came to be associated with the Winter Hill Gang in 1972, Martini said, but "he was just another guy we knew."

With complex stories of alliances, betrayals, murders and power grabs, the connection between Bulger and the Winter Hill Gang is somewhat murky. The general narrative is that Bulger became a valued lieutenant of Winter's and then took over the gang once Winter went to prison.

From Martini's perspective, however, the Winter Hill Gang ceased to exist once Winter was no longer it's reputed leader.

Citizen Somerville is a self-published book, and Martini said he's sold 18,000 copies.

"It's because of the people of Somerville that the book did so well," he said. A number of people, particularly women who experienced that era in the city, have told him, "Thank you for finally telling all the truths."

As for Bulger's capture, Martini said, "I think they knew where Whitey was all along … it sounds awfully fishy that they found him after a couple days of advertising."

On Monday, the FBI announced a new strategy for finding Bulger, airing television announcements to focus on his girlfriend, Catherine Greig. Three days later, Bulger was caught.