Whitey Bulger--We hardly Knew Ye (Thank Heavens)

Back in the mid-late 1970’s, I first came in contact with anything connected with James Whitey Bulger. I moved to Somerville, MA at this time with a few friends for roommates. I picked up a local newspaper and  I read about the Irish mob, still reigning at that time in an area of Somerville known as Winter Hill. The Winter Hill Gang as it was called was a rival to the Italian mobster gangs with bases of strength in the North End of Boston as well as in East Boston.

Whitey was the older of two brothers, one a straight laced Irish politician who would in the 1990’a serve as the Massachusetts Senate President, one of the three most powerful politicians/leaders in Massachusetts. For years, the locals had seen these two  different responses to the challenges of growing up poor in South Boston.

James “Whitey‘ Bulger is the figurehead of the change from the old school gangs, mobsters, to the modern tight knit gangs from Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Asia.  Most of the current generation of people who have moved in from other parts of the country/world are surprised to hear that there once was an Irish mob in Boston. And that the headquarters for this mob wasn’t South Boston but Somerville. This is not to say there weren’t other Irish gangsters and wannabes in South Boston. The reality is that James “Whitey”  Bulger did them all in either on his own or with his henchmen.

One thing one has to credit Whitey for is he wasn’t afraid to be the actor in a take down. He had little compunction about killing people. In fact, he seemed to have had a special interest in torturing women before murdering them. All was done to protect himself.

When the message came from the Boston based FBI agent, John Connelly, that indictments were coming down for Bulger and Weeks, Bulger was all ready to go. There was cash in bank safety deposit boxes all over the world said those in the know. Just think that he had over $800,000.00 in cash in the apartment he was co-habitating with Catherine Greig. She seems not to have minded that Whitey murdered or had people murdered.

From the TV reports, mostly from NECN, the neighbors in Santa Monica don’t recall seeing too much of James. Catherine was the nice one, and helped the neighbors with various household problems. James it appears was a bit of a crank.

We have yet to find out why they felt, rightly so, that they were so safe in that particular apartment; city. I’ve spent some time in Santa Monica over the years and there is a indistinct aspect to it, although more in the vein of multi-story condos and shared gardens than mansions.

For reasons known only to --well somebody--many of us place the ‘Dons’ and godfathers of the Italian mobs as some sort of folk heroes. Certainly, from what we are told, for the short time they live, they really live the high life. The Dons have grandchildren who they play with in the grape arbor just before a bucolic death.

For some people, Whitey had a reputation for looking after the neighborhood in Southie. He often explained that certain people had to be killed because they were selling illegal drugs in the ‘hood. Little did the average Southie Joe realize that what Whitey was doing was to cut the knees off the competition. He was the major, then only, supplier of illegal drugs in Southie. Oh geez, another look at the Whitey with no clothes.

Unlike his Italian competition, Whitey wasn’t one to dress up. If you notice, almost all the pictures of him have him with a golf jacket with an open collared  shirt;  generally disheveled. Why bother dressing up if you’re gonna be busting some heads later on, or forcing the owner of a liquor store to sell you his place of business. He unloaded $65,000.00 in cash for the liquor store, then threatened to kill the guy’s kids if he didn’t say thank you and hand over the business to Whitey.

Eh. Well, in the end he was just a bully with few redeeming virtues. Howie Carr, who in general I am not a great fan of, was interviewed on some channel. He had the smile of the cat who finally got the laser beam to stand still. For many years, it has been Howie after the Bulger brothers, the good one who allegedly robbed from the government and the bad one who did rob from the dreaded private sector. Howie, at least they weren’t both so-called hacks.

Time for the next book!