The Brothers Bulger
How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The riveting New York Times bestseller by the award-winning columnist—now with a stunning new afterword detailing Whitey Bulger’s capture.
For years their familiar story was of two siblings who took different paths out of South Boston: William “Billy” Bulger, former president of the Massachusetts State Senate; and his brother James “Whitey” Bulger, a vicious criminal who became the FBI’s second most-wanted man after Osama Bin Laden. While Billy cavorted with the state’s blue bloods to become a powerful political force, Whitey blazed a murderous trail to the top rung of organized crime. Now, in this compelling narrative, Carr uncovers a sinister world of FBI turncoats, alliances between various branches of organized crime, St. Patrick’s Day shenanigans, political infighting, and the complex relationship between two brothers who were at one time kings.
“A smashing true crime book . . . a rich depiction of a city gone bad and a superb meditation on personal and official corruption. Howie Carr brilliantly analyzes, scrutinizes, indicts . . . A howl of rage at the most hellish old-boy network imaginable.” —James Ellroy, New York Times-bestselling author
“Crime and politics pay off big-time in Howie Carr’s two-fisted account of the brothers Bulger. I laughed, I cried, and I kept turning the pages of this outrageous true story of zany mobsters, political hacks, and corrupt G-men.” —Mike Stanton, New York Times-bestselling author
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Although superior to some other tellings of the incredible story of how two brothers came to dominate Boston's political and criminal underworlds for decades, this account by veteran Boston Herald reporter Carr still falls short of being the definitive version he intended. The stranger-than-fiction rise to power of Billy Bulger, the longtime Massachusetts senate president, kingmaker and consummate deal maker, and his brother Whitey, a psychopathic killer who took over the city's Irish mobs, is compelling, but despite Carr's closeness to the story, he fails to bring his protagonists' inner world to life. For those broadly familiar with the corruption scandal that indelibly tarred the FBI because of the active role some of its agents took in protecting Whitey and enabling his brutalities, the author gives a detailed, hit-by-hit description of his crimes. Most readers from outside the Bay State will be almost as appalled at the wheeling and dealing of his "respectable" brother, who crossed path with presidents and presidential aspirants, and who extended his patronage practices to his subsequent position as president of the University of Massachusetts.
