The Brothers Bulger by Howie Carr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It is really sickening the way James "Whitey" Bulger's role as an FBI informant gave him an implicit U.S. government umbrella of protection to his life of villainous, murderous crime through tip-offs of recording devices, etc. This book covers that sordid tale and brother William Bulger's rise as a corrupt Massachusetts/Boston politico. The context of a weak and disorganized Mafia (La Cosa Nostra; "LCN" here) that allowed Bulger and the Winterhill gang to flourish is interesting. There also cameos by Donnie Brasco, Mitt Romeny, Barney Frank, and Dukakis, as well as a Bush family member. For instance, it was the weakness and disorganization of the mafia that allowed their initiation ceremony to be recorded in Medford, MA as recounted here and published in an unabridged fashion in [b:The Ceremony|2103846|The Ceremony|David Fischer|/assets/nocover/60x80.png|2109229].
While this book is updated with a where-are-they-now epilogue it ends with a septuagenarian Whitey still on the lam.
The tale of gangster and elected official as siblings with their successes, such as selling booze to the FBI for parties and making a boondoggle out of The Hynes Convention Center, is really almost too amazing to believe.
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