Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the… (edition 2001)

Whitey Bulger is a bad man.

The writing style was rather cheesy and melodramatic at times, but the story was very interesting. ( )

The book for anyone who wants to understand this chapter in Boston history. I re-read it after James "Whitey" Bulger was arrested and it was still excellent. It would be interesting if they wrote a follow-up about the trial and all the legal manuvering. ( )

I should like this! It's a book with true crime, mind-blowing intrigue, violence, unimaginable corruption of values that ought to be inviolable, and platters and platters of Italian food. What's not to like?

Quite a bit, unfortunately. The series of articles that ran in the Boston Globe - the meat of the book - actually appears in the middle, starting with a chapter called Murder, Inc. (at least that's the first one I recognized). The beginning is a long, slow buildup added to flesh out the book. If you can survive the opening chapters, and keep track of the characters involved (the author annoyingly alternates between last names, first names, and mob names, tripling the number of things you have to memorize just to follow along), you'll certainly know everything there is to know about how Whitey Bulger neutralized every law enforcement agency that set out to bring him down.

But with Whitey in the news, it's good to read, even if it's got some slow bits. ( )

Black Mass is the true story of James "Whitey" Bulger and Stevie Flemmi's work as informants with the Boston FBI. Whitey Bulger and Stevie Flemmi became FBI informants giving information on the Italian mafia and other organized criminals. Special Agent John Connolly was the handler for both Bulger and Flemmi. Connolly along with other FBI agents and law enforcement officials became involved in a twisted web of lies in order to protect Bulger and Flemmi. By doing so Bulger and Flemmi were "free" to move up the mafia chain, eliminate opposition, and move about Boston with a seemingly untouchable attitude. The alliance between the FBI and Bulger and Flemmi begins to crumble when the lies can no longer hold up in a criminal case brought against Bulger and Flemmi.

I knew nothing about this case before I read this book. I was shocked that such an alliance between members of the mafia and the FBI could lead to such a breach in information. The FBI agents, particularly Connolly, seemed to be caught up in the idea of hanging with such "powerful" people and were willing to put others in danger in order to remain where they were. This case illuminates the problems with how the FBI handled informants and was the reason for major revisions within the FBI.

The authors managed to take a complex long-term story and make it easy to understand. There were times that I became bored with all the background, but overall it aided in the telling of the story. This story was one that showed how the mafia worked while Bulger was in it and showed how law enforcement deals with organized crime cases. There were moments of suspense and thrill in this true story that will have any reader caught up in the double life of Whitey Bulger, Stevie Flemmi, and John Connolly. ( )

A quick, easy read about the ties between Whitey Bulger, head of the Irish Mob in Boston, and the FBI. Written by two staff writers from the Boston Globe, this book takes on the difficult task of drawing together testimony and the FBI's secret files (as well as reading between the lines) in order to show how the FBI colluded with one of the most notorious gangsters in Boston. While it can be dry at times, the facts serve to strengthen the argument that Whitey Bulger was the one controlling his relationship as an informant--quite literally getting away with murder while drawing down threats presented from La Cosa Nostra in New England and members of his own crew by informing on their crimes and misdeeds. ( )