Howie Carr

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 Winter Hill gang to flourish is interesting. There also show more cameos by Donnie Brasco, Mitt Romney, 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 The Ceremony.

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. Oh yeah, and on top of that, Whitey participated in gov't LSD experiments while in prison. Wow. show less

Killers by Howie Carr failed to walk that fine line between hard-boiled and cliche-ridden. While that is certainly a difficult line to walk, this book stood out in the cliches used. Usually the worn cliches are the tried and true tough guy type of talk that made the original era of hard-boiled stories so memorable. Current works in this genre have to balance using some of the same comments, or at least similar, without becoming a parody of the genre.

Well, this fell short of even being a show more parody of the genre. Instead, it was a parody of that "news" channel from Fox. Worn out, tired and disproved rhetoric in a story of this type not only slows the action but also dumbs the book down to an unbearable level.

No doubt his fans will like it for the bigoted comments whether they like the genre or not. After reading the book I had to look up who this joker is and then I understood. Oh well, at least he calls it fiction, O'Reilly would likely have claimed a role in it and called it journalism.

Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads First Reads. show less

This edition includes a new afterword covering the capture of Bulger, but predates the 2013 trial in South Boston's John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse before Judge Denise J. Casper on 32 counts of racketeering and firearms possession. The afterword does cover the conclusive tip from professional Icelandic model Anna Björnsdóttir and the hermit-like, craven hoarder life of the retired gangster surrounded by stockpiled supplies and guns. The afterword also details the limited show more inter-tenant interactions Whitey made, including the active, one-sided friendship with young guitarist Josh Bond.

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 Winter Hill gang to flourish is interesting. There also cameos by Donnie Brasco, Mitt Romney, 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 The Ceremony.

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. Oh yeah, and on top of that, Whitey participated in gov't LSD experiments while in prison. Wow. show less

Very absorbing account by the Boston Herald columnist of the inter-twined lives of one of Boston's most notorious politicians and his brother, one of Boston's most notorious criminals. By now, a long familiar story in New England; this account was written before "Whitey" Bulger was eventually captured, but before his brother's downfall and disgrace, though that's a limited term in New England Democratic politics.