Black And Whitey

So I'm going to see "Black Mass" tonight. I can hardly wait.

I read the book. 

I read the papers when it was happening. 

I live in the city that was terrorized.

I remember the pain it caused the families of the victims; mine included. 

Whitey Bulger is urban legend around here.

I'm fascinated by this moment in history that was captured on film and looking forward to seeing-and almost being there-while the story unfolds. Evil like that has a way of mesmerizing the psyche, which is how Whitey intimidated his victims. Make no mistake, I'm not endorsing a Hollywood glorified Whitey Bulger character, but what I am doing is immersing myself in the story of this crime lord who was enabled by a corrupt FBI agent. I am extremely mindful of the damage that this story has caused, yet I am unable to look the other way. 

Johnny Depp's performance as the cold blooded killer is being hailed as "scary good" which lends itself to the legend of this evil man. Boston Herald scribe Peter Gelzinis explained the truth of Whitey's core evil quite eloquently this morning. He was relaying a story about the murder of a bookmaker 30 years ago who had pissed Whitey off. Gelzinis and his colleague Paul Corsetti were working the story.

"In the course of asking questions, Corsetti got a call to meet a tipster in a bar near Quincy Market. Paul waited until almost one in the morning and was about to leave when a rather ordinary-looking guy approached and asked, "You're Paul Corsetti, aren't you?"

When Corsetti nodded, the stranger asked, "Do you know who I am?"

Paul shook his head, and the stranger told him: "I'm Whitey Bulger, mother (expletive)." Though Whitey announced that he killed people, what he told Corsetti was far more terrifying. He described the make, model, color and license plate of the car Paul's wife used and the name of the daycare center where she dropped their daughter off." 

That's Whitey and who he is. History can be rewritten, but evil is evil, regardless of who is telling the story. 

Black Mass

The great Johnny Depp is playing Whitey.

The notorious Boston gangster, Whitey Bulger, that is, and the people of Boston are curious. Beside Ben or Matt, I don't think there was a better choice for the elusive gangster. Depp is playing the title role in the movie adaptation of  the book "Black Mass: The True Story of the Unholy alliance between the FBI and the Irish Mob", written by Boston Globe scribes Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill. 

If you live in Boston, like I do, you would be hard pressed to find someone who does not know the story of the crimes committed by the Irish Mob for decades and the FBI men who allowed them the breathing room to commit them. It's an interesting story, and a book that I read with rapt attention.  Filming is going on now, and Johhny Depp filmed a scene yesterday In East Boston where he eerily resembled the aging, now incarcerated, legendary Boston gangster.  The scene, shot on the same street where a murder occurred just last week, was shot-quite literally-in Irish Mob fashion. According to the Boston Herald:

"in the scene shot yesterday Whitey/Depp and a couple of his henchmen walk with an unsuspecting victim near the water in Eastie. While Whitey shakes the man’s hand, he is whacked from behind by one of the aforementioned thugs. Whitey walks away and gazes out at the Tobin Bridge while the other two drag the body away."

Hollywood's take on this unbelievable story should be very interesting and the casting of Depp is brilliant. No one can take a character and make him believable, possibly even likeable, like Johnny can. (his portrayal of George Jung in "Blow" still remains one of my favorite Depp roles) Its a true crime story for the crime story lovers in all of us."Black Mass" is a best seller written by two Boston Globe writers who worked the beat and covered the Irish Mob during their horrific reign over the city which ends with the disappearance of Bulger in 1994 when he was tipped off by his FBI handler John Connley that the Feds were going to indite him on racketeering charges. He remained on the lamb for 16 years before being arrested in Santa Barbara, California in mid 2011. Bulger, at one time, was the FBI's most wanted man, right next to Osama Bin Laden.

Now he's getting the Holllywood treatment, albeit on screen only, but I wonder what old Whitey thinks of the casting of himself in his true crime story. These stories are the stuff that legends are made of. Lots of people died at the hands of these hardened criminals, and if justice is to be served, the families of the victims of the horrible crimes will share in the spoils of the movie's box office success. As for the real life cast of characters? Karma has taken care of them. And the rest is up to their maker, when they day comes for them to meet him. 

"Rat a tat tat, Whitey."

Steven Davis, the brother of Debra Davis, who the jurors were hung in her murder, reacts after yestereday's verdict. 

The verdict is in. As anticlimactic as the announcement that the Bulger jury had reached a verdict yesterday;  it is, in fact, big local history in the making and bears mention here.

Is  it the bombshell that we expected? No. It wasn't. 

But nineteen people who will no longer have a voice were finally given the chance to tell their story. Maybe their families will find peace in the verdict, maybe they won't. 

Was justice served?

I think there will always differing opinions when it comes to justice being served. If we look at it academically, the split verdict breaks down this way:

Bulger was found guilty of 11 of the 19 murders

2 counts of  racketeering, 

3 counts of conspiracy to commit  murder 

7 extortion counts

1 drug count

6 money laundering counts

Of the eight murders he was not found guilty of , the jury was  hung on only the murder of Debra Davis his ex partner's beautiful, young girlfriend. Her brother, a fixture on the trial daily, vowed to avenge his his sister's death urging prosecutors to persue state murder charges. "It's not over for me until I am in the ground, " he said. 

Bulger will be sentenced on Nov 13 in a process that is expected to take several days. His attorney's say they will appeal on the immunity claim. It's a long shot, but Bulger's got nothing else to do. He faces a life sentence plus. Somewhere, through all the BS there has to be some justice in that, right? The 84 year old gangster will never be a free man and most likely will die while incarcerated. Some of the victims family members, when asked by the press what they thought of the verdict outside the courthouse yesterday said he already "got away with it", walking around a free man for all of his life, only to spend his last days in prison. 

For those of us who spent our lives in Boston, living the legend of Whitey and his thugs,  some of our lives being affected dramatically by Whitey and his thugs, it's  somewhat of a rip off. Had we been able to see the trial; actually see the man that is Whitey Bulger with our own eyes, and seen the courtroom expletive laced exchanges between Bulger and his former partners, Kevin Weeks and Steven Flemmi, we might have had a different feeling about all of this. I guess we will have to wait until 60 Minutes, 48 Hours or Barbara Walters gets the interview. Only then will we get a bit of closure and a small sense of knowing exactly who this monster is. 

Or should I say RAT. 

Like when it was all over yesterday and Bulger was being led out of the courtroom, a woman yelled out, "Rat a tat tat, Whitey!" 

You can bet that captured on tape, it would have been a sound bite that would have stuck like glue to the rat. 

I Was Just Thinking....Test your Legalese

With the Whitey Bulger trial coming to a close, today it was reported that the Bulger defense team submitted several photos of the gangster throughout his life in Boston. The question everyone wants answered is this:

Will Bulger take the stand?

In a trial that sizzled at times and fizzled at times, the highlight being an f-bomb laden exchange between his two former crime partners from the defense table, I have to ask what's really at stake here? We know the guy is corrupt and dangerous. We also know that he's NEVER going to get out of jail; so why take the stand? Why now? Insiders say he's fighting for his reputation.? He's fighting for a reputation that he's a gangster with morals who wouldn't kill a woman and that he was never a rat. That John Connelly tampered with informat files to make it look that way. It seems a moot point.

I pose this question to you:

With today's submission of photos, do you think the Bulger defense is preparing for Whitey to take the stand? If so, what is their strategy?

And,
If you were the defense what would be your strategy at this point?

Discuss...

Killer Instinct

There's been a lot of talk of murder going on in these parts. What with the trial of the century taking place in Boston, the tales of cold, calculated and useless killings scatter the pages of my morning newspaper daily. Aaron Hernandez's alleged killing spree, seemingly playing on a continuous news loop, leave me to think about the motive for so much murder.

For Whitey and the boys, killing was an everyday part of their business. And they were running a very fruitful business. It was a simple means to an end. A" do what we say and nobody get's hurt" type of thing, but far too many people got hurt. They ended up dead because killing was their business. It wasn't personal it was business and they were very good at it. What was another kill when you had already killed so many?

So if Whitey's gang killed to keep business going, what was Aaron Hernandez's business? These two men are a lot more alike than one would think. They killed because they could. And they got away with it because they both believed that their "business" made them untouchable. Their money and their "positions" gave them power. Whitey was the ruthless head of a crime organization that nobody wanted to mess with. What we now know is that although their gang had the intimidation factor on the streets covered, they really were untouchable. They had the Fed's in their back pockets. It's amazing what a couple of career Feds will do for unlimited amounts of cash and drugs and what a group of ruthless thugs will do when the system looks the other way.

But Hernandez? He seemingly had it all.

He had been gifted athletically and worked hard physically, then coddled because of his football ability. That kind of ability puts butts in stadium seats and sets advertiser's hearts aflutter which translates into big dollars. So much so, that Hernandez, at the ripe old age of 23, was paid a $40 million dollar king's ransom to show up and play. $12 million of it, just for putting his signature on a piece of paper.

One has to wonder why throw that away?

It is no secret that Hernandez had questionable dealings with bad people. His name entered into the NFL draft with high hopes, but his reputation for trouble preceded him. His appeal was tainted and many teams took a pass on him. They didn't want the trouble. The Pats thought they could change him. They thought that 40 million would rehab his gangsta ways and that he would play nice now that he was a valued member of the team. But 40 million and "NFL star" attached to his name has a funny way of bringing with it hero worship and a feeling of entitlement. It could almost be argued that it made his taste for blood more ravenous.

Both men killed because they could. It's that simple. In Whitey's case, intimidation and Federal backing made him untouchable and he never thought he would need to worry about the consequences. He owned the consequences. Hernandez thought the same thing. If he didn't own the consequences, he could certainly buy them.  He had covered his tracks before, what would make this time different?

Money, power, fame. A lethal combination. And all for what? The thrill of the kill? Look at them now.

I can think of $40 million reasons not to.

The Wonder Of It All

Wonder if it really could be that easy?

If you press the button above what you will find is a very clever, very cute and catchy advertisement for the beloved childhood companion, the Oreo cookie. The idea behind the brilliance of this spot is simple: If you gave an Oreo to a Vampire or a huge one-eyed octopus about to swallow up a boat containing the three little pigs, would they stop and enjoy the treat? Then would they pass that same wonder along? And what would happen if they did? It begs the question: How would it change they end of the story?

So, maybe they have stumbled onto to something here. Can it be that simple? Could the wonder of one of America's favorite dessert staples change the course of history? And what if that wonder really could? What if world leaders ate Oreos at world summits? Would there be no war? What if Oreos were passed out to all impoverished countries? Would there be no starvation? Maybe we should pass out Oreos in places with high crime rates like Detroit and South Central LA. Then, would the Crips and The Bloods still exist?

Maybe if Edward Snowden ate an Oreo, there would be no man hunt today. Paula Deen's Oreo probably would have saved her hundreds of thousands in legal fees and if Whitey and the gang gorged themselves on Oreo cookies, there would be a lot more people alive today.

Oreo cookies, the elixir to peace?

I guess now I kind of understand all of the hub bub surrounding Twinkie's come back on to the store shelves. Could the presence of Twinkies next to Oreo's on our supermarket shelves really change someone's destiny?I'm not sure, but for me they will now be seen as something that can produce wondrous results.

America's Got Whitey

And so it begins....tomorrow. I can hardly believe it.

Even if you don't come from Boston, chances are you know who Whitey Bulger is. The man pictured above is nothing like the image that is conjured up when Whitey's name is spoken in mixed company. And that's exactly the way he wanted it. He lived in obscurity in a beach community in California for years, yet he really lived right under our noses. Whitey had a knack for that.

The man, who at one time was the FBI's number one most wanted man, and became second to only Osama Bin Laden, was captured in Santa Monica, California, on June 22, 2011. We watched with rapt attention, as they pieced together the details of his 16 years on the lamb with his girlfriend, Catherine Greig. I thought they'd never catch him. I thought old Whitey would die out there, somewhere, if he hadn't already. After all, he was well into his 80's when he was captured. But Whitey's story isn't over. There's still plenty left to tell and he's going to have his last say.

And it all begins tomorrow with jury selection.

There are a million headline news stories out there today that unite us as human beings. Bostonian's recently have a lot to connect and commiserate about. Together we will watch the Bruins in their run for Lord Stanley's cup and we will read stories about the amazing recovery and resilience of the Marathon bombing victims.

And we will most certainly watch the trial of the century take place here at John Joseph Moakley US Courthouse. We will await Whitey's fate together.

23 Years In The Making

I got so very excited yesterday when I heard the news.

After 23 years to the day, the FBI announced a big break in the mysterious Gardner Art Heist. The Isabella Stuart Gardner museum, robbed by two men dressed as Boston cops on a dark and drizzly night, March 18th, 1990, has remained one of the greatest mysteries and one of the biggest art heist ever. The 13 works of art, valued at $500 million dollars, are today considered to be the most valuable works of art in the world.

What the FBI has announced is this:

• They know who did it. BUT, the statute of limitations has run out.
• They know that the 13 priceless works of art were sent to Connecticut and then Pennsylvania, and then offered up for sale in Philly. 
• That an "East Coast Crime Organization" orchestrated the heist and then tried to sell them off.
• They say they do not know where the precious works are now and they are appealing to the public for information by offering a $5 million dollar reward for their safe return.

What's really exciting is that the works, once theorized to be long destroyed, are now believed to be in good condition. According to Ulrich Bosser, author of "The Gardner Heist: The True Story Of World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft"  (which I read and HIGHLY recommend)

"What’s really exciting is that the FBI says, with a high degree of confidence, that they believe that the works were offered up for sale,” Boser added. “A lot of people have speculated over the years that the works have been destroyed.”

I, for one am intrigued and waiting with baited breath for the outcome which I hope to be the precious works returned to their rightful home.

So I can go see them for myself.

These developments are exciting indeed, but remember when I told you I read the book "The Gardner Heist"?  I learned one of the reasons "crime organizations" or criminals steal valuable art other than money is for use in negotiation to mitigate punishment for other heinous crimes they committed.

Sounds to me like Whitey is singing like a bird in jail.

WOW!

They caught him.

I can hardly believe it. The FBI arrested their number one Most Wanted criminal (now that Bin Laden is dead) last night in Santa Monica California. I can hardly believe it.

James "Whitey" Bulger, the notorious leader of the Boston's most deadly crime family, the Winter Hill Gang, who went on the lamb 16 years ago, finally trapped like the rat that he was. And you want to know how they found him? They put on a media blitz with ads airing on daytime TV during shows like The View, Regis and Kelly and Rachel Ray, and they posted pics of his longtime girlfriend Catherine Greig.

Unbelievable. I'm sure they had some inside info that lead them to put the pressure on because most people who live here truly believed that the FBI had given their golden RAT, a free pass to slip away into oblivion. In case you aren't familiar with the wolds most notorious criminal, I'll give you a small tutorial. Whitey and Steve "The Rifleman" Flemmi ruled Boston's underworld for decades, with an iron fist. They made the Italians look like amateurs because they owned them. They were deadly and ruthless because they could be and they killed and destroyed everything in their path.

They were untouchable because they had the FBI and John "Zip" Connley on their payroll and their rule was unlike any other. It was that same corrupt FBI handler, Zip Connley, who 16 years ago tipped Bulger off as to his impending indictment, resulting in him going on the lamb with his girlfriend. All the other's in the gang were caught, indicted and jailed and have been for the better part of those 16 years Whitey spent traveling the world. The old gang has no love loss for the old 'boss', who would sell his own brother for a winning lottery ticket.

Responsible for at least 19 murders that the Fed's know about, and endless years of corruption and racketeering, Whitey was arrested in an apartment complex last night, without incident. It all seemed so easy. Too easy. The last confirmed sighting of Whitey was in 2002 in London and since then, he has been a picture on the wall of the post offices of the world, right next to Osama. After Bin Laden's death earlier this year, they upped his bounty from one million to two million, then last week the announcement that the media blitz had begun. That extra million from Osama's head sure came in handy.

This whole fascinating story will now play out on TV and I will be riveted. Truth be told, Whitey was such a deadly killer that I have been afraid to write about him here, especially with him still out on the lamb and all. You never know who is out there watching. I think the coast is clear now, and maybe someday soon, I'll share with you my personal reason's for the fascination. It's one hell of a story. But for now, I'm going to watch this play out.

They caught Whitey Bulger.

I can hardly believe it.