i feel that while some overestimate bulger, some are equally guilty of underestimating him. its alot easier to say the mob should have just wacked him out, as opposed to actually going through with it. forget the fact that he was an extremely dangerous person on an indivudual basis, the guy had a seemingly endless supply of killers at his beckoned call.

with regards to who held more clout in the city, i think it depends on what your definition of power is, as well as what time period we are talking about. i think its fair to say that lcn made more money than winter hill, but i think its also a fair point to say that even with the much looser structure of winter hill, they were far more vicious and prone to violence.

it seems that during the late 80's/early 90's, with a good portion of the leadership of lcn locked up or under investigation, that a case could be made that winter hill held more clout in the boston underworld. i think that during this time, the state police agreed citing winter hill as the biggest criminal threat in the city. nowadays, the balance of power has shifted way back towards lcn, as the remnants of winter hill seem to be even less coordinated and less structured than ever before, and we never really hear too much out of them. i think the last we heard was that george hogan was running what was left. still, winter hill is the last bastion of anything resembling irish OC in the united states.