Best book on James "Whitey" Bulger ?

Also how was he able to avoid capture for so long ?

Black Mass was the original by Boston Globe reporters. Howie Carr's The Brothers Bulger is another.

He avoided capture for so long:
1. Being tipped off by John Connolly
2. Years of preparation for that day, he had money stored in lots of places in the U.S.. He knew that day would come and he was ready for it.

The book Kevin Weeks done about being with Whitey wasn't bad either.

As mike said the biggest thing was Connolly tipping Whitey off giving him a headstart. Most of his vacations involved him getting safety deposit boxes with fake ID's, etc. He knew how to lay low and he did it until someone got lucky.

I own the book by martorano, it's pretty good.

I saw the movie last night, as far as entertainment goes, I enjoyed it... Anybody know if its true that whitey volunteered for lsd experiments in alcatraz?? I enjoy my psychedelics but goddamn 50 times in a year..... You would certainly be clinically insane after all that lol. I think you're actually considered clinically insane if you have tripped more than a half dozen times or something?

I don't remember the exact amount of times he was experimented on but he did do it in order to get his sentence reduced.

I like The Brothers Bulger more than Black Mass to be honest. But if you want the most detailed account of Whitey's life (including the LSD experiments which he did take part in), the best book IMO is "Whitey", also by Gerard O'Neill and Dick Lehr. It came out in the past year or so and has a lot of previously unpublished info including a lot about Whitey's earlier years all the way to his years as a fugitive. I highly recommend that as the best book about Whitey, with Brothers Bulger second.

Whitey Bulger: America's Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice by Kevin Cullen is the best one I have read. There are several other good books out there, though.

Yes he did take them, but I was thinking they did the experiments at Atlanta instead of The Rock but I could be wrong. He claims he still has nightmares from the experiments and I wouldn't doubt that claim one bit.

Skinny I felt the same. It was a good movie but I didn't like some of the parts played in it like Flemmi, and Weeks. They also made it like the Angiulo's were weak and that Winter Hill slapped them around more than one time too. I'll be getting it on Blu-Ray for sure.

http://www.amazon.com/Where-Bodies-Were-Buried-Whitey/dp/0062290983

The new one WHITEY, which somebody else mentioned above is hands down the best. All the others written by ex colleagues and enemies all sound the same after a while!!

I think that Howie Carr has written separate books on the Bulgers, Martarano, and Flemmi. While I haven't read the Flemmi book, I would swear that he told the same stories in all of the books. Total money grabs if you ask me.

Now Kevin Weeks is writing a 'fictional' book on Whitey?! Why do you need fiction when you were there and lived it? I won't give a dollar to help that murderer.

That the guy that did the book on Columbine? That was good.

Weeks did the book Brutal. It is actually a decent book. He mainly talks about his time with Whitey and since it's been a while since I read it, I can't remember everything about it but it wasn't as bad as most self serving books folks write about themselves. He talked about the busing ordeal and growing up in Southie to him getting connected with Whitey and what all Whitey done when he first went on the run. IIRC he even said he though they would never catch Whitey too. I think it came out a year or two before Whitey was caught if that long. I really did think it was worth the read, you just can't take it ALL as fact like most books like that.

I think that was Dave Cullen that did the Columbine book.

What is crazy is there in Littleton where my best friend lives it is across the road from Columbine. Talk about a freaky sight being near that school. They have a memorial on school grounds but we never got time to go.

I read em all. Brutal is by far the best. Weeks was obviously the closest to him and doesn't glamorize what they did.

honestly you should read this short story about Flemmi!
The movie had it all wrong Flemmi was the mastermind


Edited to delete link. That was pretty nervy of you to register here and start spamming the board within ten minutes. Don't do that again without getting permission from the Board's owner.

lolwut





Just recently finished this, and really enjoyed it. It really only sort of generally covered his actual criminal operations and heyday is Boston, but it really went into some detail about the sick and calculating mind of man himself, and his actions as a master manipulator psychopath. Especially enjoyed the tracts that detailed his participation in the MK ULTRA experiments, and also his years in California as a fugitive.

I dont think there is one "best" book on James "Whitey" Bulger but there area few excellent books.

The first book I read on all of this was BLACK MASS (Lehr and O'Neil). when I first read teh book it was a cant put it down book. I have read it 2 more times since then so here are 2 key observations
1. Keep in mind that the reporters wrote the book with a very biased view based on information fed to them by the disgraced ex-FBI agent John Morris. BLACK MASS has some glaring errors in the book once you do the research.

2. I felt at times that the book got very repetitive and could have been better with about 50 pages less IMHO. With that said I still highly recommend the book.

The book HITMAN (Carr) has stories about Whitey bulger but it centers on John Martarano. I say this book is EXCELLENT and MUST READ. This book has so many detailed stories its just riveting.

As mentioned in previous posts WHITEY (Lehr and O'Neil) is an excellent breakdown of who James Bulger was and how he became who he ultimately became, a gangster.

Finally, for quick reads and entertainment I would pick up RATMAN (Carr) and RIFLEMAN (Carr). RATMAN focuses on Whitey Bulger and RIFLEMAN on Steve Flemmi (Bulgers main partner in crime).

ALL of these books are highly recommended and grab em at the library before purchasing. Good luck