Most Wanted Man…
The Mickey Cohen of Boston, James “Whitey” Bulger, 81, legendary fugitive mobster, has just been apprehended – after more than 15 years on the lam & an international manhunt. Whitey surrendered at his rent-controlled apartment, 3 blocks from the Pacific, in pricey, pristine Santa Monica, a star-studded beachside community in Los Angeles. Offering $2 million bounty, the FBI had just began running TV ads about him, but not in the LA market! In the apartment, his digs since 1996, authorities found inside the walls more than $800,000 cash, 30 guns, assorted knives and forged documents. Whitey’s story, like the story of L.A.’s own brazen and outrageous underworld boss Mickey Cohen (which may be read in my forthcoming book, MICKEY COHEN: THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF L.A.’S NOTORIOUS MOBSTER, coming May 1, 2012) is amazing. While Whitey ruled Beantown for a generation, his brother politician BILLY BULGER– with whom he shared a very close and well known relationship – was one of the most powerful figures in Massachusetts politics (Kennedys and John Kerry kissed his ass!!!)
Whitey is infamous not only for his murderous ways, prominent brother, but also for being a top FBI informant -while having a personal FBI agent on payroll. The 2006 film, The Departed, directed by Martin Scorsese, was a prosaic (with changed names) version of his story, but is worth seeing for the performance of incomparable Jack Nicholson as the Whitey-ish mobster. Many non-fiction books have been written, but the one I love is The Brothers Bulger by Howie Carr. An outstanding read, you get the true story of both the mobster and his equally fascinating brother!