An entertaing Hachette job

The paperback edition was published by the Hachette Book Group USA, and the accidental pun seems appropriate; this book does a hatchet job on William Bulger. I have little knowledge of the actions of the Bulgers, and I assume that the things in this book presented as facts about "Whitey" Bulger, about other hard-core Boston criminals, and about the FBI agents who wound up being protectors of Whitey (and a few of them on his payroll) are accurate and have been checked for veracity. There is also a large amount of what I would call "editorial innuendo", as distinct from facts, about these people, and although most of this is insulting and accusatory, it is obvious that none of the underworld guys discussed in the book would file a libel suit, even if the innuendos gave an unfair impression; by and large, the criminals discussed in the book are in prison or in hiding.

Corruption in Beantown!

Howie Carr is an author that I never knew until I picked up this book at the supermarket. I never heard of the Bulger brothers and I have only visited Beantown once for a couple of days as a tourist a few years back. Since I live in New Jersey, this book helps me understand our own corruptive state politics and powers that be better but I am still angry at them anyway. The Bulger Brothers remind me more of Cain and Abel. They both seek the same success even crossing borders and lines that most of us would never dare cross. Imagine Whitey Bulger at your Thanksgiving table or any of his goons. The book is true and I am only halfway through reading about Whitey's crimes and trying to understand the corruptive state of city and state politics. I like the Boston as a city but the Bulger brothers have shown what can happen when they abuse their powers to influence, control, and even destroy others for the sake of their own. You don't want Whitey Bulger to have a grudge against you because he's dangerous. He's not the second most wanted man beside Osama Bin Laden for nothing as the author writes. His danger is that he is too close to us. He looks and acts just like anybody else. We don't know how many dead bodies there are that have not been uncovered in Boston yet but the dead does speak sometimes if you listen hard enough.

More Than About The Bulgers

As much as a simpleton that Howie Carr is, his recounting of the Bulger brothers' lives exposes the small-minded venality that taints so much of the city. That Billy became president of UMass was puzzling to anyone who didn't know the story behind the story. Carr's explanation of how it happened and how corruption followed him put it into context.