Hunting Whitey

April 15, 2020
Sherman and Wedge turn their attention to the far-flung wanderings of mob murderer and longtime fugitive Whitey Bulger (1929-2018). Bulger was a nasty piece of work, caught up early in a life of violent crime, becoming an unrepentant contract killer for the Boston mob. He had disappeared from view when, tipped off by corrupt cops and FBI agents in his network, it appeared that he was going to be imprisoned. Sherman and Wedge begin their account with the investigative legwork undertaken in February 2008 by a team led by an assistant special agent named Noreen Gleason, who made it her personal mission to see that Bulger was brought to justice, in part because doing so would restore the Boston office's tattered reputation. One of her colleagues had just solved the case of Etan Patz, a young boy who was kidnapped and murdered at the hands of a pedophile. Bulger went into hiding just as the team got to work, disappearing from view with a girlfriend who, the authors hold, had pursued him romantically to get revenge on the husband she was then divorcing--and, as they write, "Whitey had killed two of her husband's brothers in cold blood." He had untold other victims to his credit. He seemed to enjoy the game of cat and mouse, but eventually he was caught because, he complained, he and his girlfriend were animal lovers, and they went outside once too often to take care of a stray cat. The authors deliver plenty of hitherto undocumented or overlooked details, including the fact that he had been subject to CIA experiments on mind control via LSD while imprisoned in the 1960s. They also link Bulger's murder as an elderly invalid to lack of prison policing thanks to Trump administration budget cuts. A deeply unpleasant but highly readable story of crime and punishment.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 22, 2020

After being tipped off about a pending indictment by his former FBI handler in 1994, mob boss Whitey Bulger went on the lam for 16 years. In 2008, Special Agent Noreen Gleason took over the case to locate Bulger and restore the reputation of the Boston FBI, which had failed to capture Bulger. Meticulously drawing from many previously overlooked materials and interviewing a variety of figures involved with the case, Sherman and Wedge (Boston Strong: A City's Triumph over Tragedy) offer a vivid account of how Gleason's team tracked down Bulger. Their break came when they found a picture of Bulger's girlfriend Catherine Greig and were able to apprehend them both. The trial revealed grisly tales of Bulger's crimes, including 19 murders. After his conviction, Bulger, then 81, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. In 2018, he was transferred to the grossly understaffed Hazelton penitentiary in West Virginia, where within 24 hours he was murdered by another inmate. The authors explore Bulger's death, the uproar it created within the federal prison system, and the resolution of challenges at Hazelton. VERDICT Sherman and Wedge have crafted a thorough, detailed, and gripping story of a larger-than-life crime boss who met a disturbing end. Compelling reading for true crime buffs.--Michael Sawyer, Daytona Beach, FL

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.