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Whitey: The Life Of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss (2013)

by Gerard O'Neill(Favorite Author)

3.77 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0307986535 (ISBN13: 9780307986535)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Crown

review 1: The third book in the trilogy of Whiter Bulger books by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neil(the other two books are "Black Mass" and "The Underboss"), "Whitey" is a comprehensive, all encompassing look at the life of Whitey Bulger. Lehr and O'Neil do a yeoman's work of tracing Whitey's life first as a young, disaffected child to a intimidating, controlling crime boss. Lehr and O'Neil include testimony and interviews from all of the key players in the crime world that Whitey traversed. They also illustrate how the tables could turn quickly and how loyalty and trust were just words in their lives of those in the underworld as well as with those sworn to protect us from them. The authors painstakingly show how the FBI would often give special consideration to their informants eve... moren if it meant endangering suspects or even innocent civilians. In many instances it was unsettling to know these are the people sworn to protect the public.The most interesting section of the book was the descriptions of the lengths Whitey and his girlfriends had to take to evade the law for so long and the close brushes with the law they experienced. At any moment their fabricated identities could be shattered. Yet, he always seemed to either talk his way out of things or flee just in time before the law caught up to him. Until the end that is.At times, it could get a little slow and dry. The authors went into great length to give details that were not relevant or pertinent to the story. For instance, they describe the trim of the apartment complex Whitey and his girlfriend were hiding out. many books have been written about Whitey and his cohorts. This book is easily one of the best.
review 2: This was a fascinating read and an in-depth look at Whitey Bulger's life and why he likely became such a monster. Several key reasons I enjoyed the book include 1) the authors were not heavy handed in their psychological explanations of Bulger's psycopathy;2) the history of the Bulger family included interesting information about Irish migrations to Newfoundland and then New England as well as a great deal of history of Boston;3) despite a huge cast of characters, the authors restated who the important players were as they re-appeared through the book. This is a must read if you like history, biography and thriller mixed together. less

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