The Vacuum of South Boston

Boston long has been the victim of Organized Crime. A city at the mercy of the Mob from Sommerville, the Mafia tailing from Providence and corrupt Law Enforcement Officers. Much like immediate post-Soviet Russia, criminals ran the city. Interestingly, the part of Boston that was not just accused, but fully indicted of having the worst of the criminals: South Boston had relatively no Crime throughout the era of Bulger.

 

Its nonsensical. Drive-by shootings, hijackings, and bookmaking were Bulger’s trademarks. Later on drug dealing was added to his repertoire, besides the heroin trade. Crime in Southie nearly came to a standstill. Once the mafia was out of the way, the Winter Hill Gang had essentially a monopoly over the Boston crime world. Everything funneled back to their organization.

 

With such violent criminals leading the city, and corrupt officials at the mercy of the same criminals; it’s nearly unbelievable that the crime rates in Boston could lower. But there is an explanation. Principally petty crimes make up most of the arrests in large cities. Murders only comprise a small fraction of the crime rate of urban areas. As Bulger grew, his intimidation also spread into the souls of Bostonians.

 

People became afraid to speak out against the Bulger regime. In the same situation were people acting out against the mob. The influence that the fear over the Winter Hill Gang created lowered crime in Boston. Encroaching on the gang’s turf was a capital sin that was met with usually deadly force. Setting an early precedent of how crimes against the gang would be met created a culture of not speaking out against Bulger and his associates.

 

This created a problem in Southie. Nobody wanted to die because they squealed to the police; but by “harboring” these criminals through silence, the people of southie were labeled as criminals themselves.

 

The people of South Boston were met with a tough choice. Either be prosecuted by Boston’s crime overlords for giving the few “good” cops information about cases, or bite their lips and be viewed as dirty, lying, and illicit by the rest of Massachusetts. The remainder of Boston was under a similar stress, but not the extent that the people of Southie were.

 

After spending the year studying Missing Voices, there is something unique about this specific tale. It’s not that the people of Boston were protesting the actions of the mob and not being heard. Wasn’t that local press wouldn’t air stories about the crime. Writers like Howie Carr and Michael MacDonald spoke out against Bulger, Flemmi, and Weeks. They attested and documented their actions and provided examples of their atrocities. The only problem: people would not admit to the happenings.

 

Eventually the whole organization would fail. Bulger would be forced to flee Boston under his own paranoia of being caught. Flemmi was in jail. Weeks also incarcerated. The informant status Bulger and Flemmi once enjoyed was now fleetingly gone and meant nothing to the young, thirsty FBI Agents in charge of bringing down Bulger.

It was all late. South Boston has and forever will be tainted as a criminal breeding ground. It will always be viewed as the birthplace of a mob; where crime goes to sleep. Even though for years the streets have been safe. The voice for the people to speak out against the criminals was lost while they were active. But now, they have lost their voice to redeem the reputation of a people.

The inhabitants of South Boston are known as poor, Irish, and hardworking; but one thing will always be hanging over them. The people will be categorized as helping some of the most notorious criminals evade capture for decades. The major problem with this is none of them actually aided Bulger, those people are or were locked up. The people on the streets now are guilty by association, guilty by zipcode. A tough realization but discrimination still hurts. It’s hard for them to get jobs. In some circles they can’t be trusted. Viewed as coked-out-junkies that bottom feed. Its a uniform label put on people that unfairly assumed the role as scapegoats.

 

I’m not sure if there is a way for the people of Southie to get a voice. I don’t know if there will ever come a day where the reputation of the people will not be tainted by the actions of few. I know the people are resilient, but they can not control how people view them. I’ve spoken frequently of the injustice that is labeling; limiting a group of people to one story and identity. That is exactly what is exactly what is occurring in Southie.

 

South Boston has been afflicted trice with pain. Three times they have been completely treated as second-class citizens. For years discrimination against the Irish by the Anglos and Italians rivaled that of African Americans. They were then struck by the extreme fear of speaking out against the tyrant know by close associates as Jimmy Bulger, and behind his back Whitey. Now they continue to suffer. Not at the hands of any weapon wielding mobs, unless you consider ignorance a weapon; which in many cases it is.

 

It’s a sad realization that a group of people, in a city that prides itself as being one of the most progressive and accepting, in a country that is supposed to be a leader in liberty can be oppressed in this fashion. Then again maybe not, considering the institution of slavery was only abolished 150 years ago; which may seem like a long time but it’s still fresh in mind of millions.

The idea of this project is to give voices to those who lost theirs, but it would be an an injustice to attempt to limit it. I would need years to put forth enough information to get all the stories out, the differing scenarios are innumerable. It would be an honor to attempt to give those affected by the mentioned injustices, but the resources are not presented to me.

Labeling : A Capital Injustice

It is amazing that in a world where we are so connected, informed, and  supposedly educated; there are so many instances of where stories are mixed or blurred. Not in the essence of one story being changed from its original form; but the story of a people. We, as Americans have become increasingly ignorant while attempting to aid those who need it the most.

 

Cultures are being uniformly identified through one tale, one identity; a single story. We have attempted to help those in need in Africa, Asia, South America, and wherever it is needed. Even for some, that help is going only a few streets or houses away.

 

Americans are doing a couple of things worsen the world we live in that we may not even recognize. We’re all guilty of discrimination via judgement subconsciously at some point. Racism isn’t back through segregation or slavery. No. We’re rehashing discrimination through identifying a race, a religion, a sex with a single story. Labeling.

 

We live in an era of comfort and simplicity. All aspects of our lives are becoming simpler; the world is at your fingertips through web connected mobile devices. Almost anything can be bought online and delivered to your door. And we are doing the same thing to groups of people. Labeling an ethnic group is simple. Its blatantly easier to take a single story and apply it to an entire city, state/province, or country and store that in you brain as a common struggle for that entire group.

 

We strive to help. We think are being benefactors to those in need. The truth is we are fed stories through commercials and other modes to evoke guilt. We think of a common story, a sob story of sorts and feel guilty in an attempt to help those we see as in need. Its good to try and help, but it’s not good to characterize every person in an ethnic group under one story.  

 

Ignorance is not going to help anyone out of poverty. By funneling money into a third world country we could just be paying for the dictator’s lavish lifestyle while the inhabitants squander on plantations starving and dehydrated.

 

By assuming we’re making things worse. We only see one problem when there could be thousands. As mentioned before everyone is guilty of said labeling, as a kid I thought all Africans were sub 100 pounds and had a gallon of water to split between millions of people. But these assumptions were through no fault of mine. I was told repeatedly by television advertisements that there are starving, thirsty kids thousands of miles away. Millions of them. My worst example of ignorance is the saddest.

 

Growing up in my sheltered cul-de-sac, I was under the impression that everyone in the US was well fed and those in need were in alien countries that would require four different plane changes to arrive in. In hone, there are millions of kids in the States starving, struggling to survive under the poverty line while their parents slave away in minimum wage jobs.

The solution is unknown. If we knew how to make wealth equally distributed from top class to the middle class and trickle down to the lower without the use of Soviet ideals, they would have been established years ago. I bring up the United States not to drag attention away from the impoverished elsewhere, but to bring to light that even Americans are victims of labeling. Not many would admit, or know that 44 million Americans live under the poverty line. But they do, and quite possibly are the greatest example of a “Missing Voice.”

 

As a people we’ve attempted goodwill, but have failed. Not because of a lack of resources, no. But through a blurring of people and classification process that has arisen through not being able to think for one’s self. Each person has their own story. Each holocaust survivor is unique. Every African has their own story of struggle. And not every American is drowning in cash.

As humans we control our own fate. There’s no set of directions given to leaders on how to direct a nation into success. We are all doing this for the first time along with everyone else. But we can learn from the past and present, and presently we are dangerously ignorant and not thinking individually. Not two people are the same, so I ask, as I conclude: If you came from struggle, would you want people to assume that you’re ‘just another one of them,’ or have it known that you come with your own unique and compelling story? Otherwise you may just become another missing voice.

Is Ease Corrupting our Views?

United States popular culture has had a long and detailed romance with organized crime. Rings like Al Capone’s prohibition era business like regime, the reactionary ultra-purification white supremacy group the Ku Klux Klan which has spawned stories about their brutality towards minorities that are both mythical and factual, and modern day street gangs like the Bloods or the Crips that incessantly wage war against one another for the most miniscule of reasons.

 

Modes like music, literature, and film have assisted the fascination with these dangerous organizations. Music nowadays consists of people attempting to be make themselves appear to be more “thug” by talking about how many gats they own or the types of drugs they use just to get a little bit more street credit. Largely this type of attitude is limited to hip-hop/ rap, and it is also unfair to label each artist that makes hip-hop/ rap music as a wannabe gangster talking only about drugs and guns; after all they are just catering to their audience. Novels provide in depth firsthand accounts supplied by former members now serving lengthy prison sentences for their involvement in the gruesome crimes committed by them and fellow members of the gangs and can be useful in getting a good understanding of the happenings of gangs.

 

If music is notorious for giving false pretenses of criminal activity, I’m not exactly sure what to classify film as. Film refers to Hollywood blockbusters that have become huge titles that help create new standards for film making and not documentaries that take in depth studies of mob activity.  The difference? Non-documentary movies are created for profit. Obviously not all films are entirely created solely for the reason of reaping in handsome sums of money, but there definitely is a capitalist motivation intertwined with Hollywood Film Making.

 

Directors and writers of said movies stray away from fact in attempting to create a more exhilarating story line and evoking a “wow factor” out of the audience. The world market has become obsessed with action, explosions, and violence as opposed to riveting plot twists and great writing. Action scenes are replacing dramatic dialogues that build up to a climax. People love the shoot ‘em up style of newer crime movies and see movies that appear to be the most action packed.

In a way, its our own fault. I can be guilty of enjoying action instead of storyline, but I would like to think that I can judge a movies quality by its story, and not through cinematic mastery. Americans love things easy. Convenience is no longer an amenity. ATM’s on every street corner, a Dunkin’ Donuts whereever you could desire, and the world at your fingertips via smart devices. We live in an era of creature comfort where everything desirable is easy and requires little effort. Being in excessive heat, though part of every New England summer, is miserable. Warm beer? Don’t even get people started. But thinking? Is thinking becoming less and less a part of our society?

 

Kids now do what they see posted on their favorite media sites. There’s a trend that seems to be developing. Kids are more impressionable now, later in their life. Not because parents have been remiss in how they raise their kids, but with social media now its hard for kids to pick apart what’s fact and fiction. Obsessions with media are creating a world where people can’t separate differences in the real world from what’s fictitious. Shows like the “Walking Dead” have online resources that have catalogs of information from people that study the show in depth and would make one think that the events detailed by the show may have happened in our realm.

 

Which story gains the most traction or goes the most viral will be known as the “truth.” The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 serves as a valid indicator of the changing environment we live in.  False tweets about the event appeared on evening news and the largest and most “reputable” news companies in the United States reported the faux news.   Broadcast companies are steering away from delivering checked facts for the sake of breaking the story the fastest, and social media is the  venture of this change.  As the tides change in our nation how news is delivered we’re creating missing voices. But how? How does any of this make sense?

 

We are supposed to be such a progressive country where the stories reported on local, regional, national, and world-wide news organizations detail EVERYTHING that is going on. We’re supposed to be getting the big picture, the truth. The truth is that news companies are for profit organizations. They report the most interesting and controversial topics to gain views, and return get more money for the advertising that is sold for ¼ of the total airtime. We’re deepening stereotypes. Creating a place where feel-good stories have no place and each headline entails the words “suspect is a black male…”

 

Up to this point, there is no connection between what’s been written in this article and previous posts. The Boston Mob has nothing to do with the KKK or the gangs of Los Angeles.

 

Examining the movie “Goodfellas,” the viewer gets a notion that the Mafia is always involved in high-action western style shootouts and executions for revenge. Its hard to gauge the actual amount of murders that organized crime units carry out but it could be easily deduced that the number is much less than presented by this movie.

 

Its a given that large organizations like the Winter Hill Gang or various mafias will be heavily entrenched in violent crime; but maybe not as much as portrayed by movies like “Goodfellas” or “The Godfather.” After all those movies are created to astonish audiences with expert filmmaking and create an exhilarating viewing experience that expertly- written movies may not guarantee.

 

In a time, where previously mentioned, people want things easy; its hard to guarantee success based on good acting and story alone. The two aforementioned movies supply both, while also including the third pillar of movie design with jolting action scenes. The problem is not with the filmmakers, however. People need to interpret what they see on the big screen however they feel appropriate. There is now right way to express what a film evokes inside of one. The problem comes in with how people are struggling to separate fact from fiction.

 

The authenticity of a tweet is almost impossible to judge from looking at it, and unfortunately innumerable amounts of people use twitter as their go to source for news. The site is a marvel of humanity, where so much information can be passed along so rapidly in so few characters. On the same level, it is a pitfall too. People day in and out share information that comes from “reputable sources,” or the twitter equivalent ( which would be verified accounts). It’s hard to describe this trend easily, but we are creating a blur with fact and fiction, where people are losing their ability to distinguish what can actually occur in the real world and whats left for Hollywood to carry out.

 

Unfortunately for those depicted by movies that “are based on a true story” a bad reputation can easily be developed. Stereotyping is deepening. To be fair, hardened criminals associated with the mafia and mobs should not be viewed as saints, but it may be unjust the way they’re being judged. Worse of all, places where Organized crime is unbridled adopt reputations and all the inhabitants of that area are labeled as associates.

 

In South Boston, this type of labelling is prevalent. Growing up in the suburbs of Boston, I can testify that people outside of Southie are very weary of the happenings and essentially distrusting of people that come out of there, which is completely unfair, and utterly ignorant. This, of course was aided with the release of “The Departed,” “Gone Baby Gone,” and “Goodwill Hunting” show the area as a dirty- crime infested subset of Boston where criminals go to settle.

 

These movies have created a stereotype that’s been hard for the inhabitants of Southie to shake. In the class Missing Voices we were challenged to look at  literature and other works to examine sides of stories that we may have never heard before. Stories that have been overlooked or generalized into one single-story for an entire group of people. This same trend can be applied to the Irish population of South Boston.

 

This small sub-city is notorious for supplying the Boston area with some of the worst criminals. But is it really? Looking at the makeup of Southie, most of the population is Irish; and a handsome sum of the people of southie live in the three gigantic housing projects. So its destined to be, where there is so much saturated poverty, people becoming acclimated with crime because it is an avenue to provide for their families. Especially in a time where Irish discrimination was prevalent in Boston and they were left to do heavy lifting manual labor jobs that took unimaginable tolls upon their bodies. There is no one story. There’s no one type of person. They can’t be cataloged like books. But one thing we have seen and is evident, we have defied their humane rights and classified them as second class citizens that “deserve” what they get, but no group deserves to be treated like that.

Movie Review: “The Town”

 

“The Town” depicts the culture in Charlestown, Massachusetts of thievery and tendency of children to not leave the tiny town once they grow. The movie itself is well executed and has a great story line. It follows the tight knit thief crew that consists of: Douglas MacRay (Ben Affleck), James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), Albert Magloan (Slaine),  and Desmond Elden (Owen Burke)  through a series of heists that escalate to their final job that ends their run as an elite robbing crew.

The film starts of with a bank robbery, a semi-routine occurrence for the crew. They move in quick and take over the situation with ease… and automatic weapons. They operate smoothly and in a polished manner; knowing the ins and outs of the bank, the security systems, when to leave the premises, and how to clean up in a quick manner. The crew subsequently takes a female banker, Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) hostage. MacRay falls in love with Keesey as the story develops. She deduces that he is involved in the series of robberies occurring through the area, including the one at her branch.

The FBI is eager to bring down these professional robbery rings hired by crime bosses. Leading these eager agents in the movie is Special Agent Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm).  Frawley works day and night to bust the crew, but is unable to until the crew attempts a seemingly impossible heist at Fenway Park. Leading up to their robbery of the Fens, MacRay lays out his plan to put the whole city “in his rear-view mirror.” He hopes the scored cash from Fenway will be enough to get away from Boston and found a new life elsewhere. The plan goes awry. The crew enter into a full fledged shootout with police, and MacRay is the only one to get away. The movie closes with MacRay riding on an Amtrak train, and Keesey discovering a huge sum of money in the community garden she works in. After she reads the letter MacRay leaves with the cash, a shot of the Charlestown hockey rink is shown, with a plaque dedicating it to Doris MacRay, Doug’s mother.

 

On the surface, it would be hard to connect the Boston mob with a seemingly independent group of thieves. During the 70s and 80s the gangs of Boston often robbed banks and other places that stored large amounts of money or other valuables to score the cash they needed and wanted. Well, sort of. It’s hard to imagine Whitey Bulger sticking a bank up because of his immense paranoia and fear of being caught. Even though Bulger was convicted twice of robbery, as he became a crime boss in the Boston area he tried to distance himself from the ground work of organized crime, assuming a more cushioned position with layers of isolation below him.

That’s where the roles of contracted thieves and other contract criminals comes in. Leaders like bulger and Flemmi deduced that it was safer and easier for them to hire people to do their dirty work, while still being able to carry out personal matters at their leisure. Paying a small premium for big scores and safety from the law was very desirable. If caught, the hired hands would rarely rat on who hired them, as was the nature of Boston criminals.  Usually, the seasoned criminals would make it back to the bosses that hired them with little blood on their hands and the huge scores sought after.  Realistically, the hired hands would be closer to the bosses, and may even be part of the gang as opposed to their own freelance elements.  Add more about realism

The movie itself is very well executed. At times there are lulls, or scenes that may not fit and some of the acting appears to be forced. A few of the actors are trying too hard to embody the lifestyle and culture of “townies,” something that can’t be easily replicated with a few weeks of rehearsal. I would recommend the movie for the entertainment value, but remember its fiction; huge shootouts like these do not occur on the streets of Boston daily as the movie alludes to. Historically it is of little value explicitly, but there are true elements to the story it tells.

 

Movie Review: “The Departed”

Oddly enough, a movie that is based on the Winter Hill gang and its structure, deviates so much from the specific details core to the gang. “The Departed” follows Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), an officer with the Massachusetts State Police that feeds information to the Mob Boss in South Boston, Francis Costello (Jack Nicholson). Costello is often regarded to be synonymous with Whitey Bulger, but there are key differences that will be touched upon later. William Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) works as an undercover state trooper in the Costello gang.

The film starts off with Nicholson’s character giving a monologue about crime in Boston, where the line “When you’re facing a loaded gun, what’s the difference?” comes from in allusion to working on either side of the law in Southie. We learn in this part that Colin is taken under the wing of Costello because his father dies when Colin young, becoming somewhat of a mentor to Sullivan. Costigan infiltrates the gang and begins giving top-shelf information to his superiors, but is outmatched by Sullivan because Costello is continuously tipped off about looming raids and arrests.

The movie ends with Costigan learning the identity of the rat in the Mass State Police and confronts Sullivan in his office when trying to collect benefits for the great informant work he did. A battle ensues and both Sullivan and Costigan wind up dead.

The movie does a good job of portraying the culture of the people of South Boston and the structure of the mob to a certain degree. The movie portrays the people of Southie as being extremely hesitant to talk to police and share any information that could incriminate another person of even the smallest crime. The structure is well set up too, except for the fact that there was a bit more insulation between the lowest and highest levels of the mob.

The character of Costello is also much different than Bulger ever was. “The Departed” portrays Costello as a heavy drinker, drug user, and sexual player. None of the aforementioned traits applied to Bulger. He considered people that drank and used drugs to be unreliable and could not be trusted. Also to minimize the chance of being caught or incorporating more people into his life, he had limited sexual contact and did this by having maintaining a strong relationship with his wife Theresa Stanley.  In short, Bulger was much more cautious than Costello was in the movie and would not have gone down in the fashion he did because of the increased insulation Bulger had in place to protect himself.

“The Departed” is a very good movie with some incredible acting performances. Some of the historical specifics are a bit off, but besides that follows mostly historically accurate information. I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys drama movies and Boston area history.

 

The Code of Silence

In South Boston, the phrase “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” took on a whole new connotation. As opposed to being a controversial military policy, it was a code of life. People don’t ask about the shady activity going on in the streets, and they better not tell law enforcement what they saw. When there are three public housing projects in the area, there is destined to be crime, and there is no sympathy for people that talk to police or are “stupid” enough to get caught.

 

Southie is crawling with people affected by Irish discrimination. People work dead-end jobs and are barely able to make a living for themselves- let alone families with upwards of five people. It’s no wonder that a place where there is so much struggle to survive is extremely tight knit; and reluctant to allow outsiders in. Just like any other big city, Boston is heavily sectionalized. Italians live in the North End. Blacks in the West & East End. Southie belonged to the Irish. 43% of Boston is of Irish descent, and an overwhelming majority of them live in and around the public housing South Boston.

 

Many notable people have come out of Southie. Politicians such as Billy Bulger and Michael Flaherty; Athletes like John Cunniff and James Connolly. These great people, however, are overshadowed by the numerous criminals that spawned from South Boston. The criminals that call Southie home include: James J. “Whitey” Bulger, Kevin Weeks, Patrick Nee, John Connolly, and William O’Sullivan; some of the most feared people to ever live in Boston.

The people of this sub-city are strong, hardworking and poor. They stick together and rarely leave the neighborhood. At young ages, children are exposed to drugs, murder and larceny. They spend Friday nights on the streets watching Boston’s Crime underworld operate and become involuntarily a part of the mob. Few go on to thrive in school the way that Billy Bulger did. Many adopt blue collar personalities and get jobs at Boston Sand and Gravel or local shipyards. On top of their day jobs, many become mobsters. The extra cash that they bring in through mob activities could be the difference between survival and going broke.

Making money through organized crime wasn’t necessarily easier work or can be viewed as lazy. It was different. Many people misconstrue the images of mobsters and view them as drunks or drug addicts. Few trusted people who abused controlled substances because they were viewed as weak and easily breakable by law enforcement. Being a full time mobster accumulated dangers that required caution and quick thinking. In order to stay alive or out of jail, the men of Southie that joined up within these gangs had to be quick on their feet and work tirelessly to make sure the opposition could not take them down. Opposing gangs often used police intervention to limit competition, for example the use of the FBI by Whitey Bulger and Stephen Flemmi.

 

In a place where such a code of silence thrived, the most hardened criminals defied the very principles that they would have easily killed people over. James J. Bulger and Stephen Flemmi were two of the most feared men of South Boston. They were also two of the most valuable informants that the FBI had in the Top Echelon Informant program. Hypocritical of them to say the least. There was a rational fear surrounding Bulger that he would strike back with crushing force for even the most petty attacks against him.

 

Whitey Bulger grew up in Southie and began a career in crime at the young age of 14 when he was arrested and charged with robbery.No one dared to call him Whitey to his face, however.  After joining a street gang called the Shamrocks, Bulger was again arrested for robbery and hijacking and spent time in Alcatraz and a federal penitentiary in Georgia. After his release from federal prison, he became a janitor, and soon fell back into crime.

Upon rejoining the South Boston crime underworld, Bulger became a small time bookmaker and loanshark with strong ties to Donald Killeen. At the time Killeen was the leader of the Irish mob in Southie. A full scale gang war broke out between the Killeen and Mullen mobs. As the war progressed, Bulger realized he was on the losing side of the conflict. What ensued was a partnership between the two sides with Howie Winter (leader of the Winter Hill Gang) at the helm. Through this partnership Bulger became a part of the Winter HIll Gang leadership. The gang’s turf now spread from Sommerville to Southie and would soon encompass nearly all of Boston.

Stephen Flemmi became partners with Bulger in the early 1970’s. Flemmi had been working with the FBI since 1965 giving intel to agents about the Patriarca crime family. Whether Bulger knew of Flemmi’s relationship with the FBI before becoming an informant himself is not clear. Once Bulger became an informant, the two men knew each other’s relationship with the agency. Bulger used his status to withdraw the mafia’s presence in the North End and took over the turf where he could. Bulger and Flemmi were also protected from 1979 racketeering indictments that took down the remainder of the Winter Hill Gang leadership. Bulger and Flemmi were now in command of the largest organized crime regime in Boston.

 

As the gang became more violent and disappearances of people that Bulger did not trust became more common. People of Boston became afraid of Bulger, and even more scared to ever cross a man with the reputation he possessed. Bulger was untouchable by law in the 1980’s. FBI Special Agent John Connolly would tip off the mobster whenever there was any perceived danger picked up on his end. In the Mass State Police, they had Richard J. Schneiderhan. According to Flemmi, who was childhood friends with Schneiderhan,”He was our most valuable law enforcement connection, the only one we had in the troopers.

 

Bulger expanded his repertoire to include the drug trade. Instead of smuggling or selling, Bulger offered protection for street level dealers. Bulger figured this was safe because he figured the police would not care who was getting money from the dealers in return for clearance to sell, just who supplied the dealers. Whitey was strict about the type of drugs that could be sold, and did not allow for sale to children. The drugs he limited dealers to were marijuana and cocaine. After his arrest, Bulger was quoted as saying “People can blow coke and function, but once you hit the needle you’re a zombie.

 

Everyone knew what the Winter Hill Gang was about. People that spoke out against the mob were targeted, and usually were handled directly by Bulger. Police couldn’t be trusted because an arrest with Connolly and Schneiderhan in the two major law enforcement agencies that could build cases against him was unattainable. People in Southie and the rest of the Boston area were silenced. Any protest to the gang’s activity could cause you to end up with a slug between your eyes.

 

Whitey Bulger’s untouchable status soon came to an end with the retirements of Schneiderhan and Connolly in 1990.The end of Connolly’s career also marked the end of Bulger’s and Flemmi’s informant status. Soon a joint task force compiled of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Boston Police Department, and the Massachusetts State Police began building a case against the two former informants based on the testimonies of former Bulger associates. Even though he had retired, Connolly was still able to tip Bulger of looming indictments in the Winter of 1994. Bulger then began making preparations for a life on the low. He bought fake ID’s and safe deposit boxes around the world to hide money, jewels, and other items that may prove to come in handy when running from the law.

 

For the next 16 years, Whitey Bulger was being hunted by police. There were numerous sightings and false sightings of the man around the world. He had departed with Teresa Stanley, but she asked to go back to her prior life and returned to Boston. When dropping Stanley off, Bulger acquired another woman whom he had previous relations with, Catherine Greig. She spent the remaining time time Bulger was running from police by his side. Bulger was arrested in his Santa Monica, California apartment on June 22, 2011. He was found with numerous weapons and over $800,000 in cash.