Whitey Bulger: America's Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice by Kevin Cullen, Shelley Murphy | eBook

The Washington Post - Jeff Greenfield

If you locked director Martin Scorsese, screenwriter Nick Pileggi and TV producer David Chase in the same room for a month, I doubt they would come up with anything as rich in scope and details as the real-life tale of Whitey Bulger.

Boston Globe - Sean Flynn

Whitey Bulger... is as much a social history as a biography or manhunt thriller.... In the same way that J. Anthony Lukas’s Common Ground is essential to understanding Boston’s racial history, Whitey Bulger is an authoritative treatise on the city’s late-20th-century underworld.

Los Angeles Times - David Ulin

[A]n authoritative study of the legendary criminal and the long manhunt that culminated in Santa Monica in 2011…. Whitey Bulger is a portrait of its subject in all his complexity: devoted son and brother, vicious killer, neighborhood folk hero, anti-integration activist…. It's a terrific book—comprehensive, deeply reported, invested with an understanding of place and character, and the subtle, at times pernicious, ways they interact. This is hardly surprising; the authors, Polk Award-winning Boston Globe reporters (Cullen also has a Pulitzer), have been on the Bulger trail for nearly 30 years. Their expertise infuses Whitey Bulger with authority, a depth and an engagement that makes it less a work of true crime than a social history.

Los Angeles Times - David L. Ulin

David L. Ulin - Los Angeles Times

Jeff Greenfield - Washington Post

David Ulin - Los Angeles Times

A terrific book…A portrait of its subject in all his complexity.

The Economist

Riveting.

Peter King - SportsIllustrated.com

I have a very strong recommendation if you like real crime stories, or very well-told biographies—or if you like both, which I happen to. If you have not read Whitey Bulger: America's Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice…get it now. You'll thank me. It's riveting, graphic and a great tale of real life in South Boston, one of the most compelling neighborhoods in American history.”

Michael Connelly

This is the definitive story of Whitey Bulger. As much social documentary as riveting crime story, the book is a masterwork of reporting by Cullen and Murphy. I couldn’t put it down.

Jimmy Breslin

Easily the best story about crime I've read.

Michael Patrick MacDonald

This is the Whitey Bulger book by the two expert journalists who know the turf best.”

Sean Flynn - Boston Globe

In the same way that J. Anthony Lukas’s Common Ground is essential to understanding Boston's racial history, Whitey Bulger is an authoritative treatise on the city's late-20th-century underworld.”

Dave Davies - NPR's Fresh Air

A great read…So many terrific, amazing stories.

Library Journal

Cullen and Murphy have made careers of covering Whitey Bulger for the Boston Globe. This sweeping biography—which includes coverage of his 16 years on the lam and his capture in 2011—is an excellent prelude to Bulger's upcoming trial. The scandalous story of the Irish American Winter Hill gang leader is familiar to many. Bulger was an informant for the FBI tasked with helping bring down the Boston mafia. His brother Bill served as Massachusetts State Senate president for several years before becoming president of the University of Massachusetts. (Bill Bulger was forced to resign when news came out that he'd been in contact with Whitey while Whitey was in hiding.) Bulger was given such free rein from his FBI handler, John Connelly (now serving 40 years for murder), that he saw himself as Connelly's partner. Not just the story of Bulger, this is a cautionary tale for how not to work with an informant; the FBI's mishandling seemingly made it easier for Bulger to stay free for so long. VERDICT Highly recommended. Should be very popular.—Karen Sandlin Silverman, Dresden, ME

Kirkus Reviews

A well-researched book claiming to be "the first complete and authoritative account" of the life of criminal James "Whitey" Bulger. From his Boston childhood to his current home in a prison cell, Boston Globe reporters Cullen and Murphy follow their subject through every documented moment in his life. Bulger is a true "Southie" character, his name well-known to residents of the mostly Irish neighborhood before gentrification. After starting as a petty juvenile criminal, he moved quickly to auto theft and then bank robbery, landing himself in prison. Bulger even did a stint in Alcatraz before earning enough good-behavior time to end his sentence more than a decade early. When he returned to Boston, the criminal underworld was ripe for the picking; rather than going straight, he went to the top of what some called the Irish mob--with the support of the FBI. The authors can't quite decide if they want to let the story become personal. They work hard to refer to themselves in the third person but make it clear what they think of their subject and his accomplices. Maintaining distance was a mistake, as personalizing their involvement could make the book stronger, with more palpable tension and the consequences of attracting Bulger's attention more real. Still, Bulger's crimes and partnerships are so compelling that the pages almost turn themselves. Moments of insight into his mind make the book sparkle--e.g., the scene when he's finally caught and refuses to kneel. The authors explain, "Whitey's biggest concern, he later said, was that there were oil stains on the garage floor where he was standing." Solid writing, remarkable details and the addition of Bulger's fairly recent capture make this a worthy addition to the literature of the mob.

Whitey Bulger: America's Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice

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