Deconstructing Whitey: He Never Hit Anyone

I’m working on my book “Boston Bamboozled.” It’s really going to tell the Whitey Bulger Saga from a different angle than has been told before. One part of writing is doing the right research to come as close to the truth as possible in a story that been built on a bevy of falsehoods.

The leading fabricators are the gangster witnesses upon whom much of Whitey’s story depends. Their goal, of necessity, has been to turn Whitey into a total demon, for in painting Whitey as the most vile of the bunch, the better the deal they would get from the government. After the gangsters come the writers who use the lies of the gangsters and make up facts to enhance the sales of their books.

I have to read the other books to insure that I’m telling my story as close to the truth as possible. I’m not sure of this but I think more books have been written about Whitey than John Tyler, James Polk, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, and Benjamin Harrison combined. Just think of that a moment.

Now ask yourself, what effect for the good or bad has Whitey had on anything other than the few poor souls he murdered. The truth is Boston hardly knew he existed. It got along quite well before, during and after he walked its streets. You can point to nothing that his existence added to or detracted from our way of life. Yet to see all that has been written about him who could blame you for thinking he did something important.

When you come down to it he had as much effect on any of us as the guy who on trash day used to go through our neighborhood collecting rags out of the trash containers. We called him “Joe Shich The Rag Man”. He sometimes knocked over a barrel or two and we young kids watched him with a wary eye but when he left the scene all was the same as before he came.

I’m reading one book now that starts off by calling Whitey “arguably the most significant organized crime figure of the twentieth century.” It mentions he “was convicted of planning the murder of eleven people” which in itself is false. He was convicted of their murder, not the planning of them.

A couple of pages after making him the most significant and talking of the 11 murders it mentions John Martorano who had “killed at least eighteen people by then, many dispatched with a quick pistol shot to the back of the head , . . .” seemingly not recognizing 18 is more than 11.

Whitey’s elevation to that position is really a joke. One reason he reached such a lofty height was the FBI’s embarrassment in having him as one of its own. It put him at the top of its most wanted list to cover-up all its past dealings with him.

To put him so high one has to forget about Al Capone, John Gotti, and the many Mafia hitmen including Ice Man” Kuklinski who is “thought to have murdered over 200 men (never women, or children)”

Whitey was a gangster. He was a bad guy. But he wasn’t ever in the league with the top hitters. Plus, unlike Ice Man, he did kill women. In fact, Whitey never did a hit. His reasons for killing the 11 people are all personal.

The following because he thought they would inform or were informing on him (1) John McIntyre (strangely he never met Whitey. Pat Nee who brought him to the murder house and buried him had more to fear from him), (2) Buckey Barrett, (3) Brian Halloran and (4) Michael Donahue who was with him.

He was implicated by Martorano in the killing of (5) John Callahan and (6) Roger Wheeler neither who could jam Whitey into anything. It was Martorano who had the motive to kill them and who admitted killing them.

Whitey killed (7) Paul McGonagle and (8) Tommy King (and I believe Buddy Leonard) because they were rivals for power.

(9) Richard Castucci was murdered by Martorano in a money rip off of the NY Mafia by Winter Hill (10) Whitey abetted the murder of Deborah Hussey (buried with McIntyre and Barrett) helping his partner Stevie Flemmi’s who didn’t like his step-daughter sleeping around. (I also believe he abetted Stevie’s murdering of Debbie Davis. Stevie didn’t want her going off with another guy. She was buried where Whitey buried others.)

The one possible case it could be argued Whitey did a hit was on (11) Eddie Connors because he presented a threat to Howie Winter mostly but being part of Howie’s crew, the threat was also to himself.

A hit man is usually a hired person who has no connection with the person he is about to murder. Martorano was a hit man because he was hired by Gerry Angiulo to do some killings for the Mafia and was hired by Callahan to hit Wheeler. Whitey’s murders were personal. They were not hits.

Not only that, he never hired anyone to do a hit for him. What kind of gangster is that? Hardly one to be remembered  or lionized.