Boston Gangster Whitey Bulger Sentenced To 2 Consecutive Life Terms, Plus 5

Laurel J. Sweet has been covering the James "Whitey" Bulger trial for the Boston Herald.

Southie mobster James "Whitey" Bulger was sentenced today to two consecutive life terms -- plus five years -- after a federal judge ripped into the aging gangster for his "unfathomable" crimes all for the love of blood money. 

Bulger, 84, who remained quiet again refusing to address the court or family members of his victims, was also ordered to pay $19,510,276 and 43 cents in restitution to the families. There was no reaction inside the court from families when the sentence was handed down.

U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper took last night to sleep on her decision and what she heard yesterday from 12 sons, daughters, widows and siblings whose impact statements spoke of despair, family suicides, lost loves and even the triumph of moving on.

Today, she is not holding back: "It is hard to know where to begin," Casper said. "The scope, the callousness, the depravity of your crimes is almost unfathomable ... it was all about money.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

 http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/herald_bulldog/2013/11/whitey_bulger_sentenced_to_2_consecutive_life

You can also read my interview with Dick Lehr, one of the authors of Whitey: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss, via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/06/crime-beat-column-q-with-dick-lehr-co_17.html 

My Washington Times Review of 'Whitey: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss'

The Washington Times published my review of Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill's Whitey: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss.

There have been a good number of books written about Boston’s Irish mob boss, Whitey Bulger, and up to now “Black Mass: The Irish Mob, the FBI and a Devil’s Deal” by Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill was the best one in my view. But Mr. Lehr and Mr. O’Neill have surpassed themselves with “Whitey.”

“This biography of James J. “Whitey” Bulger will explain the evolution of Bulger from juvenile delinquent in the 1940s to stone-cold killer in the 1960s, from unchallenged crime boss in the 1980s with the blessing of a corrupted FBI, to fugitive from justice in 1995, and, finally, to his capture sixteen years later in June 2011 at age eighty-one,” Mr. Lehr and Mr. O’Neill write in “Whitey.”

... I contacted Dick Lehr and asked him why, after the success of “Black Mass,” he and his co-author wrote a biography of Whitey Bulger.

“The bulk and the focus of ‘Black Mass’ is the Whitey Bulger-FBI years, basically two decades from 1975 to 1995. When Whitey was captured, we realized that this guy now warrants a biography,” Mr. Lehr told me.

Mr. Lehr said that he and his co-author realized that in 1975 when he cut his deal with the Boston FBI, Bulger was already 48. He lived half a life that the authors had barely scratched the surface of in “Black Mass.”

“There was this whole life that had not been explored, and Whitey Bulger has a place in American history as a significant crime figure,” Mr. Lehr said. “We wanted to put the “Black Mass” years in a larger context of his life story, a biography, in which we try to not just tell this dramatic and horrific story, but get more into the why and how in the making of this monster.”

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/13/whitey-bulgers-horrific-crime-span/?page=all#pagebreak

You can also read my interview with Dick Lehr via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/06/crime-beat-column-q-with-dick-lehr-co_17.html