Whitey Bulger, famous Boston gangster and informant, died at age 89

A troublemaker from an early age, Whitey ran with a gang, stole cars, assaulted people and was sent to a reform school. He joined the Air Force at age 20, but was released after being assigned to A.W.O.L. He burgled banks from Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Indiana and spent nine years in federal prisons. Back in South Boston, he became the leader of an Irish crowd. In 1979, he and his partner, Stephen Flemmi, took over the infamous Winter Hill Gang, which had dominated crime for years.

At that time, both were F.B.I. informants. The dates and circumstances of their recruitments are in dispute, but the target was the Patriarca family, which controlled organized crime in New England. John Connolly, an F.B.I. who was a childhood friend of Mr. Bulger, became his master.

This arrangement put an end to the reign of Patriarca, but the price was high. In 1998, Chief Justice Mark Wolf of the Federal Court of Massachusetts concluded that the Federal Court of Appeal's minutes protected both informants, even other federal and provincial police services. of state, insofar as they committed murders and other heinous crimes. Both Flemmi and Connolly were convicted of murder and sentenced to long prison terms.

Although he was apparently never married, Mr. Bulger had a long relationship with a Quincy waitress and another with Theresa Stanley, who had several children from a previous relationship. Ms. Stanley ran away with Mr. Bulger when he disappeared in 1994, but a few weeks later, she returned to her children. Ms. Greig then joined Mr. Bulger, who spent the years fleeing with him.

In the face of justice, finally

After their capture, Mr. Bulger and Ms. Greig were brought back to Boston for trial. Ms. Greig was accused of harboring a fugitive and, as part of a plea agreement reached in 2012 in federal court in Boston, was sentenced to eight years in prison and a fine of 150 $ 000. She was later sentenced to 21 months of additional imprisonment for refusing, even with immunity from prosecution, to testify before a grand jury to determine if other people had helped Mr. Bulger then that he was a fugitive.

Mr. Bulger has been accused of complicity in 19 murders, racketeering, extortion, money laundering and other crimes. A parade of former associates testified against him during a two-month trial, recounting the murder of rival thugs and other people identified by the F.B.I. as informants. Witnesses spoke about gunshots on the faces and forks of the victims, checks and requests for money for the privilege of doing business on Bulger's territory.