His mother called him Sonny, and he is Jimmy to his friends and siblings, but everyone else knows him as Whitey. James “Whitey” Bulger, Boston’s most notorious gangster, was arrested Wednesday after a 16-year manhunt. Once the head of the Winter Hill Gang, as well as a top FBI informant, Bulger will now finally face charges related to 19 murders and a host of other crimes. And while the 81-year-old’s long criminal career effectively ended while on the run in Santa Monica, Calif., it began, and will forever be linked to, South Boston.The Bulgers were among the first residents of The Old Harbor Housing Project, the second housing project built in the United States, according to a thorough 1988 Boston Globe investigation of Whitey and his younger brother, William Bulger, who would go on to become the powerful president of the Massachusetts state Senate. The Bulgers moved to Old Harbor from Dorchester, Mass., in 1938. James Joseph Bulger, the brothers’ father, had lost part of his arm after a railroad yard accident when he was young and, as a result, had a hard time finding work throughout his life.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=110234