When the FBI turned an Irish mobster into an informant, they corrupted the entire judicial system and sanctioned the worst crime spree Boston has ever seen. This is the true story behind the major motion picture. James "Whitey" Bulger became one of the most ruthless gangsters in US history, and all because of an unholy deal he made with a childhood friend. John Connolly a rising star in the Boston FBI office, offered Bulger protection in return for helping the Feds eliminate Boston's Italian mafia. But no one offered Boston protection from Whitey Bulger, who, in a blizzard of gangland killings, took over the city's drug trade. Whitey's deal with Connolly's FBI spiraled out of control to become the biggest informant scandal in FBI history.
Black Mass is a
New York Times and
Boston Globe bestseller, written by two former reporters who were on the case from the beginning. It is an epic story of violence, double-cross, and corruption at the center of which are the black hearts of two old friends whose lives unfolded in the darkness of permanent midnight.
A New York Times bestseller!
The gripping story of Whitey Bulger, the mobster turned FBI informant responsible for the worst crime spree Boston has ever seen.
"A powerhouse of a book. Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill ... write like veteran novelists, weaving scene after jaw-dropping scene into a tapestry of sickening American corruption." -New York Post
John Connolly and James "Whitey" Bulger grew up together on the tough streets of South Boston. Decades later, in the mid-1970s, they met again. By then, Connolly was a major figure in the Boston office of the FBI and Bulger had become godfather of the local Irish American mob. What happened next-a dirty deal to bring down the Italian American mafia in exchange for protection for Bulger-would spiral out of control, leading to a rash of murders, Bulger's takeover of the neighborhood drug trade, and, ultimately, the biggest informant scandal in the history of the FBI.
In Black Mass, Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill, the two former Boston Globe reporters who were on the case from the beginning, take us deep undercover, exposing the bargain struck in darkness by two old friends, and the bloody consequences that ensued.
