By NPR Staff
When Whitey Bulger was captured last year, he’d spent close to 20 years on the run — and on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.
Bulger was the head of an Irish gang terrorizing the streets of South Boston. The Massachusetts State Police wanted him gone, but curiously couldn’t touch him.
Why? Bulger was a confidential FBI informant, and the bureau shielded him for years.
Robert Fitzpatrick, the author of Betrayal: Whitey Bulger and the FBI Agent Who Fought to Bring Him Down, says Bulger was widely known to be an unsavory character.
“He’s a stone killer, has been known to be a hit man for the Mafia out of Providence, and he’s also known to be the head of the Winter Hill gang, a bunch of Irish guys trying to take over the rackets, extortion and the drug stuff up in Boston,” Fitzpatrick tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz.
