James "Whitey" Bulger would qualify as the bad seed in any household. Now a wanted fugitive, this street-smart South Boston mobster stands accused of numerous violent crimes, including no fewer than 18 murders. Not surprisingly, Whitey's brother Billy has always been known as "the good son." But according to this revelatory book, William Bulger's career as a Massachusetts state senator and as the president of UMass was also riddled with corruption and chicanery.
Publishers Weekly
Pritchard sounds so much like actor David Strathairn of Good Night and Good Luck in this compelling audio version of Boston journalist Carr's book about William and Whitey Bulger, that listeners might imagine the late Edward R. Murrow telling this fantastic story. Pritchard, a heralded veteran of more than 430 audiobooks, minimizes any moments of possible melodrama, subtly catching instead the superb irony of two brothers who rose to the heights of their chosen careers. Billy was a political powerhouse and kingmaker who was president of the Massachusetts senate and head of the University of Massachusetts. Whitey (born James) was a psychotic gangster who used such tools as flagrant murder and FBI corruption on his climb to the role of chief of Boston's flourishing Irish mobs and who has now disappeared. Anyone who doesn't know the details of the Bulgers' amazing dual saga will find them all spelled out in Pritchard's clean, understated delivery, which makes the whole thing even more incredible. Simultaneous release with the Warner hardcover (Reviews, Oct. 24). (Apr.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Boston Herald reporter Carr tracks a pair of Beantown siblings along a twisted trail of extortion, graft, murder and other crimes that overran even the FBI. Making it clear that he will not be unduly obsessed with journalistic objectivity here, the author describes his behavior during Billy Bulger's testimony at a 2003 congressional hearing: "In full view of the CSPAN camera, I periodically grimaced, made faces, stuck out my tongue, rolled my eyes, and grabbed my throat when I thought Billy was being less than forthcoming." Carr goes on to document that Billy's reputation as "the good brother" was as misleading as his congressional testimony. He follows Billy's ascent from Boston's notorious Southie neighborhood (which he served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives to his eventual presidency at the University of Massachusetts. Big brother Whitey Bulger was in Carr's estimation a fulltime, nonpareil crook, possibly the model for the hit man in George V. Higgins's celebrated Boston crime novel, The Friends of Eddie Coyle. For nearly three decades, the author contends, Billy worked inside the system while Whitey worked outside the law; the crux of Carr's thesis is that they cooperated in buying and corrupting whomever they could not intimidate or, in Whitey's case, permanently remove. Among those bought, the author asserts, was FBI agent Zip Connolly, another Southie boy; it was a congressional investigation of corruption in the Boston office of the FBI that finally cost Billy his job at UMass. Billy's eventual disgrace tainted an associated host of Boston political hacks and bureaucrats, but he still draws a state pension; Whitey remains at large, reportedly sighted in locales asdisparate as Thailand and Portugal. A classic, seamy portrait of widespread moral turpitude, conveyed with crackling Boston-Irish sarcasm.
From the Publisher
"Listeners might imagine the late Edward R, Murrow telling this fantastic story . . . Anyone who doesn't know the details of the Bulgers' amazing dual saga will find them all spelled out in Michael Prichard's clean, understated delivery, which makes the whole thing even more incredible." ---Publishers Weekly Audio Review
AUG/SEP 06 - AudioFile
There's some intriguing history in this well-researched book and some transcendent lessons, like the synergy Carr notes between school desegregation busing of the 1970s and the ability of Mobsters to increase their reign. And there's the usual Irish and Italian Mafia goings-on to marvel at in disgust: adultery, alcoholism, bigotry, corruption, drugs, decapitations, fraud, homosexuality, money, murder, and sex. However, there's a problem with this production. It's like having Tom Brokaw reading the Sunday newspaper to you with a cold. Michael Prichard is flat and nasally throughout, a quality that takes some getting used to. But he's got the “ums” and “ers” of natural conversation down pat. D.J.M. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
