Booknote: Where the Bodies Were Buried

T.J. English, Where the Bodies Were Buried: Whitey Bulger and the World that Made Him. New York: William Morrow, 2015. ISBN: 978-0-06-229098-4.

Genre: nonfiction

Subgenre: true crime, Boston, New England, trials

Format: hardcover

Source: Berea branch of the Madison County (KY) Public Library

The author was present every day at Whitey Bulger's trial. He also researched and did in person interviews with criminal associates, retired FBI agents, victims and their families. The result is this very good and well researched book on Bulger's reign of terror in Boston as well as the U.S. Government's corruption and protected and enabled Bulger for years.

The main theme is the drama between the prosecution and the defense. The prosecution wants to put Bulger away, and they have plenty of evidence to do so, including a lot of testimony from informants and collaborating criminals, some of which may have been as bad or worse than Bulger. That is a question the author raises in the book: the price of cutting deals with criminals to catch another criminal. In addition, the prosecution wants to do its best to hide any evidence of law enforcement and government corruption that aided Bulger. With a judge that was relatively friendly to the prosecution, and a lot of bluster and outright bullying in some instances, bullying mostly allowed by the judge, the prosecution succeeded in keeping most if not all of the veil up.

The defense naturally wanted to put the U.S. Government's corruption and negligence on display for the world to see the conditions that created Bulger's terror. As noted, they were hindered from that. Another hindrance the defense faced was Bulger's obstinate refusal to admit he was an FBI informant, despite plenty of evidence that he was. This choice basically hobbled the defense in various ways. By the way, no one expected Bulger to go free, but for the most part the government did get away with their misdeeds without being held accountable.

The author's narrative is interesting and engaging. Author alternates between trial accounts and conversations and interviews with parties involved. We get a pretty broad picture of Bulger's world and how that world shaped and enabled him. Compared to other books on the topic, the author raises various questions and points other authors may miss, or more likely chose not to ask. At a bit over 400 pages, this is a lengthy book, but as I said, it is interesting. The author uses different characters he interviews to weave the story and fill in the parts missing if you just go by the trial. The author's case is compelling. As he writes, "in the end, the System protects itself" (414). Law enforcement and the government do not come out well in this book. For the FBI, this is another chapter in their long history of shady tactics and corruption along with the U.S. Department of Justice. If you already had reasons to view the U.S. Government and its enforcement agencies with suspicion, this book will add more evidence and more reasons to be wary. After all, that same government allowed innocent men to go to jail to protect corrupt informants (yea, read the book for that story).

Overall, this was good, interesting reading on a very dark chapter in Boston and New England crime history. It is engaging and well written. Of the many books on the topic, this may be one of the better ones so far. I will consider seeking this author's other books as well down the road.

4 out of 5 stars.

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Additional reading notes:

The author on writing the book and the trial:

"As with other writers, I came to the trial with an 'agenda' of sorts. It was my hope that the People of the United States v. James J. Bulger would be a final accounting of the entire Bulger scandal, not only laying out the full cast of characters that had enabled Bulger-- all the way up the chain of command to Washington D.C.-- but also delving into the historical antecedents that helped create Bulger in the first place" (18).

The trial pretty much failed in that regard, so the author had to put the rest of the pieces together with research, interviews, so on.

Janet Uhlar, juror number 12, went on to raise questions, be critical of the process. A key question she often pondered during the trial, and one I certainly asked as I was reading the book:

"Why Whitey Bulger? What was it about Bulger that made the government feel they needed to make unconscionable deals with men who were as bad-- or worse-- than he was" (16, emphasis in the book).

 

Another side theme in the book is that Bulger generated a cottage industry of books about him, his deeds, and his associates. Some of those books were written, or "written," by his associates. If you want to keep learning more about Bulger and his world, these may be of interest but take with a grain of salt. Retired law enforcement also got in on the cottage industry. Some examples:

• Pat Nee wrote A Criminal and an Irishman in 2006, which was mostly written by two co-authors. English notes in this book that Nee's book was written "at a time when it seemed likely that Bulger would never resurface" (30).
  
• Johnny Martorano, a hitman for Bulger, also had a book, or rather he cooperated with Howie Carr to write Hitman: the Untold Story of John Martorano, Whitey Bulger's Enforcer and the Most Feared Gangster in the Underworld. English writes about Carr and Martorano's book: "Carr, well-known for his animus toward the Bulgers, both Whitey and Billy, had been handpicked by Martorano as his collaborator" (139).
  
• On a side note, Carr also wrote about Steve Flemmi, Rifleman: the Untold Story of Stevie Flemmi, Whitey Bulger's Partner.
• Bob Fitzpatrick, former FBI agent, who tried to challenge the FBI protecting Bulger, also wrote a book: Betrayal: Whitey Bulger and the FBI Agent Who Fought to Bring Him Down. English shows from the trial that, to put it mildly, the FBI was not interested in anything Fitzpatrick had to say, and they pretty much fucked him over despite the agent having a distinguished career. They even booted him out of the agency a year or so before he could collect his pension just to really rub it in.
  

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This book qualifies for the following 2020 Reading Challenges: