Whydy Bulger, a man who in the early years, the 21st century, and an era marked not

by mob figures, but more by jihadism and the war on terror, became the highest ranking

organized crime figure on the federal Bureau of Investigations 10 Most Wounded List.

He was number two on the FBI's list for years, right behind Osama Bin Laden.

Whydy was not an Italian mafia don or a Latin American narco or a Russian mafia gangster.

He was an old-style Irish-American mob boss from Boston.

In the years of his reign, James Whidey Bulger, the kingpin of South Boston, was like a character

out of an old mob movie, politically connected, tough but sentimental, kind to his mother-in-pegged

and also a ruthless sociopath who murdered at least 19 people.

Bulger was notorious for his readiness to use violence, especially murder, to achieve

his criminal goals.

He was attracted to street crime early in life, joining gangs and earning his first arrest

at the age of 14, was sent him to a reformatory.

And then a few bank robberies later, Whidey went away for a decade.

And we might not have ever heard of him.

You might have ended up quickly going right back to prison for other robberies and be

one of the thousands of gangsters whose names never make it into pop culture had it not

been for his brother Billy.

Billy would serve as a member of the Massachusetts Senate for 25 years and president of the University

of Massachusetts for seven years.

And Billy's connected position would somewhat cover Whidey with a protective shield against

retaliation.

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