Hunting Whitey: The Inside Story of the Capture & Killing of America’s Most Wanted Crime Boss

After being tipped off about a pending indictment by his former FBI handler in 1994, mob boss Whitey Bulger went on the lam for 16 years. In 2008, Special Agent Noreen Gleason took over the case to locate Bulger and restore the reputation of the Boston FBI, which had failed to capture Bulger. Meticulously drawing from many previously overlooked materials and interviewing a variety of figures involved with the case, Sherman and Wedge (Boston Strong: A City’s Triumph over Tragedy) offer a vivid account of how Gleason’s team tracked down Bulger. Their break came when they found a picture of Bulger’s girlfriend Catherine Greig and were able to apprehend them both. The trial revealed grisly tales of Bulger’s crimes, including 19 murders. After his conviction, Bulger, then 81, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. In 2018, he was transferred to the grossly understaffed Hazelton penitentiary in West Virginia, where within 24 hours he was murdered by another inmate. The authors explore Bulger’s death, the uproar it created within the federal prison system, and the resolution of challenges at Hazelton.