I picked up Black Mass because I saw the movie (which I didn't enjoy, by the way). I wanted to read some more non-fiction books and also some more books that were turned into movies. Johnny Depp did a great job as Whitey Bulger, so why not pick up the book? It seemed like it should be good.

For me, it wasn't. I don't normally venture into these kinds of books so it fell flat for me. That was the point on why I read it (expand those horizons, ya know?), but it did exactly as expected.

I found this book too slow. The content is really cool, especially how it follows the FBI through all of this. It was really intriguing and I can see why so many people would enjoy a book like this. For me, it's just too slow and didn't have enough of the other side of the story. It felt way too slow and factoid than actual story.

One out of five stars. ( )

Re-read before seeing the movie! ( )

I started out somewhat interested in the story but it soon got bogged down in a mass of details that I lost interest in keeping straight. I'm not that fascinated by true crime or gangsters so it was always going to be a uphill slog for me but I thought the local angle would keep me going and it did, for a while. But I mostly wanted to understand the why more than the what and that I never really got. How did Connolly become the willing conspirator of Flemmi and Bulger, was it just the old neighbor ties? Was it more? Was it just plain old power corrupts? That would have made a more interesting book for me. This just ended up dragging to what I knew was the conclusion.

This true crime work of investigative reporting exposes the corruption and collusion between Irish mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger and FBI agent John Connolly. Boston Globe's Lehr and O'Neill provide a detailed account of how the Irish mob used the FBI to take out the Italian Mafia in Boston. By serving as FBI informants, Bulger and his partner Stevie Flemmi helped the FBI put away the Angiulo crime family. Meanwhile, the FBI overlooked crimes committed by Bulger and his crew -- including extortion, robberies, drug trafficking, and murder. This "devil's deal" was exposed in 1998 when a federal hearing discovered FBI internal records had been "fictionalized" to obscure Bulger's crimes while embellishing his value. In 1999, Attorney General Janet Reno had Connolly arrested on charges of racketeering and obstruction of justice. Meanwhile, Bulger is now on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. ( )

Black Mass has been sitting on my bookshelf for quite a while, I was looking for a third book about Jimmy “Whitey” Bulger written by Dick Lehr, I have “Whitey” and have been trying to find “Underboss”. Then I saw the movie “Black Mass” (starring: Johnny Depp and Benedict Cumberbatch as the Bulger brothers and Joel Edgerton as John Connolly, former FBI agent) was scheduled to be released in September 2015. I decided I had to read the book before I saw the movie, which I desperately want to see (I haven’t seen it yet, I have seen “Pawn Sacrifice” and “Steve Jobs”).

In 1988 Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill started to write a story for the Boston Globe about the Bulger Brothers, Jimmy and Billy. One was Boston’s most powerful criminal and Billy was the most powerful politician (which some might say is the same, but hey he never killed anyone, that we know of). In the course of the investigation, they discovered that Jimmy Bulger seemed to be made of teflon, since 1965, while he climbed the ranks of Boston underworld from street soldier to boss, he had not been arrested, not once. He seemed to know when the authorities were closing in on him. He knew about wiretaps. Some in law enforcement felt ‘the fix was in’ even so far as ‘the FBI had secretly provided him cover all these years’. But there was no proof. Mobsters hated informants, this was the world Whitey Bulger lived in. In the end however, the FBI had to come clean, Bulger and Flemmi (Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi) had been informants for over 20 years.

The first meeting between John Connolly, FBI agent and Jimmy Bulger was in 1975, Flemmi was already an informant at this time, had already experienced the protection the FBI could offer, he was never questioned about his criminal activities, even the murders he may or may not have committed. When asked, he told Bulger “Go talk to him.” The deal was made, and the fix was in. There is more to this story than two mob guys being informants and more FBI involvement than one agent covering up. Connolly covered Flemmi and Bulger, other agents covered him. There was a massive head in the sand approach to what was going on. The truth started to come out in 1997, 10 months later after sworn testimony and the opening of secret FBI files the Boston FBI office was revealed to be a gigantic stack of shit. This book tells it all.

Detailed with extensive documentation this books read like a too good to be true Godfather book, except its true, and it’s fascinating. I recommend this to true crime fans in particular fans of mafia books. ( )