Boston has had its share of bookies and loan sharks, gangsters and wiseguys, hoodlums and hit men. From the Great Brink's Robbery, which was hailed as the crime of the century; to the long-forgotten Cotton Club in Roxbury, where the legendary nightlife kingpin Charlie "King" Solomon was gunned down; to the infamous Blackfriars Massacre, a brutal gangland slaying that left five men dead, slumped over a backgammon game in a cramped basement office--all of these dark moments in time are a part of Boston's history that is rarely spoken about. Boston Organized Crime explores the region's shadier side and takes a closer look at the mobsters and racketeers who once operated in the Greater Boston area. Drawing upon an eclectic collection of crime scene photographs, mug shots, and police documents, author Emily Sweeney takes readers on an eye-opening journey through Boston's underworld, from the bootlegging days of Prohibition to the bloody gangland wars of the 1960s.

The New England Mafia was a hugely powerful organization that survived by using violence to ruthlessly crush anyone that threatened it, or its lucrative gambling, loansharking, bootlegging and other enterprises. Psychopathic strongman Joseph "The Animal" Barboza was one of the most feared mob enforcers of all time, killing as many as thirty people for business and pleasure. From information based on newly declassified documents and the use of underworld sources, Boston Mob spans the gutters and alleyways of East Boston, Providence and Charlestown to the halls of Congress in Washington D.C. and Boston's Beacon Hill. Its players include governors and mayors, and the Mafia Commission of New York City. From the tragic legacy of the Kennedy family to the Winter Hill-Charlestown feud, the fall of the New England Mafia and the rise of Whitey Bulger, Mark Songini's Boston Mob is a saga of treachery, murder, greed, and the survival of ruthless men pitted against legal systems and police forces.

Explore the backrooms and seedy hangouts throughout the real story of Boston’s gangster past in this true crime history guide. The capture of notorious mobster James “Whitey” Bulger closed an infamous chapter in Boston history, yet the city’s criminal underworld has a long and bloody rap sheet that stretches back to the beginning of the twentieth century. Journalists Ford and Schorow reveal the underbelly of Boston through profiles of ruthless gangsters like Charles “King” Solomon, the Angiulo brothers, Joseph “The Animal” Barboza, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi and many more who carried out deadly hits and lucrative heists.

A GUIDED TOUR OF BOSTON’S UNDERWORLD, REVEALING THE PLACES WHERE DEALS WERE MADE, PEOPLE WERE KILLED, AND BODIES WERE BURIED Gangsters have played a shady role in shaping Greater Boston’s history. While lurking in local restaurants or just around the corner inside that inconspicuous building, countless criminals have quietly made their mark on the city and surrounding communities. Gangland Boston reveals the hidden history of these places, bringing readers back in time to when the North End was wrought with gun violence, Hanover Street was known as a “shooting gallery,” and guys named King Solomon, Beano Breen, and Mickey the Wiseguy ruled the underworld. Drawing upon years of research and an extensive collection of rare photographs, author Emily Sweeney sheds light on how gang violence unfolded during Prohibition, how the Italian mafia rose to power, and how the Gustin Gang came to be. She also uncovers little-known facts about well-known crime figures (Did you know the leader of the Gustin Gang was an Olympic athlete? Or that a fellowship at a major university was named after a big-time bookie?) From South Boston to Somerville, Chinatown to Charlestown, and every neighborhood in between, readers will get to know mobsters in ways they never have before. Readers will find out: * Exact addresses where mobsters lived, worked, and played around Greater Boston * How an Olympic athlete became one of Boston’s most notorious gangsters * The untold history of the Gustin Gang * Frank Sinatra’s connection to a long-forgotten Massachusetts racetrack * Little-known facts about David “Beano” Breen, Charles “King” Solomon, Harry “Doc” Sagansky, Raymond L.S. Patriarca, and other legendary crime figures

The riveting New York Times bestseller by award-winning columnist Howie Carr--now with a stunning new afterword detailing Whitey Bulger's capture. For years their familiar story was of two siblings who took different paths out of South Boston: William "Billy" Bulger, former president of the Massachusetts State Senate; and his brother James "Whitey" Bulger, a vicious criminal who became the FBI's second most-wanted man after Osama Bin Laden. While Billy cavorted with the state's blue bloods to become a powerful political force, Whitey blazed a murderous trail to the top rung of organized crime. Now, in this compelling narrative, Carr uncovers a sinister world of FBI turncoats, alliances between various branches of organized crime, St. Patrick's Day shenanigans, political infighting, and the complex relationship between two brothers who were at one time kings. As the film Black Mass, starring Johnny Depp as Whitey Bulger, hits theaters, take a deeper dive into the story of the Bulgers, and their fifty-year reign over Boston with Howie Carr's The Brother's Bulger.

Featuring all the trappings of a Scorsese film, this first-hand account from one of Whitey Bulger’s enforcers is “one of the best” insider accounts of life inside the mob (Washington Post) During the 1980s, Edward J. MacKenzie, Jr., “Eddie Mac,” was a drug dealer and enforcer who would do just about anything for Whitey Bulger, the notorious head of Boston’s Winter Hill Gang. In this compelling eyewitness account—the first from a Bulger insider—Eddie Mac delivers the goods on his one-time boss and on such former associates as Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi and turncoat FBI agent John Connolly. Eddie Mac provides a window onto a world rarely glimpsed by those on the outside. Street Soldier is also a story of the search for family, for acceptance, for respect, loyalty, and love. Abandoned by his parents at the age of four, MacKenzie became a ward of the state of Massachusetts, suffered physical and sexual abuse in the foster care system, and eventually drifted into a life of crime and Bulger’s orbit. The Eddie Mac who emerges in these pages is complex: An enforcer who was also a kick-boxing and Golden Gloves champion; a womanizer who fought for custody of his daughters; a tenth-grade dropout living on the streets who went on, as an adult, to earn a college degree in three years; a man, who lived by the strict code of loyalty to the mob, but set up a sting operation that would net one of the largest hauls of cocaine ever seized. Eddie's is a harsh story, but it tells us something important about the darker corners of our world. Street Soldier is as disturbing and fascinating as a crime scene, as heart-stopping as a bar fight, and at times as darkly comic as Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction or Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas.

When the FBI turned an Irish mobster into an informant, they corrupted the entire judicial system and sanctioned the worst crime spree Boston has ever seen. This is the true story behind the major motion picture. James "Whitey" Bulger became one of the most ruthless gangsters in US history, and all because of an unholy deal he made with a childhood friend. John Connolly a rising star in the Boston FBI office, offered Bulger protection in return for helping the Feds eliminate Boston's Italian mafia. But no one offered Boston protection from Whitey Bulger, who, in a blizzard of gangland killings, took over the city's drug trade. Whitey's deal with Connolly's FBI spiraled out of control to become the biggest informant scandal in FBI history. Black Mass is a New York Times and Boston Globe bestseller, written by two former reporters who were on the case from the beginning. It is an epic story of violence, double-cross, and corruption at the center of which are the black hearts of two old friends whose lives unfolded in the darkness of permanent midnight.

The capture of notorious mobster James "Whitey" Bulger closed an infamous chapter in Boston history. Yet the city's criminal underworld has a long and bloody rap sheet that stretches back to the beginning of the twentieth century. Boston journalists Beverly Ford and Stephanie Schorow reveal the underbelly of Boston through profiles of ruthless gangsters like Charles "King" Solomon, the Angiulo brothers, Joseph "The Animal" Barboza, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi and many more. Ford and Schorow navigate the backrooms and seedy hangouts where deadly hits and lucrative heists were hatched to guide readers to the real story of Boston's gangster past.

A case began to unfold like nothing the quaint Detroit suburban area of Orchard Lake had ever seen. In the hours following a near head-on collision between a mysterious sedan and an on-duty patrolman, the frightening truth behind the speeding car's driver would be discovered. The vehicle was littered with weapons, drugs, and cash, yet these items weren't even the beginning. The most menacing item law enforcement could imagine was made of paper. Found in Chester Wheeler Campbell's possession was a set of meticulously detailed assassin's notebooks - containing the names of unsolved murder victims and a list of planned targets. It was a time when outlandish courtroom drama, gangland executions, corruption investigations, and scandals were all part of the twisted world where a Motor City Hit Man could thrive. This is the true tale not only of a murderer for hire, but also the parallel people and occurrences that helped warp a stressed socio-economic landscape of Detroit into a drug fueled organized crime controlled underworld

An amazing compilation of first hand Whitey Bulger, Winter Hill Gang, and Italian mafia stories as told by Boston Organized Crime figure, Mark Silverman. Silverman recalls his own deadly encounter with notorious Irish Mob Boss, James "Whitey" Bulger along with actual FBI recordings of the most sacred Italian tradition; an actual induction ceremony. Silverman compares his inside views with those of other highly regarded mob writers. Boston Mafia Chronicles the history of the Winter Hill Gang and the New England mafia through the eyes and ears of Boston organized crime figure Mark Silverman along with supplemental material from some of the most well known and respected journalists who have covered the mafia for over thirty years. Silverman explains how shifting allegiances and internal power struggles have moved the power base from Providence to Boston and back again. In 1988 Frank Cadillac Salemme was released from prison and decided to rekindle his criminal partnership with his old pals Whitey Bulger and Stevie Flemmi which led to at least six mob related killings in 1991 and sparked an all out power play in the New England mafia. The next six years brought with it a slew of underworld slayings. Some were personal while others were directly related to Salemme's grab for power. By 1995 a grand jury handed down a sweeping indictment that included Salemme, Bulger and Flemmi. While Flemmi decided to stick around, Bulger and Salemme high tailed it out of Boston. Salemme headed to West Palm Beach, Florida and was apprehended seven months later and brought back to Boston to face charges ranging from extortion to murder. Bulger lasted over16 years on the lam. It was not long before Salemme found out that Bulger and Flemmi had been informing on him since the 70's. He was approached by Attorney General Janet Reno to make a deal and deliver payback to the FBI and the back stabbing mobsters. Reno wanted to bring down Boston FBI agent John Connolly who allowed Bulger and Flemmi to rule unabated for two decades. Many mafia story lines have an all-too similar ring to them. Not this book. Silverman threads the needle with this impressive back story surrounding the mysterious relationship between Whitey Bulger and the FBI. Millions were netted by Bulger's crew and FBI agents. But where did all the money go?