Not Everybody Is Happy That Ganster Whitey Bulger Was Captured

Maybe he was able to hide in plain sight because so many Democrats didn't want him caught.

Some of the obvious and not-so-obvious political issues that need deeper coverage are: the general climate of fear on Beacon Hill during the height of the Bulgers era; how the city was still reeling from the forced-busing crisis as the Bulgers rose to power, and how many of their supporters/critics eerily lined up along those old forced-busing fault lines; the mysterious state agency budget cuts and demotions of anyone who dared cross the Bulgers; the cushy government and industry jobs landed by mobsters, their relatives and ex-FBI agents; the politically wired rise of FBI agent Zip Connelly and his gross FBI retirement party; the alleged push to make Zip chief of Boston police; the former governor of Massachusetts who effectively handed over the keys to state government to Billy while he ran for president in ’88; the once crusading U.S. Attorney-turned-governor who ended up cynically playing footsie with the younger Bulger. Etc., etc...


...Most of the Bulgers drama played out within the confines and context of a one-party Democratic state during the ‘80s – and a lot of liberals looked the other way (and still look the other way) at the hack antics of their more “old school” Democratic brethren, as long as they got the liberal-agenda goods in return. One simple question: Where was Ted Kennedy during this entire mess? Bottom line: There was more than a little intentional and unintentional “enabling” going on in this city. No wonder they want to put the entire Bulger era behind them...

...To be fair to Democrats, three straight Republican governors in the ‘90s wouldn’t or couldn’t do anything about the political Gordian Knot strangling this state – and one of them even appointed Billy Bulger as head of UMass. A fourth GOP governor finally took Billy down in the mid-2000s, but Billy ultimately slit his own political throat during televised congressional hearings last decade.