William Michael Bulger is an American former Democratic politician, lawyer, and educator from South Boston, Massachusetts. His eighteen-year tenure as President of the Massachusetts Senate is the longest in history. He then became president of the University of Massachusetts.
James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger Jr. was an American organized crime boss who led the Winter Hill Gang in the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, a city directly northwest of Boston. On December 23, 1994, Bulger fled the Boston area and went into hiding after his former FBI handler, John Connolly, tipped him off about a pending RICO indictment against him. Bulger remained at large for sixteen years. After his 2011 arrest, federal prosecutors tried Bulger for nineteen murders based on grand jury testimony from Kevin Weeks and other former criminal associates.
The Winter Hill Gang is a loose confederation of organized crime figures in the Boston, Massachusetts, area. It is generally considered an Irish Mob organization, with most gang members and the leadership consisting predominantly of Irish-Americans, though some notable members, such as Johnny Martorano, are of Italian-American descent.
Stephen Joseph Flemmi is an American gangster and convicted murderer and was a close associate of Winter Hill Gang boss Whitey Bulger. Beginning in 1975, Flemmi was a top echelon informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Michael Patrick MacDonald is an American activist and author focusing on crime and violence. MacDonald is Irish American. In his memoir, All Souls: A Family Story From Southie, MacDonald combines his heritage with his passion for the anti-violence movement. MacDonald helped start Boston's gun-buyback program and founded the South Boston Vigil group. A local community that works to honor Southie's victims of gun violence.
The Irish Mob is a usually crime family-based ethnic collective of organized crime syndicates composed of primarily ethnic Irish members which operate primarily in Ireland, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, and have been in existence since the early 19th century. Originating in Irish-American street gangs – famously first depicted in Herbert Asbury's 1927 book, The Gangs of New York – the Irish Mob has appeared in most major U.S. and Canadian cities, especially in the Northeast and the urban industrial, including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Chicago.
The Charlestown Mob was an Irish mob group in Charlestown, which figured prominently in the history of Boston for much of the 20th century.
Francis Patrick Salemme, sometimes spelled Salemmi, also known as "Cadillac Frank" and "Julian Daniel Selig", was an American mobster from Boston, Massachusetts who became a hitman and eventually the boss of the Patriarca crime family of New England before turning government witness.
James "Spike" O'Toole was an Irish-American criminal from Dorchester, Massachusetts.
Howard Thomas Winter was an American mobster who was a boss of the Winter Hill Gang in Somerville, Massachusetts.
John Joseph Connolly Jr. is an American former FBI agent who was convicted of racketeering, obstruction of justice, and murder charges stemming from his relationship with James "Whitey" Bulger, Steve Flemmi, and the Winter Hill Gang.
Patrick Joseph Nee is an Irish-American former mobster and Irish republican sympathizer. A former member of the Mullen Gang and the Winter Hill Gang, he is a Vietnam War veteran, and author of A Criminal and an Irishman; The Inside Story of the Boston Mob-IRA Connection.
Donald Killeen was an American mob boss who controlled criminal activity, primarily bookmaking, loansharking, and numbers in South Boston, during the late 1940s to the early 1970s.
Paul McGonagle Sr. was an Irish-American mobster and leader of the Mullen Gang, a South Boston street crew involved in burglary and armed robbery.
Louis R. Litif, also known as Nicholas Noonan and Louis Woodward, was an American bookmaker from South Boston, Massachusetts. After running afoul of neighborhood Irish Mob boss Whitey Bulger, Litif was murdered by the Winter Hill Gang in 1980. His body was left in a car trunk in the South End, Boston. The murder remained unsolved for decades.
Timothy A. Connolly III, aka "Timmy Connolly" and "TC", was an American former South Boston bar owner and mortgage broker, who wore a wire inside the infamous Winter Hill Gang and helped the federal government indict their two leaders, James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen Flemmi. The public was led to believe that Tim Connolly was merely a businessman and an innocent victim of one of Jim Bulger's many extortions. But in truth, Tim Connolly was secretly a "made member" of the Winter Hill gang and a high ranking lieutenant in this Bulger crime family.
William S. O'Sullivan was an American loanshark and longtime enforcer for Donald Killeen, the head of the Irish mob in South Boston, Massachusetts. O'Sullivan also acted as a mentor to a young James J. Bulger, who grew up to become the leader of Boston's Winter Hill Gang.
Wilfred J. Delaney was an American gangster and member of the McLaughlin Gang who was a friend and associate of Harold Hannon, a contract killer who had murdered boxer Tommy Sullivan in 1957.
The Killeen Gang was an Irish-American Boston-based crime organization started by Donnie Killeen. At one time, the gang was led by Whitey Bulger.
