I am amazed by the physical transformation of Whitey Bulger. Back in his heyday, he was - very much like his contemporary, the late Irish-American gangster from Cleveland, Danny Greene - a health nut and fitness fanatic. Surveillance footage even from his late middle age clearly shows him as "cut" and "ripped". He was known to drop to the floor even in the middle of intimidating victims, and do fifty push-ups - even a hundred - and then pop up to resume his deadly business, not even out of breath. Sometimes he'd carry identical .357 Magnums, one in each fist. When he dropped to do his push-ups, he wouldn't lay these pistols aside, but would instead convert them into a kind of exercise aid, raising himself up and down on the pistol barrels alone. The man was tough. Let me tell you. Now he looks like he's gone old and soft. I mean, check out that white beard, and the fleshiness of his upper torso. He's even gotten kinda jovial, too - grinning, smirking, smiling broadly at cops and reporters alike. Could Whitey have turned into a kind of crime boss Santa Claus? His stash of $800,000 in cash and thirty-odd weapons, complete with ammo, would fill out any respectable Santa bag and would surely make great stocking stuffers. And what about all those secrets he's been hoarding - about the cops, the FBI, any number of Boston lawyers, politicians and other big-wigs? They'd make great presents too - at least to somebody.
According to his even stockier ex-righthand man, Kevin Weeks, Bulger "boasted that he had corrupted six FBI agents and more than 20 Boston police officers". At Christmas time, Weeks said, "Bulger stuffed envelopes with cash... 'He used to say that Christmas was for cops and kids'". I find it easy to imagine Whitey dressed up in a blood-red Santa suit to earn extra bucks during holiday season at the shopping malls of Southern California. He looks the part now, after all. Beware, O ye Boston coppers, Bad Santa Whitey knows whether you've been naughty or you've been nice!
Capture of Boston gangster could mean more scandal (Salon)
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