Black Mass, Dick Lehr
Black Mass, Dick Lehr
List: $31.99 | Sale: $22.40
Club: $15.99

Black Mass
Whitey Bulger, the FBI, and a Devil's Deal

Author: Dick Lehr, Gerard O'Neill

Narrator: John Pirhalla, Dick Lehr

Unabridged: 14 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 01/06/2026

Synopsis

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.

About Dick Lehr

Dick Lehr, a professor of journalism at Boston University, has won numerous national and regional journalism awards. He is a former investigative reporter, legal affairs, and magazine writer for the Boston Globe, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in investigative reporting. He is the author of The Fence: A Police Cover-up along Boston's Racial Divide, an Edgar Award finalist for best nonfiction, and coauthor, with Gerard O'Neill, of the New York Times bestseller and Edgar Award winner Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI, and a Devil's Deal, and its sequel, Whitey: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss. He lives outside Boston with his wife and four children.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Nancy on March 26, 2008

The scene is Boston, starting in the 1970s. The FBI has made it a top priority to clamp down on organized crime (in this case, the Mafia, populated by the Italians of North Boston). John Connolly, a very young FBI agent, is called to the Boston office to work in the Organized Crime unit. The idea wa......more

Goodreads review by Grace on August 09, 2011

When I was in my early teens I had an unhealthy obsession with the mafia. I read every single book Mario Puzo wrote, The Way of the Wiseguy, Joey Pistone's Donnie Brasco among other mafia books. Reading Black Mass was like returning to an old friend, but I'm a no longer a pre-teen. I now know that b......more

Goodreads review by Samantha on September 22, 2012

For any reader looking for a dramatic, engrossing true crime story, this one is fantastic. It is well organized, well written, and because of Whitey's recent capture, well timed! (well: the book has been edited since his capture; it originally came out well before.) I won't say much except that the B......more

Quotes

"Black Mass should prompt a reevaluation of the uses and misuses of informers by law enforcement officials throughout the country."—New York Times Book Review

"[Shows] how fragile FBI integrity can be when the good guys lose sight of [the] truth, the rules, and the law."—Washington Post Book World

"A jaw-dropping, true-life tale of how two thugs corrupted the FBI."—Baltimore Sun

"Bone-chilling...one of the best nonfiction reads of the year...a powerhouse of a book. Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill...write like veteran novelists, weaving scene after jaw-dropping scene into a tapestry of sickening American corruption."—New York Post

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List