The Brothers Bulger, Howie Carr
The Brothers Bulger, Howie Carr
21 Rating(s)
List: $20.99 | Sale: $14.70
Club: $10.49

The Brothers Bulger
How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century

Author: Howie Carr

Narrator: Michael Prichard

Unabridged: 12 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/23/2006


Synopsis

This fresh account of Massachusetts's infamous Bulger brothers unveils a stunning criminal alliance, and with its dual biography format, goes deeper than the New York Times bestselling Black Mass. For the first time, journalist Howie Carr reveals the real story behind the infamous Bulgers—two brothers from South Boston who grew up to control a state. With political corruption on one side and deadly force on the other, the Bulgers shared a diabolic and destructive alliance for decades. James "Whitey" Bulger, the "bad" son, blazed a murderous trail to become Boston's most feared mobster and remains one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. William "Billy" Bulger, the "good" son, wielded the gavel as president of the Massachusetts State Senate and the University of Massachusetts, but was eventually forced from both positions. The parallel stories of these two brothers, rich in anecdote and shocking in their revelations, read like an unholy hybrid of All the King's Men and The Godfather.

About Howie Carr

Howie Carr, a native of Portland, Maine, is a popular radio talk show host who is syndicated across New England. Known for his scathing exposes of local politicians, he has raised lots of eyebrows and voices over the years. He's famous for pushing the envelope and not regretting that he went too far. He has also been featured regularly on NBC, MSNBC, C-SPAN, Court TV, CNN, and the Fox News Network.

Carr was Boston City Hall bureau chief of The Boston Herald American, and he later worked as the paper's State House bureau chief. As a political reporter for WNEV, Channel 7, his coverage of then Mayor Kevin White was so relentless that after the mayor announced he wasn't running again, he told the Boston Sunday Globe that one of the things he enjoyed most about his impending retirement was not having Carr chase him around the city.

In 1985, he won the National Magazine Award, the magazine industry's equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, for Essays and Criticism. In television, he has been nominated for an Emmy Award.


Reviews

Goodreads review by kevin on January 04, 2009

Herald columnist Howie Carr's utter disdain for the Bulgers and Boston townie politics is evident on every page of this lightly dramatized true crime book. As someone who lived in the neighborhoods described here, I loved all of the local detail. The prose is journalistic and Carr takes liberties wi......more

Goodreads review by John on February 01, 2025

Easy to read and very illuminating for a young adult who grew up around Boston in the decades following the Bulgers’ heyday. Tales of Whitey were often told like folklore in Massachusetts, but I never knew the extent of his brother Billy’s deceit and corruption until I read this book.......more

Goodreads review by Scott on April 22, 2023

I bought the book because I was interested in learning more about the famous mobster from Boston Whitey Bulger. I learned some interesting things about Whitey like the fact that early in his life it is believed he supported himself by turning tricks as a gay prostitute. Whitey spent years as an FBI......more

Goodreads review by Madeleine on July 29, 2013

Great read about the regime of Billy and Whitey Bulger in Boston. This book throws up so much dirt about the politics of the city and the FBI, that I had to take a shower after reading it.......more

Goodreads review by Walt on August 26, 2019

Carr is a good story-teller. I enjoy reading his works on the Bulger Gang. Something about his writing makes the story of corruption at the FBI and the decline of organized crime in Boston more accessible than the plethora of other books written about Bulger. Even though Carr admits that much of the......more