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.
Gerard O'Neill was the editor of the Boston Globe's Spotlight Team, one of the nation's top investigative reporting units and the inspiration for the Oscar-winning film Spotlight. A three-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, has also won the Hancock Award, the Loeb Award, and many others. With Dick Lehr, O'Neill also coauthored The Underboss: The Rise and Fall of a Mafia Family and Whitey: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss. He died in 2019
--Baltimore Sun