Street Soldier by Edward J. Mackenzie Jr

Author:Edward J. Mackenzie Jr. [MacKenzie, Edward J. Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-58642-182-3
Publisher: Steerforth Press
Published: 2003-04-24T04:00:00+00:00

A Different Breed

So much has been written about Whitey’s intelligence and psychology. He continues to intrigue and perplex people. Then again, Whitey was a gangster, and America has long been fascinated by organized crime and figures like Al Capone, Dutch Schultz, Myer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, and John Gotti. Whitey Bulger was like all those guys, and like none of them. He intimidated, controlled, killed, and made lots of money from the rackets. But he had his own way of doing things and a cunning pathology that separated him from the rest. As proof, I submit that while almost all of America’s major organized mob bosses have died either by violence or in prison, including John Gotti, Whitey is still out there, somewhere.

It wasn’t difficult to see how Whitey became a leader of street thugs like myself. In the mean streets of Southie, you not only had to be smart and disciplined, you also had to be ruthless, willing to kill when necessary. Whitey Bulger was the total package, and every one of us loved him for it. We wanted to be like him and be near him, because we saw the way he was treated. People not only respected him, they feared him. We saw the way he manipulated people and created an organization that served him perfectly. We saw his money, his girls, his connections, his power. We saw the way he did his time in prison and got out. We saw the way he beat the authorities year after year, running his rackets and staying out of handcuffs. We knew he wasn’t fearless, that he didn’t have the physical courage to go one-on-one like many of us, but that was okay. He had us to take care of that part of the business. He was still a ferocious bastard and he could send the fear of the devil through all of Southie.

Whitey taught us that smart criminals didn’t call attention to themselves. Even in what he wore, he led by example. He didn’t wear, or drive, big money, but we still knew the big money was his. Most of us had no clue how to make a successful living in the legitimate world. We knew nothing about college and suits and ties and offices in big buildings downtown. We knew about the successes of the “other” people and their beautiful homes, cars, and kids, but that was never going to be us. If we were going to make serious loot, we were going to have to earn it differently. Whitey Bulger showed us the way.

He mocked polite society, telling us that only suckers played it straight and fought in the thankless trenches of a nine-to-five world. He told us that in the world of supposedly legitimate business, the major winners and richest executives were thieves in white collars. He told us that they screwed as many people, if not more, than he and his mob associates. The only difference was that society had determined that when they screwed people, it was legal.

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