Black Mass

A New York Times bestseller!

The gripping story of Whitey Bulger, the mobster turned FBI informant responsible for the worst crime spree Boston has ever seen.

“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

John Connolly and James “Whitey” Bulger grew up together on the tough streets of South Boston. Decades later, in the mid-1970s, they met again. By then, Connolly was a major figure in the Boston office of the FBI and Bulger had become godfather of the local Irish American mob. What happened next—a dirty deal to bring down the Italian American mafia in exchange for protection for Bulger—would spiral out of control, leading to a rash of murders, Bulger’s takeover of the neighborhood drug trade, and, ultimately, the biggest informant scandal in the history of the FBI.

In Black Mass, Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill, the two former Boston Globe reporters who were on the case from the beginning, take us deep undercover, exposing the bargain struck in darkness by two old friends, and the bloody consequences that ensued.

• "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