Diksha Sundriyal
Directed by Scott Cooper, ‘Black Mass’ follows the story of James “Whitey” Bulger, one of the most infamous gangsters to hail from Boston. The story of the 2015 movie specifically focuses on his relationship with FBI agent John Connolly, who recruited Whitey to be an informant for the agency. Soon, however, Connolly discovers that the wheels are turning the other way around, and it is not the agency but Whitey who is benefitting the most from this collaboration. While Whitey’s criminal empire flourishes, the people close to him have to pay the price for their connection to him — one of them is his brother, William “Billy” Bulger.
Billy Bulger Remained Fiercely Loyal to His Brother
In the movie, loyalty becomes a critical factor in determining who will have the upper hand in the situation. Whitey benefits from the commitment of the people surrounding him, which is exactly what happened in the real life as well. When the FBI decided to finally get their hands on Whitey and his gang, they had to rely on people he had close connections with to get more information about his crimes. More importantly, they needed someone who they knew Whitey would be in touch with while he was on the lam. Billy Bulger happened to be one of those people, but he was also fiercely loyal to his brother.
When Whitey was still on the run, Billy refused to give any shred of information to the authorities, even though, by then, Whitey’s connection to several gruesome crimes and murders had already been established. At one point, he was even reported to say that he didn’t mean to say or do anything that would lead Whitey to be apprehended by the authorities. His silence and lack of cooperation with the agency led to a stain on his political reputation, and things started to go downhill for him professionally.
Eventually, he did appear in front of the court in 2002, but even then, he pled the Fifth Amendment. Previously, he had admitted to having talked to Whitey in 1995, but he didn’t alert anyone about it, and this would have been held against him for obstruction of justice. In 2003, he was given full immunity, which meant that no matter what connection he may have had to Whitey’s criminal world would be entirely ignored in return for his testimony. However, Billy testified that he had no idea of Whitey’s operations and even went forward to say that he hadn’t even heard of Whitey’s Winter Hill Gang.
Billy Bulger Paid the Price for His Loyalty to Whitey
In 1995, Billy Bulger had moved on from his career in politics, with his brother’s infamy being one of the reasons for its decline, and was made the president of the University of Massachusetts. During his time, he made some significant strides in the development of the university, but his tenure was cut short in 2003 when he was forced to resign from his position. One of the main reasons behind his removal from the chair was his silence on Whitey’s whereabouts and his consistent refusal to cooperate with the authorities. However, he did get a severance of about $1 million, along with his annual state pension of $200,000. This is also when he accepted his retirement and rescinded into his private life.
In 2011, Whitey Bulger was captured after an anonymous tip put an end to his sixteen years of life as a fugitive. Billy attended his arraignment, but he stayed away from the eight-week trial that followed. He was also not present in court when the guilty verdict was passed on his brother, who received a sentencing that made sure he would spend the rest of his life in prison. While Billy did talk to the media over these years, he maintained the wall of selective silence he had built over the past couple of decades.
In one of his interviews with a WCVB-TV reporter, he talked about the things he found out his brother was accused of and was “shocked by some of the things.” Billy also added that Whitey had denied a lot of the allegations against him, and he didn’t know what the entire truth was about his brother’s crimes. Still, even in the light of the accusations, most of which were proved in a court of law, Billy said he “just [tries] to be a brother” and doesn’t “try to sort it out any longer” about what’s real and made-up in the case. He also revealed that he made weekly visits to see his brother in prison but also added that “just because [he visits Whitey] doesn’t mean [he] condones it.”
Billy Bulger was Kept Busy by His Involvement in Several Organisations
While Billy Bulger sought professional retirement from politics and public service, following 45 years of work in various fields, he continued to be involved with trusts and other organizations. When his son, James, co-founded the Thornton Group, a Boston-based cross-border investment advisory firm, Billy served on the board of directors. He had also served as the president of the Boston Public Library Board of Trustees and served on its board as well for several years. He has been a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Board of Overseers, Massachusetts General Hospital Board of Trustees, Citizens Bank of Massachusetts Board of Directors, and the National Grid USA Advisory Board.
Billy Bulger has been a member of organizations like the Museum of Fine Arts Board of Trustees, the McLean Hospital Board of Trustees, and the Winsor School in Boston while also serving as the overseer of the Children’s Museum in Boston. Due to his work, during his seven-year tenure at UMass, the university has created the William M. Bulger Presidential Scholarship in honor of his pursuit of “the dual mission of excellence and educational opportunity” while also providing “financial assistance to motivated students who are serious about their education” through fundraisers and the William M. Bulger Scholarship Fund.
Billy Bulger is Enjoying Retirement Today
Now in his 90s, Billy Bulger has completely removed himself from public life and is enjoying his retirement from his home in South Boston, where he has lived for most of his life. In 2020, he lost his wife, Mary, with whom he enjoyed sixty years of marital bliss. However, he has nine children (William, James, Sara, Patrick, Mary, Daniel, Kathleen, Christopher, and Brendan) and more than 30 grandchildren to keep him company. While his name is unequivocally connected to his brother’s, Billy Bulger has tried to separate their lives by talking about his own through various mediums. In 1996, he authored a memoir titled ‘While the Music Lasts.’ In 2010, he was the subject of a documentary called ‘A Profile in Political Power’ and another documentary in 2021, ‘My Name is Bulger.’
Having left public office and given up his place in UMass about two decades ago, Billy Bulger has only sparsely appeared in public over the years. One of those times was in 2018 when he and the entire Bulger family and friends attended Whitey Bulger’s funeral service at St. Monica’s Church in South Boston. Concerning the circumstances surrounding his death in prison, Billy Bulger and his family, through Whitey Bulger’s estate, filed a lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBP), seeking $200 million in damages. According to the lawsuit, the Hazelton prison, where Whitey was transferred and killed, is called “Misery Mountain,” with no proper facilities to ensure the safety and well-being of the prisoners. It also mentioned that Whitey’s reputation as “a mob turncoat and killer of women” was enough cause for danger on his life, and this fact was not considered while focusing on his security.
In 2022, the lawsuit was dismissed by a West Virginia judge, who said that allowing the FBP to be sued would lead to “strong tension with Congress’s decisions to give the BOP discretion over inmate placement, prohibit courts from reviewing inmate placement, and omit an individual-capacity damages remedy. Congress had many opportunities to create a damages remedy for situations where a housing decision leads to injury. But it did not do so. Instead, it has repeatedly limited judicial authority to review BOP housing decisions and to entertain claims brought by prisoners.”
Read More: Lindsey Cyr: How did Whitey Bulger’s Ex-Girlfriend Die?
