James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, public misfit, murderer, racketeer and arms dealer, all characteristics contributing to his status as a mobster. Currently 86 years old, Whitey Bulger has had a full life of crime beginning at the early age of 14. In the time since Whitey’s legacy has stretched from theft, forgery, assault and battery, larceny and armed robbery as a youth, to bank robberies, murder and becoming an enforcer for crime lord Donald Killeen. After Killeen’s death, Bulger joined the Winter Hill Gang where he quickly ascended in power. As a mobster he sanctioned killings, slowly becoming a prominent figure in Boston’s crime scene by 1979 when he became the boss of the gang. 16 years passed full of drug dealing, loan sharking and other illegal
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All parts of this man’s criminal life have been a topic of great media interest, especially within the Massachusetts area. Bulger was known to the victims and police during his mobster reign, but came to the public’s attention at the point of his fleeing. Over the 16 years that Bulger was on the run, he was hotly debated as to his public transgressions and his whereabouts. Upon his capture, Bulger’s fate was debated by all, not only those of the jury. Since the conclusion of his trial with the yielded results, the movie Black Mass has emerged in 2015. This movie starring Johnny Depp, has brought fame and judgement to the actions that Whitey Bulger has committed. The shunning and judgement of Whitey Bulger is similar to that of the shaming of Hester Prynne. Hester’s trial was a public occasion that every one of her town attended bearing witness to her publicly believed misdoings and embarrassments. All of her town’s folk expressed specific opinions of Hester’s actions, including the women who watched her journey to the scaffold and one of whom commented “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die”(Hawthorne 49). Although Hester and Whitey’s actions differ drastically, the public’s opinions of them parallel each other with the reprimanding by the public and even some who wish them
All parts of this man’s criminal life have been a topic of great media interest, especially within the Massachusetts area. Bulger was known to the victims and police during his mobster reign, but came to the public’s attention at the point of his fleeing. Over the 16 years that Bulger was on the run, he was hotly debated as to his public transgressions and his whereabouts. Upon his capture, Bulger’s fate was debated by all, not only those of the jury. Since the conclusion of his trial with the yielded results, the movie Black Mass has emerged in 2015. This movie starring Johnny Depp, has brought fame and judgement to the actions that Whitey Bulger has committed. The shunning and judgement of Whitey Bulger is similar to that of the shaming of Hester Prynne. Hester’s trial was a public occasion that every one of her town attended bearing witness to her publicly believed misdoings and embarrassments. All of her town’s folk expressed specific opinions of Hester’s actions, including the women who watched her journey to the scaffold and one of whom commented “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die”(Hawthorne 49). Although Hester and Whitey’s actions differ drastically, the public’s opinions of them parallel each other with the reprimanding by the public and even some who wish them