Summary:
The next 50 pages that I read in this book were about Jimmy and where he lived, and his morality. He knew and was aware that he would never commit any of the violent crimes. Oh...what am I saying? Aren't ALL crimes violent? What Kevin Weeks is trying to say is that Jimym wouldn't commit EXTREMELY violent crimes. He would even help out the people in need at the local charity. Jimmy never hesitated to help someone that needed help. He would sometimes give the person money, buy him/her a coat if they're cold, and even things like buying someone a condo. But there were times when he wouldn't help someone. Those were the times when he though they were just trying to get money off of him.
There was one guy that pissed Whitey off. He was a what they nicknamed "Wheels". He was a creep in his early 40's. He was in a wheelchair and Whitey despised him. What made Jimmy so pissed off was how he would beg for money from women, and if they didn't give him any he would cuss scream and yell at them. He would never beg to get money off men, because he knew that his a** would get kicked if he cussed some guy out. What really pissed Whitey off was that he could walk, and he was yelling at people for money. One time, Jimmy saw it as he was driving by. Wheels was bothering some elderly woman who probably had less than him. When she didn't give him anything he started yelling and screaming at her. Jimmy, no furious, got out of his car, and started beating Wheels off his wheelchair, and took his wheelchair and threw it into the street. The same thing happened a week later, when he was bothering another woman when she was with her grandson. Whitey, who was across the street watching his store "Rotary Variety" in South Boston. He was even more furious then ever. He went inside the store, and took a baseball bat. He then ran across the street to Wheels.Whitey threw him off his wheelchair and started brutally and mercilessly beating him. After the beating, he took the wheelchair, and banged it up with the baseball bat so that Wheels could not ride it anymore. That was the last time Whitey ever saw Wheels.
One guy that no one liked in town was a guy nicknamed Stippo. He lowered prices on a liquor store he just bought, and he was getting all the business. Other liquor stores hadn't got any customers, and this was the time of about 1 week after he purchased the liquor store. Bomb threats and Deaths threats started coming in. Thats when e had asked Whitey to find out who was making those bomb threats. Whitey accepted, but for those few nights Stippo couldn't sleep. Soon after, Weeks and Whitey were driving there car around and a guy named "Sunny" stopped them. He was the owner of the liquor store down the street. He said that he was the one making bomb threats, and jimmy told him not to actually bomb the place. He agreed. After 3 more weeks Stippo wanted to sell the place. They agreed to a $100,000 package. He said $65,000 dollars worth of merchandise was there, but tere was really only $35,000. He also left to Flroida, so Whitey didn't know where he left, and where he lived now. About 1 week passed, and then numerous bills came in. One for about $25,000 for the liquor, and one for about $10,000 for basic stuff such as lighters and other groceries/stock. He had ripped Jimmy off. They wer pissed, but nothing can be done about it now.
Quote:
"He'd typically ask a guy for change, and wouldn't say a word if the guy said no, but if a woman refused him money for wine, he'd be swearing and grabbing on to her dress . That after noon, the piece of shit was swearing at one particular woman in her fifties who had her grandchild with her, calling her everything in the book" (Weeks 214)
Reaction:
My reaction to this quote and really to these couple of chapters was that Jimmy had morality, and held his honor. He wouldn't beat or kill a random guy. He would only kill or beat up the people that deserved it. Likewis, he beat Wheels for doing that. He hated those kind of scum people that though they could take advantage of woman and children. In my opinion, I think that guy deserved it. He could walk, but he preferred to be known as a cripple, so he could bum money off of them.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Brutal (151-202)
Summary:
As I continued reading more into the book, they had talked about one guy selling drugs, and monitoring everything. However, when Billy Shea started spending more time in Florida, then things changed. Jimmy fired Billy for not monitoring the drug deals that were going on. It was Billy Shea's job to monitor the deals that he made, but he wasn't paying attention. if someone is dealing 7 to 10 kilograms of cocaine a week, then that is a lot of money. Bulger got mad that Billy wasn't paying attention and then finally fired him, since he didn't want to lose anymore money.
People had to pay Whitey money if they wanted to sell drugs in Boston. it was like Jimmy taxed them for selling drugs. he called it "Shaking down". I inferred that this word means to take away something from someone. Weeks had continued in the book talking about how much drug deals would cost and all that.
Chapter eight talked about ten more murders that occurred. I was surprised that Weeks did not give that much details in this chapter, he just talked about ten regular guys getting killed because of a reason, and how they were killed. Nothing special. However, Chapter 9 talked about how much morality Jimmy had, even though he had killed many people before. He would donate money to local Charity's such as St. Augustine's Food pantry every year. He would also go down to the local Salvation Army, and donate money there every year. If he believed in the cause, he would donate stuff to them. One thing that he did not have sympathy for was heroin dealers. He did not like them, the drug was too dangerous, and there was no way he was going to have them selling that stuff in Southie. Weeks talked about one dealer, who got off easy. one night, Jimmy caught up with him, and talked for a few minutes. he said it was a warning, to never sell it again, but he continued to sell it. The following week, Jimmy went to his house in The Old Colony Projects, and boarded his house up with plywood. He finally moved out. The rest of the pages talk about how Jimmy and Weeks did not have sympathy for a heroin dealers, and that they would kill any that didn't get out of town within a specified time limit.
Quote:
"No matter how important something was that we had to tell each other, it could wait until we were able to take a walk or go to a place we considered secure. The agents had taken everything into account, except for the discipline, the one issue about which Jimmy never, ever let up. Not then, and assuming he is still out there, not now" (Weeks 164).
Reaction:
When I was reading on the bus, and came across this quote, it made me get a stick note from my bag and bookmark it. It was one of those quotes you had to write down or save. One thing that I really find interesting about this book is how Weeks describes every story in detail and always tells the truth...or at least it sounds like that. For instance, Weeks did in fact tell the truth right now about how much discipline Jimmy had, and for that reason, he is still out there today.
As I continued reading more into the book, they had talked about one guy selling drugs, and monitoring everything. However, when Billy Shea started spending more time in Florida, then things changed. Jimmy fired Billy for not monitoring the drug deals that were going on. It was Billy Shea's job to monitor the deals that he made, but he wasn't paying attention. if someone is dealing 7 to 10 kilograms of cocaine a week, then that is a lot of money. Bulger got mad that Billy wasn't paying attention and then finally fired him, since he didn't want to lose anymore money.
People had to pay Whitey money if they wanted to sell drugs in Boston. it was like Jimmy taxed them for selling drugs. he called it "Shaking down". I inferred that this word means to take away something from someone. Weeks had continued in the book talking about how much drug deals would cost and all that.
Chapter eight talked about ten more murders that occurred. I was surprised that Weeks did not give that much details in this chapter, he just talked about ten regular guys getting killed because of a reason, and how they were killed. Nothing special. However, Chapter 9 talked about how much morality Jimmy had, even though he had killed many people before. He would donate money to local Charity's such as St. Augustine's Food pantry every year. He would also go down to the local Salvation Army, and donate money there every year. If he believed in the cause, he would donate stuff to them. One thing that he did not have sympathy for was heroin dealers. He did not like them, the drug was too dangerous, and there was no way he was going to have them selling that stuff in Southie. Weeks talked about one dealer, who got off easy. one night, Jimmy caught up with him, and talked for a few minutes. he said it was a warning, to never sell it again, but he continued to sell it. The following week, Jimmy went to his house in The Old Colony Projects, and boarded his house up with plywood. He finally moved out. The rest of the pages talk about how Jimmy and Weeks did not have sympathy for a heroin dealers, and that they would kill any that didn't get out of town within a specified time limit.
Quote:
"No matter how important something was that we had to tell each other, it could wait until we were able to take a walk or go to a place we considered secure. The agents had taken everything into account, except for the discipline, the one issue about which Jimmy never, ever let up. Not then, and assuming he is still out there, not now" (Weeks 164).
Reaction:
When I was reading on the bus, and came across this quote, it made me get a stick note from my bag and bookmark it. It was one of those quotes you had to write down or save. One thing that I really find interesting about this book is how Weeks describes every story in detail and always tells the truth...or at least it sounds like that. For instance, Weeks did in fact tell the truth right now about how much discipline Jimmy had, and for that reason, he is still out there today.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Brutal (102-150)
Summary:
Kevin Weeks starts off talking about the three murders he took part in, this was in between 1983 and 1985. The names of the people that got murdered were Arthur "Bucky" Barett, John McIntyre, and Stevie's former girlfriend, Deborah Hussey. Jimmy and Stevie would commit crimes together often, and would stick up for each other. Stevie would never let things go. If someone was bothering him, killing him/her would be on top of his mind.
The first murder that took place at 799 East Third Street was of Arthur "Bucky" Barett". he neglected to pay Jimmy $1.5 million. He thought he can get away from Whitey, well....he was wrong. Jimmy Met him at a travel agency a couple of months later. A simple 5 minute conversation was all it took to pique Jimmy's interest. A few months later, they set up a meeting at 799 East Third Street. Oh no...this is getting bad. As soon as Bucky entered the basement, Whitey pulled out a Mac-11 9mm machine gun with a silencer and put it to Bucky's head. Jimmy said "Bucky Barrett, Freeze" (Weeks 109). Bucky sat down and Stevie chained him. Jimmy had a little talk, and off they went to his house with him. Bucky went inside the house and returned with $47,000. They went back to 799 East Third, while Weeks went to eat. 45 minutes later, Jimmy called Kevin to come back to the house. When Kevin came back, Jimmy shot Bucky in the head and killed him. Weeks started digging a hole in the basement while Stevie was pulling he teeth off of this guy and taking off Bucky's clothes, and then stuffed him in a body bag. He threw him in the hole and poured some limestone on him, to help his decomposition.
The second murder at 799 East Third Street was of John McIntyre. He was a 32 year old drug smuggler. It all began when Whitey and his friend, Phil Costa to transport some drugs from South America to Boston. When they transported the drugs, the DEA came along and was waiting on shore at the dock. When they came on the boat, they searched it, and found the drug cache right away. Whitey had a suspicion someone was ratting them out. Another incident happened like this when they were trying to transport a ton of firearms. These included pistols, high powered riles of all different calibers, bulletproof vests, and all kinds of different explosives. They were trying to put the arms on the Valhalla, a small ship that was going to Ireland that a couple of Whiteys friends owned. When they were in Gloucester that night, loading the shipment of arms onto the Valhalla, all Weeks and Whitey's job was security. When the ship departed from Gloucester to Ireland, the Royal Navy stopped them about 50 miles off shore, and right when they got on board, they knew where the arms were. Now Whitey was extremely mad, and you know what happens when he gets mad... Oh yeah, they got McIntyre a couple of months later when he was walking home. They got him to the same basement that Bucky died in, and killed him right when he was walking down the stairs. Stevie started taking the guy's teeth out while Weeks was digging a hole. That was the end of a rat.
The third murder took place at..you guessed it; 799 East Third Street, and it was Stevie's "stepdaughter". Stevie killed his "stepdaughter for stripping in Boston as a job, bringing blacks to her house, and doing drugs. In 1985, it all ended for her. She came into Stevie's house. Weeks was upstairs in the bathroom, so was Bulger, laying on the couch. When Kevin got out of the bathroom, he heard a thud, and immediately went downstairs with Whitey. they saw that Stevie was strangling her, with her face and lips blue, eyes bulging, and not breathing, he knew she was dead. Now it was time to bury the body. There was no blood this time, so the cleanup process was quick. Jimmy went back upstairs to sleep while Stevie and Weeks went downstairs. As with the 2 other murders, Weeks would dig the hole in the basement while Stevie would pull out the teeth of the victim and strip them, then he would dispose of those properly.
That was the last murder that occurred in that house. They got word that someone was buying 799 East Third Street. this meant that they had to dig up the 3 bodies and take them out, and dispose of them somewhere else. i wouldn't have been a good idea to keep the bodies there. Can you imagine digging a hole in your basement and finding 3 bodies in there? Yuck! Stevie, Weeks, and Whitey them took the bodies out and buried them later that night behind a hotel on a Halloween party. No one noticed them, and if they did noticed that they were burring bodies, then the would get killed with a grease gun, a machine gun with a silencer from World War II.
The next chapter that I began reading talked about drugs extortion and shaking down largescale drug distributors. I inferred that shaking down meant that Jimmy or Stevie would take control of the drug dealers, and would say something like "You're going to work for me now, and you're going to pay me monthly fee" (Weeks 147). If they didn't pay, then they would get killed, simple as that. Jimmy and Stevie would get huge amounts of cash, sometimes ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars. One guy paid them 1.8 million.
Quote:
"Jimmy always said nighttime was the best camouflage, and it was free --- just there, waiting to be used" (Weeks 130)
This is actually a smart comment that Bulger made. It made perfect sense, the "it was free" part drawed my attention the most, though. Bulger probably like things free, but I don't really get why he would say that because he buys clothes for thousands of dollars. It was probably good for him and he was happy that nighttime was free because he liked getting things for free, just like he did with money.
Reaction:
I liked how the author, Kevin Weeks talked descriptively of how much money they would get in each extortion. He always stated a name, and how much money they would get. Like for example, "Not every drug extortion put money in my pocket. Like the one in 1981 involving an antiques dealer, David Lindholm, who was dealing drugs off the islands of the Cape. The guy was smuggling 1,000 pounds of...." (Weeks 155). I LOVE when the author says things like this and in this way. It makes me enjoy the book more.
Kevin Weeks starts off talking about the three murders he took part in, this was in between 1983 and 1985. The names of the people that got murdered were Arthur "Bucky" Barett, John McIntyre, and Stevie's former girlfriend, Deborah Hussey. Jimmy and Stevie would commit crimes together often, and would stick up for each other. Stevie would never let things go. If someone was bothering him, killing him/her would be on top of his mind.
The first murder that took place at 799 East Third Street was of Arthur "Bucky" Barett". he neglected to pay Jimmy $1.5 million. He thought he can get away from Whitey, well....he was wrong. Jimmy Met him at a travel agency a couple of months later. A simple 5 minute conversation was all it took to pique Jimmy's interest. A few months later, they set up a meeting at 799 East Third Street. Oh no...this is getting bad. As soon as Bucky entered the basement, Whitey pulled out a Mac-11 9mm machine gun with a silencer and put it to Bucky's head. Jimmy said "Bucky Barrett, Freeze" (Weeks 109). Bucky sat down and Stevie chained him. Jimmy had a little talk, and off they went to his house with him. Bucky went inside the house and returned with $47,000. They went back to 799 East Third, while Weeks went to eat. 45 minutes later, Jimmy called Kevin to come back to the house. When Kevin came back, Jimmy shot Bucky in the head and killed him. Weeks started digging a hole in the basement while Stevie was pulling he teeth off of this guy and taking off Bucky's clothes, and then stuffed him in a body bag. He threw him in the hole and poured some limestone on him, to help his decomposition.
The second murder at 799 East Third Street was of John McIntyre. He was a 32 year old drug smuggler. It all began when Whitey and his friend, Phil Costa to transport some drugs from South America to Boston. When they transported the drugs, the DEA came along and was waiting on shore at the dock. When they came on the boat, they searched it, and found the drug cache right away. Whitey had a suspicion someone was ratting them out. Another incident happened like this when they were trying to transport a ton of firearms. These included pistols, high powered riles of all different calibers, bulletproof vests, and all kinds of different explosives. They were trying to put the arms on the Valhalla, a small ship that was going to Ireland that a couple of Whiteys friends owned. When they were in Gloucester that night, loading the shipment of arms onto the Valhalla, all Weeks and Whitey's job was security. When the ship departed from Gloucester to Ireland, the Royal Navy stopped them about 50 miles off shore, and right when they got on board, they knew where the arms were. Now Whitey was extremely mad, and you know what happens when he gets mad... Oh yeah, they got McIntyre a couple of months later when he was walking home. They got him to the same basement that Bucky died in, and killed him right when he was walking down the stairs. Stevie started taking the guy's teeth out while Weeks was digging a hole. That was the end of a rat.
The third murder took place at..you guessed it; 799 East Third Street, and it was Stevie's "stepdaughter". Stevie killed his "stepdaughter for stripping in Boston as a job, bringing blacks to her house, and doing drugs. In 1985, it all ended for her. She came into Stevie's house. Weeks was upstairs in the bathroom, so was Bulger, laying on the couch. When Kevin got out of the bathroom, he heard a thud, and immediately went downstairs with Whitey. they saw that Stevie was strangling her, with her face and lips blue, eyes bulging, and not breathing, he knew she was dead. Now it was time to bury the body. There was no blood this time, so the cleanup process was quick. Jimmy went back upstairs to sleep while Stevie and Weeks went downstairs. As with the 2 other murders, Weeks would dig the hole in the basement while Stevie would pull out the teeth of the victim and strip them, then he would dispose of those properly.
That was the last murder that occurred in that house. They got word that someone was buying 799 East Third Street. this meant that they had to dig up the 3 bodies and take them out, and dispose of them somewhere else. i wouldn't have been a good idea to keep the bodies there. Can you imagine digging a hole in your basement and finding 3 bodies in there? Yuck! Stevie, Weeks, and Whitey them took the bodies out and buried them later that night behind a hotel on a Halloween party. No one noticed them, and if they did noticed that they were burring bodies, then the would get killed with a grease gun, a machine gun with a silencer from World War II.
The next chapter that I began reading talked about drugs extortion and shaking down largescale drug distributors. I inferred that shaking down meant that Jimmy or Stevie would take control of the drug dealers, and would say something like "You're going to work for me now, and you're going to pay me monthly fee" (Weeks 147). If they didn't pay, then they would get killed, simple as that. Jimmy and Stevie would get huge amounts of cash, sometimes ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars. One guy paid them 1.8 million.
Quote:
"Jimmy always said nighttime was the best camouflage, and it was free --- just there, waiting to be used" (Weeks 130)
This is actually a smart comment that Bulger made. It made perfect sense, the "it was free" part drawed my attention the most, though. Bulger probably like things free, but I don't really get why he would say that because he buys clothes for thousands of dollars. It was probably good for him and he was happy that nighttime was free because he liked getting things for free, just like he did with money.
Reaction:
I liked how the author, Kevin Weeks talked descriptively of how much money they would get in each extortion. He always stated a name, and how much money they would get. Like for example, "Not every drug extortion put money in my pocket. Like the one in 1981 involving an antiques dealer, David Lindholm, who was dealing drugs off the islands of the Cape. The guy was smuggling 1,000 pounds of...." (Weeks 155). I LOVE when the author says things like this and in this way. It makes me enjoy the book more.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Brutal (49-101)
Summary:
From page 49 to page 101, I was became extremely interested in this book. When I started to get more deeper into the book, I realized Weeks was committing more and more crimes with Bulger. Now that he quit the T, his other job laying down track for the trains here in Boston, he had more time to spend with Whitey. This caused him to work full time for Jimmy. Whenever he came home at night, Weeks would watch the Nightly News with his wife, Pam. His wife knew that he was involved with Whitey, but she didn't know the particulars of what he did with him.
Whitey and Kevin would never talk about anything specific. They would say things like "Did you take care of it" (Weeks 75). They would never say a word like "car" on the phone. It was extremely dangerous, now that Whitey was known to have committed 40 murders. He could have been wire tapped at any moment and not even know it. "I was as tied to him as he was to me" (Weeks 72). This was after he killed 40+ people. The FBI was probably on his back and spying on him.
When Weeks started his own loan shark business, his reputation grew even bigger. A loan shark is basically a guy that will give you money when you need it, and fast. For example, if a guy wanted $25,000, then he would have to pay $625 interest back to Weeks. Weeks was also smart about his business. He only gave money to people he knew over the years, and only the people who he knew would pay back. There was almost no violence involved in his business because most of the people paid it back.
Jimmy talked to a lot of people.He was very courteous to every person he met, even the person sitting next to him on a bench at Castle Island. He would often talk about politics and education, books and other things he had read about in the newspaper. He would never talk about crime, though. He always had code names, so in case someone he was talking to was wired. He bought a lot of jewelry, and a lot of expensive things such as alligator skin cowboy boots, or wear fine suit's ranging from $1,000 up to $10,000. He would even buy his dates and women cars and condos. Where did he get all of this money? Extortion's. He would get a guy that just got out of work and told him that he was on someones hit-list. Weeks and Bulger accepted any amount of money ranging from $50,000 to $500,000. The guy would pay, no doubt. Whitey always persuaded them that "You can make more money, but you can't make another life" (Weeks 101).
Quote:
"He was disciplined and lived and breathed the life of crime, which explains why he is still out there today, rather than in a jail cell" (Weeks 63).
This made me scared a little bit. Even though the guy is probably in his mid eighties, he was once the king of the streets here in Dorchester and South Boston. He is "disciplined" at crime? Wow, he must be good since he is one of the few mafia/mobsters that got away with killing so many people.
Reaction:
I was very intrigued by these 50 pages. Whitey was very smart about how he committed a crime. He would watch people even though he didn't know them, and he would often do it on rainy days, when no one was paying attention. When Weeks stated that Bulger committed 40+ murders by now...I was just like..."Wow" in my head, and he never got caught for any of them. That really surprised me. He was very attentive, and would think of what consequences would happen if he murdered this guy the wrong way.
From page 49 to page 101, I was became extremely interested in this book. When I started to get more deeper into the book, I realized Weeks was committing more and more crimes with Bulger. Now that he quit the T, his other job laying down track for the trains here in Boston, he had more time to spend with Whitey. This caused him to work full time for Jimmy. Whenever he came home at night, Weeks would watch the Nightly News with his wife, Pam. His wife knew that he was involved with Whitey, but she didn't know the particulars of what he did with him.
Whitey and Kevin would never talk about anything specific. They would say things like "Did you take care of it" (Weeks 75). They would never say a word like "car" on the phone. It was extremely dangerous, now that Whitey was known to have committed 40 murders. He could have been wire tapped at any moment and not even know it. "I was as tied to him as he was to me" (Weeks 72). This was after he killed 40+ people. The FBI was probably on his back and spying on him.
When Weeks started his own loan shark business, his reputation grew even bigger. A loan shark is basically a guy that will give you money when you need it, and fast. For example, if a guy wanted $25,000, then he would have to pay $625 interest back to Weeks. Weeks was also smart about his business. He only gave money to people he knew over the years, and only the people who he knew would pay back. There was almost no violence involved in his business because most of the people paid it back.
Jimmy talked to a lot of people.He was very courteous to every person he met, even the person sitting next to him on a bench at Castle Island. He would often talk about politics and education, books and other things he had read about in the newspaper. He would never talk about crime, though. He always had code names, so in case someone he was talking to was wired. He bought a lot of jewelry, and a lot of expensive things such as alligator skin cowboy boots, or wear fine suit's ranging from $1,000 up to $10,000. He would even buy his dates and women cars and condos. Where did he get all of this money? Extortion's. He would get a guy that just got out of work and told him that he was on someones hit-list. Weeks and Bulger accepted any amount of money ranging from $50,000 to $500,000. The guy would pay, no doubt. Whitey always persuaded them that "You can make more money, but you can't make another life" (Weeks 101).
Quote:
"He was disciplined and lived and breathed the life of crime, which explains why he is still out there today, rather than in a jail cell" (Weeks 63).
This made me scared a little bit. Even though the guy is probably in his mid eighties, he was once the king of the streets here in Dorchester and South Boston. He is "disciplined" at crime? Wow, he must be good since he is one of the few mafia/mobsters that got away with killing so many people.
Reaction:
I was very intrigued by these 50 pages. Whitey was very smart about how he committed a crime. He would watch people even though he didn't know them, and he would often do it on rainy days, when no one was paying attention. When Weeks stated that Bulger committed 40+ murders by now...I was just like..."Wow" in my head, and he never got caught for any of them. That really surprised me. He was very attentive, and would think of what consequences would happen if he murdered this guy the wrong way.
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