Winter Gang Hill

After almost 16 years of hiding, they captured him. An era of terror came to an end. On August 12, 2013 Whitey Bugler awaited his verdict. How did America's most-wanted criminal end up in the hands of the Federal Bureau of Investigation? Just two words: a cat and breast implants. After years of unsuccessful attempts on capturing Whitey Bugler. The FBI decided to take a different route and this time making Catherine Greig, his wife, their target. The FBI tracked down her plastic surgeon who handed them photographs of her. This couple was so gifted in hiding their tracks that the FBI did not have a clear photograph of them. The second on the list was the cat. The couple's love for animals led to their neighbor whose cat they cared for, responding to the public service announcements. In a way, if Whitey Bugler was in hiding by himself, he would have never seen the insides of a court again. However, as they say "your evil deeds eventually catch up to you". He was sentenced to a life in prison for "19 murders, extortion, money laundering and possession of weapons, including machine guns" (Seeyle 2). On hearing of his sentence, June Barry, a local resident of South Boston said "I'm glad they got him...We always said, 'Well, Whitey might be listening, we'd better behave ourselves" The end of Winter Hill gang had come but during their years of reign, they had impacted the neighborhood of Somerville and the lives of its people.

The imprisonment of Whitey Bugler did mark the end of Winter Hill Gang. However, the gang had died with the death of Buddy Mclean, The King. His death and the dead of hundreds of people all started with the Irish Gang War. The bloodiest Irish gang war of American History started in 1961 and ended in 1966. It included two of the major gangs of Boston, McLaughlin's of Charleston and Winter Hill Gang of Somerville. The incident that brewed the gang war was caused due to a woman (McLean 1). This whole situation is a perfect example of making a mountain out of a mole hill. It all started with the Irish gangster George McLaughlin making a pass at a Winter Hill Gang member's wife. To McLaughlin, it was just a form of having fun but he barely knew what was awaiting him. His actions angered the Winter Hill Gang members to an extent that they brutally beat McLaughlin giving him severe head injuries. After this incident, it was a complete domino effect. When the McLaughlin brothers learned about the state of George, they were just waiting to shed blood. The King of Winter Hill Gang, George Mclean, heard about the incident and was dragged into the situation. Being a loyal friend who would never turn his back on his friends (McLean 3). Both sides were heated and a volcano was about to erupt.

Before the McLaughlin brothers could rage out on all the Winter Hill Gang members, they approached McLean asking him to hand over the two people responsible for their brother's injuries. Being true to his gang, he denied the request in a blink of an eye. This angered McLaughlin's brothers that they decided to plot the death of McLean. One way the McLaughlin's tried to kill McLean was by hiding five sticks of dynamites in his car. However, being the King he escaped that attempt an every murder attempt that followed (English 200). George McLaughlin wanted to put a stop to this chase. He followed McLean and shot him at Charleston Square with hundreds of spectators. After the death of McLean, one would think the killings would have come to an end. However, it had just started. Ironically, McLaughlin was not sent to prison for the murder of the McLaughlin brother. He was sent to prison for the possession of weapons. With the King gone, the violence ironically escalated. Other gang members were dragged into this war. One Boston policeman said that, "punks began turning up dead all over town" (Ford 50). It clearly gives one an idea of the blood shed that came out of this gang war.

The first time, they dressed as Rabbis and shot McLaughlin in the parking lot of Beth Israel hospital --he lost half of his jaw, but lived (English 308). The Winter Hill Gang members were trying to finish of the remaining McLaughlin's brothers so they could put an end to the bloodshed. The McLaughlin eventually ran out of luck and were killed. With the death of McLean thought he was in the safe zone but he was quite wrong. His altercations with the other gangs led him to be shot by the Charleston gang (English 309). After the death of Buddy McLean came the most notorious Irish gangsters of all time: Whitey Bulger. Whitey Bulger's contribution to the Winter Hill Gang was quite interesting. Whitey had begun on the wrong path with small crimes which eventually led "to serious crimes like hijackings and bank hold ups" (English 319). He had instilled immense amount of fear in the local drug dealers. In Anthony Attardo's testimony he says, "I grew up in Southie all my life. Everybody knew his reputation. Very dangerous, he meant what he said". In addition, Attardo said that the gang members had put many prohibitions on which drugs they could sell or not that it hurt their business. The Winter Hill Gang members would collect money from many drug dealers depending on the amount of drugs they sold (Malone 1). Truly, Bulger was feared and he knew he was the king of Winter Hill Gang now.

Winter Hill Gang had affected other gangs but it had an impact on its neighborhood and people. "A fellow could come up to us right now, if it was the '60s, and shoot us and there'll be 10 witnesses and no one would ever say nothing. Today, everyone would say everything." These words were spoken by Bobby Martin who grew up in Winter Hill during the bloody years. In his book, "Citizen Somerville: Growing up with The Winter Hill Gang", he describes a scene where his father Bob Martini Sr. and few of his friends are playing cards. The air is filled fume implying it's a relaxed setting. Then, the friends begin arguing over who should close the window to let the fumes out. "Ya, you're losin', Bob, that's why you want to open a window! Don't think I don't see ya, comin' around and readin' our cards!" said one of the friends (Martini 4). They seemed to have a care in the world. Little did they know, the mood was about to change. Martini describes the blast that took place out of his home as "deafening". There were metals flying everywhere. They were scared. If this were to happen anywhere else, there would be a mob of police officers but not in Somerville says Martini (Martini 5). A civil war was waging in Somerville.

After the blast, the first question Bob asks, "How many dead?" It showed the occurrence of these blasts. The friends got up from the floors to check out the damage.