A bloody end for a brutal Boston boss

James ‘Whitey’ Bulger’s appalling demise in a West Virginia prison last week brought the curtain down on one of the lengthiest, most vicious criminal careers in American mob lore

Whitey Bulger spent 16 years on the run, but was finally captured in 2011 Pic: AP

In the end, a life that launched a cottage industry of books, documentaries, TV series and films came to a brutal, and not wholly unexpected, denouément. More surprising, perhaps, was the fact that 89-year-old James ‘Whitey’ Bulger survived – both on the run and in prison – for as long as he did.

Violent deaths are nothing new at Hazelton Federal Correctional Institute, one of the most notorious prisons in the United States. ...