Whitey Bulger: License to Kill

Whitey Bulger was one of America’s most notorious mob bosses. He was a violent, sociopath but he accomplished the almost-unimaginable: he got FBI agents to let him kill whomever he wanted.

This week, the incredible, mind-blowing story of Bulger and his Winter Hill Gang and how they basically ran the organized crime squad of the FBI and key officers of the Boston Police Force for over a decade.

Our guest is the award-winning author and professor of journalism at Boston University—Dick Lehr. A former member of the Spotlight team for the Boston Globe and Pulitzer Prize Finalist in investigative reporting. Lehr spent over two-decades researching this story with his colleague Gerard O'Neil.

Their books - 'Whitey: the Life of America’s Most Notorious Mob Boss' and 'Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI and a Devil’s Deal' - were made into a major Hollywood movie staring Johnny Depp. And Lehr explains just how Whitey Bulger got - a license to kill.

The show: Learn more at www.crimewavespodcast.com, you can follow the team on twitter at @declan_hill

Dick Lehr: Check out his new book at https://www.amazon.com/White-Hot-Hate-Terrorism-Heartland/dp/0358359902