For being here. Im a bookseller and events host at book line which brookline which is in brookline, massachusetts. We could be anywhere. And i wanted to get started by thank everyone for being here this evening, everyone who is supporting these amazing journalists, writers as well as our bookstores by purchasing their copy of the book through us or by choosing to pay your way after the event. Every event really does make a difference, especially in times like these. We cant understate how much we appreciate it. Just a few things about sort of how the event is going to go tonight and the platform. You can see the chat function as weve been doing, throughout the event, you know, its not a disturbance if you have any thoughts or anything, if you want to just give a shoutout. Feel free to. Not a disturbance at all. I, of course, encourage everyone to be kind and respectful, but hopefully that should go without saying. Im just going to do a short introduction here, and after their conversation well have time for questions from the audience so you can start thinking about any questions you have for these guys, which which point ill come back on screen to sort of repeat the questions, be a vehicle for that. Yeah, so if you have any questions about how that function works, its the little button right there sort of towards the middle of your screen, to the left of the chat box. So you can just punch in your question there. Its relatively straightforward once you have it. I think that covers all the administrative side of things. So tonight were excited to welcome Casey Sherman and dave wedge. They are one of the premiere nonfiction writing teams on stories out of and with the city of boston. Cot, they cowrote the definitive story of the Boston Marathon boll, in bombings, which was adapted into the film patriots day. Tonight finish americas most wanted crime boss, drawing on exclusive interviews and exhaustive investigative reporting to tell the complete story of Whitey Bulger, the leader of bostons winter hill gang and number one on the fbis most wanted list. The capture and eventual murder in prison while incarcerated at one of americas most [inaudible] ice bucket challenge [inaudible] als which is in development for a feature film and a New York Times best selling 12. Finish they both live in boston. Theyll be joined tonight by News Reporter bob ward, widely regarded as one of new englands best crime reporters. From local investigations to federal probes, he has covered hundreds of these cases and is known for getting officials, alleged criminals and witnesses to go on record in his reporting. Numerous awards for his reporting, too numerous to mention here, and were so, so excited to have these incredible writers and journalists with us tonight. Please, join me in welcoming them. Bradley, thank you so much. And thank you for all the kind words. Its an honor, really, to be with casey and dave as they launch this book, hunting whitey, which ive been reading over the last couple of days. Ive known both of you guys for so hong and saw you out so long are saw out in the field. The whitey story, for me is probably the most important story that ill ever cover, and it still goes on. Can i ask both of you why you decided to go after the story of Whitey Bulger . What was it you were trying to get across in your new book . Sure. Well, you know, again, bob, you theres been so much great reporting on the story in the boston area. Youre one of, you know, many journalists that really nails down the life of crime from south boston meshing with his very devilish relationship with the fbi. What dave and i were looking at after bulger was murdered in prison was, you know, those 16 years that he was on the run as a fugitive. And all that time he spent in prison leading up to his murder, and his murder itself, you know, they were the missing gaps in the bulger saga that we were hoping to provide answers for, and i think we did. Join on this innovative book launch. These are difficult times for everybody. Pick it up and have some fun and try to escape a little bit to the occasion that describes. I covered a lot as you and casey did with the Boston Herald for 14 years and i never thought i would consider writing a book about Whitey Bulger because so many reporters have tackled the topic in the past. So many Unanswered Questions of what it is like on the run and theres still this mythology about Whitey Bulger, this local gangster the 3 of us now is completely fiction and we felt a duty to report it out. One of the great things about the book is when i approached Whitey Bulger i had to narrow my focus because it is such a huge story. Where do you dive in . How far back do you go and the corruption, the great thing about this book. That is not why the report. And why dont we go chronologically about what you covered and it really begins in 1994 when the indictments come down and Whitey Bulger disappears but doesnt disappear with Katherine Greg with santa monica. Before christmas, 1994 with his commonlaw wife, Katherine Greg was the mistress in Whitey Bulgers life before going on the run with him. The corrupt fbi agents turned corporate security officer, we had vital information, one step ahead of Law Enforcement. There is a huge noreaster brewing, all of his gang members, his partner in crime about to get indicted so takes her from an odyssey that about a month and a half, teresa is on the run with her husband so to speak but she has kids at home, grandchildren at home but not cut out for the fugitive light and theres a lot of anger and resentment during that time and during that brief. Go where Whitey Bulger would be callous toward her. You are not cut out for it and take it back to chelsea and pick up my mistress, Katherine Greg who has been in love with me for 20 years and where does the fugitive odyssey take us . It took 16 years. He had an idea he would be gone for that length of time . Casey and i like to say he was a student of crime. He considers his time in alcatraz his harvard. He considered himself to have a phd in crime but also in being a fugitive. He had planned for that phone call for many years and he stashed money around the world and around the united states. He had cash, access to cash, countless weapons and he also had many different aliases and books on how to be a fugitive. He read up on crude prison escapes and picked up tips from all these things that served him well during this flight from justice over 16 years. His partner does not do that. Frank salome who was on the outside looking in, they thought they had the system rigged. There are a lot of connections at the massachusetts state police. When tipped off, whitey had been planning for years for this particular moment. They are living day today. They are dragged on the run for nearly two decades. Old guys, he and pat have a relationship, they learned a lot as criminals. Whitey had one approach and when they split up they split up. They ran organized crime outfit like terrorist skills, very categorized in terms of information they share with each other and i dont think Stephen Fleming was the closest to Whitey Bulger, kevin weeks was close to him as well but there was a lot that Whitey Bulger kept to himself in but if they cracked under pressure they would ultimately leave Law Enforcement so bulger insulated himself very smartly. If you look at the legendary or infamous gangsters of american history, our capone, lanskys, john godeys, both are smarter than all of them because they are so willing to insulate themselves and compartmentalize the information hes willing to give to others but that was ultimately why he survived on the run for as long as he did. You talk about him being a ghost on the run in his fugitive years. He was also a mob boss. When hes gone there are no current pictures of him. I remember the fbi releasing audio recordings from one of the bugs so you could hear what he sounded like and contrast that with no john godeys of the world, our capone, they want to be seen it be the mister big bad guy but not whitey. He wanted to be a ghosted be invisible. Those kinds of legendary gangsters that tried to keep in the background and never allow themselves to be photographed or recorded. The teflon don was more known for the thousand dollars suits he wore to court every week as opposed to how he was manipulating and running a criminal organization. Whitey was a student of the organized crime legends and infamous legends that came before and extrapolated those into his own life. Wants to keep it moving. We could talk for hours about this stuff. I think the most fascinating part of this is what happened in louisiana because it was took a little bit of a risk in that he was there on a regular basis and he ingratiated himself with the community and people had no idea who he was, when did they get down to grand isle . After they went on the run. They were swapping cars in new york and part of the story of hunting whitey the inside story of the capture and killing of americas most wanted crime boss is the fbi story and agents despite Public Perception that they werent doing anything many of them were, including charlie jean turco who was able to find one of his getaway cars in a driveway in new york and he takes this car apart and find a receipt and that receipt was for a salon in grand isle louisiana which put the fbi in a hunt for whitey and in that area, they get down there under the alias of tom and helen baxter, they take a family that has a lot of money and bulger and her just throw money at them. They take their groceries, take them shopping for fishing equipment, pay for their medical bills and the thing we love about that part of the story is they also had a dog that was pregnant and the dog had a litter of puppies and one of the puppies was critically ill. In massachusetts we would take that animal to a shelter or Animal Hospital and that animal would be either saved or euthanized. That bio is one to solve that problem and Whitey Bulger, this killer of women and killer of men seized this puppy in the final moments of its life dripping with tears. He cannot understand one of the family members is about to kill this puppy and put it out of its misery and he is going to walk away before the gunshot. Just as do what you need to do. I never heard that story. We got the family to open up to us and that is one of the great things about this project. We covered a lot of different cases. We wrote about tom brady and the new England Patriots and try to extract information from the nfl in the new England Patriots was nearly impossible but go after Whitey Bulger, we were fortunate and lucky that everybody opened up and were willing to tell their story. You were in court and saw whitey and listen to the violence and things he did when he was a younger man, crying over a puppy dog. How do you put that together in your head . Classic serial killer behavior, for Whitey Bulger the weakness was animals. It played a vital role in his undoing which we get to later but it goes back to that mythology. He puts this image of being a super gangster, this untouchable gangster but he was rather cowardly in a lot of ways. With the photographs, everybody was on a need to know basis and that included the family in louisiana, they didnt know he was a fugitive but he was so good at seeing them but when they when they were finally told by the fbi who Whitey Bulger was they refused to believe it. He showed so much kindness, buying gifts for the kids, refrigerators. Didnt the kids call him uncle or something . That is how they knew about it. The day that whitey knew his alias had been made, they had a tearful goodbye and whitey tell them you will read some things in the newspaper, just know that we loved you and we will always love you and despite the depravity of this guy, certainly he was a mobster, continuing to correspond beyond his capture into his years as a convict in federal prison. You tell a great story about how he was made and it involves Teresa Stanley. Talk about women problems. It hurt teresa and that whole episode continued to whitey having to make some fast moves. Here was somebody who loved Whitey Bulger but had to come back to her family and hes trying to grapple with that. She goes out and gets close and the fbi is thinking weve got this guy who is an informant and there will be some pillow talk between teresa and this lowlevel gangster that will play this information as to where whitey is and teresa does give up Whitey Bulgers alias as tom baxter and they are willing to spend the rest of their lives as fugitives at grand isle, nobody cared about this place, nobody still cares. The fbi agents that walked down there thought they were in an episode of true detectives. It was that unusual, people can hide for years there. He had to move on and Katherine Greg was his accomplice and allowed him to crisscross the country like they did. A mistake that was made in the original manhunt before a new group of agents, they went to a long interview, had they done that sooner this flight from justice would have been cut dramatically if not stopped. They got the break in the case in the case he described but the cavalry didnt come. Turco was ready to make a move, theres a lot of questions why that happened and we get into that in the book and that is an interesting part of the story but really key to the early mistakes was not really putting Teresa Stanley under the hot lights. They waited weeks and that didnt happen. It almost took two years for the fbi to interviews John Connolly. No clear answers whether it covers your selves, the whole idea they dont want to do that. That is a big part of our story. A big part of the story we will get to and people can read all about it. The faction that made those mistakes just described to maybe they were mistakes and maybe they were calculated oversights to protect the bureau in boston and Collateral Damage that might have been mixed up with John Connolly but the new age to crack that case, they dont have anything to do with any of that. I remember talking to agents and talked about whitey, very difficult for them to work in that office as long as they were out there. The judge things were taking place where he was an informant and that is coming out at that time. Lisa is dealing with it. The agents in that office i dealing with it as well. How does whitey get to california . Took a train out from chicago to la and landed in la first and eventually got to santa monica at the same time the o. J. Simpson civil trial was underway. This hotel and all of a sudden whitey is trying to sleep and heres helicopters overhead and thinks the fbi is coming to get me but what he didnt realize, media folks and helicopters following o. J. Simpsons motorcade to the civil trial court house in santa monica where that case was ultimately adjudicated. At that moment, in venice beach in the santa monica and in venice beach they find themselves as fugitive and false identification. They are on the boardwalk. There Social Security a threatening demeanor, what it was, in Social Security nets. They are up there, to mix in. Tell the story about no one would see what that is, through the departed, as interested as all of us were and how hollywood was portraying it. It is an interesting read. Anyone who tells a life story, he was fascinated by it. This went to a showing of it, watching Jack Nicholson portray a character based on Whitey Bulger. A few rows behind was the sheriffs deputy from san diego who grew up in massachusetts and knew who Whitey Bulger was, to conform that it was him, this deputy told us in no uncertain terms, he believes Whitey Bulger made him. Talk about art imitating life. I see those images of Whitey Bulger and the sheriff deputy whose name is richard eden, such a small world, we are at the same high School Together so i heard the story when it happened in 2006 because richard eden told me that. He was a guy who was incredibly adept decorated sheriffs deputy in san diego breaking down the cartels in san diego in areas, and that dirty to that Whitey Bulger had. Also Whitey Bulger there was a certain bulge that suggested a weapon. Richard eden was not armed, testifying in a gun trial and down the street and giving his weapon to the veil of that morning. Richard eden was unarmed, he knows boulder wont go without a fight and decided to trail him as long as he can and does so until eventually boulder gives him the slip. It is amazing. Only a few minutes to spend on the pursuit. You mentioned the new agents, new ideas, new ways to keep interest, went into americas most wanted many times. They would target billboards and eventually they targeted an ad campaign focused not necessarily on what he but Katherine Greg, how quickly things turned around in los angeles. Noreen gleason, among those agents, with the reputation, had no ties for the John Connolly regime, by catching bulgers woman, put out ingenious rules. Got some feedback and a Plastic Surgeon that not only