Everyone for being here this evening, you are going to supporting these amazing journalists and writers as those our bookstore by purchasing their copy of the book through us or by choosing to pay your way to the event. Every event especially in times like these so we cant see how much we appreciate it. Before we get started just a few things about how deep did thats critical tonight and just about the platform we are on. You can see youre free to use the chat been doing. Throughout the event is not a disturbance at all if you have any thoughts or anything, if you just want to give a shout out, feel free to. Not a disturbance at all. I encourage everyone to be kind and respectful to authors and each other but hopefully that should go without saying. Im going to give a short introduction here and turned over to Casey Sherman and david which are at that well have time for questions from the audience see concert thinking about in question jeff for these guys at which point ill come back on screen choose to sort of repeat the question and be a vessel for that. So if you have any questions about how that function works, which is a little button right there sort of towards the middle of your screen, to the left of the chat box seat can punch in your question there. Its relatively straightforward once you find it. I think that comes not all the administrative side of things. So tonight we are excited to welcome Casey Sherman and david wedge, one of the premier nonfiction writing teams out of and with the city of boston. Together they cowrote the definitive story of the Boston Marathon bombings in boston strong in the citys trying over tragedy which was adapted into the film patriots day. Tonight it be discussing their new book hunting whitey. Drawing on exclusive interviews and exhaustive investigative reporting they tell the complete story of Whitey Bulger, the leader of bostons winter hill gang and the one on the fbis most wanted list. The book focuses on the years hes been on the run and eventual capture and murder in prison one course record americas most infamous prisons. There are other books include ice bucket challenge a the fight against illness which is development for future from right now and New York Times bestselling 12, the inside story of tom brady fight for attention. They will be joined tonight in conversation by boston 25 News Reporter bob ward regard as for new england best crime reporters. From local investigations to federal probes he has covered hundreds of these cases no forgetting officials allege criminal and witnesses to go on record in his reporting. He has received numerous awards for his reporting, too numerous to mention here, and his Committee Service as well where we are so excited to have these incredible writers and journalists with us tonight so please come in welcoming them. Bradley, thank you so much and thank you for those kind words. Its an honor really to do with casey and dave as they launch this book, hunting whitey which i been reading over the last couple of days. I have known what but the you s for so long and all you out in the field on the whitey story and other stories are well. The whitey story from is probably the most important story that ill ever cover, and it still goes on. Can ask both of you, why you decided to go after the story of Whitey Bulger . What was it you are trying to get across in your new book . Again bob, theres been so much great reporting on this story in the boston area. You are one of many journalists that really nailed down his life of crime from south boston meshing with his very double his relationship with the fbi. What dave and i were looking at after he was murdered in prison was those 16 years that is on the run as a fugitive, and all the time he spent in prison leading up to his murder, and his murder itself. Those are the missing gaps in the bolger saget in helping to provide for. I think we did. Bob, i concur with d. C. I was looked up to you as reporter, a lot of respect. You do some incredible work, special on unsolved cases comes i think i bought after watching really tune into your and you do great steps of think. Want to think everyone for joining us on this innovative book launch event we are doing. These are obviously time for everybody. This is a new way for us to release a book but we hope people pick it up and have some fun and try to escape a little bit into the world of whitey that casey just described. I covered a lot of the whitey stuff as you did for 14 years i never thought i would even consider writing a book about Whitey Bulger because there are so many different great reporters the tackle the topic in the past, but after he was murdered casey and i really thought there was a need to write this book because of so many Unanswered Questions of his murder some Unanswered Questions about his life on the run. There was still this mythology of the about Whitey Bulger about local gangster that the three of us know as completely fiction. We felt a duty to report it up. Thats what we did here. And one of the great things about the book is that when i approached Whitey Bulger, if i had to cover a story or do something, had to narrow my focus because its such a huge story. Where to dive in . How far back do you go . Then theres the fbi corruption, and great thing about this book is you get a taste of all with a focus on the last 17, 18 years of his life thats not widely reported. Youre going to learn a lot from reading this book anything you get some insight into who Whitey Bulger actually was. Let me go chronologically through what you covered, and it really begins in 1994 right, when indictments come down and Whitey Bulger disappears. But doesnt disappear with katherine gray, the woman that we all know he was cut without in santa monica. He disappeared right before christmas 1994 with his commonlaw wife teresa stilley. Now, Catherine Greg was the mistress in his life before she went on the run with them. But Whitey Bulger the corrupt fbi agent turned corporate security officer, we still had Vital Information that he could glean from the fbi. That kept Whitey Bulger one step ahead of Law Enforcement. Theres a huge winter noreaster brewing, finds out all of his gang members and his partner in crime are about to get indicted. So he takes teresa and takes her for an odyssey that lasts for about a month and a half. Teresa is on the run with her husband, so to speak, but shes got kids at home. Shes got grandchildren at home. Shes not cut out for the fugitive life, and theres a lot of anger and resentment during that time between the couple. Teresa stilley was in fear for her life and it many times during that brief treatment where Whitey Bulger would be very violent towards her. Finally Whitey Bulger says all right, youre not cut out for. Im going to take you back to chelsea and ill pick up my mistress, Catherine Greg to hiss being in love with me for 20 years now, and we will see how far this fugitive odyssey takes us. It took them 16 years. When whitey took off you can get an idea you would be gone for that length of time . Yeah, i do, bob. Casey and i like to say that he was a student of crime and he considered his time he served alcatraz is kind of like his harvard. We considered himself to have a phd in crime, but i think it also considered himself to the phd in being a fugitive. He had planned for that moment that phone call from john conley for many years, and he stashed money around the world and round the United States. He had cash. He had access to cash to get access to countless weapons, and he also had many different aliases and ways to make fake ids. He also had a lot of books on how to be a fugitive. He said ive got connections within the Massachusetts State Police which he did have and he knew that or at least he believed that he would be tipped off as well as where whitey was but that wasnt the case and what he had been planning for years for this particular moment in time, they were living daytoday and that wouldnt have got them, but would have kept bulger on the road for two decades one thing more, some of that group had been fugitives in the past and those guys, he was whiteys righthand man along with kevin meeks and he and white had a relationship but they learned a lot from each other as criminals and i think whitey learned lessons from those guys about how to be a fugitive as well. Its interesting that the two of them didnt talk about this is whitey and one approach and he had another approach andwhen they split up that was the end of it. So insular. Its amazing that they ran their organized crime outfits by, theyre very categorized in terms of the information that they share with each other and i dont think bulger shared, Stephen Fleming was the closest but there was a long that whitey kept to himself because he knew if these two cracked under pressure they would ultimately lead Law Enforcement to where Whitey Bulger was hiding so he insulated himself smartly. To me you look at all the legendary infamous gangsters in american history. Our components, meyer lanskys, the john gottis i think bulger was smarter than all of them because he was so willing to insulate himself and compartmentalize the information he was willing to give to others and i think that wasultimately wise. He survived on the run for as long as he did. Talk about him being a ghost on the run in his fugitive years, he was also a ghost when he was a south boston mob boss. When he was not there were no current pictures of him and i remember one time the fbi releasing audio recordings and we could hear what he sounded like and you contrast that with john connie and alcohol, they wanted to be seen and they wanted to be in the bad guy but not whitey. You wanted to be a ghost and the invisible and thats what he was while he was the king of south boston and while he was on the run. It was more like meyer lansky and those legendary gangsters trying to keep in the background and never allow themselves to be photographed, never allow themselves to berecorded. The teflon don was more known for the thousand suits that he wore to court every week as opposed to how he was able to manipulate and run a criminal organization. So i think whitey was the student of the organized crime legend and infamous legends came and he extrapolated a lot of those into his own life. I want to keep it moving and take over every detail we could talk for hours but hes got kaplan in the car and they eventually i think the most fascinating part of his years as a fugitive is what happened in louisiana because he took a risk and that he was there on aregular basis. And he ingratiated himself with the community and people in louisiana had no idea who he was so when did they get down to grand isle . Very shortly after they went on the run. They were swapping cars and part of the story of bulger is the fbi story and how these agents despite Public Perception that they were doing anything to find Whitey Bulger, many of them were including an agent who was able to find one of bulgers getaway cars and a driveway in new york and he takes this car apart and he finds a receipt and that receipt was from i believe louisiana which put the fbi on a hunt for whitey and catherine in a very rustic area in the United States but he was whitey and catherine and get down there under the aliases of tom and helen basher and 80 eight detroit family, a family that has a lot of money and bulger and catherine just hurl money at them. They pay for all their groceries. They take them shopping for Fishing Equipment. They pay for their medical bills and think the thing that dave and i love about that story is they had a dog named frederick and the dog had a litter of puppies and one of the puppies was critically ill. In massachusetts you take the animal to a shelter or an Animal Hospital andultimately that animal would be saved or euthanized. That by you is one way to solve that problem which is with a book and this killer of women, killer of men sees this puppy in the final moments of his life and he is dripping with tears. He cannot understand that one of the family members is about to kill this puppy and put it out of its misery and hes going to go before the gunshot rents. He just says do what you need to do. I had never heard that story before. We got the family to open up to us and thats one of the great things about this project for dave and i that weve covered a lot of cases. Dave and i wrote about tom brady of the new England Patriots and tried to extract information from the nfl and new England Patriots was nearly impossible but go out, go after Whitey Bulger, we were lucky that everybody else was able to finally tell their stories. You were in court and saw whitey and you listened to the violence and things he did when he was a younger man. You hear a story about whitey trying over a puppy dog how do you put that togetherin your head . Its classic serial killer behavior. Every serial killer has their vulnerabilities and for Whitey Bulger that weakness was animal and it ended up playing a vital role in his undoing which we will get to later but i think it goes back to thatmythology. He puts this image out there of being this super gangster. This untouchable gangster but really he was rather cowardly in a lot of ways and i think about what we were talking about with the photographs of steve flemmi and everybody withwhitey was on a need to know basis. That family didnt know he was a fugitive but he was so good deceiving them that the when they were finally told by the fbi who Whitey Bulger was they refused to believe it. He showed so much kindness to them by as you mentioned buying gifts for the kids. Buying refrigerators and didnt the kids call himuncle or something . Thats how they knew of whitey and catherine and the day whitey knew his aliashave been made he , and catherine were very cheerful on goodbyes with the family and whitey tells them youre going to read some things about me in the newspaper and see some things about me in the news, just know that we love you and will always love you and culture, despite the depravity of this guy and certainly he was a monster, the really had an affection for this family and continue to correspond with them well beyond his capture and into the years as a convict in federal prison. So eventually you tell the great story about how he was made and it involves teresas family. Talk about women problems, that hurt teresa and it really, that whole episode kinda contributed to whitey to have to make some fast moves. At first it was this crowning moment and she was somebody that still loved Whitey Bulger had to come back to her family and she still is trying to grapple with that so she goes out and gets very close to another underworld person. And and the fbi is thinking we set this guy up as an informant is there going to be pillow talk to teresa and this gangster its going to bring us information as to where he is and ultimately teresa does give up Whitey Bulgers alias as tom baxter and bulger and catherine were willing to spend believe the rest of their lives as fugitives down in grand isle because nobody cared about that place. Nobody still cares about grand isle. The fbi agents that drove down there but they were in an episode of true detective. Its not rural, that unusual and people can hide for years there but once whitey was made he had to move on and Catherine Grieg allowed him to crisscross the country likehe did. One thing with teresa stanly, a statement made in the original manhunt before this new group of agents was brought into the casethat tracked him was they waited too long to interview teresas family after she came home. Had they done that sooner perhaps this flight from justice would have been cut dramatically ifnot stopped right there in grand isle. Charlie g undergo got that break in the case casey described but the cavalry didnt come. Charlie was down in grand isle and was ready to make a move on bulger and he got pulled out of there and theres questions about why that happened and i think thats an interesting part of the story but really key to the early mistakes being made was not really putting teresa stanly underhot lights right away. They waited weeks. Someone should have been sitting on her house the entire time and that didnt happen. It almost took two years for the fbi to interview john conley as to the whereabouts of Whitey Bulger. It was insane. Theres no clear answer, werethey covering for themselves or were the incompetent . Thats the whole idea that they dont really want to find whiteys house. That question hung over until theday he was thought. Thats a big part of our story and you ask why we jumped in and thats a big part of the story that we will get to and people can read all about it because that faction that made those mistakes we just described navy there were mistakes and maybe they were calculated oversights to enable whitey, to bury oral and also protect Collateral Damage in that office that might have been mixed up with John Connolly and h paul rico but the new agents that came in and tracked that case, they didnt care about any of them and they were notgoing to do any of that. I remember that well. I remember the people to go in and talk to the agents and we always talked about whitey and it was very, very difficult for them to work in that office while as long as he was out there they w