700,000 books were selfpublished, twice as many books are produced by independent authors who put them online and have something to say. Now, you might claim theres a lot of garbage among that 700,000 books but i think theres a lot of good stuff as well. So i really feel that if you look at the Publishing Industry i dont know if you would agree, we are witnessing a transformation in its structure so some of the middle, intermediates are moving out. And some of the public is moving in in strange ways. It used to be said that the books are written for the general reader. Now they are written by the generator. You can watch this and other programs online at booktv. Org. In their book, whitey, dick lehr and Gerard Oneill recount the life of boston gangster turned fbi informant james Whitey Bulger. The authors spoke at Porter Square books in cambridge, massachusetts, for just over 45 minutes. Thanks for that introduction, and thanks for coming out tonight. What jerry and i have and might is im going to talk a little bit about the book, including reading a short excerpt from it. And then jerry is going to talk a little bit about our long history with this story. And where i want to start is to remind everyone about the significance of this story. Whitey bulger is a big one, a big topic, but the distinguishing thing about whitey, and i think what makes him at this point historic crime figure in terms of crime figures and where they rank in 20th century america, i mean, hes got the body count to match other crime bosses and charged with 19 murders and is probably many more. Hes got the longevity. Hes been around a long time, and he certainly has made millions. But the distinguishing feature i think, and we have found with Whitey Bulger, the thing that sets him apart from any other crime boss that becomes a nice a household name, some of the mafia dons or who they might be, is that Whitey Bulger brought the fbi, the nations top Law Enforcement to its knees, he harnessed the power of the fbi on his behalf. And thats what gave him his rise to power and his longevity. And no one else in this underworld can have that claim to fame, so to speak. Thats his historic marker that we all should never forget, because he compromised the fbi for so many years. Its a subject, a topic which we went deep on in black mask. In fact, for 20 years in which whitey had his socalled unholy alliance with the fbi, we now refer to as the black mask years. We have taken those years and a new book, whitey, we have put them in the larger context, the full arc of his long life. And getting into the project we actually, as the research for the past year or so got underway, we were astonished by how much new material, new information we were able to uncover and work with in trying to put together the long life of Whitey Bulger, taking a look at the making of the monster, the how and why of whitey. These are all things that when you read whitey, you are going to be reading about, whether its tracing the family, the history of the films back to ireland for the first time has never been done before. Whether its having the benefit of his prison file when he was away for nine years in various federal prisons, including alcatraz. 600 pages of previously unexamined material. When you read whitey you will be reading the letters that build bulger wrote to prison officials about his brother trying to improve his brothers like you read letters from Whitey Bulger, father robert, again, something we never knew before. Youre going to find out about prison reports attract his evolution to the prison system. That begin an atlanta and ended in lewisburg, in pennsylvania. Its remarkable stuff, and one of the things, we have been with this story and close to a for a long time but it was eyeopening, when youre looking at Whitey Bulgers long life, doors open to all kinds of other worlds. It might be the 30s and 40s in boston and the study of juvenile delinquency. It could be the science and the study of the criminal mind and psychopaths. We went there. It could be about the fbi and its history to the 20th century as it waged a National Campaign against organized crime and created this top echelon informant program, which whitey so cleverly manipulated to his behalf but it could be about alcatraz, you know, the most famous prison. Fascinating stuff that i dont know if anyone is money with the famous alcatraz inmate named frank morris, of escape from alcatraz thing and put all these things together and realizing while whitey in iraq address, he knew frank morris because theyve both been atlanta previously. That while frank morris and two other inmates were using spoons to dig the secret tunnels. Whitey, the smartest one of them all probably, was using and working with his brother and House Speaker john mccormack, one of the most powerful men in the country to go out the front door while the other guys are going of the total to never be seen again. So thats the kind of thing you can end up putting together when you have these new vast resources that we have. Another door that opens up is the cia backed particularly back project that was underway through the late 50s into the early 60s. Whitey played a role in the. Thats the excerpt, the brief passage i want to read from because when whitey when we as a 26 year old to start serving a sentence for bank robbery in 1956, his first up was atlanta. It within a few months his first cell, headed cell share a cell with seven other enemies. One thing about whitey, he is a control freak. Even at 26 he pretty much freaked out when he had seven other inmates, veteran criminals that had to share a small space with and they were driving them nuts. Within three months of his incarceration he checked himself into the psych ward at atlanta. And within a year or so he became involved, because thats what is going on, the socalled lst project. Thats what i want to read a brief, briefly to you about. In july of 57, about a year in atlanta, he gotten a job at the prison hospital to that was his work assignment. Thats where his work had become but it was a new job that gave whitey and a close look at the lst project. Now nearly two years old, held on tuesdays and thursdays in the basement of the prison hospital. Word about the project had already spread publicly beyond the walls of the prison. Delay the journalconstitution had run a feature story about the experiment under the headline drug fed prisoners aid studies, along with a photograph showing one of the doctors in eating and inmate fall into. The article began, 16 prisoners at atlanta penitentiary at helping medical researchers study mental diseases by voluntarily taking a potent drug that induces symptoms of schizophrenia. That was the idea of the lst project. I dont know, charticle back in time, and it was before my time but there was a public face to this lsd project. Is going on in the prison, harvard and a couple of other facilities. Doctors were trying to come up with a cure for schizophrenia and this new drug called lsd, seemed to make someone what they called instantly insane. So they would have volunteers take lsd, tripping their brains out, and then they would try and test various drugs on them to see if it could be that your are ready for schizophrenia induced coming in, that lsd get. That was the idea behind it. It wasnt secret at all but it was a very public thing. It was written about and Whitey Bulger was one of a number of inmates who volunteered fo forw. The thing that came out much later that we always hurt a little bit about perhaps is that the cia had a secret role in the. Where they were feeding these doctors in atlanta at emory who are involved in this, you know, other drugs to test. On the subject in addition to the lsd as part of their espionage, counterespionage Chemical Warfare interests. So that was a secret private side that didnt come out until years later. But it was a very public project at that time. So theres a big story in atlanta paper about it. The newspaper interviewed the lead doctor, of Emory University and quoted from a colorful account of one inmates lsd trip tto the newspaper did not identify the inmate but whitey and the other prisoners easily couldve recognized him as wingfield are dead, the newspaper that credit has lifted the description of the trip that he wrote for the atlanta which was the prison magazine, they covered in on prison magazine. The inmate publication. And other press coverage about this lsd project, a National Magazine called mans magazine in an age that include such articles as ted williams, heal or hero . And virgins, would you marry one . Ran on a cover story titled i went insane for science. And the author was a doctor writing anonymously about his experimental lsd trip and the article included mention of the working atlanta prison. Whitey met with him and his associates just a few weeks after he started working in a hospital in july. He underwent a screening process overseen by lawrence brian, the prison psychologist admitted whitey to the psych ward the previous october. Inmates called him and that doctor. Doctor brian interviewed whitey and administered psychometric tests which included a rorschach test designed to confirm a volunteer was normal your doctors involve any of the project when writing or talking about the inmates met normal in quotation marks. Because none of them was that. The lead doctor was quoted inmate volunteers at all scored high in tests for psychopathic tendencies. They were not normal, he said. They were psychopaths. The point of the psychological screening then was to ensure the inmate was stable and could withstand the projects lsd and other drugs. Except for character disorders, no psychiatric after mounties were present in these subjects, the doctor wrote in a journal article about the prisons lsd experiments. Finally, to make it all seem legal, ethical, whitey sat down on august 6, 1957, with 1 of the Doctors Associates and signed on the dotted line. Is a document of disclosure explain the benefits and risks that doctor pfeiffer had agreed specifically for this lsd project and the one page form bearing the signature of james j. Bulger, a hitting in capital letters, contract between department of pharmacology, Emory University, school of medicine and human volunteers at the u. S. Penitentiary, atlanta, georgia. So thats the kind of thing were able to get our hands on ourselves was whiteys socalled contractor participate in the lsd project. To continue them one morning two months later, after eating a light breakfast in the dining hall, whitey was taken by a guard to the hospital, a building located on the west side of the prison compound behind the dsl house where hed been kept initially in the eightman cell. With the prison population of more than 2600 the size of many small towns across america, the hospital is fully operational. It at 75 beds and for fulltime doctors, assisted by a levin medical technicians. Prisoners stacked other prisons from clerks to head operating as. In any given year, 250 major and seven and 50 minor surgical procedures were performed. Whitey walked through the main door, the main floor, down into the basement toward death whether neuropsychiatric board was come or a large room secured with a steel door and steel bars was set aside for the lsd project. Whitey was in of the tuesday group, of eight inmate volunteers checking in for 24 hours state. He walked into the plane still room with its eight beds and joined the others. By now widely knew the drill. He had been part of the lsd project for more than a month. He sat on the bed. The doctors always encouraged subjects remain in bed for the duration. By 8 30 a. M. , or about two hours after breakfast, whitey to the lsd dosage prepared for him, drinking it in a class of quinine flavored liquids. The truck was odorless and colorless then he waited. Would this be what the doctors called a trivial dose meaning 25 micrograms, or something stronger . In his first month he had been given increasing with stronger doses of the Psychedelic Drug so he could, as when doctorow, become for the mud with the effects of the drug, both qualitatively and quantitative quantitatively. The first dosage was 25 micrograms, second, 50, and 75, and finally 100. Whitey would know in about an hour after the simpsons began to manifest it when lsd began working on his brain and causing havoc in the interaction between his nerve cells and the new transmitter serotonin. In the human body, serotonin system that acts as a kind of control tower for behavior, perceptions and movements. The first sign why he was on his way was the sensation that the lights were dimming and brightening, as if someone were playing with the power supply. In fact, the lights were constant but his pupils were dilated, changing in diameter and affecting his life perception. To help him pinned down the power of this trip, dr. Pfeiffer ordered associates which then come by to ask a series of 20 questions. Certain questions addressed, evidence from taking a lowdose, does the lightbody . D. Phil. Fatigue . At this address symptoms seen only with higher doses. Dosages. Are things moving around you . Do you feel as if any dream . Whitey would know the dose was on the stronger side if, when he closed his eyes, he saw an array of geometric patterns accompanied by a kaleidoscope of colors. I dont know who in the room has been there, but thats what its like. Letting go could have come easily. Whitey bulger had always felt no secure winning control. But prison change dollar. He lost nearly every measure of control. The eightman cell being the ever one remind the public sitting on lsd meant losing even more. For someone who is a tremendous need for security to control, this could lead to a tremendous sense of anxiety. Dr. John halpern, a psychiatrist in massachusetts commented later, about the combustible mix that Whitey Bulger and lsd. It was october 8, 1957, when whitey began this particular amount of the drug. The date was exactly one week after america began sending b52 bombers loaded with nuclear weapons, airborne around the clock in case of a soviet attack. And it was only four days after the soviet union shocked america with its successful launch of the sputnik satellite. The focus of the world was on the cold war, and russias ride into space. While whitey was lying in a bed in ward f bracing itself for a different kind of trip, featuring tangerine trees and marmalade skies. So hopefully that gives you a flavor of what the kind of stories that all that the material enables us, whether whether was his actual prison file, whether it was the prison inmate publication, secret cia files that have since become public and working all this vitriol and having documents about whitey, a calendar of the days and times when he participate as a member of the tuesday group, week in and week out going down there to drop acid. So without i would like to turn it over briefly to jerry who will talk a little bit as i said about our history with the story you would like to open it up to the floor for questions because in the past we found that people have plenty to say and ask about when it comes to this story. Thanks. [applause] thank you. I sort of have a historical context. I think what dick and i bring to this discussion is a unique, historical perspective. We came to this story early. We stayed late. Its a career undertaking, and it has a body of work that goes with it. The chronology is, it starts 25 years ago when, as investigative reporters from the globe we did a series of articles on the two bulger brothers at the height of their power, and at the time we revealed why he was an fbi informant. The reverberations from that were strong and lasting, and they counted in the book that were talking about tonight, whitey. Our next stop was 10 years after the revelation about the informant. We did black mask which dick talked about, which chronicles the fbi descent into total corruption. And were able to hand at some of the poverty of Whitey Bulger. Thats going to become a movie, hopefully production starts in may. Thats hollywood scheduling. But a lot of bits and starts from the movie in black mask. But i think we have some reason for optimism now. At least medicaid director in barry levinson, quite accomplished. And, finally, here we are tonight, soup to nuts on whitey. Third installment on this long story. Dick sort of recap pretty much everything, but i would like to discuss the comprehensive in a fullblown biography. And it goes back tw to century. We traced them back to the roots, and newfoundland. And i had done some research on the immigration to boston from the famine in the mid19th century, and i was surprised and fascinated to learn that the most durable and lasting immigration from ireland was from the harbor and Southern Islands ireland to st. Johns newfoundland. Soviet a lot of new information to bring to bear on that. Dick and ive been investigative reporters powerful cover. We asked a lot of people a lot of tough questions. So its now our turn to turn the tables and fire away. We want questions about the writing, the research. [applause] in your research, did you find it remarkable that congressman longterm congressman joe was in office and came away with a clean slate . He must have known what was going on, in fact if not an enabler. I mean, they named bridges after him. Were you surprised at how clean he hes a good friend of bulger. Bill bulger gave his eulogy. As far as i know he stayed clean. I never thought anything that implicated him or anything spent that is an interesting question. We didnt come in terms of his prison file, fingerprints and john mccormicks, were not there, remarkable. Thank you. Sounds like theres quite an education anybody could have with this book. Im really looking forward to it. I havent read the other either, and i stopped, brought up a little short with the beginning when you said how masterfully whitey had use the fbi to and ive heard a lot about how masterfully the fbi was able to exploit Whitey Bulger. And i wonder if you could just Say Something about that side of the relationship . Thats news to me. [laughter] that the fbi exploited Whitey Bulger. I mean, they gave him some information but he certainly was never taken on that spent it was an inbound. Instead of the fbi, instead of taking advantage of whitey are getting some each benefit, i think if we zoomed in close to ce