By Jon Livesey

beatings, br utal murders and bur ying corpses – mer ciless mob boss James ‘Whitey’ Bulger took a hands-on appr oach to dirty work.

Whitey – who got his nickname due to his striking pale hair – was convicted last week of 1 1 murders, racketeering and conspiracy.

Having done stretches in prisons including the notorious Alcatraz, the 83-year -old will now spend the rest of his life behind bars.

And given the bloody trail of dead left in his wake, it’s no less than he deserves.

It’s more than two years since Whitey was captured in California, following a 16-year spell at large and topping the FBI’s ‘Ten Most Wanted’ list.

In the ’70s and ’80s, the South Boston native – said to be the inspiration behind Frank Costello, Jack Nicholson’ s character in The Departed

– became the most feared crime figure in the city.

While head of the notorious Winter Hill Gang, he also served as an FBI informant, tipping off agents about the illegal activities of his rivals.

But in 1995, with the FBI closing in on the ageing thug, he fled his home city and went on the run, sparking a 16-year manhunt.

In this new book Whitey: The Life Of America’s Most Notorious Mob Boss, former Boston Globe journalists Dick Lehr and Gerard