Families of gangster’s victims react: ‘We can finally put him behind us’
Tommy Donahue, whose dad was collateral damage in James “Whitey” Bulger’s murder spree, summed up how a lot of sons, brothers and wives felt when news broke of the mobster’s death.
“He will be getting a pitchfork in the ass from the devil now,” Donahue said.
Bulger, 89, was serving life in prison for his involvement in 11 murders — but he was suspected of many more. He was killed in a West Virginia prison yesterday, reportedly by fellow inmates with mob ties. His death is being investigated as a homicide.
But for the scores of people Bulger hurt, yesterday was about closure.
“We can finally put him behind us,” Donahue told the Herald. “His (expletive) legacy is gone.”
Donahue’s father, Michael, died in a hail of machine-gun fire in 1982 after giving a Bulger rival a ride in Dorchester. He was an innocent victim in a mob war that Hollywood has glamorized, but which has brought loved ones of the victims nothing but pain.
“My sister shined. I hope she’s shining down today,” said Steve Davis, whose sister, Debra, was an alleged Bulger victim — even though the gangster was never convicted of her killing.
“No tears shed for him. I do have some mixed emotions, because while I’m jumping for joy that the evil bastard is dead, his demise brings back memories of my sister, Debbie, who I know he had a hand in killing,” said Davis, who is taking part in an upcoming 10-part TV series on Bulger’s 2013 federal trial in Boston.
Mary Callahan, whose husband, John, was killed by the Bulger gang in 1982, said Whitey hurt everyone he came in contact with.
“My memory of him is anybody, good or bad, who had anything to do with him got hurt,” she said. “Good people and bad people were hurt by him.
“But he's a legend, like Al Capone and Billy the Kid. He will always be remembered but in a bad way,” the Bay State widow added. “I was expecting his death, but not like this.”
She only has faded photos of her husband to cling to and a few small checks that have come her way from the proceeds of Bulger’s estate after he was captured in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2011.
Callahan said nothing will replace the years lost with her forever 45-year-old husband — murdered for what he knew about the Winter Hill Gang’s murderous ways.
“I raised two teenagers without him. We had to live with a question. Under a cloud,” she said, alluding to her husband’s links to Bulger. “It’s wonderful to live with a question mark,” she added, with a touch of irony.
John Callahan was going to implicate the South Boston serial killers for the 1981 execution of World Jai Alai President Roger Wheeler in Oklahoma, the feds said. His body was found stuffed into the trunk of a car left at the Miami airport a year later.
Mary Callahan said he lived a full life, but has missed so much. His son and daughter, she added, never really knew their father.
Bulger, she added, “now has a new judge to talk to — and he’s not going to fool this one.”