Bulger stuff auctioned
There’s a mugshot from Alcatraz, an autographed prison shirt and poker chips featuring his photo.
Memorabilia related to Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger is being peddled to coincide with the release of the new Johnny Depp movie on Bulger’s life.
“Black Mass” hit theaters last week. Now, Bulger items are all over eBay and sellers are hoping to cash in on the movie’s buzz.
Some relatives of Bulger’s victims aren’t happy about all the hawking.
Patricia Donahue, whose husband was killed by Bulger and an associate in 1982, said she doesn’t understand why anyone would want to buy or sell anything that belonged to Bulger.
“People just can’t seem to get enough of this man, who’s a psychopath,” she said.
“You try to make money off a man who has killed ... and the victims’ families are still around. I think it’s in very bad taste. I think people should just let it rest and let it go.”
Bulger, now 86, was one of the most notorious gangsters in Boston, running a violent criminal organization from the 1970s into the 1990s after serving time in Alcatraz, among other prisons, for armed robbery and truck hijacking. He fled Boston on the eve of a racketeering indictment in 1995 and remained one of the nation’s most wanted fugitives until he was captured in Santa Monica in 2011.
In 2013, he was convicted of participating in 11 killings and a litany of other crimes. He is serving life in prison.