Black Mass by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill

Book Review by Alan Bett | 27 Mar 2015
Book title: Black Mass
Author: Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill

This true-crime classic reveals Scorsese’s The Departed as slight exaggeration rather than full-blown fabrication. His Frank Costello was, if anything, a more palatable version of Whitey Bulger, the Irish-American gangster he was based upon, who wore FBI protection like a coat of armour during his bloody 80s heyday. This period saw his criminal enterprise flourish as the rival Italian Mafia withered, in no small part down to the Federal attack dogs Bulger targeted upon them. Black Mass is the true tale of these times, expertly constructed by two Boston Globe reporters and originally published in 2000.

Canongate top and tail this new edition with intro and epilogue in time for the Johnny Depp film adaptation later this year. It’s not an opportunistic move, it’s a laudable one. This perfectly measured journalistic work constructs a thrilling factual timeline which bleeds and shocks, while avoiding the tabloid hyperbole of certain true crime wastes of paper pulp, stacked high in airport bookshops. It explores an ugly interdependency between the foxes and hounds on Boston’s South Side – a chilling symmetry. Bulger is painted as a Machiavellian sociopath – the dark Prince of Southie, rising within his criminal court. He handles his FBI handlers with ease, men ultimately bought cheap with flattery and pocket change. Black Mass exposes the dilapidated soul of American justice at a moment when corruption seeped into the foundations of its integrity. 

Out now, published by Canongate, RRP £12.99