“Weeks lands a knockout punch with this compelling look at one of the most intriguing figures in the American underworld.” (– George Anastasia, bestselling author of The Last Gangster)
“Rarely have the nuts-and-bolts of ‘the gangster life’ been laid bare in such shocking, unvarnished detail.” (– T. J. English, New York Times bestselling author of Paddy Whacked and The Westies)
“Mesmerizing and fascinating ... no organized crime fiction I have read has anything on this book. I couldn’t put it down.” (– Michael Palmer, New York Times bestselling author of The Society)
“...most interesting and accurate. When Weeks talks about Bulger, he’s got the goods and he makes clear the others don’t.” (– Boston Sunday Globe)
“Weeks has made his literary bones. He has credibility...” (– Boston Phoenix)
“Absorbing.” (—Deseret Morning News)
“Bulger has spawned a handful of books about his mayhem. So far, Weeks’ is the best. ” (– Cleveland Plain Dealer)
“A dazzling story...Brutal is the most revealing and chilling true crime story that I have ever read.” (– Julian Krainin, Producer of “Quiz Show” and “Something the Lord Made”)
When James J. "Whitey" Bulger, currently on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list with a $1 million reward for his capture, ran the Irish mob in South Boston, no one was closer to him than Kevin Weeks. Weeks was Bulger's handpicked deputy, trusted confidante, and loyal partner for the last dozen years of Bulger's reign. He was there when Bulger carried out his hits; he dug basement graves when bodies needed burying; and he followed Bulger's instructions to lie low when tipped off that the Feds were moving in. Weeks was so trusted by Bulger that after Bulger went to ground, it was Weeks who met with him five times in New York and Chicago to give him new identification and the latest news. And the it was Weeks who ran the Bulger mob's rackets for five years until he was finally arrested. In 1997, nearly 20 years after Weeks began his association with Bulger, Weeks learned that his mentor in crime had been an FBI informant for 25 years, which went against everything mobsters held sacred. Although Whitey Bulger has been written about before, including a chapter in Paddy Whacked by T.J.
English, no one at the top of his operation has ever talked, and the low-level street guys who have talked just haven't gotten it right. The only other person who knows the real deal is Stevie Flemmi, but with Flemmi serving a life sentence with no chance for parole, Weeks is the only one with the goods who is able to set the record straight. Kevin Weeks is now out of prison after serving five and a half years of a lifetime sentence, which was reduced after he testified that Bulger's FBI handler had tipped off Bulger to his impending arrest, revealed the location of numerous mob graves, and cooperated with absolute honesty. Weeks is the first person who has the real inside info, and he's willing to tell it all, what it was like on the inside, how they did business, the actual deals, the hits, and where the bodies are buried.