A sweet friendship turns sour

Working with James ‘Whitey’ Bulger only ever ended one way, reports RYLE DWYER

EIGHT-YEAR-OLD John J Connolly Jr was in a Boston ice cream parlour with two friends in 1948, when James “Whitey” Bulger, a 19-year-old neighbourhood thug, offered to buy ice cream for them. It was his habit to spend his ill-gotten gains on local boys who hero-worshipped him. Connolly, however, refused. His Galway-born father had taught him not to take gifts from strangers.

“Hey, kid, I’m no stranger!” Bulger said. “Your mother and father are from Ireland. My mother and father are from Ireland. What kind of ice cream to do you want?”