Winter Hill Responds to Bulger Verdict

Over two years ago, when James "Whitey" Bulger was captured, many people in Somerville's Winter Hill—home of the notorious Winter Hill Gang, which Bulger eventually took over—didn't want to talk about the gangster or give their last names if they did.

On Monday, shortly after a jury found Bulger guilty of 11 murders and numerous racketeering, money laundering, conspiracy and firearms charges, the atmosphere was much the same.

Most people who spoke to Somerville Patch in Winter Hill Monday didn't want to comment. Some said they hadn't been following the trial. News of the verdicts was still fresh at the time, so perhaps some people hadn't collected their thoughts.

Vic Leone, the third-generation owner of Leone's Sub and Pizza on Broadway, said, "I don't really have any thoughts about it. I feel sorry for the victims."

Growing up in the area, he said, one wasn't aware of too much organized crime happening.

Chris, a barber at Goodfellas Barber Shop, also on Broadway, was watching TV news coverage about the verdict Monday afternoon. "He probably didn't care about the murders. He probably cared about his reputation," he said, talking about the Bulger defense team's argument during  the trial that Bulger wasn't an FBI informant.

Another person at Goodfellas, who asked not to be named, said, "I think he got away with it" because, at 83, Bulger has reached the end of his life.

A woman named Barbara, who asked that we not use her last name, said she'd lived in Winter Hill since the 1940s, and she had stories.

She pointed to the vacant Star Market site across from the corner of Broadway and Marshall Street, naming the bars and stores that once called the neighborhood home. "If [only] those stores were still there and could talk about the people who were hustled out the back door and to the Mystic River," she said.

About Bulger, she said, "I think they should've taken him out and shot him."

Later she said, "That trial was a waste of money; they should've rounded him up and put him in jail."

She said growing up in the neighborhood "was interesting, as long as you didn't get involved."

That said, "Whitey Bulger was never over this way," she said.

On Monday Bulger was found guilty in the murder of Robert Castucci, who was killed in a Somerville apartment on Dec. 30, 1976. Bulger wasn't found guilty in the murder of James Sousa, who prosecutors said was shot in a Somerville garage.

Bulger was a key player in the Winter Hill Gang, which operated out of Somerville's Winter Hill during the 1960s and 1970s. When Bulger took over the gang following the imprisonment of its leaders, he moved its operations to Boston.

Barbara, like Chris at the barber shop, said Bulger was probably more concerned about his reputation. "I think that may have disgraced him more than anything, that they found him as an informant," she said.

More

• Winter Hill Reacts to Whitey Bulger's Capture
• What Winter Hill Thinks of Whitey