by Howie Carr
First published 2013
This book presents the criminal confession of Stephen "the Rifleman" Flemmi, who terrorized Boston for forty years as a top enforcer and Whitey Bulger's longtime partner. The narrative draws from Flemmi's own testimony to federal authorities after his 2003 guilty plea, revealing decades of violence that earned him convictions for ten murders. Flemmi describes his methods of extortion and assault while detailing his partnership with Bulger, the notorious fugitive who evaded capture for sixteen years before his 2011 arrest. The account exposes the brutal reality of organized crime through Flemmi's personal involvement in nineteen additional homicides linked to Bulger. Most shocking are Flemmi's admissions about killing two of his own girlfriends, including one who was also his common law stepdaughter. The book reproduces the original 146-page federal document that captured Flemmi's confessions, supplemented by nearly 300 photographs. This raw testimony provides an unfiltered look into Boston's underworld through the words of one of its most dangerous participants.
Genres: crime, non-fiction, biography-memoir, true-crime
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: criminal-confession, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Boston
Period: 20th-century
280 pages · Hardcover · Frandel, LLC
Content warnings: abuse, murder, violence