I apologize in advance if I'm asking a question that has already been asked a few thousand times before, but after all this time reading up on the activities of Whitey Bulger I struggle to understand why so many supposedly big time drug traffickers just tolerated getting fucked by Whitey Bulger during all those years.

Now don't get me wrong, I understand he was a stone cold killer and as an FBI informant he did have some leverage over others, but at the end of the day it wasn't like he was part of an absolutely huge organization. First of all, his crew was pretty small. Who do we know about? Flemmi, Martorano, Weeks and that's generally it. He did have connections with people that associated with the IRA, but those in general seemed to be distrustful of him.

It's established that the majority of the money he made was from the drug business, but it was rather because of him shaking down big shot dealers in Southie. He never seemed to have the extensive network to bring in shipments himself. And some of those dealers got their drugs from the Mob, some of them were former marines, known boxers, etc... Whitey was none of that. He wasn't renowned for having above average boxing skills...he was an average guy with a receding hairline and the things he had going for him were that he was ready to kill and he was cunning. Surely he wouldn't have been the only guy around that area with that specific set of skills?

I find it weird nobody at that time seemed to have thought about just taking out him or anyone else of his crew for that matter. Were the drug dealing crews around at that time that small and weak? If he were around at the height of his activity in this day and age, can you imagine him trying to tax the Dominicans in West Roxbury or the Cape Verdeans in Dorchester? They'd have blown his ass full of holes the second he came knocking at their door.

I apologize in advance if I'm asking a question that has already been asked a few thousand times before, but after all this time reading up on the activities of Whitey Bulger I struggle to understand why so many supposedly big time drug traffickers just tolerated getting fucked by Whitey Bulger during all those years.

Now don't get me wrong, I understand he was a stone cold killer and as an FBI informant he did have some leverage over others, but at the end of the day it wasn't like he was part of an absolutely huge organization. First of all, his crew was pretty small. Who do we know about? Flemmi, Martorano, Weeks and that's generally it. He did have connections with people that associated with the IRA, but those in general seemed to be distrustful of him.

It's established that the majority of the money he made was from the drug business, but it was rather because of him shaking down big shot dealers in Southie. He never seemed to have the extensive network to bring in shipments himself. And some of those dealers got their drugs from the Mob, some of them were former marines, known boxers, etc... Whitey was none of that. He wasn't renowned for having above average boxing skills...he was an average guy with a receding hairline and the things he had going for him were that he was ready to kill and he was cunning. Surely he wouldn't have been the only guy around that area with that specific set of skills?

I find it weird nobody at that time seemed to have thought about just taking out him or anyone else of his crew for that matter. Were the drug dealing crews around at that time that small and weak? If he were around at the height of his activity in this day and age, can you imagine him trying to tax the Dominicans in West Roxbury or the Cape Verdeans in Dorchester? They'd have blown his ass full of holes the second he came knocking at their door.

Brazen, stone cold killer who got away with it again and again and again. Friends in law enforcement and the State House.