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TOWHEADED MONSTER: This photo of Whitey Bulger, second from left, shows the gangster in the early 1940s in Southie.

Young Whitey Bulger caught ... on camera
By Howie Carr | Tuesday, June 21, 2011 |
http://www.bostonherald.com

No, this photo is not an early publicity shot of the Bowery Boys, with their little sister in the front row.

That blond kid, second from the left — that’s the young Jimmy “Whitey” Bulger, in what is the earliest known photo of the future serial-killing gangster to be made public.

Think of it as the portrait of the underworld boss as a young boy.

The photo was obtained by the Herald from a woman in North Attleboro who was left the picture by the little girl in the front after her death. I traded a copy of my new book, “Hitman,” for the snapshot.

In the photo, Whitey appears to be about 12 years old, which means the photo was probably taken sometime in the early 1940s. (Whitey was born in 1929, and will turn 82 in September.)

Check out the hats. How far did the guy to Whitey’s left have to chase Jughead (or maybe the Bowery Boys’ Satch) to steal that hat? The guy on the far left of the photo is wearing “Slip” Mahoney’s chapeau. The photo was taken somewhere near the Old Colony housing projects in Southie, where Whitey and Billy et al lived. The names of the other youths are unknown.

In this period of his life, the young Whitey was studying the careers of gangsters — Hollywood gangsters, anyway. As he told his associates in the Winter Hill Gang 30 years later, he used to go to Jimmy Cagney’s Warner Bros. movies and try to memorize his mannerisms.

This amused his fellow thugs greatly, since when they compared “Jimmy” to famous cinematic gangsters of yore, it wasn’t to Cagney characters such as Rocky Sullivan or even the post-war Cody Jarrett of “White Heat.” Whitey, they figured, was a lot closer to Richard Widmark’s Tommy Udo in “Kiss of Death.”

You know, the guy who pushed the old lady in the wheelchair down the stairs while giggling.

Catherine Greig, beware!

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1346890

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Anyone surprised?
Deval “Thanks Timmy” Patrick...

>>Files link Cahill to lottery’s ’10 ad blitz
Agency promoted during campaign

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/articles/2011/06/22/cahill_led_lottery_advertising_blitz_during_his_run_for_governor/

>>Former state treasurer Timothy P. Cahill was directly involved in the state lottery’s decision to launch a $1.65 million taxpayer-funded advertising blitz seen as benefiting his campaign for governor last year, according to e-mails and other documents obtained by the Globe.

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In August 2010, Cahill met for lunch with Hill Holliday chief executive Michael J. Sheehan, according to e-mails between lottery officials and the Boston firm. Following that lunch, Diane Anderson, then the lottery’s marketing director, and Hill Holliday executives scrambled to put together new television and radio ads.

While the original plans called for ads that focused on specific lottery games, the new ones promoted the lottery’s management, which is overseen by Cahill as state treasurer. Though they do not mention Cahill by name, the revamped ads portrayed the agency as a well-run operation that returns billions of dollars to local communities.

...State law prohibits government officials from using their position or public resources to further their political career. It calls for heavy fines and up to five years in prison for those who use substantial resources for their campaigns with “fraudulent intent.’...The ads began running in late September and were scheduled to end in late November, consuming more than 80 percent of the lottery’s entire annual advertising budget, just a few months into the start of the fiscal year.

But Cahill pulled the campaign in mid-October under pressure from Attorney General Martha Coakley, who is investigating possible criminal wrongdoing in the media campaign. As it has in the past, her office declined to comment on the probe.