DEPARTED

No, the blog wasn’t hacked into yesterday by obsessive fans of The Mummy. I’ve been watching 24 recently, and am on Season 4 where the mummy from The Mummy is the baddie in it. How come no one at CTU said, ‘Aaaaarrrrggghhhh … it’s the mummmmmmyyy! Runnnnnnn!’?

Anyone having a night in tonight could do a lot worse than watch The Departed on C4. Why is that, I hear you ask? Look out for Jack Nicholson’s character, Frank Costello … he’s based on the crime boss, Whitey Bulger who ran the Boston mob … and his right-hand man, Kevin Weeks is one of Tonto’s newest signings.

Kevin and writing partner Phyllis Karas wrote a New York Times bestseller a couple of years ago called Brutal, which was a true crime memoir of Kevin’s time in the mob and centered upon Whitey being, well … Brutal.

Where’s Whitey – out in October – is a novel using a lot of the original material from Brutal that Kevin was uncomfortable with releasing at the time. It is a fictional account of mob life, based entirely on fact, and looks at the possible locations where Whitey could be (Goodfellas meets The Damned United?)

From New York Times number one best-selling writers (Brutal, HarperCollins), comes a fictional account of life inside the Boston mob. Writer Kevin Weeks was top Lieutenant to James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, head of the Boston Mafia and who has now been on the run for 15 years. On the Most Wanted list, Whitey was second only to Osama bin Laden and still has a two million dollar reward on his head for information leading to his capture.

This book is a story of murder, friendship and loyalty within the mob, using many situations that Weeks omitted from Brutal. The story is all based on fact, making it all the more intriguing, and using insider knowledge to more than hint toward the whereabouts of the FBI’s Most Wanted.

When Joey Donahue is released from prison after serving six years for racketeering and crimes committed as deputy to the infamous Boston Irish Mob boss and psychopathic murderer James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, he is determined to stay clear of the life of crime that has supported him for the past twenty-five years. After a year of trying unsuccessfully to find a job due to his notorious association with Bulger, Joey finally surrenders to the temptation of a friend’s offer to join him in a fast score; a simple robbery of a drug dealer that should pay the bills until he finds a viable job. The robbery turns out to be a sting operation set up by the FBI for the express purpose of forcing Joey to cooperate in the frustratingly unsuccessful search for his onetime mentor.

The last confirmed sighting of Bulger was in London in 2002; in December 2010, he’ll have evaded the FBI for 16 years and will recently have turned 81 years old.

The Boston Phoenix ran a great story on the background of Phyllis and Kevin’s working relationship here.

Kevin Weeks has featured on: 60 Minutes (US) in March 2006. In June 2009, he was the main contributor on a special Dateline NBC show discussing the trial of FBI agent John Connolly who, because of Kevin’s testimony, was convicted of murder. He has also been the main focus of shows on FBI Most Wanted, Fox & Friends, Biography Channel, National Geographic and the History Channel.