Whacked mob boss James ‘Whitey’ Bulger had one hero in his life — a vicious cop-killer he loved because he was even more violent than he was, the Mafia rat revealed in a stunning letter he wrote before his death.
Bulger, who was killed in prison last week, idolized Jack Twining, who spent time with him in Alcatraz and Leavenworth in the 1950s and 60s, he said in the five-page letter obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com.
In the letter, written to schoolteacher Jeff Kelly, Bulger describes how Twining — who killed himself after a 1970 California shootout in which four cops died — strangled and beat a fellow prisoner and then tried to gouge out his eyes.
The notorious mobster also griped in the letter about his treatment in prison, complaining ‘pervert’ guards would inspect his naked body multiple times a day.
When Bulger, 89, was killed last week in Hazelton Federal Penitentiary in West Virginia, his killers gouged his eyes and tried to cut out his tongue.
Two mobsters are alleged to have killed him within 12 hours of him arriving at the prison because he had been an FBI informant.
James ‘Whitey’ Bulger idolized felon Jack Twining, who he met in Alcatraz in the 1960s, because he was ‘one of the most dangerous men I ever knew’. Pictured: Whitey’s mugshot from Alcatraz in November of 1959
Bulger wrote in a letter: ‘Jack Twining was one of my best friends in prison. We both wound up in Alcatraz — deemed incorrigible.’ Twining (pictured) was 35 years old when he killed himself after the Newhall Incident in California in 1970, where he killed four cops
Bulger wrote in part on this mugshot photo of Twining: ‘Jack Twining one of my best friends in prison – were in Atlanta – in Alcatraz – Jack killed Mollet a usual predator – Good Riddance. This is last photo of Jack alive’
The Boston mob boss, who was killed last week in Hazelton Federal Penitentiary, revealed his admiration for the fellow criminal in a letter to teacher Jeff Kelly. Kelly wrote to Bulger using the Taunton High School address rather than his own ‘out of an abundance of caution’
Kelly, 43, (pictured) wrote to Bulger in 2016 as part of a project for the elective course he teaches upperclassmen at Taunton High School in Massachusetts
‘Jack Twining was one of my best friends in prison,’ Bulger wrote. ‘Met him in Alcatraz Pen.
‘Jack was doing 30 years for Bank Robbery. I was doing 20 years for Bank Robbery.
‘Jack was young and one of the most dangerous men I ever knew. We both wound up in Alcatraz from Atlanta — deemed incorrigible,’ he bragged.
Bulger sent the letter to Kelly, a Massachusetts teacher who had contacted him as part of a school project on ’20th Century Dictators and Disasters.’
‘The Twining stuff is bone-chilling,’ Kelly, 43, told DailyMail.com. ‘I had never heard of Jack Twining. Whitey said ”Google him,” which surprised me that an 80-something year-old-man is so 21st Century literate.
‘Whitey described not only the crimes in graphic detail, but also refers to Twining as a close friend and wants him to rest in peace.
‘The Whitey Bulger I grew up hearing about was a career criminal and a murderer who ruined the lives of countless families in the New England area,’ said Kelly, a married father-of-two, who was raised in the Boston suburb of Norwood.
But he said the letter did not change his opinion of Bulger. ‘If anything it solidified it. He spoke about fellow murderers in an endearing manner.’
Kelly said he had asked Bulger for details of his life in prison, but unprompted, nearly one-third of the reply talked about Twining.
Kelly, 43, wrote to Bulger in 2016 as part of a project for the elective course he teaches upperclassmen at Taunton High School in Massachusetts.
In his five-page letter, Bulger (pictured in 2011) showed no remorse for his crimes, which include at least 11 murders. He even bragged about his notoriety
Bulger said he stopped Twining (pictured) killing another man he identifies as ‘Mitchell’ in Leavenworth Maximum Security Prison in Kansas
‘The Twining stuff is bone-chilling,’ Kelly, 43, told DailyMail.com. ‘I had never heard of Jack Twining. Whitey said ”Google him,” which surprised me that an 80-something year-old-man is so 21st Century literate’
Kelly said he had asked Bulger for details of his life in prison, but unprompted, nearly one-third of the reply talked about Twining. Kelly said the letter did not change his opinion of Bulger. ‘If anything it solidified it. He spoke about fellow murderers in an endearing manner’
He found his students gravitated towards murder stories and he wrote to several notorious killers, including members of the Manson family and Robert Kennedy’s murderer Sirhan Sirhan.
He asked the prisoners about how they felt about politics and current events when they were the age of his students, never really expecting a reply.
But Bulger — Federal prisoner number 02182-748 — wrote him a detailed five-page letter from his cell in Coleman II federal lock-up in Florida, the prison he was in until just days before his murder.
He wrote of his health problems, what he deemed his harsh treatment in prison, and of Catherine Greig, his common-law wife, who was arrested alongside him when he was finally nabbed in Santa Monica, California, in 2011 after more than 16 years on the run. They had been living quietly in a third floor apartment, three blocks from the ocean, calling themselves Charlie and Carol Gasko.
But the passages on Twining stand out for the gleeful way Bulger reminisced about his fellow prisoner’s violence.
‘Jack Twining — look up on computer, Google ”The Newhall Incident” — we were very good friends,’ wrote Bulger in spidery, at times illegible, handwriting.
Twining was 35 when he shot himself at the end of the Newhall Incident in April 1970. He and fellow career criminal Bobby Davis killed four cops in Newhall, California after a road-rage incident. After the shootings Twining took another man hostage for five hours before shooting himself dead.
In his letter to Kelly, Bulger included a newspaper clipping of the Newhall Incident, which described how, during the hostage-taking, Twining talked to reporters by phone. ‘I don’t hate the police,’ he said. ‘They have a job to do and so do I. After what happened, they can’t offer me anything. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life on death row.’
Bulger clearly idolized Twining for his violence, gleefully recalling how he killed fellow prisoner Walter Mollett in Alcatraz in 1959.
‘An Alcatraz sexual predator “Mollet” committed suicide by bothering Jack — wrote threatening letters to Jack,’ Bulger said in the letter. ‘Twining saved them.’
Also in the letter, Bulger wrote of his health problems, what he deemed his harsh treatment in prison, and of Catherine Greig (right), his common-law wife, who was arrested alongside him when he was finally nabbed in Santa Monica in 2011
The couple (pictured in 1988) had been living quietly in a third floor apartment, three blocks from the ocean, calling themselves Charlie and Carol Gasko
In this photo taken June 24, 2011, the top corner third floor apartment, upper left, where fugitive crime Bulger and Greig lived after spending more than 16 years on the run
He continued in the letter: ‘One day Mollett came near Jack who hits him, karate chop to neck, dropped him, knelt on him, strangled him, then let him come to, then choked him unconscious.
‘Then said ”Now you die.” Strangled him then tried to rip his eyes out, then beat his head against a capped off low pipe — cracked his head open — brain came out.
‘Mollett was Dead. Jack jumped up and down, screamed ”Best Day of My Life.”
‘From that moment Jack lived to kill. He was put in isolation for doing the world a favor.
Bulger idolized Twining for his violence, recalling how he killed fellow prisoner Walter Mollett (pictured) in Alcatraz in 1959
‘Jack spent months in isolation hole — Rough,’ Bulger continued in the letter dated November 30, 2016.
A judge ruled that Twining had killed Mollett in self-defense and eventually he was freed from Federal prison, vowing he would never go back inside.
‘Jack knew he was never coming back to prison — told me ‘I Live to Kill’ and when I get out, if anyone orders me around, pushes me, bothers me, I’m going to kill them.’
Bulger said he told his friend his life was like ‘running down a steep mountain where you’re going to fall and die.’
‘I know it,’ Twining replied. ‘I want to die — I hate the world, I want revenge!’
Bulger said he stopped Twining killing another man he identifies as ‘Mitchell’ in Leavenworth Maximum Security Prison in Kansas.
‘Didn’t like the way he looked at him, made a small sword to kill Mitchell in the yard, ran at him. Mitchell puts his arm up to ward off — cut his hand or arm then his head.
‘I grabbed Mitchell,’ wrote Bulger. ‘Asked him ”do you want to leave here alive” — ”Yeah” — told him don’t look at Twining, no eye contact, avoid him.’
And in another passage, he said Twining tried to poison a prisoner with a candy. ‘Took Mounds Bar, cut open and filled space with experimental poison. Gave it to Joe the Polack in Leavenworth — he came from upstate N.Y. — Joe ate it — ”Delicious” — in fact asked Jack for more.’
Bulger said Twining was released after 16 years in prison. ‘Went North, may have killed Fed Officer in Wash. State and cop in Oregon — 2 or 3 murders he was suspected of — then the 4 highway patrolmen in Northern CA, all young, saw it on TV back home in Boston.
Bulger said his favorite time in prison was the early morning when things were quiet — saying he started writing at 2:05am
The notorious mobster also griped in the letter about his treatment in prison, complaining ‘pervert’ guards would inspect his naked body five times a day. Bulger included in his letter records from Alcatraz which appear to prove his contention that he was given LSD as part of the experimental MK Ultra program (pictured)
In his letter, Bulger showed no remorse for his crimes, even boasting about his notoriety by including a website which mentioned him alongside Al Capone (pictured)
‘Took family hostage, told police on phone ”I’m not going to prison, I’ve done all the time I’m doing” — he had father, mother and son hostage, told police on phone ”If you rush this house I’ll kill these people — I’m coming out TOES UP.”
‘He let woman and son leave alive — told law if you rush in I kill him — then put barrel of pump shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
‘Saddened me, but in minutes I was glad he did it — his war was over.’
Then, in an attempt to explain his friend’s lust for violence, Bulger told Kelly about Twining’s life. ‘Jack never sat down to a holiday dinner with a family,’ he wrote.
In his letter, Bulger even asks Kelly if he is related to three Kellys he knew through his life of crime in the Boston area
‘He was adopted young, was happy, was playing with a ball, it rolled into bushes by the house. Heard the male say to his wife ”Why did we take the Bastard home for?” (sic)
‘Jack ran away then, back to orphanage and lifetime of torment.
‘He was a close friend — his struggle is over — RIP Jack!’
In his letter, Bulger showed no remorse for his crimes, which include at least 11 murders. He even boasted about his notoriety by including a webpage which mentioned him alongside Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly and Robert Stroud, the ‘Birdman of Alcatraz,’ among the most famous inmates held on the San Francisco Bay island prison.
He said his favorite time in prison was the early morning when things were quiet — saying he started writing at 2:05am.
He complained that while awaiting trial in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a ‘Goon Squad’ of prison officers had made his life hell. ‘Sleep Deprivation, Degrade and Dehumanize — called Special Treatment — I had 4 months of it from the Goon Squad who took care of the Dirty Work at the County Jail.’
He claimed he was strip searched five times a day, saying guards ‘inspect my naked body, remind me of perverts.
‘Then they leave with ”Have a Nice Day.”’
And he griped about the length of the sentence his girlfriend Greig received for harboring him.
‘She had never been arrested before, never took drugs or smoked — little alcohol, tipsy 3 or 4 times in 61 years.
‘Held, no bail, put in isolation cell for a year until trial, then pleads Guilty — usually in such a case Guilty plea is rewarded with easier sentence.
‘Not Catherine, she received longest prison sentence ever given in US history at present, 11 years 2 months.’
Greig, now 67, actually received eight years for harboring Bulger and another 21 months for contempt of court. She is currently serving time in federal prison in Waseca, Minnesota, and is due to be released in 2020.
Bulger, who was in a wheelchair when he was killed, said he had a heart attack while awaiting trial in Plymouth which left him with a heart murmur and A-fib. He was told he needed an operation but refused and was sent back to prison.
In his letter, Bulger even asks Kelly if he is related to three Kellys he knew through his life of crime in the Boston area.
‘Had a crime partner, Ritchie Kelly, way back at a young age, taught me a lot — was drunk and beaten to death.
‘Martin Kelly, a legend in Andrew Square, owned bar then Dover Cafe in Rough South End — he was stabbed in back, almost died. Did time in Charlestown State Prison — robbery.
‘Billy Kelly, physically big, was on Death Row in Fla. for years in the 70s & 80s & 90s for a murder.’
It was while writing about Billy Kelley — whose name he misspelled — that Bulger abruptly ended his letter.
‘Are you related to Billy Kelly?’ he asked, then continued: ‘Out of space — hope you can decipher this, signing off, Jim Bulger — everything true.’