"When it comes to the Boston Irish, names such as Bulger and Curley have long shaped the local turf. But most people are probably unaware of some of the most amazing and forgotten Irish men and women who helped mold this city. There was Patrick Gilmore, America's first famed bandleader. Louis Sullivan was the "Father of the Skyscraper." Other colorful characters included Patsy Donovan, the man who discovered Babe Ruth, and Ann "Goody" Glover, whose...

Simons traces some early Boston scandals, illustrating both the uniqueness of its people and the universalities of human nature.

This book is a behind-the-scenes portrait of the Irish power brokers who forged and fractured twentieth-century Boston. It tells the hidden story of Boston politics, the cold blooded ward bosses, the smoke-filled rooms, the larger-than-life pols who became national figures. It includes Honey Fitz, the crafty stage Irishman and grandfather to a president; the pugilistic Rascal King, Michael Curley; the hectored Kevin White who tried to hold the city...

"For the first time, Boston reporters Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge draw on exclusive interviews and exhaustive investigative reportage to tell the complete story of Whitey Bulger, one of the most notorious crime bosses in American history--alongside Al 'Scarface' Capone and Vito Genovese--and a longtime FBI informant. The leader of Boston's Winter Hill Gang and #1 on the FBI's Most Wanted list, Bulger was indicted for nineteen counts of murder, racketeering,...