William Michael Bulger (born February 2, 1934) is an American former

Democratic Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

politician, lawyer, and educator from

South Boston, Massachusetts South Boston is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay. South Boston, colloquially known as Southie, has undergone several demographic transformati ...

. His eighteen-year tenure as President of the Massachusetts Senate is the longest in history. He then became president of the University of Massachusetts. Bulger came from Old Harbor Village Housing Development (now more commonly known as the Mary Ellen McCormick Housing Development). He graduated from Boston College High School in 1952, then from Boston College in Classics, then from Boston College Law School. Despite his brother's infamy as the convicted mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger, who led the Winter Hill Gang, investigators have never uncovered any evidence that the two brothers colluded. In 2003 he testified in a congressional hearing about communications he had with his then-fugitive brother. Due to the negative publicity, he was forced to resign from the presidency of the University of Massachusetts. Bulger went on to teach as a visiting scholar at Suffolk University, but has since removed himself from public life. Bulger is now retired and lives in South Boston's City Point section.

Early life

William Bulger's father, James Joseph Bulger Sr., was from Harbour Grace,

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

. After settling in Everett, Massachusetts, James Sr. married Jane Veronica "Jean" McCarthy, a first-generation Irish immigrant. William Bulger was born in

Dorchester, Massachusetts Dorchester (colloquially referred to as Dot) is a Boston neighborhood comprising more than in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester ...

, and is the third of six children in the family, and younger brother of former mob boss James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger Jr. (1929–2018). Bulger's father worked as a union laborer and occasional longshoreman; he lost his arm in an industrial accident and the family was reduced to poverty. In May 1938, When Bulger was four years old, the family moved to South Boston's Old Harbor Village housing project, soon after it opened. He grew up there and has maintained lifelong friendships with many of those who were his former neighbors, including best friend, Korean War Marine

P.O.W. A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...

and Purple Heart recipient Fred L. Toomey. The late Congressman Joe Moakley (1927–2001) was also a close childhood neighbor. Although the Bulger family was poor, William matriculated into Boston College High School. He enrolled at

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

in 1952, but his undergraduate career was interrupted when he joined the United States Army. He served from September 1953 to November 1955, then returned to Boston College, completing his undergraduate degree in English Literature with the help of the G.I. Bill. He attended Boston College Law School, from which he received his Doctor of Jurisprudence degree in 1961. He is also the recipient of over 20 honorary degrees from a variety of academic institutions.

Political career

Bulger became interested in politics in 1959 and was first elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1960. After serving five terms, Bulger was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate in 1970 representing the First Suffolk District. In 1973 he was named Second Assistant Floor Majority Leader. After

Joseph DiCarlo Joseph J. C. DiCarlo (March 21, 1936 – October 22, 2020) was an American politician who served in both houses of the Massachusetts General Court. He was expelled from the Senate in 1977 after he was convicted of extortion. He was the first Massa ...

's conviction for extortion in 1977, Bulger succeeded him as Senate Majority Leader. Bulger was elected President of the Massachusetts State Senate in 1978 and was re-elected every two years to 1996, making his time as State Senate president the longest tenure in Massachusetts history. Like other Massachusetts politicians who were elected leaders of their legislative chambers, Bulger was frequently pilloried in the media, but remained very popular in his district. He won his district election every two years from 1961 to 1994 without ever facing a challenge more serious than he faced in the Democratic primary in 1988, when Stephen Holt, a neophyte liberal activist and bookstore owner from Dorchester won 31 out of 60 precincts, only to lose the district by a landslide due to the huge turnout of Bulger supporters in South Boston. For many years, Bulger hosted the annual St. Patrick's Day Breakfast in South Boston. This is a " roast" of politicians.

Political milestones

Boston Mayor Ray Flynn and Massachusetts Senate President William M

Bulger was a leading opponent of the desegregation of Boston schools achieved through desegregation busing. During one protest he called the police who were arresting protestors to desegregation "the gestapo". During the 1960s, he led efforts to write the first

child abuse Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical, sexual, and/or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child or children, especially by a parent or a caregiver. Child abuse may include any act or failure to a ...

reporting laws in the state. He was supportive of environmental protection legislation. Bulger was among the first advocates of

charter schools A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...

and public school choice. During the 1980s, he advocated funding of

public libraries A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also civil servants. There are five fundamenta ...

, the expansion of childhood nutrition services and fuel assistance programs. As Senate president, Bulger led the debate on welfare reform in the early 1990s, with the resulting legislation becoming the model for a national law.

President of the University of Massachusetts system

Bulger was appointed president of the University of Massachusetts by the board of trustees on November 28, 1995. His candidacy for the UMass position was supported by Governor

William Weld William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

. The appointment was controversial in academic circles, as Bulger had no prior experience in higher education, and lacked the academic doctoral degree usually required for the presidency of a major state university system. On August 6, 2003, Bulger announced that he would resign as president of the system effective September 1, 2003. His resignation came due to pressure from Governor

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts f ...

after Bulger had refused to cooperate with authorities who were searching for Bulger's brother, the notorious mobster James "Whitey" Bulger.

Extortion investigation

In 1989, a close associate of Bulger, Thomas Finnerty, was accused of extorting $500,000 from a real estate developer, Harold Brown. Bulger received $240,000 of the payment. Both men maintained that it was a loan from Brown. However, after an investigation by U.S. Attorney Jeremiah O'Sullivan, no charges against Bulger were pressed claiming that the evidence was not sufficient to prove a crime.

Controversy over brother

Bulger's older brother James "Whitey" Bulger Jr. was a convicted crime boss and multiple murderer and the former boss of the Winter Hill Gang. Whitey was a fugitive from 1995 until his arrest in June 2011. In 1999, Whitey's longtime aide,

Kevin Weeks Kevin Weeks (born March 21, 1956) is an American former mobster and longtime friend and mob lieutenant to Whitey Bulger, the infamous boss of the Winter Hill Gang, a crime family based in the Winter Hill neighborhood in Somerville, Massach ...

, pleaded guilty to a number of charges related to Whitey's crime spree and became a cooperating witness. Weeks revealed that in 1995, William talked to Whitey during an arranged phone conversation just two weeks after Whitey fled a pending

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and of ...

indictment. When William testified before a grand jury in 2001, a federal prosecutor pressed him without success for information on his brother:

So just to be clear, you felt more loyalty to your brother than you did to the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts? I never thought about it that way, Bulger replied. But I do have an honest loyalty to my brother, and I care about him (…) It’s my hope that I'm never helpful to anyone against him (…) I don't have an obligation to help everyone catch him.

When asked why he didn't urge Whitey to turn himself in, William replied that he didn't feel it was in his brother's best interest to give himself up at the time. After portions of Bulger's testimony were published in '' The Boston Globe,'' he testified to a

Congressional A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

committee about the incident on June 19, 2003, after being granted immunity from prosecution for obstruction of justice. Bulger revealed that he went to an arranged location in 1995 to take a call from his fugitive brother, apparently to avoid electronic eavesdropping. He claimed that not notifying authorities about the call was "in no way inconsistent with my devotion to my own responsibilities, my public responsibilities" as state senate president.Edward Achorn,"The Anti-Brahmins: Not Every Massachusetts Dynasty Is Great," book review of The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston For a Quarter Century, by Howie Carr, '' The Weekly Standard'' magazine, July 24, 2006. During the hearing, when asked what he thought James (Whitey) did for a living, William Bulger said:

I had the feeling that he was in the business of gaming and ... whatever. It was vague to me but I didn't think, for a long while he had some jobs but ultimately it was clear that he was not being, you know, he wasn't doing what I'd like him to do.

He added that he loved his brother and hoped that the most brutal rumors concerning him would be proven false. Bulger came under harsh criticism for his apparent evasiveness, and Governor

, among others, demanded his resignation as president of the University of Massachusetts. Under pressure from all quarters, Bulger resigned in the fall of 2003. Bulger also testified that the FBI never asked if he knew of Whitey's location. Those remarks were disputed by a former FBI agent who claimed Bulger declined to submit to an interview with the FBI.Fox Butterfield, "F.B.I. Used Killers as Informants, Report Says," ''New York Times'', November 21, 2003, accessed September 10, 2006 Months later, the committee report found Bulger's testimony "inconsistent" about whether the FBI had contacted him in its search for his fugitive brother. Upon Whitey's arrest in California in June 2011, William Bulger issued a statement expressing his "sympathies to the families hurt" in the case, and asking for privacy for his family.

Active retirement and family

Bulger is a past president of the Boston Public Library and past member of the board of trustees. He is also overseer emeritus of the

Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, ...

. In addition, he is a former member of the

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

board of trustees, Museum of Fine Arts board of trustees, and McLean Hospital board of trustees. He joined the faculties of

and

Suffolk University Suffolk University is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. With 7,560 students (includes all campuses, 7,379 at the Boston location alone), it is the eighth-largest university in metropolitan Boston. It was founded as a l ...

as a lecturer of political science in 2004. Bulger lived in South Boston with Mary Foley (1935–2020), his wife whom he married in 1960 until her death on June 7, 2020. Bulger and his wife have nine children and 33 grandchildren. According to the Massachusetts Open Checkbook list of state pensions, Bulger's pension from Massachusetts for his position as University of Massachusetts president ranged from $198,926 to $201,266 for the years 2011 to 2019.

Biographical works

* Bulger, William M. ''While the Music Lasts: My Life in Politics''. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1996. . * Bulger, William M. ''James Michael Curley: A Short Biography with Personal Reminiscences by William M. Bulger''. Beverly, Massachusetts: Commonwealth Editions, 2009. . * Burke, John J. ''A Profile in Political Power'', a 2010 documentary produced by JAMAR Productions, highlights the political career of William M. Bulger."A Profile in Political Power"
Jamar Productions, 2010

References

External links

* Gitell, Seth.

'' Boston Phoenix'' December 12, 2002. Accessed September 11, 2006.
Billy Bulger

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bulger, William M. 1934 births Living people American people of Irish descent American political bosses Boston College faculty Boston College High School alumni Boston College Law School alumni Boston College alumni Democratic Party Massachusetts state senators Politicians from Boston Presidents of the Massachusetts Senate University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni United States Army soldiers Military personnel from Massachusetts Presidents of the University of Massachusetts system Suffolk University faculty Lawyers from Boston People from South Boston Writers from Boston Massachusetts General Hospital people McLean Hospital people