Two Views Of New Film, Black Mass About Boston Crime Boss, FBI

[From article]
By the way, in the movie, Johnny Martorano has been demoted from Whitey’s real-life partner to an underling, which he wasn’t. In “Black Mass” Johnny hangs out in Triple O’s, which he never even set foot in. As the movie begins, Martorano is being yelled at by germophobe Depp/Whitey for eating too many bar nuts in an unsanitary fashion.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if Whitey had ever yelled at Johnny Martorano, about anything, “Black Mass” would have ended at the three-minute mark. The thug Whitey yelled at for his dietary habits was Nicky Femia, whom Whitey cursed at for eating French fries, not nuts.
Hooray for Hollywood!

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/howie_carr/2015/09/carr_hollywood_treatment_gets_lots_of_whitey_story_wrong

Carr: Hollywood treatment gets lots of Whitey story wrong
Friday, September 18, 2015
By: Howie Carr
Boston Herald

* * *

[From article]
For those of us who came close enough to look under the hoods of our cars, as I did on more than one occasion, the terror was much more subtle.
I’ll give you an example: More than 30 years ago, the late, legendary crime reporter Paul Corsetti and I worked on a story about the murder of Louis Litif. He was a bookmaker who’d run afoul of Bulger and turned up dead in the South End in the trunk of his car.
In the course of asking questions, Corsetti got a call to meet a tipster in a bar near Quincy Market. Paul waited until almost one in the morning and was about to leave when a rather ordinary-looking guy approached and asked, “You’re Paul Corsetti, aren’t you?”
When Corsetti nodded, the stranger asked, “Do you know who I am?”
Paul shook his head, and the stranger told him: “I’m Whitey Bulger, mother (expletive).” Though Whitey announced that he killed people, what he told Corsetti was far more terrifying. He described the make, model, color and license plate of the car Paul’s wife used and the name of the daycare center where she dropped their daughter off.
That is the kind of terror that forced Paul Corsetti to come to work carrying a permitted gun. I never mentioned it to my wife.
[. . .]
It bastardizes the book, completely cuts out the two real women in Bulger’s life, Teresa Stanley and Catherine Greig, reduces Kevin Weeks and Stevie Flemmi to little more than stick figures.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/peter_gelzinis/2015/09/gelzinis_black_mass_fails_to_plumb_heart_of_an_evil

Gelzinis: ‘Black Mass’ fails to plumb heart of an evil soul
Thursday, September 17, 2015
By: Peter Gelzinis
Boston Herald