NOW HE'S PINKY BULGER

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Feb 26, 2006 | by JULIAN BROUWER

THIS is hardened Irish mobster James "Whitey" Bulger as you've never seen him before - dressed up like one of the Village People and ready to play.

The once feared fugitive mobster, who is accused of 19 murders, is on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list with Osama Bin Laden and was famously dubbed "The Last Great Irish Gangster".

But a bombshell new book claims so-called Boston hardman Whitey was "camper than a row of tents", liked to wear leathers and had a string of boyfriends and male sexual partners.

He is also said to have enjoyed perverted sex with underage Catholic schoolgirls, while his cohorts watched through a two way mirror in a special area known as the Dog Room.

Written by controversial US radio host Howie Carr, the book - The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorised And Corrupted Boston For A Quarter Of A Century - will stun even Whitey's closest Boston associates.

The picture in which Whitey poses in a cowoy hat was taken by one of Whitey's pals during a holiday in Provincetown, Cape Cod.

Carr, a former Boston Herald bureau chief, who is hated and despised by Whitey and his politician brother Billy, insists Whitey started his life out as a smalltime hustler and rent boy, working for a lesbian pimp.

Whitey is also said to have had a love affair with another man - who later died of AIDS - while he was in the notorious Alcatraz prison.

Carr, who dug out the improbable 1980s photograph of Whitey, points out that many of Whitey's close associates were much younger than he was and of similar appearance.

"It's no coincidence that the FBI are always hunting Whitey in Thailand," says Carr. "It's a favourite haunt for people like him."

The revelations in the book are sure to infuriate both Whitey and Billy, who was once humiliated by the journalist when he testified to a congressional hearing about his relationship with his missing brother.

Millions watching Billy give evidence on America's C-Span television channel noticed Carr making silly faces behind the politician.

"Whitey isn't exclusively gay," insists Carr, who is even offering his readers funny fridge magnets of the Village People picture. "But I've had it on good authority from FBI sources that he is bi-sexual.

"People have known about this for years but in the old days people were too afraid to say anything."

Whitey is said to be on the run with his girlfriend Catherine Greig but Carr reckons the killer was more interested in her little brother David, who died in a mysterious suicide.

"Whitey was often seen in the company of Catherine Greig's younger brother, adds Carr. "He liked to have him around. He was a good looking kid. His suicide involved him being shot in the head. It was rather suspicious.

"His other close friend was an American Indian called Clarence 'the Choctaw Kid' Carnes who met Whitey in Alcatraz. The details are all coming out in little bits and pieces now. Clarence contracted AIDS and died.

"He was buried in a prison graveyard in Missouri but Whitey paid to have his body exhumed and sent back to Indian country for a traditional burial. At the funeral, Whitey passed out $100 tips to everyone there - the preachers, the singers, even the funeral director."

The first hint as to Bulger's sexual preferences may have been given in the late 1940s when the mobster began scraping a living as a male hooker.

"Whitey worked out of a couple of gay bars," reveals Carr. "As a young male hustler, he quickly became adept at rolling his tricks - his police record indicates an arrest for 'unarmed robbery.' One of his favourite pickup spots was the Punch Bowl which was frequently raided."

However, Carr insists that though Whitey hustled to raise some spending money, he wasn't exclusively homosexual and enjoyed having sex with underage girls whom he picked up at a local Boston high school.

As Carr explains, "His main recreation was sex - with partners of both genders. He went both ways and, like his (business) partner Stevie Flemmi, he enjoyed the company of underage females of which there was a ready supply at Cardinal Cushing High School."

Another claim in the book is that Bulger got perverted thrills from spying on young girls through a two-way mirror in a storeroom next to their gymnasium locker room as they stripped down to their undies.

The peep show setup was nicknamed the Dog Room.

"Whitey loved it," says his enforcer Edward MacKenzie in the book. "Of course there was no way he was going to sit with us. When he wanted the Dog Room, he got private shows, at 11 or 12 at night, often with high school girls from the (housing) projects.

"We were not allowed in the gym when he was there."

MacKenzie even claims he watched through the two-way mirror once as Whitey raped a 15-year-old girl.

"The naked girl lay face down on a plastic tarp on the floor," recalls MacKenzie. "Whitey, equally naked, kneeled over her. He was spreading different colours of paint all over her body' she looked like a tie-dye t-shirt.

"When he was finished, he turned her over and began having sex with her."

Carr admits he is hated by Whitey's brother Billy and the book is unlikely to make him any more popular with his Boston foe. "Billy called me 'the savage'," he says. "He's been referred to as the 'Corrupt Midget' in the past. He likes to get his friends cushy jobs."