INSIDE WHITEY'S LAIR

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Jan 13, 2008 | by JULIAN BROUWER in New York

THIS rundown Boston garage may not look remarkable but it was the headquarters where one of the 20th century's most evil men plotted his sick and twisted crimes.

For the first time, the Irish Sunday Mirror has been given a guided tour of the lair belonging to Irish serial killer James "Whitey" Bulger, the leader of the feared Winter Hill Gang.

Whitey's former executioner John Martorano - who now hates his old boss with a passion - led us into the building to mark the 13th anniversary of Bulger's time on the run.

As he walked through the now-empty car body shop area towards a door marked "office", Martorano said: "This was the room you never wanted to go into."

A single cheap black chair sits in the middle of the office. This was Whitey's chair. Typically, he would sit at it, arms folded, saying nothing, as enemies and rivals were brought in to see him.

To unnerve his victims, he made sure the chair was always placed next to a trapdoor leading to the basement cellar.

"He used to leave the trapdoor open to intimidate people, to get the truth out of them." explained Martorano.

Lifting up the trapdoor, Martorano added: "People would just look down there and wonder. I think some people who went down there never came back up again."

Our pictures of the trapdoor show a wooden step ladder, which victims would be forced to take into the basement, which was to all intents and purposes a torture chamber.

Victims would be interrogated, tortured and sometimes even murdered.

While Martorano was a prolific hitman, who on Whitey's orders would swiftly shoot people between the eyes, Bulger instead preferred a slow death - keeping enemies alive for his own sadistic pleasure, before finally blasting them to death.

Terrifying tales of people being hung upside down like meat, before having their teeth pliered out and parts of their anatomy severed are quite common.

Another former Whitey associate, Galway-born ex-gangster Pat Nee, told the Irish Sunday Mirror in chilling detail how Whitey and his second-in-command, Steve "the Rifleman" Flemmi, tortured and murdered a turncoat employee called John McIntyre.

"Whitey and Stevie called out to me from the cellar," said Nee, who is most famous for being the ex-IRA supporter behind the plot to smuggle the largest-known cache of guns and ammo into Ireland.

"I saw McIntyre was face up on the dirt floor. His dungaree jacket was stained with blood and a rope was wrapped firmly around his neck.

"There was a bullet wound in his forehead and he had been tortured. He appeared to have been shot after he died.

"The sick b******s must have asked him questions while they yanked on the rope to cut off air at his windpipe. Stevie had a pair of pliers and was on his knees pulling out McIntyre's teeth, you could hear them separating from the jawbone.

"Stevie's eyes held a glint of pleasure. He put each tooth in a small canvas bag, smashed the bag with a hammer, and then scattered the white powder around the floor.

"Whitey asked me to dig a five-foot hole to bury John in the cellar. He had to go upstairs and lie down.

"I figure the release of sexual excitement from killing had exhausted him. Whitey had an orgasm while watching this kid die."

Typically, Bulger would spend most of the day plotting in his office, before venturing out into the dark South Boston streets late at night.

Bulger employee John "Red" Shea said: "Whitey rarely came out in the daytime. At night he came out to prowl. He liked to eat good food and drink fine wines.

"He was a chameleon. One minute he could be at ease in a fine restaurant picking out a EUR400 bottle of wine, the next he could be chastising someone with his unique style and making them p'ss their pants.

Sometimes Whitey didn't need his pliers - because his very voice could spark fear in the hearts of those who wronged him. Shea added: "Whitey told him: 'I'm f**kin' Whitey Bulger and I'll blow your f**kin' head off if you don't get my friend his stuff back, you understand that, you c***sucker?'

"The guy squeaked, 'Yes.' He was shaking and quivering. Then I saw his trousers darken and a puddle of his own piss form at his feet. Whitey drove off laughing."

The basement may have also provided a venue for Whitey to engage in his other hobby - sex with underage girls, who one writer says he picked up at a local high school.

Boston radio show host Carr explained: "Whitey's 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."

In his recent book The Brothers Bulger, Carr claimed 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 undressed. The peep show setup was nicknamed the Dog Room.

"Whitey loved it," said his enforcer Edward MacKenzie. "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."