Brutal_ The Untold Story of My Life Inside Whitey Bulger's Irish Mob - Kevin Weeks [137]
As for my decision to cooperate with the government in December 1999, I said, “We made a deal to sit down and talk. They wanted proof that I was telling the truth. So I led them to three bodies.”
Then Ed said, “A lot of people, particularly the families of the victims, have been outraged. I mean they look at it, ‘We lost a loved one and this guy’s walking out on the street.’”
“They’re entitled to their feelings,” I told him. “I mean, if someone killed a loved one of mine, I’d want to kill them. I wouldn’t want them in jail. I’d want to kill them. So they’re entitled to, you know, and they’re probably correct.”
In the two days I spent with him, I found Ed Bradley to be engaging, and several times we enjoyed a good laugh together. He was unpretentious and I felt as if I wasn’t talking to Ed Bradley the reporter, but rather to Ed Bradley, the guy who lived next door. When I heard he died, it was pointed out to me that over his twenty-five year career on 60 Minutes I was probably one of his last interviews.
The reaction from the interview was positive among my family and friends, but there were some observers who complained I didn’t show any remorse for my crimes. When I answered Ed Bradley’s question about whether or not I felt remorse for what I had done, they cut part of my answer. What I’d said was, “No, I don’t think or dwell on the past. I can’t change it so I don’t beat myself over the head. Do I feel bad about things that happened? Certainly. But I still can’t change it.” But I guess it made for more dramatic TV for the one word, “No,” to be my answer. The truth is I mostly keep all that to myself. I don’t go around sharing my feelings with people. Besides, who are these people to judge me? I don’t owe anyone outside my circle an explanation. I didn’t write the book to ease my conscience or make anyone like me. I just wanted to tell the true story, not a story told by a hack reporter or a low level drug dealer, neither one of whom had the slightest idea of what was really going on.
BRUTAL PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN
After the 60 Minutes interview I appeared on numerous television and radio shows, appearances I did not seek, but were part of the publicity campaign set up by the publisher. Three days after the 60 Minutes interview aired I was on the CBS Early Show, where I was interviewed by Harry Smith. When Smith asked me about my remorse, I said, “It’s something I live with and I can’t change the past. So I don’t dwell on it. I just try to move on.” Like so many interviewers, Smith also asked me about whether or not Jimmy would be found and prosecuted. “He’s probably over in Europe somewhere under an alias, and I think when he dies of natural causes—because I don’t think they’ll ever find him—that he’ll be buried under that name,” I told him. And I told dozens of other interviewers the same thing.
I was also on Fox & Friends and The Abrams Report with Dan Abrams, as well as local television shows all over the Boston area. Obviously, all these efforts paid off, since Brutal hit the New York Times bestseller list on April 2, 2006. It also made the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Boston Globe bestseller lists, as well as many others. For the most part, I endured all the interviews, but I did lose my cool a couple of times, once on a radio show when the interviewer obviously hadn’t read the book and had no idea what he was talking about.
My appearance on some other shows sparked protest as well as interest. When some radio listeners to the Dennis & Callahan radio show in Boston complained about the station giving air time to “hardened criminals,” the response was that it made for fascinating