Several people connected to the fugitive mobster are rushing to sell their stories.
BOSTON (AP) – A number of people who had a role in the underworld saga of James “Whitey” Bulger are trying to write books or land a movie deal, including a former girlfriend, a victim and one-time cronies of the the fugitive mobster.

In the race to turn the fugitive Bulger’s story into gold, “everyone’s gone Hollywood,” according to Bulger’s former associate Patrick Nee. Nee has a publisher for his book about his involvement in an ill-fated plot to ship guns to the Irish Republican Army in 1984 aboard the Ipswich-based trawler, Valhalla.

“It’s the real Valhalla story,” said Nee, who pledged to correct “misconceptions” that Bulger was an avid IRA sympathizer who helped mastermind the gun-running scheme. “Whitey did have something to do with the Valhalla, but he tried to derail it.”

Nee told the Boston Sunday Globe he’s not expecting a windfall from book sales, and thinks other would-be authors from his hometown might have unrealistic expectations.

“The odds of making a lot of money on a book are nil,” he said.

Several books about Bulger and his relationship to the FBI have already been published: “Black Mass,” written by former Globe reporters Gerard O’Neill and Dick Lehr, and “Deadly Alliance,” by Globe reporter Ralph Ranalli.

Last year, “Street Soldier: My Life as an Enforcer for Whitey Bulger and the Irish Mob” was published, based on an account by Edward MacKenzie Jr.

The book has been met with incredulity in the South Boston section of Boston, where people in Bulger’s former inner circle insist that MacKenzie never was one of them. But it has helped fuel the book boom, on the theory that if MacKenzie can sell a book, maybe others can.

Howie Winter, former leader of Somerville’s Winter Hill gang, said he had been talking to movie producers about his story, which would include his life with Bulger, who, he said, could “teach the devil tricks.”

Boston Herald columnist and radio talk show host Howie Carr has confirmed that he has received an advance to write a book about Bulger and his brother, William, who once served as president of the state Senate and the state university.

Bulger’s long-time girlfriend, Teresa Stanley, also said she had teamed up with a local writer to write a book about life with Whitey.

“I’ve spent 30 years with this guy and I’ve been through hell,” she said.

Stephen Rakes, who was forced to sell his South Boston liquor store to Bulger in 1984, declined to discuss the book he’s working on with a friend, the Globe reported.

John Taylor Williams, a literary agent and entertainment attorney for the Boston law firm of Fish & Richardson, said another Bulger book must be “really beautifully written” or contain fresh revelations.

“I don’t think there’s room for badly written memoirs,” said Williams.

Since Bulger fled to evade a 1995 federal racketeering indictment, he has been outed as an FBI informant who corrupted some of his handlers and has been charged in connection with the murders of 19 people.

AP-ES-04-18-04 1048EDT