Kevin Weeks

Kevin Weeks (born March 21, 1956) is an American former mobster and longtime friend and mob lieutenant to Whitey Bulger, the infamous boss of the Winter Hill Gang, a crime family based in the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts.

Kevin Weeks was born in South Boston, Massachusetts, on March 21, 1956, to a working-class family of Irish and Welsh descent.

He was the fifth child in a family of six and grew up in the Old Colony Housing Project at 8 Pilsudski Way, apartment 554.

His father, John Weeks Sr., originally hailed from Brooklyn, New York.

He changed tires for a living and later obtained a position with the Boston Housing Authority.

Weeks had two brothers, William and John Jr., and three sisters, Maureen, Patricia, and Karen.

John Sr. trained his sons in boxing and earned extra money by coaching prizefighters.

Kevin first started attending school at Michael J. Perkins, but then changed to John Andrew School in Andrew Square for grades 5 and 6; he finally completed elementary school at Patrick F. Gavin School.

He graduated from South Boston High in 1974, ending his formal education.

His two brothers graduated from Harvard University and would seek out careers in politics: John Jr. became an advance man for Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, and William became a selectman in Acton, Massachusetts.

Kevin's brother, William, has described their childhood: "Smart was good, but having the ability to beat someone senseless! Now that was real power. Education was often talked about in the apartment, but always with the implied threat that if your marks weren't acceptable, be ready to give up your soul to God because your ass belonged to our father ... and As weren't acceptable."

In 1975, Weeks became a bouncer at a popular neighborhood bar called Triple O's Lounge, owned by Kevin O'Neil.

This was a frequent hangout of the Winter Hill Gang, an Irish-American crime family which was then headed by James J. "Whitey" Bulger.

It was here that Weeks first met Bulger, as well as Bulger's Italian-American partner Stephen Flemmi.

Beginning in 1978, Weeks began working for Bulger part-time as muscle and a personal driver.

Impressed by Weeks' knack for making money and genuinely liking him, Bulger decided to bring him in closer than any other associate.

Meanwhile, Weeks turned to running a loansharking business on the side.

Bulger, Weeks, and Flemmi became heavily involved in narcotics trafficking in the early 1980s.

Bulger began to summon drug dealers from in and around Boston to his headquarters.

Flanked by Kevin Weeks and Flemmi, he would inform each dealer that he had been offered a substantial sum to assassinate them.

He would then demand a large cash payment not to do so.

Eventually, however, the massive profits of drugs proved irresistible.

According to Kevin Weeks:

"Jimmy, Stevie and I weren't in the import business and weren't bringing in the marijuana or the cocaine. We were in the shakedown business. We didn't bring drugs in; we took money off the people who did. We never dealt with the street dealers, but rather with a dozen large-scale drug distributors all over the State who were bringing in the coke and marijuana and paying hundreds of thousands to Jimmy. The dealers on the street corner sold eight-balls, ...grams, and half grams to customers for their personal use. They were supplied by the mid level drug dealer who was selling them multiple ounces. In other words, the big importers gave it to the major distributors, who sold it to the middlemen, who then sold it to the street dealers. To get to Jimmy, Stevie, and me, someone would have had to go through those four layers of insulation."

In South Boston, most of the neighborhood's drug trade was managed by a handpicked crew of prize fighters led by John Shea.

Edward MacKenzie Jr., a former member of Shea's crew, has stated that this was done because Shea viewed athletes as less likely to abuse the drugs they were selling.

According to Weeks, Bulger enforced strict rules over the dealers who were paying him protection.

"The only people we ever put out of business were heroin dealers. Jimmy didn't allow heroin in South Boston. It was a dirty drug that users stuck in their arms, making problems with needles, and later on, AIDS. While people can do cocaine socially and still function, once they do heroin, they're zombies."

In 1982, four years after beginning to work as part of the Winter Hill Gang, Weeks left his legitimate job and became a full-time mobster in the gang.

On the night of May 11, 1982, Bulger was told of the whereabouts of a former associate turned federal informant, Brian Halloran, known on the streets as "Balloonhead".

After arriving at the scene, Weeks staked out Anthony's Pier 4 Restaurant, where Halloran and construction worker Michael Donahue were dining together.

As Donahue and Halloran drove out of the parking lot Weeks signaled Bulger by stating, "The balloon is in the air", over a handheld radio.

Bulger drove up with a masked man armed with a silenced Mac 10; Bulger himself carried a .30 caliber carbine.

Bulger and the other shooter, allegedly Pat Nee, opened fire and sprayed Halloran and Donahue's car with bullets.

Donahue was shot in the head and killed instantly.

After his arrest and imprisonment in 1999, he became a cooperating witness.

His testimony is viewed as responsible for the convictions of FBI agent John Connolly, as well as forcing Bulger's right-hand man, Stephen Flemmi, to plead guilty as well.

Since his release from prison, he has written the true-crime memoir, Brutal: My Life in Whitey Bulger's Irish Mob.

This was followed by Where's Whitey?, which was also written with Phyllis Karas, a fictional novel using Bulger as a character.

Promotion for the book started on the day the FBI stepped up its efforts to catch Bulger with an advertisement; Bulger was caught two days later.