Street Soldier: My Life as an Enforcer for Whitey Bulger and the Boston Irish Mob - Softcover

MacKenzie Jr., Edward; Karas, Phyllis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1586420763 ISBN 13: 9781586420765

Publisher: Steerforth, 2004

Synopsis

For decades the FBI let James “Whitey” Bulger get away with murder, an almost unbelievable story that entered a new chapter when Bulger was arrested in California and put on trial. During the 1980s, Edward J. MacKenzie, Jr., “Eddie Mac,” was a drug dealer and enforcer who would do just about anything for Bulger. In this compelling eyewitness account, the first from a Bulger insider, Eddie Mac delivers the goods on his one-time boss and on such former associates as Stephen ''The Rifleman'' Flemmi and turncoat FBI agent John Connolly. Eddie Mac provides a window onto a world rarely glimpsed by those on the outside.

Street Soldier is also a story of the search for family, for acceptance, for respect, loyalty, and love. Abandoned by his parents at the age of four, MacKenzie became a ward of the state of Massachusetts, suffered physical and sexual abuse in the foster care system, and eventually drifted into a life of crime and Bulger's orbit. The Eddie Mac who emerges in these pages is complex: An enforcer who was also a kick-boxing and Golden Gloves champion; a womanizer who fought for custody of his daughters; a tenth-grade dropout living on the streets who went on, as an adult, to earn a college degree in three years; a man, who lived by the strict code of loyalty to the mob, but set up a sting operation that would net one of the largest hauls of cocaine ever seized. Eddie's is a harsh story, but it tells us something important about the darker corners of our world.

Street Soldier is as disturbing and fascinating as a crime scene, as heart-stopping as a bar fight, and at times as darkly comic as Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction or Martin Scorsese’s Good Fellas.

About this title

About the Author

Edward J. Mackenzie Jr. is a single father raising his two daughters near his hometown of South Boston.

Phyllis Karas is coauthor of The Onassis Women. A contributor to People magazine and an adjunct professor at the Boston University School of Journalism, she lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Ross A. Muscato is a strategic communications consultant who lives in the Boston area.

From the Inside Flap

For decades the FBI let James Whitey Bulger get away with murder, allowing him continued control of his criminal enterprise in exchange for information. He went on the lam in 1995 and today follows top-ranked Osama bin Laden on the FBI s Ten Most Wanted List.
Edward J. MacKenzie, Jr. was a drug dealer and enforcer who would do just about anything for Bulger. In this compelling eyewitness account, Eddie Mac delivers the goods on his one-time boss and on such former associates as Stephen The Rifleman Flemmi and turncoat FBI agent John Connolly.
Street Soldier is also a story of the search for family, for acceptance, for respect, loyalty, and love. Abandoned by his parents at the age of four, Mackenzie became a ward of the state, suffered physical and sexual abuse, and eventually drifted into Bulger s orbit.
The Eddie Mac who emerges in these pages is complex: An enforcer who was also a national kick-boxing champion; a womanizer who fought for custody of his daughters; a kid never given much of a chance who went on, as an adult, to earn a college degree in three years; a man who lived by a strict code of loyalty but also helped set up a sting operation that would net one of the largest hauls of cocaine ever seized.
Street Soldier is as disturbing and fascinating as a crime scene, as heart-stopping as a bar fight, and at times as darkly comic as Quentin Tarantino s Pulp Fiction or Martin Scorsese s Good Fellas.

Edition details

• Publisher: Steerforth
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1586420763
• ISBN 13: 9781586420765
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272