Brutal - by Kevin Weeks & Phyllis Karas (Paperback)

About the Book

From the Back Cover

I grew up in the Old Colony housing project in South Boston and became partners with James "Whitey" Bulger, who I always called Jimmy.

Jimmy and I, we were unstoppable. We took what we wanted. And we made people disappear--permanently. We made millions. And if someone ratted us out, we killed him. We were not nice guys.

I found out that Jimmy had been an FBI informant in 1999, and my life was never the same. When the feds finally got me, I was faced with something Jimmy would have killed me for--cooperating with the authorities. I pled guilty to twenty-nine counts, including five murders. I went away for five and a half years.

I was brutally honest on the witness stand, and this book is brutally honest, too; the brutal truth that was never before told. How could it? Only three people could tell the true story. With one on the run and one in jail for life, it falls on me.

Review Quotes

"Rarely have the nuts-and-bolts of 'the gangster life' been laid bare in such shocking, unvarnished detail." - - T. J. English, New York Times bestselling author of Paddy Whacked and The Westies

"The most recent entry in the field [of books about Whitey Bulger] also happens to be the most interesting and accurate: Brutal by Kevin Weeks. . . . His experiences make for an effective piece of storytelling, and as for 'fact-checking, ' Weeks's story has been vetted by the State Police, more than one federal bureau, and three juries. So when Weeks talks about Bulger, he's got the goods and he makes clear the others don't." - - Boston Sunday Globe

"...most interesting and accurate. When Weeks talks about Bulger, he's got the goods and he makes clear the others don't." - - Boston Sunday Globe

"Absorbing." - --Deseret Morning News

"Weeks lands a knockout punch with this compelling look at one of the most intriguing figures in the American underworld." - - George Anastasia, bestselling author of The Last Gangster

"With Brutal, Kevin Weeks takes the reader deep inside one of the most sinister underworld conspiracies in the history of American organized crime. Rarely have the nuts-and-bolts of 'the gangster life' been laid bare in such shocking, unvarnished detail. Weeks was right there alongside James "Whitey" Bulger during many of his most vicious acts, and Brutal tells all in a mesmerizing, straight-forward manner that hits the reader like a sock in the nose." - - T. J. English, New York Times bestselling author of Paddy Whacked and The Westies

"Mesmerizing and fascinating ... no organized crime fiction I have read has anything on this book. I couldn't put it down." - - Michael Palmer, New York Times bestselling author of The Society

"Weeks has made his literary bones. He has credibility..." - - Boston Phoenix

"Bulger has spawned a handful of books about his mayhem. So far, Weeks' is the best. " - - Cleveland Plain Dealer

"A dazzling story...Brutal is the most revealing and chilling true crime story that I have ever read." - - Julian Krainin, Producer of "Quiz Show" and "Something the Lord Made"