James Joseph 'Whitey' Bulger Jr. (September 3, 1929 – October 30, 2018) was an American organized crime boss who led the Winter Hill Gang, an Irish mob group based in the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, northwest of Boston. On December 23, 1994, Bulger went into hiding after his former FBI handler, John Connolly, tipped him off about a pending RICO indictment against him. He remained at large for sixteen years. After his 2011 capture, federal prosecutors tried Bulger for nineteen murders based on grand jury testimony from Kevin Weeks and other former criminal associates.