People Want Us to Kill You, We Want to Help

Nobody knows where Whitey Bulger is hiding, or even if he is still alive. He went on the lam in 1995.   Howie Carr is my favorite radio talkmaster and he wrote a book a few years ago called “The Brothers Bulger,”  which  included this scary scene recounted below.

In 1983 the new owner of a liquor store in South Boston named Steven Rakes was excited about his new venture, located on a rotary on a busy street.  He had only been open a few days, and was home babysitting his kids with his wife taking the afternoon/evening shift. He got a visit from Whitey Bulger and his associate, Kevin Weeks. “We need to talk to you,” the two men said, and explained that ” all of these other guys want us to kill you.  We are here to buy your liquor store.”

Rakes replied that is wasn’t for sale, but then was told that if he didn’t sell, they would just kill him anyway. They told him they were going to pay him cash, and that was that. They returned three hours later, and as Whitey sat at the table, a click, click, click sound could be heard. One of the thugs put a .38 on Rake’s kitchen table.

The next day, a similar visit, he heard that same clicking sound from Whitey, and Kevin Weeks even picked up Rake’s two-year-old daughter. “Don’t touch my kid,” Rakes said angrily. They handed him a bag with $67,000 in cash and told him the deal was done…”Now we own the liquor store,” they said.  After the incident, Rakes fled to Florida with his family, terrified of what had happened. The gangsters tracked him down at Disney World, and demanded he come back. “People think we whacked you,” Kevin Weeks explained.

So the next morning,  they made the former owner of the store stand at the corner of Dorchester and Broadway, and wave to people, while Whitey stood nearby. Just to show everyone, they made him do it again in the afternoon.  They renamed the store South Boston Liquor Mart, and a few years later, Whitey himself won the lottery and divided up a multimillion prize. The clicking sound was later confirmed to be Whitey’s switchblade.