The riveting account of former head of Massachusetts State Police Thomas J. Foleyâs twenty-year pursuit of murderous Boston gangster Whitey Bulger, and of Foleyâs key role in exposing the FBIâs protection of Bulgerâs criminal empire.
June 23, 2011. The news of the notorious gangster Whitey Bulgerâs captureâafter sixteen years on the FBIâs Most Wanted listâswept the nation. Many breathed a sigh of relief. But for Thomas J. Foley, a former Massachusetts state police colonel and the investigator who sparked Bulgerâs flight from Boston, the moment was bittersweet. The FBI may have caught Bulger, but as Foley had painfully discovered almost two decades before, they were also responsible for his escape.
It has been known that Whitey Bulger was a secret informant for the FBI, but it has never been revealedâuntil nowâthat the FBI was actually actively protecting Bulger from Foley, effectively derailing Foleyâs efforts to stop Bulgerâs horrific crime sprees time and again. At one point, the FBI even presented Foley with a plaque at a holiday party that read âthe Most Hated Man in Law Enforcement,â a not-so-subtle suggestion that he and his team should lay off their investigation.
Most Wanted is a true-life thriller, and Foley is the hero at its center. His investigative efforts resulted in criminal convictions of a half-dozen of Bostonâs most notorious thugs and also led to the conviction of John Connolly, one of the FBI agents who abetted Bulger; Connolly is now serving a forty-year prison sentence. In this book, Foley, a copâs cop, honestly recounts how his wide-eyed admiration for the nationâs top law enforcement agency was gradually transformed by dark realities he didnât want to believe.