. >> reporter: in his old neighborhood, southey bulger is legendary, woven into this city's fabric. back in the day, whitey bulger ran this liquor store. people say he punished people in the basement. >> nobody knew the extent he was doing things. but people just stayed out of his way. >> reporter: whitey bulger worked as an fbi informant, digging up dirt on his competition, boston's italian mob. he was the inspirit ration for jack nicholson's character in "the departed." but in this case, real life is far more intriguing. just as investigators say whitey was ordering hits, his brother, billy bulger was rising in state government, president of the massachusetts state senate and later president of umass, he came to court today to see his brother. billy has always denied any knowledge of whitey's alleged crimes or where he's been hiding. msnbc's lawrence o'donnell grew up nearby. >> you would not be asked questions about what your brother does, because too many people have brothers doing things they couldn't explain. >> reporter: but those pesky questions never went away, even at a 20