though, whitey bulger. all the old lady's committees and nice and man. the zero stops and brings me of members restored. so whitey was very consciously cultivating this because you need to be a criminal you had to have your neighborhood not turn on you. you have to have them not cooperate with the cops. so it wasn't so much -- with criminals it was important to be feared. would not criminals it was important to be liked. so when we saw he spent his entire criminal career cultivating this image of him as the good bad guy, the gangster with scruples. you know, gangsters with scruples don't marry -- murder young women and hidden them -- maria women and hide them in graves. dea agents, massachusetts state police saying that he controls all the drugs. and his politician brother lyle was go along with, why always voted for live in south boston came up to me and hit me in the chest with the figure saying you're printing lies about my brother. you would never get involved in drugs. we all knew was not true, but there was also no conclusive evidence. so one of the

special agent rich teahan, who ran the fbi's whitey bulger fugitive task force, had heard it all. >> ch teahan: bulger was charged with 19 counts of murder. he was charged with other crimes. he was a scourge to the society in south boston, his own community. >> kroft: he was also a scourge to the fbi, and a great source of embarrassment to teahan, special agent phil torsney, and others on the fbi task force. years earlier, whitey bulger had infiltrated the boston office of the fbi and bought off agents, who protected him and plied him with information, including the tip that allowed bulger to flee just days before he was to be indicted. >> phil torsney: we really had to catch this guy to establish credibility after all the other issues. and it was just a matter of bringing this guy back to boston, to make sure this guy didn't die or get away with this thing. >> kroft: torsney, who's now retired, and agent tommy macdonald joined the task force in 2009. the joke was bulger was on the fbi's "least wanted list." there hadn't been a credible lead in more than a decade. and their efforts in

and i asked him, i said, "are you whitey bulger?" he said, "yes." >> zeig heil! zeig heil!if they sound like nazis, it's because they are... >> zeig heil! zeig heil! zeig heil!

and i asked him, i said, "are you whitey bulger?" he said, "yes."

we would have grown up learning about whitey bulger from osmosis. everyone where we were from knew he was a dangerous guy. what made whitey a remarkable story is that while he was the most powerful gangsta in boston, his brother bill was the longest serving president of the state senate in massachusetts and he had a network in which he got people jobs and which that came a lot of support for him both o politically. i was part of the team in '88 that did a series on the brothers explaining how whitey became the most powerful gangsta in boston and his brother was the heart of the politics. whit whitey's brother role as a politician played a part of why he was supported. there were other books written about whitey bulger. many were written by criminal collyialolleagu colleagues of his that lie and embellish how tough and big they are and minimize the amount of serious bad crime they do. as we sat down to

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] a discussion about whitey bulger america's most wanted gangster in the manhunt that brought him to justice. this is about an hour. >> my name is pam southerland. we would like to thank the city of tucson for sponsoring this venue. we also thank robin judy wilson for sponsoring the session. the presentation will last one hour including questions and answers so please hold your questions until the end. at the conclusion of the session the authors will go to a signing area to meet you and autograph their books. out of respect for the authors and fellow audience members please turn off your cell phones now. everybody take a second and look at your cell phone. is it off? thanks. we have two wonderful "boston globe" column this year. kevin cowan and shelley murphy. there are currently columnist with the "boston globe". as you know they're the authors of this book on oldster. in 2003 was part of the investigative team that won the pulitzer for covering the catholic church sex abuse scandal. he went to the trinity university in dublin. he is from

you remember, we looked at the fbi case that many americans have forgotten about, whitey bulger who wasfound in california for years after we lost. the abortion clinic killer stuck in the mountains in north carolina. you've got to remember one thing, there are americans dead here. this is potentially a crime scene. the investigators, the agents, analysts will not let this bone go until there's an answer. >> well, that's a relief to hear. i'm sure it's a relief for the families as well. thanks very much to phil mudd. >>> coming up next, satellites continue to find possible debris in the southern indian ocean. do they need a new strategy? >>> and waves as tall as office buildings. what are they going to face as the search resumes in a few hours from now. your eyes depend on a unique set of nutrients. [ male announcer ] that's why there's ocuvite. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. ocuvite has a unique formula that's just not found in any leading multivitamin. help protect your eye health with ocuvite. humans. even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems.

a look at "whitey" bulger, a panel on politics, and then the story of the wives of america's mercury vii astronauts. starting now on booktv. >> welcome to the sixth annual tucson festival only books. i am melly, and first we reside just like to begin by thanking the city of tucson for sponsoring the venue and the medical system for sponsoring this particular session. and of course i want to thank all of you for coming, and afterwards there will be a signing that will take alan to a signing area, which is actually right across from the union in the u of a book store tent and we'll reminds you at the en, too. so. >> we're lucky to have with is alan weisman who has wherein for "new york times," orion, mother jones, the best science writing of 2006, and besides his award-winning articles he has also won awards for several of his previous bangs, including a bill to reinvent the world, and the world without it, which was named top nonfiction book of the year by entertainment weekly and time magazine among

called true crime but we sat down to make this a social history and to explain at creature like whitey bulger could only exist at a certain time and place. and very peculiar to boston. we don't really believe that older could have existed in new york or philadelphia or chicago or tucson or l.a. because of the way the ethnic dynamics of boston where the irish were in control of politics, law enforcement, business. the irish really ran the town and the influence of the italian mafia was such that the fbi could create a national policy to go after the mafia and use and other criminals from an irish background and say that they were being used to help with the mafia. that could only happen in boston.

. >> reporter: from whitey bulger to the mob wives -- >> don't, don't. >> did i get her in the face? >> reporter: even after "the sopranos" -- >> johnny's in jail. >> reporter: -- america's fascination with the mob is alive and well. for steven o'donnell, growing up in a blue-collar neighborhood in providence, rhode island, organized crime was a fact of life, and the patriarch of mob family was top dog. >> i was fascinated with organized crime. >> reporter: fascinated but determined to stay on the right side of the law. o'donnell started off as a maximum security prison guard, learning the language of the mobsters. >> without question, we work in the prison set me up for some type of success, because i could walk the walk, talk the talk. >> reporter: on one fateful day in 1994, on the steps of the providence courthouse, o'donnell, now an undercover cop, found himself face to face with harold tillinggast, a mob hit man out on parole. you seized the moment. >> i was coming to get a warrant signed unrelated. i saw him and i had to get rid of the warrants i had and then just talked to hi