Victims of the murderous Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger have expressed disgust and horror at comments made by Johnny Depp at a premiere of the biopic Black Mass, in which the actor talked about its subject’s potential for kindness and humanity.
Speaking on the red carpet at Boston’s Coolidge Corner theatre, where Scott Cooper’s Oscar-tipped crime drama had its US premiere on 15 September, Depp said Bulger inhabited a world of violence, but also had a softer side to him. “There’s a kind heart in there,” he said. “There’s a cold heart in there. There’s a man who loves. There’s a man who cries. There’s a lot to the man.”
Red carpet scenes @shaynaseymour asks the stars - are you glorifying Whitey? @BlackMassMovie #Chronicle5 7:30 #WCVB pic.twitter.com/d0hvN324FB
— WCVB Chronicle (@Chronicle5) September 17, 2015
Bill St Croix, whose sister Deborah Hussey was strangled by Bulger in 1985, told the Boston Globe: “I wonder how Johnny Depp would feel if his sister got strangled and buried in the basement with two other corpses? There’s nothing humane about Jimmy Bulger … Shame on him. That was a very stupid, insensitive comment.”
Depp also told the Associated Press in comments published earlier this week that part of him was pleased Bulger, 86, who is serving a life sentence for his part in 11 murders, had escaped justice for so long. The gangster fled Boston for a new life in Santa Monica, California, in 1995 after being tipped off by a corrupt FBI agent that he was about to be arrested, and was not caught until 2011.
“No disrespect to any victims or families of victims, but there was some element for me that was kind of glad that he got away,” Depp was quoted as saying. “For 16 years he was on the lam and he wasn’t causing any trouble. He was living his life. Good on him.”
Patricia Donahue, whose husband Michael was killed by Bulger in a gun attack in 1982, said the actor should have spoken to the brutal mobster’s victims before agreeing to take on the biopic.
“This is not Hollywood, this is the real thing here,” she told the Globe. “How can you be glad that someone who killed a lot of people goes on the run? How can you have compassion for that person, knowing what he’s done?”
But another of Deborah Hussey’s brothers, Stephen Hussey, said after attending the premiere that the movie had not glorified Bulger. “I think it portrayed him as an evil psychopath,” he told the newspaper. Boston lawyer, JW Carney Jr, who represented Bulger at the mobster’s 2013 trial, praised Depp for offering “a riveting portrayal” of his subject.
“The limitations of time allowed only glimpses of Jim Bulger’s other qualities, especially his intelligence, wit and ability to truly love someone,” Carney told the Globe. “When Johnny stared at the audience with his ice-blue eyes during certain scenes, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. It was that real to me.”
