KINGSTON, MASS. (WHDH) - The Donahue family learned of ‘Whitey’ Bulger’s prison murder through text messages Tuesday morning.
And Tommy Donahue, whose father, Michael, was among the 11 murder victims linked to the notorious South Boston mob moss, said his immediate reaction was elation.
“I grew up going to Catholic school,” Tommy Donahue said. “It just brings me a lot of joy knowing that for the rest of his life, he’ll be getting a pitchfork in his (expletive) from the devil himself to eternity.”
The Donahues are somewhat relieved to put this chapter of their lives behind them.
“Thirty-something years of him putting my family in distraught, finally it’s all over,” Donahue said. “We weren’t ever going to be able to move on until he was dead.”
Tommy and his mother Pat attended nearly every court appearance Bulger made and when the crime boss was convicted for killing Donahue’s dad, Tommy said he hoped the next time he saw Bulger was on his deathbed.
“I said ‘next time I’m going to talk to the media will be when he’s dead,'” Donahue said. “Very true. Here I am, a happier man.”
Tommy’s mother, Pat, also expressed relief following the 89-year-old’s death.
“I want to open a champagne bottle and pop that cork. That’s how I feel,” Pat Donahue said. “Whitey Bulger meant nothing to me.”
The Donahues said that while they wanted Bulger to sit in prison for all of his crimes, especially the murders, getting killed in prison wasn’t the easy way out.
“He died the way he lived,” Pat Donahue said. “He killed people and he was killed.”
Pat Donahue is working on a documentary about Bulger’s trial.
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