Reporters Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy cover the life of notorious Boston gangster Whitey Bulger, talking about the relationship he had with the FBI

Whitey Bulger was one of the most notorious gangsters in Boston in the 1970's. He was wanted for 19 murders, extortion and loan sharking for leading a criminal enterprise in Boston. In 2011, he was finally arrested by the FBI.

Reporters Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy, who covered the gangster for years for the "Globe," have now written a book titled "Whitey Bulger: America's Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice," which details Bulger's crime career along with the unique relationship he shared with the FBI while they were after him.

The two speak to NPR about Bulger and some incidents that surrounded the gangster.

On the legend and reality of Whitey Bulger

Cullen: "He went out of his way to build this reputation, the idea that he was a benevolent gangster, that he was a good bad guy. ... He would give turkeys to poor people. He would do things for people who were down on their luck. I think the biggest myth ... is that he kept drugs out of South Boston. ... If you look back and you go through the studies, there was just as much drug abuse and just as much drugs flowing around South Boston, if not more, than other neighborhoods. I lived there in the '80s, and cocaine was everywhere. So the idea that Whitey kept drugs out of South Boston is a joke and a myth, and is just the opposite: He actually took millions and millions of dollars in tribute and extorted money from drug dealers in South Boston. The only ones he chased out of South Boston were the ones who wouldn't pay him."

On how he became suspicious that Bulger might be an FBI informant:

Cullen: "[Former FBI agent] John Connolly was my best FBI source. John Connolly knew my family. It goes back to Southie again, and he did things and said things that made me very uncomfortable. He just kept praising Whitey and telling me how wonderful he is, and then my cousins are telling me he's killing people and he's pushing drugs all over the town, so it really bothered me. So I went to our editors in ... '87 or '88 when we first started planning the series. I said, I think Whitey's a rat. There's no other explanation for why he would be allowed to be out there. The FBI should have been after him years ago."