33 Facts About William Bulger

William Michael Bulger was born on February 2,1934 and is an American former Democratic politician, lawyer, and educator from South Boston, Massachusetts.

William Bulger graduated from Boston College High School in 1952, then from Boston College in Classics, then from Boston College Law School.

William Bulger was the younger brother of the convicted mob boss James "Whitey" William Bulger, who led the Winter Hill Gang, and he received harsh criticism for refusing to distance himself from his brother, who was convicted of participating in 11 murders and sentenced to life in prison, or to cooperate with authorities after he became a fugitive.

William Bulger was forced to resign from the presidency of the University of Massachusetts.

William Bulger went on to teach as a visiting scholar at Suffolk University, but has since removed himself from public life.

William Bulger was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and is the third of six children in the family, and younger brother of former mob boss James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger Jr.

William Bulger's father worked as a union laborer and occasional longshoreman; he lost his arm in an industrial accident and the family was reduced to poverty.

In May 1938, when William Bulger was four years old, the family moved to South Boston's Old Harbor Village housing project, soon after it opened.

William Bulger enrolled at Boston College in 1952, but his undergraduate career was interrupted when he joined the United States Army.

William Bulger attended Boston College Law School, from which he received his Doctor of Jurisprudence degree in 1961.

William Bulger is the recipient of over 20 honorary degrees from a variety of academic institutions.

William Bulger became interested in politics in 1959 and was first elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1960.

William Bulger was elected President of the Massachusetts State Senate in 1978 and was re-elected every two years through 1996, making his time as State Senate president the longest tenure in Massachusetts history.

William Bulger won his district election every two years from 1961 to 1994 without ever facing a serious challenger other than in the Democratic primary in 1988, when Stephen Holt, a neophyte liberal activist and bookstore owner from Dorchester, won 31 out of 60 precincts, only to lose by a landslide due to the huge turnout of Bulger supporters in South Boston.

For many years, William Bulger hosted the annual St Patrick's Day Breakfast in South Boston; it is a "roast" of politicians.

William Bulger was a leading opponent of the desegregation of Boston schools achieved through busing.

William Bulger was among the first advocates of charter schools and public school choice.

William Bulger was appointed president of the University of Massachusetts by the board of trustees on November 28,1995.

The appointment was controversial in academic circles, as William Bulger had no prior experience in higher education, and lacked the academic doctoral degree usually required for the presidency of a major state university system.

Weeks revealed that in 1995, William Bulger talked to Whitey during an arranged phone conversation just two weeks after Whitey fled a pending racketeering indictment.

When William Bulger testified before a grand jury in 2001, a federal prosecutor pressed him without success for information on his brother:.

William Bulger claimed that he did not know that his brother was involved in murder or with narcotics and even denied that he'd ever heard of the Winter Hill Gang.

At the hearing, William Bulger revealed that he went to an arranged location in 1995 to take a call from his fugitive brother, apparently to avoid electronic eavesdropping.

William Bulger claimed that not notifying authorities about the call was "in no way inconsistent with my devotion to my own responsibilities, my public responsibilities" as state senate president.

William Bulger added that he loved his brother and hoped that the most brutal rumors concerning him would be proven false.

William Bulger came under harsh criticism for evasiveness, and Governor Mitt Romney, among others, demanded his resignation as president of the University of Massachusetts.

Under pressure from all quarters, William Bulger resigned in the fall of 2003.

William Bulger testified that the FBI never asked if he knew of Whitey's location.

Those remarks were disputed by a former FBI agent who claimed William Bulger declined to submit to an interview with the FBI.

William Bulger is a past president of the Boston Public Library and past member of the board of trustees.

William Bulger is overseer emeritus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

William Bulger joined the faculties of Boston College and Suffolk University as a lecturer of political science in 2004.

William Bulger lived in South Boston with Mary Foley, his wife whom he married in 1960 until her death on June 7,2020.