A city is debating whether to demolish a piece of Whitey Bulger’s grisly history
A piece of Whitey Bulger’s grisly history could be demolished in Boston, but the city has 10 days to decide.
A home in South Boston that looks like your average single-family home, but it has a dark, yet well-known past. Famed mob boss Whitely Bulger once killed three of his victims in the home and buried them in the basement.
The home, nicknamed “The Haunty” in Bulger’s time, went up for sale four months ago for a cool $3.5 million. The house dates to 1885 and is 1,975 square feet but the lot itself is 5,000 square feet. It was advertised as a great place to build four townhome units with a set of plans ready to go.
A buyer decided to do just that. However, since the home is more than 50 years old, it is considered to possibly have historic significance. To demolish it, the Boston Landmarks Commission must decide its historical value.
The form for the demolition was submitted on Monday, so the BLC has eight more days to decide if it will allow the buyer to tear down the home.
If the home is found “significant,” demolition will be delayed, and a series of public hearings will take place where the buyer must provide their alternate plans for the property outside of demolition. The hearing date usually happens 30 days after the BLC rules on the significance.
The house is in City Point, a neighborhood in South Boston, or “Southie” as it is known. Formerly a working-class area, South Boston is gentrifying, and the Boston Globe called City Point one of “the city’s hottest neighborhoods.”
At Bulger’s 2013 trial, his former associate Kevin Weeks testified in graphic detail of how Bulger killed Arthur “Bucky” Barrett, Joey McIntyre and Deborah Hussey. The victims were buried in the basement of the house only to be moved to another makeshift grave because the owners of the house were selling it.
Bulger was sentenced to two life in prison in November 2013. He was beaten to death in prison in October 2018.