Early Life
Bulger's father, James Joseph Bulger, Senior, was the son of parents from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland. His father married Jane Veronica "Jean" McCarthy, a first generation Irish-American, after settling in the North End, Boston. Their first child, James Joseph, Junior, was born in 1929.
The elder Bulger worked as a union laborer and occasional longshoreman; however, he lost his arm in an industrial accident and the family was reduced to poverty. In May 1938, the Old Harbor Village public housing project (formerly known as the Mary Ellen McCormack Housing Project) was opened in South Boston. The Bulger family moved in and the children grew up there. Young James Joseph, Junior preferred the streets, but his younger brothers (William Michael and John P.) excelled at school.
Jimmy Bulger was arrested in 1943, at the age of 14 and charged with larceny. By then, Bulger had joined a street gang known as the "Shamrocks" and would eventually be arrested for assault, battery and armed robbery. He was eventually sentenced to a juvenile reformatory. Shortly after his release in April 1948, he joined the United States Air Force. After his basic training, he was stationed first at the Smoky Hill Air Force Base in Salina, Kansas, then in Idaho. Bulger was sentenced to the stockade for several assaults. He was also arrested in 1950, for going absent without leave. Nevertheless, he received an honorable discharge in 1952, and returned to Massachusetts.
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