The late gangster James “Whitey” Bulger applauded President Trump’s toughness and scorned the media and former special counsel Robert Mueller in letters he wrote from prison.
Bulger revealed his thoughts on politics and the Russian collusion investigation to Janet Uhlar, a Cape Cod nurse and former juror in Bulger’s 2016 trial. Uhlar shared the letters with NBC News.
“History may show Trump was the man of the hour,” Bulger wrote in August. “Feel China respects him and hesitant to try to bully him.”
“Trump is tough and fights back instead of bowing down to pressure — and caving in to press!” Bulger wrote in another letter. “U.S. agrees with him press attacking and his reaction increases his popularity — He has my vote so far.”
Bulger said he was “sorry” that Trump appeared to be “boxed in by so many.”
“Trump is experiencing what Mueller and company can orchestrate,” Bulger said in a September letter. “[Mueller] should observe biblical saying — ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.'”
In another letter, Bulger railed against the media and praised conservative commentators Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity for defending the president.
“Media is a bigger problem than Trump,” he wrote in an August letter. “Through U.S. history the media’s hunger for scoops and headlines has cost the lives of U.S. servicemen. Can cite examples.”
“Trump is fortunate to have loyalty of [conservative commentator Bill Cunningham], Rush Limbaugh + Hannity AKA ‘Little Rush,'” Bulger said.
Bulger, the former leader of the Winter Hill Gang, was convicted in 2013 of participating in 11 murders across the U.S. and served a life sentence. He was also a secret informant to the FBI.
Federal officials moved Bulger from a prison in Florida, where inmates at risk of retaliation are usually kept, to the Hazelton federal penitentiary in West Virginia. Within hours of his arrival, Bulger was beaten to death at age 89 with a lock stuffed in a sock.
