Of all the murders James “Whitey” Bulger is alleged to have committed in his twenty-year run as the Mob boss of Boston, the killing of Debra Davis stands alone. Whitey is alleged to have strangled the woman with his bare hands. Davis, age twenty-six, was the girlfriend of Bulger’s gangster partner, Steve Flemmi. Bulger and Flemmi were concerned that Davis, a blond-haired beauty, had learned that they were both informants for the FBI. One night in September 1981, Flemmi, forty-six at the time, brought Davis to a house on Third Street in South Boston, or “Southie,” a tight-knit neighborhood that served as the base of Bulger and Flemmi’s criminal operations. Flemmi and Davis had been arguing. After nearly nine years together, Davis wanted out of the relationship. Flemmi wanted her out also, but not in the way Davis planned. Waiting in the house on Third Street was Whitey Bulger, fifty-two years old. Bulger suddenly emerged from the shadows and wrapped his hands around Davis’s throat.
