Rat Bastards

John "Red" Shea was a top lieutenant in the South Boston Irish mob run, led by James "Whitey" Bulger. An ice-cold enforcer with a red-hot temper, Shea was a legend among his Southie peers in the 1990s. From the first delivery truck he robbed at 13 to the start of his 12-year federal prison sentence for drug trafficking at 27, Shea was a portrait in American crime--a terror, brutal and deadly. Drug dealer, loan shark, money launder, and multimillion-dollar narcotics kingpin, Shea was at the pinnacle of power--until the feds came knocking. While 50 other of Bulger's men turned informant, Shea kept his mouth shut--loyalty that earned him a dozen years of hard time even as the man he was protecting turned out to be a rat--an FBI informant--himself.

Shea tells his harrowing, unflinching, and unapologetic personal story here for the first time.. A man who did the crime, did the crime, and held fast to the Irish code of silence, he has remained a man of honor and become a legend in his own time.