The sales of an oddball trove of memorabilia and mundane household items, from a diamond-studded replica NHL championship ring to a bag of rubber bands, fetched $109,000 this weekend as the feds auctioned off the belongings of James “Whitey” Bulger, the notorious Boston mobster/FBI informant.
Before the items hit the block, victims of Bulger’s killings were to receive about $39,000 divvied up from the $822,000 in cash found at the Santa Monica, Calif., apartment where Bulger and his companion Catherine Greig had been hiding out. Money raised in the auction will go to them too.
Bulger’s “Psycho Killer” skull ring—one of the prized items at the auction—went for $5,200, and a boxing mannequin with safari hat went for $4,900, both sold to an Andover, Mass., man according to The Boston Globe.
A rat-head pencil holder, which got a lot of attention given that Bulger was an FBI informant (aka a “rat”) sold for $3,600. Bulger’s Irish claddagh ring, a big draw, went for $23,000.
Get Your Whitey Bulger Mobster Mementos Here
The auction, run by the U.S. Marshall’s Service, took place almost exactly five years to the day that Bulger and Greig were captured after 16 years on the lam.
Bulger, who was 84 at the time, was found guilty in 2013 and sentenced to two consecutive life terms for his part in 11 murders and a laundry list of other charges, including drug trafficking, money laundering, and extortion. He was acquitted on seven other murder charges while the jury could failed to reach a finding on one murder charge.
Bulger, born and raised in South Boston, has been a mythical figure locally and, thanks to several films based on his life, including Black Mass and The Departed, nationally as well. The fact that his brother, William Bulger, usually known as Billy, was once arguably the most powerful politician in Massachusetts, only added to his notoriety.