Whitey Bulger's liquor store

This is Whitey Bulger's former liquor store.

It is located at 295 Old Colony Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts.

At the time, it was called the South Boston Liquor Mart. These days, it is known as Rotary Liquors.

Bulger was the leader of a notorious Irish-American criminal organization called the Winter Hill Gang.

In December 1983, he was on the lookout for a new headquarters for his gang when he saw Stippo's Liquor Store on Old Colony Avenue and immediately took a liking to it.

Stippo's was owned by a man named Stephen Rakes, who had recently invested $100,000 in renovating the property and getting the business up and running.

Rakes was at home cooking dinner for his two young daughters when Bulger and his associate, Stephen Flemmi, showed up unannounced.

Rakes said that the pair placed a bag containing $67,000 on his kitchen table and told him that they were buying his newly opened store.

Although he initially refused to give in to their extortion attempt, he eventually realized that he didn't have much of a choice.

He was aware that Bulger, with his cold, menacing stare, was a local gangster with a penchant for extreme violence. Furthermore, during the "meeting", Flemmi reportedly used Rakes' infant daughter to drive home the point that they weren't going to take no for an answer.

As they were all sitting around the table, Flemmi picked up the child and put her on his lap. He then placed his handgun on the table in front of her and allowed her to pick it up.

When she put the butt of the gun up to her mouth, Bulger looked across at Rakes and said, "It would be a shame if you didn't get to see your children growing up."

Following the visit, Rakes and his wife reported Bulger's extortion attempt to the police. However, after receiving more threats, they eventually got cold feet and refused to pursue the matter any further.

Complicating matters was the fact that Bulger and Flemmi had both been operating as FBI informants for more than a decade. In the eyes of their corrupt handler, FBI Special Agent John Connolly, the two men were an invaluable tool in the war against the Italian-American mafia in Massachusetts.

In the end, the sale went ahead, and ownership of the store was transferred to a Winter Hill Gang associate named Kevin Weeks. From that point on, it became known as the South Boston Liquor Mart.

Following a raid in the early 1990s, it emerged that Whitey's newly acquired liquor store had supplied the FBI's Boston office with alcohol for its staff Christmas party.

Photos

Photos of the store and other related images.

Bulger's liquor store

Image source: Google Maps

This Google Street View image of Bulger's former liquor store was taken in November 2022. These days, it is called Rotary Liquors.

South Boston Liquor Mart

This is a "then and now" image of the property.

Bulger's decision to "buy" this business turned out to be a financially lucrative one. However, it wasn't for reasons that you might expect.

During the summer of 1991, a customer purchased a winning ticket for the Massachusetts Lottery at his store. When Bulger learned about this ticket, he "convinced" the customer in question to sell it to him at a knockdown price.

The customer received $700,000. Meanwhile, Bulger and three of his associates "won" $14 million.

Stephen Rakes

Stephen Rakes (pictured left) owned the liquor store until Bulger forced him to sell it at a loss. He was understandably angry at how his business had been snatched away from him.

Sadly, Rakes died in July 2013 after he was poisoned by his business partner, William Camuti (pictured right).

Camuti reportedly owed Rakes around $100,000.

To avoid paying back this debt, he decided to lace his business partner's coffee with potassium cyanide and then dump his body in a wooded area.

In 2017, Camuti pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.