When I was doing my book tour in 2006 promoting “The Brothers Bulger,” people would sometimes come up to me and ask me why I hadn’t written more, or in some cases, anything, about some gangster. Say, Buddy McLean, or Joe Barboza.

            I’d always say, the Brothers Bulger was an amalgam – half political, half true crime. So one day, I think it was in the parking lot of Two Guys Smoke Shop in Salem, NH, a guy who’d known Barboza said to me, “What you oughta do next is a whole book on the Irish Gang War and all the rest.”

            That guy was right. I had hundreds of FBI documents, mugshots dating back to the 1930’s, and a host of stories (many of which were told to me at the book signings). So I thought a history of Boston organized crime since around 1960 would be a worthy project to undertake. But I needed a hook to write it around – a person who had been through it all.

            And that was Johnny Martorano. I met him in the courtroom during the federal hearings in 1997-98, and when he got out in 2007 I called him up and asked him if he was interested. It took awhile but he finally agreed to sit down with me and tell his story. We got along well. Johnny has an amazing memory and is a raconteur of the first order. Just as importantly, he’s pleaded guilty to everything, which means he can tell the truth about everything that happened in those bloody years.

            But “Hitman” is not just another “as-told-to.” I had access to all sorts of police records that have never been mined for material. I had mugshots I got from cops who’d literally rescued them from wastebaskets where their thoughtless superiors had dumped them. I had court transcripts. All in all, I had the makings of what I believe is a definitive work on a small but (I think) very interesting slice of Massachusetts history.

            I hope you enjoy reading “Hitman” as much as I enjoyed writing it.     

Howie Carr