MASSACHUSETTS
NBC News
By Andrew Rafferty, Staff Writer, NBC News
Newly released photos meant to portray the softer, human side of James “Whitey” Bulger include a picture of the Boston crime boss hanging with a priest defrocked by the Catholic Church for allegedly sexually abusing teenagers, according to an attorney who represented the accusers.
Boston lawyer Mitchell Garabedian confirmed to NBC News that a priest pictured with Bulger in one of the photographs released by the notorious gangster’s defense team is Frederick J. Ryan, the former chancellor of the Boston archdiocese who was accused of abusing two teens in the 1980s.
Garabedian represented the two former Catholic Memorial High School students who successfully sued Boston’s archdiocese in 2002. He said Ryan molested one of his clients in 1980 when the student was 16-years-old, and the other in 1981 when the boy was 15.
“Bulger has been painted as a villain, and this helped solidify that,” said Garabedian.
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