'Black Mass' brings mixed emotions for people from Whitey's past

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) - For many people around the world, ‘Black Mass’ will likely be their introduction to James ‘Whitey’ Bulger's reign of terror in Boston, but here it’s a different story, where the Bulger saga is all too real.

Steve Davis doesn't have to go to the movie theater to know about James ‘Whitey’ Bulger.

His sister, Debbie Davis, was Bulger partner Steven Flemmi's girlfriend until she was strangled to death in 1981,

Her body was recovered 19 years later from one of the Bulger death pits, along the Neponset River.

Steve Davis won’t see “Black Mass” because it hits so close to home

“How would Johnny Depp like to be playing a role in a movie where his own sister was strangled and had her teeth ripped out of her head and just buried in a shallow grave at the edge of the water?” Davis said. “It’s not a movie that came out of some book; this is real.”

>>WATCH: Steve Davis describes a private meeting with James 'Whitey' Bulger

Retired Mass State Police Detective Lt. Inspector Bob Long, on the other hand, said he will see “Black Mass.”

“As long as they don’t glorify the man, otherwise, the victims’ families would just get hurt again,” Long said.

Long captured the only police surveillance images of Bulger during the stake out of the Lancaster Street Garage in 1980.

Bulger's relationship with disgraced FBI agent John Connolly compromised Long's mission,  but now Long hopes Hollywood and Depp will capture the real Whitey, the one Long saw up close.

“He is anything but a hero. He is a narcissist, he's a homicidal maniac, he’s a very calculating manipulative individual,” Long said.

Cox Media Group