CALL ME SNAKE

I don’t really know. Fortunately I’ve never met any of these people. Yet I think the charismatic, murderous kingpin–such as the character played by Jack Nicholson in The Departed (supposedly modeled after Whitey Bulger)–is a literary conceit. Do guys like that really go around spouting literary allusions and, through their learned discourse, carry on like deranged college professors? Or are they, in more brutish fashion, using intimidation and fear to get others to do their evil bidding? I think the latter but fortunately I don’t really know. I’ve never met any of these people.