Louis R. Litif (5 December 1934-April 1980) was a Lebanese-American bookmaker from South Boston who was murdered by Whitey Bulger and the White Hill gang.
Biography[]
Louis R. Litif was born in Somerville, Massachusetts in 1934 to Shi'ite Lebanese immigrant parents who immigrated to the United States in the year of his birth. He was raised in the South End-Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, and he gained a reputation as an earner from his days playing handball. He soon came to run the neighborhood's gambling rackets, taking in as much as $20,000 a week. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was one of the top bookmakers in South Boston, and he began associating with the Winter Hill Gang in 1976. His cocaine addiction made him more violent during the late 1970s, and he began stealing from his partners in the bookmaking operation and used the money to traffic cocaine. He refused to give Whitey Bulger a cut of the profits, and he got high on his own supply. Soon, Litif went so far as to commit murders without Bulger's permission. Litif continued to insist that he would kill Bulger's fellow associate "Joe the Barber", and Bulger, seething with hatred, told Litif that he was no longer just a bookmaker.
In April 1980, Litif was stabbed with an ice pick and shot in the head, and his body, clad only in green underwear, was found in a garbage bag in the trunk of his car in the South End of Boston. Drug dealer Edward Brian Halloran, who had witnessed Litif's death, was later murdered by Bulger to prevent him from testifying.