The Globe’s writers have stepped up their game for the crime saga unfolding in real time in Boston. In today’s paper, commentators James Carroll and Kevin Cullen have their say about the James Whitey Bulger horror show. Carroll has a masterful essay that puts the crime story in perspective, both in Boston and more broadly in human experience. Cullen’s heart and mind are on his sleeves as he evokes the turmoil beneath the skin of the survivors who lost people close to them, fathers and husbands and sisters. . . .

Read James Carroll here, and get the Globe if you want more.

Read Kevin Cullen here.