FBI Most Wanted Mobster Whitey Bulger Captured Found Living High Life

by copythat

The FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" mob man is captured after sixteen years on the run: Responsible for 19 murders, and the inspiration for Martin Scorsese's 2006 film "The Departed", James "Whitey" Bulger has been living in luxury near 3rd Street in Santa Monica, California--just 45 miles from a string of Orange County, 2005, bank robberies where investigators suspected the mobster.
 
It's interesting to note that the Los Angeles Times may not have been too off the mark in the newspaper's 2005 article titled, "Is 'Whitey' Bulger O.C.'s Elderly Bandit?"
 
"Whitey" Bulger was nabbed by the FBI in Santa Monica home, at the Princess Eugenia apartment complex located in the 1000 block of 3rd Street -- the luxury neighborhood that's only a short stroll to the ocean. And that Santa Monica neighborhood isn't far from another oceanside area that includes Orange County -- the spot where an elderly bank thief had been targeting banks for robberies.
 
The former Boston mob boss was captured in the oceanside city of Santa Monica after a tip from an Iceland woman, who was watching an international FBI TV publicity campaign on CNN, led to the gangster's California capture and arrest.
 
At the Santa Monica residence where Bulger was nabbed, no car or vehicle was removed by authorities. Bulger didn't need one. But Santa Monica police and authorities did find loads of cash -- and weapons. In famous mobster style, guns and cash were seized by federal agents who quickly and quietly invaded the Southern California residential complex. Some previous bank robberies could add up to the wads of cash that have just been found at Bulger's place.
 
Out of a strange turn of events and bad luck for Bulger, the reputed mob man was caught through a recent publicity campaign that federal authorities had regenerated. Someone had tuned into CNN and recognized him, immediately filing an anonymous tip that led to the 81-year-old mobster's capture and arrest. Locals and neighbors in the Santa Monica neighborhood where the gangster was grabbed have called the crime boss "unassuming", saying they've been used to seeing the reputed mobster and his girlfriend out walking their dog.
 
Nicknamed "Whitey" because of his bright platinum hair, Bulger grew up in a rough South Boston housing project -- moving up to become Boston's most notorious gangster of a violent and mainly Irish mob involved in loan-sharking, gambling and drug rackets of Boston.
 
The gangster is now slated to appear in Los Angeles federal court on June 23, the accused mobster faces a bullet list of federal charges that not only include murder but conspiracy to commit murder, narcotics distribution, extortion and money laundering.
 
James "Whitey" Bulger reportedly served as leader of the Winter Hill Gang when he chose to flee and live life on the run in January 1995 -- tipped by former Boston FBI agent John Connolly Jr., sixteen years ago, that he was about to be indicted. The mobster had been serving as a top-echelon FBI informant and Connolly had made the mob man an informant for the agency 20 years prior. Perhaps the FBI agent was faced with an ethical quandary.
 
Whatever his reasons, Connolly paid the price. The former FBI agent was convicted of racketeering in May 2002, seven years after Bulger fled, for protecting Bulger and mob cohort Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi -- another mobster who was also an FBI informant.
 
The FBI agency has remained under fire for its relationship with the mob and criminals as informants in what has been dubbed called "one of the greatest failures in the history of federal law enforcement."
 
There'd been numerous reports that Bulger and his longtime girlfriend had been seen out and about, across the globe: During the sixteen years the famous mobster was missing, the FBI received reported sightings of the mob man and his girlfriend, Catherine Greig. Those reports of sighting arrived from within the United States and abroad -- in parts of Europe. But investigators claimed they couldn't confirm whether it was actually James "Whitey" Bulger who had been seen or a doppelganger.
 
Then less than a decade ago, in September 2002, the FBI got a more reliable tip: A British businessman who had actually met Bulger eight years prior said the mobster had been seen on a London street. The FBI and New Scotland Yard searched London and its hotels, Internet cafes and gyms -- additionally releasing an updated sketch of the aging man who had been described as tan, with white hair and a gray goatee.
 
Bulger has remained one of the nation's most-hunted fugitives on the lam -- thought to be connected to 21 murders including vicious slayings of businessmen in Florida and Oklahoma. The mobster's name has remained on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list alongside Obama bin Laden, the reputed mob man carrying a $1 million reward on his head.
 
The idea that the FBI wasn't trying too hard to find one of the nation's most wanted men may not be too far off the mark: James "Whitey" Bulger was located within only a day of the newly-targeted, public service announcements.
 
At the week's beginning, on Monday, June 20, the FBI on announced a new publicity campaign and public service ads asking people -- and especially women -- to keep an eye for Bulger's girlfriend, Greig. Perhaps the FBI was wise in that move, knowing that women are aware of other women. The 30-second ad began airing Tuesday, June 21, in 14 television markets during programs popular with women in Greig's age group. The FBI campaign was also fast to address the fact Greig was known to have had plastic surgery and also known to frequent beauty salons. By Wednesday, June 22, Bulger had been taken into custody.

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