Holy crap, Bulger bagged
By adamg - 6/23/11 - 5:47 am
On the FBI Web site today.
The murdering thug from South Boston was arrested in Santa Monica, CA yesterday, the Los Angeles Times reports.
He was picked up with girlfriend Catherine Elizabeth Greig, 60, the Times says.
Bulger had been on the lam since 1994, when now disgraced and convicted FBI agent James Connolly tipped him off that other feds and state police were closing in on him.
Channel 4 reports the lovebirds had set up a nest in a nondescript, rent-controlled apartment building three blocks from the ocean. They were living under the names Charles and Carol Gasko.
Comments
wow!
wow!
Good it's about time....Rest
Good it's about time....Rest In Peace Debbie Davis,and all of whiteys victims...
Holy Crap is right!
Oh my God!
I'm only capable of these few thoughts on this occasion.
One always had to wonder if the FBI really didn't want to find Bulger?
Obama might not be too good at moving economic recovery, but boy the bad guys seem to be going down in his administration.
I'm wondering how Howie Carr will get his mug on the TV machine as when he mugged at Congressional hearings on FBI corruption when brother Bill was testifying?
Even though I new nothing about where Whitey was, let me be the first to apply for the $2 million reward.
Now that Bulger is safely behind bars, there's nothing left to stop Whole Foods from coming to Jamaica Plain.
Boston expats already swarming the Princess Eugenia
Sons of Southie pose in front of the building
no one wants to see there
no one wants to see there f*ck*n faces
Short Version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFTeG-RoBTQ
NSFW, folks.
What a gigantic bunch of douchebags
Yep, that's southie alright.
I used to say that I'd be pleased as pie if Allston was razed. I'd be even more pleased if the white-trash shithole of southie went with it, along with most, if not all, of its white-trash residents.
Charlestown too, actually...
How's Norwood
treating you Brett?
Seriously, you caricature of Boston neighborhoods are transparently ripped from the latest round of movies.
Where have you been?
Every neighborhood has it's trash but, having lived in both Southie and Charlestown, I can say both places have changed dramatically in the last 15 years. I feel safer walking down Main St in C-town at 2 am than I do walking through the Fin. District after the bars get out.
I will say, though, even worse than the Townies are the post-college kids who move in and think they are Irish thugs.
plain and simple
brett is an asshole.
what happened? was somebody mean to you at a parade? do you really live in norwood? talk about white trash...
whoa whoa whoa
bostonkid. Lay off the mustangs! (I don't live there either).
I'm betting Brett has a onebedroom in JP/Roxbury with his bed next to a window, next to some traintracks. Very similar to Jake Blue's living arraingments in the Blues Brothers.
Brett after a long day of bossing people around on the internet
Yeah, where DOES Brett live?
That was pretty awesome there, illustration and all. I'm now picturing Brett living exactly like that until he tells us otherwise.
"Did he seem excited when the Bruins won?"
Neighbor interviewed by reporters, including the brother of a Globe reporter from Southie.
Innocent, etc.
Innocent, etc.
Wonder if
he and Catherine were living in a rent controlled apartment. Life is tough on the lam.
They were!
And posing as Jews.
My Thought Exactly!
Did they celebrate the Jewish holidays too?
How could he possibly hope to pass himself off as Jewish? The least he could have done is used a name like Cohen instead...
Some quick comments
Via Twitter, natch:
Scott James: Cue The Duckboats! Whitey Bulger captured! Another victory parade this weekend?
Jen Deaderick: Then burial at sea!
Deborah Nam-Krane: Now about that Gardner theft...
NotCoachTito: Song of the Day: Frank Zappa's instrumental "Get Whitey"
Loring Barnes: Will there be his + hers Halloween costumes?
Tony Branco: Can't wait to see Howie Carr's drinking tab at Foxwoods in the coming days.
Jason Schwartz: I've always said, the key to getting people to let you alone is acting like an old Jewish man.
Elizabeth: At least now I can stop wondering "Is that..." about every, single older gentleman I see walking at Castle Island.
Billy Baker: Southie people are such characters. Someone should really make a movie about them.
These are phenomenal.
These are phenomenal.
Evil incarnate
Bulger timeline, through 2001:
Crazy
I tried to post a link to the original Los Angeles Times article on the capture last night but guess it didn't work. The story is so crazy - so hard to believe!!
The Departed? Noooooooo
Everyone keeps saying that Whitey was the inspiration for The Departed, where here I thought it was always an obscure Hong Kong movie brought over and copied to the T.
To be fair, Jack Nicholson's portrayal of his character was said to be loosely inspired by him, but it felt more like crazy old Jack to me. Just another thing the news get's wrong, cause it's lazy.
That movie . . .
. . . was no "GoodFellas". Spot on about Nicholson. But Leo Dicaprio killed that movie for me. Not believable. "The Town" was Ok- but I don't think Charlestown has been producing father/son bank robber clans for over a decade at least. As far as good movies set in Massachusetts or New England - "The Fighter" was superb- and "In the Bedroom" was also very good.
i wonder how Billy's doing
And I can't believe Matt and Ben haven't made the movie yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGWvwjZ0eDc
(I know, I presume you mean about his capture.)
no i mean "good" bro/"bad" bro
I'm talking about the Cain/Abel thing: two guys grow up in the same family. Once becomes a sociopathic killer, the other a charming politician. Ostensibly.
The Italian NYC version is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzhX2PD6Srw but I don't think The Departed really covers the Irish Boston version.
good bro/bad bro been there/done that
Films with that sort of theme were popular during the gangster film craze of the 30's. Two which come to mind are MANHATTAN MELODRAMA with Clark Gable & William Powell & ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES with Cagney & Pat O'Brien. True, neither deals with blood brothers just two kids growing up as very close friends who take different paths. In the first, Powell becomes a lawyer & later DA. In that capacity, he ends up sending his friend Gable to the chair. In ANGELS O'Brien becomes a priest who constantly tries to redeem the old friend who saved his life. Once Cagney is caught & convicted, O'Brien asks him a favor. The kids in the old neighborhood idolize the tough guy & emulate him. They're all sure Cagney will go to the chair unruffled & defiant. O'Brien asks him to freak out & go yellow, which Cagney convincingly does in a scene seen only in silhouette-- a chilling moment.
Was the FBI paid to look the other way?
I find it implausible that the FBI could not locate WB all these years. Bulger was powerful enough and had enough associates to keep the FBI away until they agreed to 'catch' him at an advanced enough age that it wouldn't matter if he spent a few years in prison.
Huh?
Southie and areas of Dot/Somerville ain't exactly the kingdom of a powerful king. Especially one camped out in sunny santamonica.
He probably had one or two guys in the FBI, at one point, helping him just to cover their asses, if at all. Other then that, he was a local small time gangster that has been elevated to godfather status.
The speculation is that this
The speculation is that this wasn't bribery but CYA on the part of the FBI. They might not have been too eager to bring Bulger back because of his knowledge of FBI corruption.
BPD nervous?
i know that statute of limitations is up but i bet whitey has a list a mile long of BPD that were on his payroll. i bought weed in southie back in the day. used to double park in front of triple o's and wait for my guy. it always made me nervous sitting there, looking so suspicious. i mentioned this to the dealer and he laughed and said i never had to worry about cops there because "whitey owned the police, so whitey was the police" i'll never forget it. im sure most are dead or retired but he is going to make a lot of people look bad when he starts talking. this blows my mind.
whitey always said "christmas was for cops and kids". lots of envelopes went out to the boys in blue for the holidays.
happy hanukkah mr rosenweig!
The rascal king behind the bars ...
... or the one in front of them?
His brother collecting a fat
His brother collecting a fat pension at our expense is probably shitting himself right now. Any evidence that comes out that Billy knew where his brother was all this time and you be he'll be getting hauled off for obstruction of justice. UMass could save a ton of money right there.
He deserves that
fat pension.
He actually did a lot of good for the UMass system, and really was a true believer in higher education before he was forced out. At a time when it was basically to be disbanded because douchebag Romney wanted to cut the budget and give everyone $5 in taxes back. He turned the ship right from the previous president.
That doesn't negate any wrongdoing before, or excuse his family (or any connections we ever find to Whitey). But it's often overlooked by the sensationalist rags because OMG WHITEY BROTHER is sexy and sells paper and add space.
Word!
Somebody didn't go to UMass before Billy went to bat for us. At UML,we had floors missing 50% of their tiles and windows we would cover with garbage bags and duct tape because we couldn't get them fixed. Oh, but if you go to a public school, don't expect to take your coat off indoors because you obviously don't deserve a decent building - is that the attitude here?
The GOP
Doesn't believe in accountable, affordable, high quality government run education (anymore). It's free market or home-school and that's that. Cut the rest, and give the measly individual expenditures back to the population so they can buy vouchers that won't cover the costs individually.
Then they go on to attack liberals as the reason for the poor quality of our school systems.
Despicable, but not surprising.
Not Rosenzweig, FBI says
They say they were living as Charles and Carol Gasko.
Not Rosenzweig - Fein? Damn
Really? Cuz when I google those two names together, I find this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Slugger_Wars
The Labor Sluggers War was a 15-year period of gang wars among New York labor sluggers for control of labor racketeering from 1911 to 1927. This began in 1911 with the first war between "Dopey" Benny Fein and Joe "The Greaser" Rosenzweig against a coalition of smaller gangs and continuing on and off until the murder of Jacob "Little Augie" Orgen by Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and Gurrah Shapiro in 1927.
(yep, there used to be LOTS of Jewish gangsters)
I'm glad they . . .
. . . didn't send in a hit team and then "dump his body in the ocean". Trials are good things.
Today in Boston Globe
1) Whitey Bulger captured
2) Sewage system redesign cleans up Boston Harbor; all city beaches swimmable
3) Tim Thomas wins Vezina trophy; Bruins' Stanley Cup celebration continues
4) Government Center parking garage monstrosity to be torn down and redeveloped
5) T GM Rich Davey announces Urban Ring subway loop complete: "We wanted it to be a surprise"(*)
(* This one is not actually true.)
Where is Mike Barnicle to
write a story about how "Jimmy" wasn't such a bad guy and protected Southie from drugs and itself? On his relationship with his brother? To paraphrase: "Maybe he saw Billy at thanksgiving, but hey its just passing gravy between brothers." Billy's house next door to the mother of Stevie Flemmi, where Whitey, Flemmi and Two Weeks hung out? No biggie. 19 murders? No biggie.
Thanks Mike Barnicle and Boston Globe for covering for both Billy and Jimmy for the better part of the 1980s and 1990s!
This is going to be . . .
. . . painful. I bought that Barnicle line about Whitey- and I also saw Billy Bulger as a sorta old line Irish pol throwback and I liked it when he stuck it to the Globe and the "liberals". My dad was wiser than me about Barnicle- he was onto that guy years ago and thought him a fabricator way before he was exposed as such.
I remember Barnicle being out
I remember Barnicle being out there on that line for so long, he's partly complicit in covering for Whitey. But he wasn't the only columnist/talk show host/personalilty to do this. While South Boston had an epidemic of heroin overdoses and suicides and other hacks were writing about crime in Roxbury and how Southie (read white neighborhoods) policed their own.
It's important to remember that this was only a few years after the city was ripped apart by racial lines during the busing decision. There was a fair amount of first generation suburban writers justifying what was happening in there old neighborhoods.
Dich Leher talks about Whitey being portrayed as a Robin Hood figure. If you want an accurate picture of South Boston in those years, read Michael Patrick Mcdonald's "All Souls" what Bulger's South Boston was really like.
To it's credit the Globe broke the story about how doctors at Boston City Hospital (that's Boston Medical Center for you newbies) started recognizing patterns of heroin overdoses in South Boston and started pushing authorities.
I won't even go into Barnicle's writings on the police and the Stuart murder a few years later.
FTW
^ For the win.
Nice neighborhood he picked!
The apartment itself might be 'nondescript' but that's one of the most desirable neighborhoods in greater Los Angeles. Two blocks to the Pacific Ocean, two blocks in a different direction to the lively downtown of Santa Monica. If it weren't rent-controlled it would fetch a lot of money.
(I lived a couple miles from there from 1979-84)
I was struck by the fact that
I was struck by the fact that they did not apparently own a car. In Los Angeles?
You could live there and not own a car
It's a couple blocks from a downtown area that includes a large enclosed shopping mall. I think there are grocery stores nearby, too. Buses go from there to Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Malibu, downtown LA, and even to the LA airport. Taxis should be easy to find, too.
(but where did you read that they didn't have a car?)
Whitey Bulger's car
The LA Times says "At least half a dozen agents were searching the trunk of a car in the garage in Bulger's apartment complex overnight."
You know...
If I were going to take an Arthur Miller-esque new Jewish name to hide from the Feds, I'd go with Newman (New man). I'd also hide right under the Feds' noses by not even leaving town just to spite them...
So, Mr. I've scouted out Whitey's hiding spot for him in Santa Monica...what did YOU know and WHEN?? ;)
The Movie's Over
All the Yuppies, Hipsters and Wannabe gangsters can sell your glorified tree houses and move back with your parents.
Sorry
We'll continue to make the neighborhood nicer, and local economy better, until you can't pay your sky high property taxes and are forced to sell to us. Then we'll chop up your childhood home into 3 cute units. Maybe out a roof deck on it. Oh and granite counter tops, always need them!
But look on the bright side, That million dollar property can put all your kids through college to perpetuate the yuppie cycle.
:)
(Renters, ehhh frak you.)
Yuppie renters are paying us
Yuppie renters are paying us a good chunk of change for a semi-modern apartment. Gotta love them!!
:)
(Too bad they can't parallel park)
Or can they?
Assuming you're a Southie native, maybe you think they're parallel parking incorrectly since they're actually in the spot up against the curb, rather than double-parked across the empty parking spot?
;o)
Beat
Me to it.
The door bell is ONLY considered the car horn too. That thing on the door? It only get's pressed when Andrew Square Pizza is bringing the yumyums.
How many yuppies does it take
How many yuppies does it take to parallel park a car? One in the driver's seat and the other standing outside to give directions on how far to back up, cutting the wheels, going forward....as "SORRY" says, the cycle is endless!!
Adam,
Are you going to head down to Shea's/Whitey's and get us some UHub first Southie reaction?
This is so old news...
Dudes and dudettes, OJ Simpson just admitted to killing Nicole! Who cares about Whitey any more??
Thought you were kidding. . .
. . . but nope. OJ confessed
Not the first time he confessed....
...apparently he confessed (when drunk and stoned) back in 2008 or thereabouts.
Wish it were true...
But a rep from Oprah's show (whom he was supposedly confessing to) just claimed that it was a false report.
The original reporting supposedly came from a source at the National Enquirer...so I guess if it *is* true, we're just going to have to wait and see. But for now, I guess we can all go back to looking for the real killer still.
Not your . . .
. . . bad. Looks like a lot of news outfits ran with that one. Total lie apparently.
Now maybe people will stop
Now maybe people will stop bothering me.
LOL
good one
Could Bulger have a problem getting a good lawyer?
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly notes most of the top-tier federal defense lawyers around here would probably have conflicts of interest that would keep them from taking Bulger's money.
Not indigent
He's a lottery winner, remember?
did you read the article?
has nothing to do with his ability to pay. thanks for playing.
Hah
Too bad the state put a stop to that shit.
Stash
Also found "hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash" in his hideaway.
"He was a mobsta, but so what?"
"he never did nothin to MY family...so..."
yeah 'so.' I guess you don't care about your neighbors whose families were victims of his (ahem..."alleged") torture, murder, extortion, drug dealing, rape? Please answer that, o toothless wonder.
omg, are you kidding, does
omg, are you kidding, does anyone in southie have a full set of
teeth?.....or did you decide to inverview only the people that
would make South Boston look bad.
Now, now, at :10 - :12 in that video...
...there is a sign on that lovely red paneled building that clearly says, in stylish decal letters like the ones people put on a mailbox, All Phase Dental Lab. So clearly there is top-notch dental care in South Boston, as evidenced on the facade of that building and in the full set of pearly whites on that charming interviewee.
Good montage . . .
. . . of interesting local perspectives.
Sister's of Greig
You have to love this quote from Boston.com:
A woman who answered the door at the South Boston home of Greig’s sister, Margaret McCusker, was told of the arrest by a Globe reporter this morning. “They found him? Finally,” she said. “I want my sister to come home."
Ummm, I hate to tell you, but your sister ain't going be "home" for a long time (unless she turns on Whitey).
at least she'll be able to talk to her
Her sister will be in jail, but at least she'll be able to talk to her and see her occasionally, something she couldn't do before.
Maximum sentence is only 5 years
for 'harboring a fugitive'. And she's 60 years old. She'll be 'home' soon enough.
I wonder about California gun laws.
Did she legally have posession of these guns in CA?
Her guns or his?
She'd have a reasonable defense claiming that she didn't own or possess any of the weapons.
Maybe
Did she have access to them? Did she have access to the money? Did she file her taxes? Did she use someone elses name? Did she do these things in other states? Did she ever assist transporting these weapons over state lines? How many weapons did she conspire to transport?
Oh she could have lots of explainations, but my point is that there is a lot more to these 17 years than Whitey's criminal record before 1996.
True
But she'll be used to get Whitey to sing and plea more, if not for affection, then for what she knows.
She'll get the sweetest plea deal of them all.
Some question of free will
If Greig wanted to leave, could she have? Even if he didn't have a, ahem, support system, he could have easily convinced her that she would end up like other ex-girlfriends had she not stayed.
Whether or not this is the case is pure conjecture - the point is, it is plausible that she didn't have or think she had the sort of free will that is being assumed here. I will be surprised if they don't use the fact that she was keeping company with a very violent and possibly well connected man with a history of icing former consorts to bargain for leniency.
agreed, she can claim she was kidnapped
...and in fear for her life the entire time. Especially given Whitey's violent past as you mentioned.
Either that, or she'll end up
Either that, or she'll end up taking whatever they throw at her, feeling it's got to be better than getting on his bad side. I have no idea how connected Bulger is anymore, but I have to assume that being on the lam for 16 years doesn't happen by accident.