The FBI arrested Bulger after a tip from a recently launched publicity campaign.
Police and FBI surround the apartment building in Santa Monica, Calif., where fugitive crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger and his longtime companion Catherine Greig were arrested, Wednesday night. The two were arrested without incident, the FBI said. Bulger was the leader of the Winter Hill Gang when he fled in January 1995 after being tipped by a former Boston FBI agent that he was about to be indicted.News of the arrest of New England mob boss James J. "Whitey" Bulger in California after 16 years of being on the lam began to reverberate across the United States Thursday.
The FBI arrested Bulger, 81, and his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig, 60, after a tip from a recently launched publicity campaign, the Christian Science Monitor reported. Both are supposed to appear in a Los Angeles federal court Thursday.
Bulger had a $2 million reward on his head and rose to No. 1 on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list after Osama bin Laden was killed, according to the Monitor.
The Miami Herald reported that authorities are eager to a 1982 murder in Florida.
"Bulger is facing a slew of federal charges in Boston, and is also facing a Miami-Dade murder charge for the 1982 slaying of former World Jai-Alai owner James Callahan, whose bullet-ridden body was found in the trunk of a car at Miami International Airport. A one-time federal informant, Bulger is accused of corrupting his FBI agent handler, John J. Connolly."
FBI officials believe that their recent decision to focus on Bulger's longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig, resulted in the couple's arrest.
According to the Los Angeles Times, a new publicity campaign, launched Monday, focused on 14 cities where there had been reported sitings of the couple over the years.
"Recent publicity produced a tip which led agents to Santa Monica where they located both Bulger and Greig," Richard Deslauriers, special agent in charge of the FBI's office in Boston, and Steven Martinez, the FBI's assistant director in charge in Los Angeles, said a statement reported by the Times.
The Atlantic noted that the ads highlighted Greig's frequent visits to dentists She once was a dental hygienist and was known to have gotten monthly cleanings and had a "fondness" for plastic surgery, the magazine reported online.
"She had breast implants, a facelift and a nose job before disappearing with Bulger ... before he was indicted on racketeering charges in Boston in 1995," the Atlantic reported..
Bulger was the inspiration for Jack Nicholson's character, Frank Costello, in Martin Scorcese's "The Departed" - particularly because of his time in the 1970s as an FBI informant, the Baltimore Sun pointed out.
Boston Herald columnist, Howie Carr, who has an afternoon radio talk show that can be heard in Western Massachusetts on radio station WHYN-AM leaped on the air on the air Thursday morning talk show to say how happy he is to hear of Bulger's capture.
"I'm very happy today," Carr said on the WEEI radio network. "My heart feels like an alligator. I'm very happy."
Carr is the author of two books on the New England mob scene, "The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century"
and "Hitman: The Untold Story of Johnny Martorano: Whitey Bulger's Enforcer and the Most Feared Gangster in the Underworld."
From England, the Guardian of London reported that the details of Bulger's life on the run could provide more embarrassment for the the FBI if it emerges he had been in California for some time.
"The Pakistani ambassador to the US recently quipped: "If Whitey Bulger can live undetected by American police for so long, why can't Osama bin Laden live undetected by Pakistani authorities?", the a Guardian news report said.
Ultimately, it was the relentless of pursuit of Bulger that lead to his capture, USA today concluded.