" ... A chatty James 'Whitey’' Bulger provided FBI agents with intriguing details about his life on the run after his arrest last week, boasting that he routinely slipped into Mexico to buy medicine for a heart condition, according to a law enforcement official.posted by ericb at 10:06 AM on June 26, 2011
... [He] allowed law enforcement officials to search his two-bedroom apartment without a search warrant, Inside, they found a false wall that Bulger used to conceal a cache of weapons, and perhaps contradicting reports that Bulger was in ill health, exercise equipment that included a punching bag.
... A niece, the daughter of former Senate President William Bulger, lived 2 miles from Bulger’s address back in 1992.
... The FBI has known about Bulger’s interest in buying prescription drugs from Mexico since at least 2000, when agents distributed wanted posters in English and Spanish along the US-Mexican border. Earlier that year, a witness reported seeing Bulger outside a hair salon in Fountain City, Calif., about 50 miles from where he was finally arrested. The tipster said that a woman who looked like Greig was inside the salon while Bulger waited outside. A 2008 tipster told the TV show 'America’s Most Wanted' that he had talked to Bulger on the Santa Monica pier.
... the tip, which came from a source in Iceland, was immediately turned over to the FBI agent responsible for the Bulger Task Force, who verified the tip’s legitimacy. The tipster, a woman who had encountered the fugitives in Santa Monica, told authorities that Bulger was going by the name Charles Gasko, a name that didn’t correspond to anyone in California, suggesting it was a fake.
... The arresting officers found extensive exercise equipment in the apartment, including an unusual punching bag. Bond, the property manager, said the punching bag was painted to look like a man’s torso and was kept in front of the window of the third-floor apartment so that it was visible from the street. Bulger draped a hat on top of the punching bag, which made it appear like a person sitting by the window ... "
"The capture last week of Boston’s most sought-after criminal has given rise to speculation about the potential return of the city’s most sought-after art objects: the 13 pieces of artwork stolen from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990.posted by ericb at 10:11 AM on June 26, 2011
The US Justice Department and close associates of mobster James 'Whitey' Bulger have long denied any link between him and the art heist, the biggest in history. Still, former federal prosecutors and FBI agents said after Bulger’s arrest that the Gardner theft looms as a prime topic of conversation between investigators and the South Boston native — if he agrees to cooperate with authorities."
"Even when he was on the lam, Whitey Bulger was a 'Rock' star.posted by ericb at 10:29 AM on June 26, 2011
At one point during his epic, 16-year run from justice, the bloodthirsty Boston gangland baron posed as a common tourist during a brazen visit to his old stomping grounds -- Alcatraz Island.
Although he was one of the country's most wanted fugitives, Bulger took time out to don cartoonish prison stripes at a photo booth outside the legendary San Francisco prison -- and a source close to his family provided the pictures to prove it.
One of Bulger's many mob molls, gal pal Teresa Stanley, was at his side. She also slipped into some jailbird garb stenciled with the phrase 'Property of Alcatraz,' and smiled as if she hadn't a care in the world."
" ... nothing in this case has ever been as it first appears.posted by ericb at 10:33 AM on June 26, 2011
... The FBI never told the truth about anything involving Whitey Bulger, so it’s not really surprising that so many of us don’t necessarily believe the FBI now."
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posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:07 AM on June 23, 2011