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Home Page > News > FBI say they are closing in on ‘Most Wanted’ Whitey Bulger

FBI say they are closing in on ‘Most Wanted’ Whitey Bulger

Boston Irish crime boss marks 16 years on the run

PATRICK ROBERTS,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Wednesday, January 5, 2011, 5:38 AM

Updated Wednesday, January 5, 2011, 5:45 AM

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James 'Whitey' Bulger at the top of the FBI's Most Wanted list

Read more: FBI not giving up on Whitey Bulger manhunt

Sixteen years to the day after he disappeared the FBI say they are closing in on Boston Irish mobster ‘Whitey’ Bulger, 81, the most wanted man in America.

The son of Irish immigrants is wanted on 19 murder charges, conspiracy and narcotics distribution and has a $2 million reward on his head. Jack Nicholson’s character in The Oscar winning movie ‘The Departed’ was based partly on Bulger.

FBI agent Richard Teahan, head of the Bulger Task Force, told the Boston Globe in an interview on Tuesday that agents received “50 to 100 leads” after they placed ads last Spring in plastic surgery publications with photos of Bulger and girlfriend Catherine Greig, asking anyone who treated the fugitive couple to call the FBI.”

"A lot of leads and tips have come in both domestically and internationally,'' said Teahan,
The FBI placed a full page ad in Plastic Surgery News that said Greig 59, had breast implants, a face lift, liposuction and eyelid surgery in 1982 before she went on the lam with Bulger.

The last confirmed sighting of Bulger was in London in 2002, and some believe he has spent time in Ireland during his time on the run.

Teahan said the FBI firmly believes that Bulger is still alive a Former Bulger associate Kevin J. Weeks todl the Globe he believes Bulger is living quietly in Europe.

"Nobody outside of Boston really knows who Whitey Bulger is or cares who Whitey Bulger is,'' said Weeks, "Everyone is worried about terrorism. No one is worried about an aging criminal from America.''

Teahan said the manhunt continues worldwide.

"We are committed to this case,'' Teahan said. "We just think it's important not to give up and to keep pushing. Worldwide exposure is what will cause him to be apprehended.''

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Liamkeyes | Jan 19, 2011, 08:40 AM EST

I'll believe it when it happens.One thing I know for certain, he is not in Ireland. He ratted out the IRA, therefore they (IRA) would have got him before the feds.

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kell7757 | Jan 06, 2011, 02:25 PM EST

Everyone knows Ireland is full of criminals. I just don't know any Irish people who glamorize them or view them as heroes.

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hancock | Jan 06, 2011, 01:16 AM EST

Ireland is full of its own criminals, as you well know.

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dan Breen | Jan 05, 2011, 08:04 PM EST

Uncle Sam I will believe it when i see it! Ask his brother where he is.

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msfreeh | Jan 05, 2011, 07:23 PM EST

for more information about our conferences dealing with crimes committed by FBI agents to see a partial list of crimes committed by FBI agents over 1500 pages long forums.signonsandiego. com/showthread.php?t=59139 to view a partial list of FBI agents arrested for pedophilia see campusactivism. org/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=29 also see ctka.net/pr500-king.html

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kell7757 | Jan 05, 2011, 05:14 PM EST

Irish people I know revile mafia types.

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kell7757 | Jan 05, 2011, 05:13 PM EST

rhunter67, so far you are only giving evidence that supports my view, as those you mentioned are Irish American. Try again, and tell me about a Irish gangster, who wasn't American and didn't do his thing in America, who was or is viewed as a hero by the Irish in Ireland. I have yet to see that.

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ciarrai | Jan 05, 2011, 04:08 PM EST

I guess it would be a more pressing matter for Weeks if he were one of the people Bulger killed or had killed. I hope they find him and stick him in prison until death. He richly deserves it.

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AitkenDrum | Jan 05, 2011, 12:17 PM EST

seagreen notes: "Everyone from the monsignor to the paper boy will be implicated in some sort of crime". The monsignor is already in jail and the paperboy is an illegal alien. I saw Whitey last week in a picture with an Ivory-billed woodpecker. Now we just have to find the woodpecker. Incidentally, rhunter67, Frank Costello was Italian.

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terrypat | Jan 05, 2011, 11:55 AM EST

I'm Irish American and it's always been fine when the crime folks were Sicilian. Not Irish. Bulger must be caught. We need closure.

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rhunter67 | Jan 05, 2011, 10:11 AM EST

Kell. The glorification of gangsterism is nothing new in Irish America. Think Owney Madden and Legs Diamond in reality, Cagney and Raft in Hollywood. It took until the 1950s for Hollywood gangsters to start being Jewish or Italian, but the Micks never went away in Hollywood. (see characters Jimmy Conway, Amsterdam Vallon, Frank Costello)

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kell7757 | Jan 05, 2011, 09:14 AM EST

In America criminals and gangsters are glorified and glamorized by hollywood. This glamorizing of criminality is a relfection of hollywood's 'values'. It is not a reflection of Irish values. But now this attitude is creeping into Irish culture. We must reject this glamorization of criminality.

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seagreen | Jan 05, 2011, 09:05 AM EST

And the check is in the mail.......There is no way they can afford to capture Bulger (if he is alive) Everyone from the monsignor to the paper boy will be implicated in some sort of crime.

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