Irish American cop Neil Sullivan, a 37-year-old federal marshal, is the man credited with cracking the 'Whitey' Bulger case, according to reports.
Sullivan, a 37-year old marshal, was on the Bulger task force for only seven months when he made the vital breakthrough.
He is credited with going through hundreds of tips and focusing on the one that led to Bulger’s whereabouts.
The key tip was originally phoned in by a woman in Iceland who knew an elderly couple called the Gaskos in Santa Monica, who looked like Bulger and his girlfriend Catherine Greig.
“There was a stack of tips that came in,” a source told the Boston Herald. “He picked one out that he thought was the most legitimate and said they needed to prioritize it.”
“The marshals were key to breaking the case,” one veteran law-enforcement official who worked on the case for years said.
Sullivan joined the Bulger task force just seven months ago and immediately followed up every lead including traveling to Florida.
“He went running with these things,” the federal source said. “He was traveling around the country interviewing people.”
It has also turned out that Bulger made frequent trips to Mexico to pick up a prescription heart drug and also keep safety boxes in banks in Europe, including in Ireland.
Bulger has been speaking openly to FBI agents since he was arrested and even waived the need for a search warrant to search his Santa Monica apartment.
In the apartment, the agents found a false wall behind which Bulger had stashed guns and vast quantities of money.
The search also found some workout equipment, leading to speculation that fears about Bulger’s health were exaggerated.
He told the FBI he often crossed over the Mexican border to Tijuana, where he brought the prescription drugs that are freely available there.
He sued a false identity to cross over and was never detected despite an FBI focus on cross border efforts based on a hunch that Bulger was seeking medication in Mexico.
FBI officials also found a family connection, Mary Hurley, daughter of Bulger’s brother William, a Masachussetts politician, once lived just two miles away from Bulger.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.patriot | Jun 27, 2011, 07:14 PM EDT
Read a book, the Irish Mob in America preceded the mafia by 100 years! It was only when a corrupt Irish cop in New Orleans went after the "wops" that the Irish lost the position of top criminal dog in the USA.
patriot | Jun 27, 2011, 07:12 PM EDT
The posters here obviously never met Whitey!
JohnIreland | Jun 27, 2011, 06:27 PM EDT
This criminal may have been a part of the so called Irish gangs in Boston, but he's not Irish. His dad was born in Newfoundland Canada, his mother was born in the States, and he was born in Boston in 1929. I'm afraid that ye Yanks can't hoist this boy-o onto the Irish. He was born and reared in your land, not mine.
cillowen | Jun 26, 2011, 04:18 PM EDT
how inept are these agencies - seems those hired to do a job - sit about feeling heady about their so-called precious elitist positioning..... groooey, i'm the servant who serves to gets to drink a pint here and there. Mickey Spillane world, dreaming.
haikued2 | Jun 26, 2011, 02:20 PM EDT
Interesting...it is a big deal that the marshall was Irish American, but not that Bulger was Irish American...is that like having your cake and eating it too? Bulger was a thug no matter what his heritage may have been and treating him like some hero is stupid at best.
trevorsullivan | Jun 26, 2011, 12:42 PM EDT
Runs in the family Canon T Sullivan
RichardP | Jun 26, 2011, 11:25 AM EDT
Why are so many people glamorizing this thug? Why is he being glorified as an Irish-American? He's an American - period. He's a drug-dealer, murderer and thoroughly despicable specimen of humanity and there is nothing endearing about him at all. Any suggestion that he was some sort of a Robin Hood has been comprehensively destroyed for several years. He was a Robbing Hood,a gangster and nothing for which the Irish should feel any pride.
norinalundy | Jun 26, 2011, 10:27 AM EDT
I guess it is justice that an Irish-American was responsible for capturing White Bulger. I think that too much of a big deal is being made about the fact that this gangster is Irish. It casts a very unpleasant view of Irish-Americans. I wouldn't want to be associated with this mobster or any of the mobsters heralded in the Westies' group for that matter. I am Italian, married to an Irish-American man, and my biggest complaint to all my Irish friends and relatives is that I am associated with the Mafia, etc. God, I would have a better manicure to sport and lots more money!
tommurphy | Jun 26, 2011, 09:42 AM EDT
That's not Whitey or Grieg - it's a couple mistakenly ID'd as them - one of many who always seemed to be in sunny, faraway places (Italy, Costa Rica, Florida, etc.) when Boston's F-Troop of FBI agents felt the need to get out of the winter's cold. Apparently Santa Monica wasn't exotic enough or didn't earn enough frequent-flyer miles.