Report: Whitey Bulger Arrested in CA

[PVH5150]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_882728.html

[groovetube]

never thought he'd get caught

[DGTCrazy]

That's a little too convenient, especially in lieu of the story run recently on CNN regarding the FBI re-focusing their pursuit of Bulger.

The speculation is (and I'm paraphrasing), that while he's a murdering savage, that he later turned informant with a lot of the "old guard" FBI investigators....so they made a decision to let him live his life out in return for info that got used to arrest and convict other mobsters.

Now...the story goes that many of the old FBI have retired or died, and the young blood of the FBI wants Bulger "shut up" so the other retired agents can live with their reputations in tact. I mean really....CNN runs a story a few days ago...and they guy is miraculously caught?

We'll probably never know the REAL story.....but they've known the whereabouts of this guy for a long...long time IMO...and CNN had the video surveillance tape to prove it. The excuse the FBI used was that "Facial Recognition Technology couldn't confirm it was him on their video". I hope his freedom was worth it for the info he gave up....but it's hard to wrap my head around the whole thing, knowing this guy walked the streets where my family lives.

[Marcfordsfuzz513]

Not only was he a murderer. He lied and through all associate's under the bus.

[Dewey Finn]

Kind of funny that he was undone by the FBI showing his girlfriends picture to a bunch of old ladies. I mean c'mon, old ladies? Nosy? Stereotype? Too funny!

[TheRockDoc]

I lived in Boston from 1985-1991- lived in a number of areas peripheral to Southie. Even growing up in Brooklyn and Staten Island you always knew there were tons of mobsters and wanna-be guys, but I can't recall anyone with such a huge presence as Whitey- even more so because Billy was a high level politician. Definitely made for a Harold Robbins book.

Surrealistic that he was caught.

[Amp360]

As I have posted before my mother grew up right on Pulduski Way and is second cousins with Kevin Weeks, who I still am in contact with despite not speaking to my mom in years.

(again, I have posted this before)

When I was a kid we would come up to see those relatives and Kevin was always cool to me. I met Jim Bulger a number of times and know his brother Jackie very well. He ran a store (called The Irish Mafia Store by the kids) and was very friendly to me always. I actually have a South Boston Savings Bank he gave me once.

I played a couple shows at Triple O's (which was one of the bars he owned directly across from the Broadway Redline stop) and although it was a dive I never saw any trouble in there. I knew who he was but the few times as an adult I remember seeing him he told me, "say hello to your mother" when my band was loading in and asked me about school.

When I first got married we bought a condo in Boston on Gold Street from a guy named Steele (I'm not putting his first name) by this time Jim was on the run - but his signiture did appear on all the paperwork for the building when we did the closing (he owned a lot of property with other people - see below.

Anyway, it is good this all came to the end.

I'll plug my cousin's book, which is called Brutal:

http://www.amazon.com/Brutal-Untold-.../dp/0061122696

Also, anyone who remembers the old Channel nightclub from back then would probably remember Stevie Flemmi's son from there.

And post some pics you won't see anywhere else:


This is Jim's signature from when we closed:



This is the stairs leading down to the basement of Triple O's where they would take people to talk to them (it's closed now - one of the most creepy bars I have ever been in - low ceilings, a bunch of hard drinkers (they actually didn't have bands all that much but Kevin was a partner there so got us a gig), warped floors and a bizzare bunch of paintings of snow white and the seven dwarfs on the walls. The food was pretty good though:



This is our old condo where Jimmy also lived (not when we lived there). He lived on the second floor right side. We lived on the left side. He had replaced a glass sliding door with a bulletproof steel door which was still there. On this day the State Police were there destroying his condo looking for things in the walls (money, etc...).



This is the back of Triple O's. According to legend they walled up the windows because they didn't want anyone seeing what was going on in there.



This building is the Lancaster Street Garage - they used to torture people in the basement here as well. It's right behind the old Boston Garden on a weird street about 2 blocks long minutes from Gerry Anjulo's 98 Prince Street headquarters. I had actually considered buying this building due to its out of the way/yet right in the city location to put my studio in when we lived in Boston but it creeped my wife out.

[DWB1960]

Originally Posted by TheRockDoc

Surrealistic that he was caught.

Ya. True dat.

[Amp360]

Oh, and here is the store I was talking about:

[Amp360]

The big question now is if he will be able to collect his lottery payments. I don't know if there is a law against him collecting it and he had won a huge payment years back.

There are a LOT of Boston PD and Mass State Police folks who are retired or just retired who are shaking in their boots right now. Hopefully he brings them all down with him and they all lose their pensions and/or end up in prison.

The best part is what is breaking in Boston - that he is terminally ill and he had a family member turn him in to get the 2 million dollar reward.

Johnny Martorano is the one who murdered most of the people (Roger Wheeler, etc...) and I think he did 12 years for 209 or 21 murders so I would doubt he gets the death penalty because he has a lot of cards to deal.

[Relicula]

Amp 360 great story, I too have grown up in Boston during the Whitey years, read Kevins book, it was great. Its a fascinating and gruesome story, only to get better due to this arrest.

Question though, the building on Lancaster st, wasnt it a funeral home at one time? I remember being in there at one point when I worked in Boston.

I can tell your the real deal, Whitey liked to be called Jim by his friends.

Kevin Weeks book is one of the best I have ever read, I love his candid approach wether it was in print or even better when he appeared on WEEI sports radio and talked about his involvement.

I spent a lot of years in Boston during the 70-s to 90's and Whiteys presence was very powerful.

Just my opinion, but I always thought that his brother Billy was a bigger criminal, just wore a suit that was the only difference.

Regarding the lottery ticket, I was under the impression he sold the ticket to a customer out of his store in Southie, and then took it from him? Does that sound right to you?

Please share more of what you care to!

[Amp360]

Absolutly not about the ticket. Just like the story about Stippo Rakes having his store 'taken' by Bulger and Flemmi is BS - and everyone in Southie knows it.

The lottery ticket story is that a few people used to buy tickets in a pool every week - including Jim and Kevin. One of the tickets hit. At the time (IIRC) Billy was head of the Senate and the lottery commission went ape-sh++. They took the machine out of the store and opened it up, etc... because they thought the ticket was back dated or something but they won fair and square.

I remember Kevin telling me that it was the biggest hassle they ever had because of all the heat it drew.

The story Stippo told about the store is BS. He claims Kevin extorted the store from him but what most don't know is he opened the store and never paid any of the liquor distributors, never paid the electrition, etc... and needed to unload the place fast so Bulger, Weeks and Mary Flemmi (Steven's mom) bought it from him - in cash.

Oh, and FYI Stippo's brother married Kevin's sister - after this happened.

I am in MA this week like I said and am in Boston today. I called him and left him a message - but I know he's busy. I wanted to ask him how the kids are holding up and what's going on.