What We Learned About Whitey Bulger Today

Welcome to the initial installment of What We Learned About Whitey Today, in which we at Boston Daily round up all the details from disparate sources about Whitey Bulger’s arrest, his prosecution, and his new — and perhaps even his old — life. The idea is to gather into one spot the freshest, most telling details about the saga.

For instance, I’m just floored to learn that two of Catherine Greig’s brothers-in-law were likely killed by Whitey in the 60s and 70s, and yet Greig still decided in the 1990s to run off with Whitey, become his mistress and companion on the lam. As the New York Times puts it in its piece on Greig:

It was a sign, perhaps, that if she could overlook his possible involvement in the deaths of her two brothers-in-law, she could overlook a lot more.

The Herald has a piece this morning saying that Greig likely suffered from Stockholm Syndrome. That’s why she stayed with Whitey for so long. The couple’s neighbors said they routinely heard Whitey yelling at her.

But that’s not to say that Whitey abhorred his time in California. The Globe yesterday had a fascinating piece on Whitey’s L.A. life. Not only did Whitey rent the Santa Monica apartment as far back as 1991, but Whitey’s niece, Billy Bulger’s daughter, lived a couple miles away in the 1990s. Also a couple miles away: The LA office of the FBI. And yet none of that stopped Whitey from walking daily with Greig on the Santa Monica pier.

So who actually brought down Whitey? A U.S. Marshall by the name of Neil Sullivan first heard the tip that Whitey might be hiding in Santa Monica. Sullivan has been on the job all of seven months.

Browse our previous coverage for more on Whitey Bulger.