AN IRISH-AMERICAN federal marshall has been credited with cracking the case which led to the arrest of the notorious Irish-American criminal James ‘Whitey’ Bulger last week.
Irish Central reports that 37-year-old Irish-American Neil Sullivan is credited with going through the hundreds of tip-offs as to the gangster’s whereabouts and focusing on the one that led to Bulger’s arrest in Santa Monica, California last Thursday.
The Boston Herald reports that the US Marshall was assigned to the case just seven months ago.
He worked on a task force with a state trooper and an FBI agent and focused particularly on a tip from a woman in Iceland who claimed to know an elderly couple called the Gaskos in Santa Monica who resembled Bulger and his girlfriend Catherine Greig.
One source told the Herald that Sullivan was an “incredible investigator” but few other details have emerged about the man who cracked the case with the Marshals not making their agent available for comment.
It has emerged that Bulger, who has been connected to some 19 brutal murders in the US, made frequent trips to Mexico to pick up a prescription heart drugs and also kept safety boxes in banks in Europe, including here in Ireland.
The story is still dominating the Boston media with the Boston Globe reporting that residents of the neighbourhood ‘Whitey’ grew up in expecting that the gangster will implicate federal agents for corruption in the handling of his case.
There could be hundreds of people involved, according to some.
The Herald also reports that Whitey gave his ‘moll’ Catherine Craig, an “exciting, daring” lifestyle.
When she first took up with him, he promised her the thrill of being on the run with a dark and dangerous man with a stash of cash and freedom from the drudge of a normal working life.
She was also arrested last Thursday.
For the victims of his crimes, there’s not universal happiness with Bulger’s arrest.
Patricia Donohue, whose husband Michael was gunned down in 1982 in a murder linked to Bulger, told the New York Times: “I have satisfaction and despair, because it brings back so many old memories. But satisfaction that they have him.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say