Try again
Bulger tip leads to another dead end
Uruguay resort sighting is third of recent duds
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff | August 10, 2005
A tip that sent the FBI to Uruguay two weeks ago in search of fugitive South Boston crime boss James ''Whitey" Bulger has led to another dead end, according to the FBI.
Kenneth Kaiser, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, said yesterday that the Uruguay tip was one of three possible Bulger sightings in the past month alone that looked promising but turned out to be false.
Kaiser wouldn't reveal the locations of the other purported sightings, but said, ''In all three instances, it did not turn out to be him. I was very optimistic with these three sightings, and all three washed out."
Likewise, he said, agents who chased a purported sighting of the 75-year-old gangster at an Irish pub in Cambodia last spring discovered it was yet another case of mistaken identity.
The recent excursions underscore how frustrating it is to hunt a cunning gangster who looks like countless other aging white men and is believed to have enough money from years of crime to bankroll his decade on the run.
Bulger, who is on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list with a $1 million reward for his capture, fled just before his January 1995 indictment on federal racketeering charges in Boston.
Since then, he has been revealed as a longtime FBI informant and charged with 19 murders in a second federal indictment. He's believed to be on the run with his girlfriend, Catherine Greig, 54, formerly of South Boston and Quincy.
In an interview with the Globe last week, the chief of police in Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital, said two FBI agents had shown him photos of Bulger and told him that Bulger may have been with a woman in Punta del Este, a posh resort town on the Atlantic coast, or in another nearby tourist area called Maldonado.
The chief, Ricardo Bernal, said, ''We showed people his photograph, but until now, we haven't found anyone who has seen him."
It's been the opposite problem for the Bulger Task Force, which is constantly getting tips from people who think they've seen Bulger. The last confirmed sighting of Bulger was in London in September 2002, according to the FBI, but the agency has chased hundreds of tips all over the world that turned out to be look-alikes.
FBI officials said last year that they had chased tips in Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Cyprus, South Africa, throughout Europe, South America, Mexico, and Canada, and in nearly every US state.
While recently on trips to Germany and Austria, Kaiser said, ''I thought I saw Whitey 52 times."
Several years ago, a promising tip from Brazilian law enforcement officials led agents on a wild chase through the streets of Rio de Janeiro in pursuit of a man who resembled Bulger. The quarry turned out to be a Portuguese national wanted for money laundering.
Last month, media in the Los Angeles area suggested that a man dubbed the ''senior citizen robber," who was wanted for robbing banks in southern California, could be Bulger. But Kaiser said yesterday the FBI doesn't believe it was him.
Kaiser also speculated that Bulger still has plenty of money to support his life on the run.
The Bulger Task Force, composed of FBI agents, Massachusetts state troopers, officers from the state Department of Correction, and several analysts, is continuing to try to track Bulger's money and chase every reported sighting of him, Kaiser said.
''I'm optimistic that he'll be caught," Kaiser said. ''There's going to be some mistake he'll make that we'll be able to exploit."
As for his best guess as to where Bulger might be hiding, Kaiser speculated that it could be a country that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the United States.
Bulger tip leads to another dead end
Uruguay resort sighting is third of recent duds
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff | August 10, 2005
A tip that sent the FBI to Uruguay two weeks ago in search of fugitive South Boston crime boss James ''Whitey" Bulger has led to another dead end, according to the FBI.
Kenneth Kaiser, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, said yesterday that the Uruguay tip was one of three possible Bulger sightings in the past month alone that looked promising but turned out to be false.
Kaiser wouldn't reveal the locations of the other purported sightings, but said, ''In all three instances, it did not turn out to be him. I was very optimistic with these three sightings, and all three washed out."
Likewise, he said, agents who chased a purported sighting of the 75-year-old gangster at an Irish pub in Cambodia last spring discovered it was yet another case of mistaken identity.
The recent excursions underscore how frustrating it is to hunt a cunning gangster who looks like countless other aging white men and is believed to have enough money from years of crime to bankroll his decade on the run.
Bulger, who is on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list with a $1 million reward for his capture, fled just before his January 1995 indictment on federal racketeering charges in Boston.
Since then, he has been revealed as a longtime FBI informant and charged with 19 murders in a second federal indictment. He's believed to be on the run with his girlfriend, Catherine Greig, 54, formerly of South Boston and Quincy.
In an interview with the Globe last week, the chief of police in Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital, said two FBI agents had shown him photos of Bulger and told him that Bulger may have been with a woman in Punta del Este, a posh resort town on the Atlantic coast, or in another nearby tourist area called Maldonado.
The chief, Ricardo Bernal, said, ''We showed people his photograph, but until now, we haven't found anyone who has seen him."
It's been the opposite problem for the Bulger Task Force, which is constantly getting tips from people who think they've seen Bulger. The last confirmed sighting of Bulger was in London in September 2002, according to the FBI, but the agency has chased hundreds of tips all over the world that turned out to be look-alikes.
FBI officials said last year that they had chased tips in Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Cyprus, South Africa, throughout Europe, South America, Mexico, and Canada, and in nearly every US state.
While recently on trips to Germany and Austria, Kaiser said, ''I thought I saw Whitey 52 times."
Several years ago, a promising tip from Brazilian law enforcement officials led agents on a wild chase through the streets of Rio de Janeiro in pursuit of a man who resembled Bulger. The quarry turned out to be a Portuguese national wanted for money laundering.
Last month, media in the Los Angeles area suggested that a man dubbed the ''senior citizen robber," who was wanted for robbing banks in southern California, could be Bulger. But Kaiser said yesterday the FBI doesn't believe it was him.
Kaiser also speculated that Bulger still has plenty of money to support his life on the run.
The Bulger Task Force, composed of FBI agents, Massachusetts state troopers, officers from the state Department of Correction, and several analysts, is continuing to try to track Bulger's money and chase every reported sighting of him, Kaiser said.
''I'm optimistic that he'll be caught," Kaiser said. ''There's going to be some mistake he'll make that we'll be able to exploit."
As for his best guess as to where Bulger might be hiding, Kaiser speculated that it could be a country that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the United States.
I think it's his excellent disguises that are helping him.
This is a great link to the best Whitey info/picture pages.
http://www.wrko.com/article.asp?id=50489
This is a great link to the best Whitey info/picture pages.
http://www.wrko.com/article.asp?id=50489
