SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Boston mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger did almost everything right in evading capture for 16 years.
The notorious mobster’s run from the law was remarkable for its longevity, which was due mainly to the unremarkable new identity he built for himself while on the lam.
He adopted an unassuming lifestyle, paid for everything with cash, didn’t drive a car, limited his social contact to small talk and adhered to the code of silence from the mob life he left behind. When federal agents tracked him to his lair this week, it was only after targeting the one part of his past that Bulger didn’t leave behind — his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig.
By all accounts, the two did little to ever arouse suspicion, posing as two retirees holed up in a bland white 1970s apartment complex in Santa Monica amid other buildings of the same era.
Although Bulger — who fled Boston in 1995 after a retired FBI agent who had recruited him as an informant tipped him to a pending indictment — was thought to have millions of dollars in secret accounts, and investigators found $800,000 hidden in the apartment, the couple didn’t live lavishly.
They paid $1,145 cash several days in advance each month for a rent-controlled unit, while newer neighbors paid more than twice as much. Greig shopped at a 99-cent store.
Occasionally, they splurged, even while remaining discreet.
Andrew Turner, the general manager of Michael’s, recognized pictures of the fugitives this week as the couple who dined occasionally at table No. 23 at the upscale institution.
He had a record of their paying their $190 tab in cash for a meal that included Grey Goose vodka cocktails, foie gras, steak and lobster, topped off by wine, in September 2009 — the month Bulger turned 80.
The couple kept to themselves, Turner recalled.
“This guy was just nice, mild and meek, milquetoast in a little apartment in Santa Monica,” said Bill Keefer, a retired U.S. marshal who supervised the witness protection program in Los Angeles, Hawaii and Long Island, N.Y. “This guy should have been a supervisor with the marshal’s witness protection program. He did an outstanding job, the louse.”
As they reinvented themselves, Bulger and Greig stuck to a low-key lifestyle. They didn’t appear to have visitors, and limited conversations to chitchat.
Greig, 60, was the more outgoing of the two, while Bulger was sometimes cranky. Barbara Gluck, a tenant down the hall, described Greig as sweet.
They would chat until Bulger barked at Greig to stop talking with her.
In the end, there was one way in which Bulger was like almost every other apprehended fugitive. About 85 percent of them are brought down by a girlfriend, said Jack Cluff, a former U.S. marshal.
The FBI tailored their latest campaign at Greig, who is wanted for harboring a fugitive.
Public service announcements were aired that asked for information leading to Greig.
News coverage produced a tip that led agents to the home.
