Bulger Spotted in Italy?

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Irish Voice News

Bulger Spotted in Italy?

By Cahir O’Doherty J

AMES Joseph “Whitey” Bulger, 78, the fugitive and alleged leader of the Winter Hill Gang, an Irish American crime family operating in the region of Boston, may have been spotted in Italy, according to the pictures and video shot by a member of the U.S. drug enforcement agency who was on holiday in Taormina on the island of Sicily in April when he spotted the man he claims is the notorious Irish American mobster.

Pictures from Taormina released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on its website, show a man resembling Bulger walking with a woman who is thought to be his 56-year-old girlfriend, Catherine Greig. Sicilian police have now launched an all out manhunt for one of America’s 10 most-wanted criminals across the island.

Bulger has been on the run for 12 years after being indicted on 18 counts of murder and several other charges of running a mafia operation. There is a bounty of $1 million on his head.

The last known sighting of the Irish-American former leader of Boston’s Winter Hill Gang was in Piccadilly Circus, in London in 2002. He fled the U.S. after being tipped off about his imminent arrest and is known to have stashed cash in safety deposit boxes in Florida, Canada, Ireland and the England.

Bulger was the inspiration for the villain played by Jack Nicholson in Martin Scorsese’s film The Departed. He is also the brother of William Bulger who rose to become president of the Massachusetts State Senate and president of the University of Massachusetts.

On August 19, 1999, Bulger joined the 10 most wanted fugitives listed by the FBI, and as such he currently remains wanted for racketeering, murder, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit extortion, narcotics distribution, money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering and extortion.

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