Podcast Episode Details

The Untold Story of Crime Boss and Sixteen-Year Federal Fugitive, James (Whitey) Bulger (Part Three)

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For twenty years, Whitey Bulger terrorized Boston with the full collusion of the FBI.  On the run for sixteen years, he was eventually arrested on June 22, 2011.

Whitey did not limit himself geographically to South Boston.  No longer able to access Marshall Motors because a jailed, cash strapped Howie Winter’s family needed to rent it out, in early 1980, in a location owned by confederate George Kaufman, he set up another headquarters at a garage on Lancaster Street, only blocks away from Jerry Angiulo’s North End office in a restaurant on Prince Street.  Here Bulger routinely met with Ilario “Larry” Zannino, Angiulo’s number two man, among other bookies and criminals.  An initially strategic spot for such interactions, the Lancaster location set off a law enforcement reaction that was practically a keystone cop imitation.  When the Boston State Police received a tip that the garage was actually a chop shop, two investigators began surveillance from across the street.  Stunned when they observed the entrance and exit of some of Boston’s most notorious mobsters, they realized bugging the garage would probably provide a mother lode of indictments.  Jack O’Donovan, the head of the organized crime unit for the Massachusetts State Police had long suspected that the FBI was colluding with Bulger, and O’Donovan was intent on investigating and arresting Bulger himself.

When Charley Gasko emerged from the elevator into the rear area of the apartment building he would not be meeting up with Josh Bond.  Instead, he would be confronted by a half dozen FBI agents and various other law enforcement officials, guns drawn.  They ordered him to get on the ground, but despite his age and relative frailty, his response underlined that this was not your typical 81 year old senior citizen, in fact it was not Charlie Gasko at all.  It was America’s Most Wanted criminal, James J. (Whitey) Bulger.

Published on 2 years, 10 months ago