FBI official: Bulger hunt is focusing on Europe

January 4, 2008 01:52 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

As South Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger marks his 13th anniversary on the run, investigators suspect he could be hiding in Europe because of a possible sighting in Italy last year, a key FBI official said.

"We're going to continue our focus on Europe," said Special Agent Richard Teahan, supervisor of the multi-agency Bulger Fugitive Task Force, which is conducting the international manhunt for the 78-year-old Bulger.

Teahan said the task force has chased hundreds of leads since September when the FBI posted a video clip on its website of a couple resembling Bulger and his girlfriend, Catherine Greig, and sought the public's help in identifying and locating them.

The video, shot by a vacationing federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent, shows the couple strolling through the Sicilian resort of Taormina in April.

Despite a media blitz in Europe and efforts by the Italian police, who have detained and fingerprinted a number of elderly Americans who have been mistaken for Bulger, Teahan said investigators have not identified the couple in the video.

Though many of Bulger's closest former associates, including his ex-girlfriend, say they don't believe the couple spotted in Sicily were Bulger and Greig, Teahan said, "We're really not focused on opinions, we're focused on the identification of this couple.''

Teahan said there are "enough similarities'' between Bulger and Greig and the couple spotted in Sicily to compel investigators to try to find them.

A warrant was issued for Bulger's arrest on racketeering and extortion charges on Jan. 4, 1995. He has never been caught. Since then, he's been outed as a longtime FBI informant and charged with 19 murders. He's one of the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" fugitives, and a $1 million reward has been offered for information leading directly to his capture.

In the past year, Teahan said, the hunt for Bulger has also taken the task force to Madrid, London, and Belfast.

And while the focus has primarily been overseas, Teahan said investigators have also chased leads in Chicago, Florida, and other parts of the United States.

"We get so many lookalikes, it's unbelievable,'' Teahan said. "It's a regular occurrence for us based on the fact he resembles everybody."