Whitey Bulger hunt aims at Florida
Task force cites leads, links to Sunshine State
The international manhunt for South Boston gangster James “Whitey’’ Bulger has focused more in the past year on Florida, where authorities have received numerous tips that the elderly fugitive is hiding, according to the FBI.
“We’re getting an increase in leads coming from Florida,’’ FBI agent Richard Teahan, who coordinates the multiagency Bulger Task Force, told reporters yesterday at the FBI’s Boston office, during a briefing on efforts to capture Bulger, whose 80th birthday is Sept. 3.
None of the sightings have been confirmed, and many have been ruled out as look-alikes. Still, Teahan said the task force has taken the tips seriously, given that Florida is a popular retirement destination and Bulger owned a condominium in Clearwater before he went on the run.
Bulger is one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted, and the bureau is offering a $2 million reward for information leading to his capture. He fled before his 1995 federal racketeering indictment in Boston. Since then, he has been charged with 19 murders and has been publicly identified as a longtime FBI informant.
Last November, a Miami jury convicted Bulger’s former handler, retired FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr., of second-degree murder for leaking information to Bulger and another informant, Stephen “The Rifleman’’ Flemmi, that prompted them to orchestrate the 1982 slaying of a Boston businessman in Florida.
Connolly, who was already serving a 10-year prison term for racketeering, was sentenced to 40 years on the Florida conviction, which he is appealing.
Following yesterday’s briefing, an FBI official confirmed that after Connolly’s conviction last fall, the FBI urged him to assist the task force’s efforts to capture Bulger, but he declined.
“He might have some information that would be helpful to us,’’ said Noreen Gleason, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office. She said the FBI did not offer any deal in exchange for Connolly’s cooperation, but asked for his assistance. But, she said, “we didn’t get anywhere with that.’’
In a telephone interview yesterday, Connolly’s Miami lawyer, Manuel Casabielle, acknowledged that the FBI had asked him if Connolly was “interested in providing information to help capture Bulger.’’
But, Casabielle said, “as far as I know, John has never sat down with the FBI to discuss the whereabouts of Whitey Bulger.’’
During an interview in his Miami jail cell last December, Connolly told the Globe that Bulger called him twice in 1995 or 1996 and discussed the possibility of surrender. He said he did not know where Bulger was hiding.
The last confirmed sighting of Bulger was in London’s Piccadilly Circus in September 2002, according to the FBI. He is believed to be traveling with his girlfriend, Catherine Greig, 58, formerly of Quincy, who is accused of harboring the fugitive.
Yesterday, the FBI released two age-enhanced photos of Bulger.
“That reward is out there, and it’s available,’’ said Teahan, adding that the FBI and the US attorney’s office would negotiate Bulger’s surrender or capture with anyone who comes forward, including Bulger’s relatives or friends and even Greig.
“This guy is a true hard-core, stone killer,’’ said Gleason.
The Florida tips have included reports that a man resembling Bulger was spotted in Clearwater, Jacksonville, Kissimmee, and Daytona Beach, Teahan said.
The task force, comprised of seven full-time investigators from the FBI, State Police and Massachusetts Department of Correction, has followed leads in England, Ireland, Canada, and Central and South America.
