Inside Bulger's Life on the Lam

Despite the fact that he’s accused of murdering 19 people, Whitey Bulger’s capture caused a “momentary twinge of regret” in Tim Rutten. After all, there’s something romantic about the idea of 16 years on the run, Rutten writes in the Los Angeles Times; perhaps we have the Robin Hood legend to thank for that. And we have the Boston Globe and the New York Times to thank for details of Bulger’s life on the lam. Bulger himself opened up to the FBI about it, the Globe reports, bragging that he and companion Catherine Greig frequently went into Mexico to purchase drugs for his heart condition without a prescription.

Bulger and Greig would drive to the border and park nearby, then walk over, using fake IDs to get through security. They also liked to sit on benches at a Santa Monica shopping spot rife with surveillance cameras, and would often go to farmers’ markets, according to a neighbor who knew Bulger as “Charlie” and says he and Greig treated her as a granddaughter and installed locks on her apartment windows. Meanwhile, the Times takes an in-depth look at Greig, who was first married to a Boston firefighter whose two brothers Bulger may or may not have murdered. She remained loyal to Bulger throughout their often difficult life together, and when Bulger “called out to her, she acted as if he did this wonderful thing and God had called to her,” says a neighbor who knew her as Carol Gasko. Click for the full profile. (More Catherine Greig stories.)