Criminal leader’s rap sheet spans many decades
James “Whitey” Bulger’s criminal activity spans decades, leading up to his arrest in 2011 after 16 years on the run. Here are some key dates:
1948 — James Bulger Jr. is arrested in South Boston on a criminal assault charge.
January 1956 — FBI names 26year-old James Bulger Jr. as an alleged participant in a $12,000 bank robbery from Hoosier State Bank in Hammond, Ind. Feds say he goes by “Whitey” or “Sonny” Bulger. March 1956 — He’s arrested after a nine-month hunt as the last of three suspects wanted in a $42,000 holdup of the Darlington branch of the Industrial National Bank in Pawtucket, R.I., a year before.
June 1956 — Bulger is sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to robbing three banks. He serves 11 years, three of them in Alcatraz.
1973 — Bulger’s only son, Douglas Glenn Cyr, dies at age 6 from Reye’s Syndrome, a severe reaction to aspirin.
1986 — Bulger is mentioned in the Presidential Commission on Organized Crime’s “The Impact on Organized Crime” report to the president and attorney general as a “reputed killer, bank robber and drug trafficker.”
1987 — A dope dealer tells the DEA Bulger is a leader of a Florida-to-Boston cocaine ring.
1991 — Bulger’s lottery winnings from Southie liquor store probed. 1994 — Bulger flees Boston.
June 2011 — Bulger captured in Santa Monica, Calif., after almost 17 years on the lam; longtime lover Catherine Greig indicted on charges of conspiracy to harbor and conceal Bulger.
November 2013 — Bulger found guilty of 11 murders committed when he was a crime boss in South Boston from the 1970s until 1994.
2016 — Federal appeals court denies Bulger a retrial; the U.S. Supreme Court later refuses to hear the case.
Yesterday — He’s killed in prison in West Virginia.