Daily Archives: June 24, 2011

Eyewitness: ‘It Was Absolutely Bulger I Saw’ In 2006

Published June 24, 2011

Past Southern California sightings and tips that were never followed may well have been right: It was Whitey.

One of the best of the hundreds of Bulger sightings people have called in to me over the years was from a law enforcement guy in San Diego a couple of years ago.

Now that Bulger’s been arrested in California, where’s he’s said to have lived for years, that call and others warrant a second look.

“What do his legs look like?” was the first question out of the guy’s mouth. The guy he’d seen was wearing shorts.

Check out the article I wrote for the Boston Phoenix in 2007. Now consider the phone call I got Thursday morning, the morning after Bulger was arrested in California not far from where I had last heard from the cop back in 2007.

Here’s the message:

Hey. It’s your buddy in sunny San Diego, where crime bosses wear shorts and walk around downtown. What comes around, goes around, huh buddy?

Having seen our photo of Bulger being booked Thursday, my “buddy” says he’s absolutely the same guy who was wearing shorts that day in San Diegeo at the premiere of the movie “The Departed.”

You can’t make this stuff up.

More:

Family Wants To Face ‘Whitey’ Bulger In Court

Published June 24, 2011

When James “Whitey” Bulger is arraigned in Boston federal court Friday afternoon, the Donahue family will be there. “After all these years of waiting,” Patricia Donahue said, “We need to see this man brought to justice. We need to be there.”

Patricia Donahue, wife of an alleged victim of "Whitey" Bulger, outside federal court in Boston on Friday (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Patricia Donahue, wife of an alleged victim of "Whitey" Bulger, outside federal court in Boston on Friday (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Donahue’s husband, Michael, was murdered in 1982. His son Tommy had just made his first Communion. To celebrate, Donahue was going to take his son fishing. He’d been on the South Boston waterfront that day getting supplies for the trip. He’d stepped into a bar for a drink, and when he left, he was with Brian Halloran.

Halloran was a criminal who had tried to turn in Whitey Bulger. He’d asked Donahue for a ride. When they got into the car, men who’d been waiting, allegedly including Bulger, fired a hail of bullets into the car.

“There was more than one trigger man,” Tommy Donahue said. “So hopefully now, with Whitey Bulger getting arrested, he can rat out the other people who were there.”

The Donahues have seen Bulger’s recent mugshot. It hardened their resolve to see Bulger face-to-face in court.

“Don’t be thrown off by that old frail man smiling there,” Tommy said, “My family always said that if anyone ever lives to get charged, we will represent my father to the fullest.”

Hear more of the interview with the Donahue family, Friday on Radio Boston.