James "Whitey" Bulger's capture came the same week the FBI
launched an aggressive new pursuit of the 81-year-old fugitive
and legendary Boston crime boss.
The campaign focused on finding Bulger's longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig, and included television commercials in 14 major cities where there had been reported sightings of the couple.
The push marked the latest in numerous efforts by authorities to track Bulger since he went on the run more than a decade ago.
FBI officials said the public service announcements were directed at women who might recognize Greig, 60. They also doubled the reward being offered for her capture from $50,000 to $100,000.
In 2008, the FBI doubled the reward offered for Bulger's capture from $1 million to $2 million. At the time a video announcement of the increased reward called him "a predator in every sense of the word."
Late Wednesday all images of Bulger on his "Most Wanted" poster were marked "captured" on the FBI's website.
Bulger, the FBI wrote, was sought for "his role in numerous murders committed from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s in connection with his leadership of an organized crime group that allegedly controlled extortion, drug deals, and other illegal activities in the Boston, Massachusetts, area."
The FBI also cautioned that Bulger "has a violent temper and is known to carry a knife at all times."
[Update 10:04 p.m.: FBI officials in Boston and Los Angeles said late Wednesday that a tip generated by "recent publicity" had led led agents earlier that evening to a residence in Santa Monica where both Greig and Bulger were arrrested.
They are scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday, according to the FBI's statement.]
