FBI: Couple In Italy Could Be Bulger, Girlfriend

BOSTON -- Federal investigators are saying that a couple spotted and videotaped in Italy last spring might just be fugitive Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger and his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Elizabeth Greig.

Bulger has been on the FBI's Top 10 list of most wanted fugitives since he fled the area following his indictment on 21 counts of murder in 1995. Bulger was known as a Boston mobster, the leader of the Winter Hill Gang, and a former FBI informant.

In a statement released Friday, the FBI said the couple was spotted in Taormina, an Italian city on the island of Sicily, in April. They said investigators tried to determine whether the couple was in fact Bulger and his girlfriend.

"We have a number of people who have seen it, people who have known Bulger for a long time, both police officers and former associates. They've seen the video and they've seen the photographs. Some say it is, some say it isn't (Bulger.) He's about the right age and his companion, that he's with in this, about the right age and description of Catherine Greig, the woman who's been with him for some time," Boston FBI Bureau Chief Warren Bamford said.

The agency stopped short of saying the man and women were Bulger, 77, and Greig, 56, but it said officials have not been able to rule them out as the fugitive pair.

"To date, the coordinated efforts of the FBI, Massachusetts State Police, Massachusetts Department of Correction, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Italian law enforcement authorities have not been able to exclude the two people photographed in Italy as James J. Bulger and Catherine Elizabeth Greig," the FBI release said.

A facial recognition analysis proved inconclusive. Three experts looked at the tape and at least one confirmed that it was Bulger.

"We have a number of countries that are involved in this (search) right now, in Rome as well as London, Paris, Madrid, Bern, Ottawa. There a couple of things in this video that give us some hope or some indication that this could be Bulger," Bamford said.

Bulger is known to have traveled throughout the United States and Europe since fleeing the area 12 years ago.

Federal investigators now want to speak with anyone who visited that area of Italy in March, April, or May 2007 and who may have seen Bulger and Greig.

Bulger planned for his life on the run by placing large sums of cash in safe deposit boxes domestically and internationally, the FBI said. Safe deposit boxes have been discovered in Clearwater, Fla., (2001), Ireland and England (2002), and Montreal, Canada (2003). It is believed other safe deposit boxes exist in other locations, according to the FBI.

A $1 milliion reward has been offered for Bulger's arrest.