Catherine Greig’s bail hearing
Today in Boston’s federal courthouse was a detention hearing and preliminary hearing for Catherine Greig, James “Whitey” Bulger‘s long-time on the lam girlfriend. Like at Bulger’s arraignment, I was not able to get into the actual courtroom due to big crowds and the fact that it took place in a (tiny) magistrate courtroom, but I watched the proceedings via live video link in an “overflow” room.
Greig entered the packed courtroom right before the 2:30 hearing, chained and wearing a navy blue jail jumpsuit. She was then unchained and sat at the far left side of the defense table next to her attorney, Kevin Reddington, and his son, who is a third-year law student and is helping out with the case. She smiled to acknowledge the her lawyer and her twin sister, Margaret McCusker, who was watching from the gallery, and eagerly shook hands with the younger Reddington. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jack Pirozzolo and Jamie Herbert sat at the other end of the table.
Magistrate Judge Jennifer Boal presided over the proceedings, calling court to order promptly at 2:30. After the attorneys introduced themselves, the government called a single witness, FBI agent Michael Carazza. He was questioned by Herbert, explaining that he had worked on the Bulger task force for many years and giving a narrative of Bulger and Greig’s life on the lam.
In the fall of 1994, Bulger and his then-girlfriend Theresa Stanley left Boston and traveled to several different locations, including Italy, England, California, New York, Louisiana, and Florida. At one point, while boarding a flight to Canada, Bulger was briefly detained at security because his luggage contained a large amount of cash. He threw the bag to his henchman, Kevin Weeks, who left with it, and Bulger was then able to board with no problem. Both Stanley and Greig were described as Bulger’s “longtime girlfriend” around the same time. Bulger and Greig had broken up before he left, which, Carazza said, was “initiated by Greig.”
Bulger had several safe deposit boxes around the country, as well as in Dublin and London. One in Florida was paid for by his brother, John “Jackie” Bulger, and another in London was registered with brother William “Billy” Bulger’s phone number.
In 1995, Bulger dropped Stanley off at her sister’s house in Hingham at her request and picked up Greig at Malibu Beach in Dorchester after she asked to come with him. According to Carazza, it was Greig’s twin sister, Margaret McCusker, who dropped her off. She brought a bag and her sister’s driver’s license with her and left behind her Quincy house and her beloved poodles, Nicky and Gigi, which her sister took care of. A friend lived in her house for a while before renters moved in, and she left $100,000 for the friend’s son.
Bulger and Greig went to Los Angeles, where they lived as Tom and Helen Baxter. They told people that they were from New York, that he was a retired real estate agent, and that she was a retired dog groomer. They lived in cabins which they rented in cash, and their automobile of choice was a black Grand Marquis. Bulger, who had served time in Alcatraz in his early adulthood, wore a belt engraved with the name of the infamous prison. Greig regularly got her hair cut by the local police chief’s daughter, often bringing a bottle of her own hair dye, and bought contact lenses from WalMart with a prescription that, suspiciously, did not list the optician’s address.
During their years in the lam, the couple used numerous aliases and fake IDs, including those of real people. While they lived in Chicago, Weeks drove up with a white sheet for a backdrop to take fake ID photos. Another time, when Bulger grew a mustache, Jackie took a picture of himself wearing a fake mustache, to be used on another fake ID. Bulger, however, was “quite displeased” with the results. Greig, Carazza said, was present for all of this. At one point, Bulger even sent a message back home to Stanley warning her against daring a particular guy.
From Chicago, the couple took an Amtrak train to New York City, where they adopted the identities of Mark and Carol Shapeton.
When Bulger and Greig were arrested in Santa Monica, California, under the aliases of Charles and Carol Gasko, they had approximately $822,000 and 30 weapons, 3 of which were loaded, stored in secret compartments in the walls of their apartment and behind books in bookshelves.
All of the driver’s licenses, ID cards, medical records, birth certificates, business cards, and AARP membership cards that the couple had, using various names, were entered into evidence, as was Greig’s calendar, which was filled with TV shows and shopping trips. A surveillance video was played, which showed Greig entering and exiting a pharmacy, where she filled prescriptions for her and Bulger.
The hearing lasted longer than I expected, and apparently longer than Judge Boal expected as well. She asked Herbert to finish up his line of questioning, and at 4:30 the hearing was adjourned. It will continue on Wednesday.