The real-life gangster who inspired JACK NICHOLSON’s character in The Departed, JAMES 'WHITEY' BULGER nabbed by Feds after 16 years on the lam.
Boston-based mafia kingpin James "Whitey" Bulger faces a federal judge in a Los Angeles courtroom on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, narcotics distribution, extortion and money laundering, among others.
Bulger, who inspired key aspects of Jack Nicholson's character in the Oscar-winning film The Departed, has been on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted in connection with 19 murders he's tied to, RadarOnline.com reports.
The FBI said Bulger, allegedly the head of Boston's Winter Hill Gang, played a key “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.”
The FBI took the 81-year-old and his girlfriend into custody at a Santa Monica apartment building called The Princess Eugenia with no resistance Wednesday night.
The bureau received a tip on his whereabouts after mounting a publicity campaign to find him, FBI spokesperson Steven Martinez said.
Bulger's longtime gal pal, Catherine Greig, 60, faces charges of harboring a federal fugitive.
An FBI informant himself for two decades, Bulger disappeared in 1995 after he was tipped a massive criminal indictment was pending.
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