James “Whitey” Bulger, a legendary Boston crime boss who was the inspiration for Jack Nicholson’s character Frank Costello in Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed,” was arrested Wednesday night in Santa Monica, ending an international manhunt that had been going on since Bulger disappeared nearly 16 years ago.

    JAMES “WHITEY” BULGER, a notorious Boston gangster on the FBI’s “10 Most Wanted” list for his alleged role in 19 murders, was captured Wednesday near Los Angeles after living on the run for 16 years, authorities said.

    Bulger, 81, was arrested along with his longtime girlfriend, 60-year-old Catherine Greig, in the early evening at a residence in Santa Monica, said a law enforcement official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the case. The arrest was based on a tip from the recent publicity campaign that federal authorities had regenerated, according to the official.

    The two were arrested without incident, the FBI said.

    Bulger was the leader of the Winter Hill Gang when he fled in January 1995 after being tipped by a former Boston FBI agent that he was about to be indicted. Bulger was a top FBI informant.

    Over the years, the FBI battled the public perception that it had not tried very hard to find Bulger, who became a huge source of embarrassment for the agency after the extent of his crimes and the FBI’s role in overlooking them became public.

    Prosecutors said he went on the run after being warned by John Connolly Jr., an FBI agent who had made Bulger an FBI informant 20 years earlier. Connolly was convicted of racketeering in May 2002 for protecting Bulger and his cohort, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, also an FBI informant.

    Bulger provided the Boston FBI with information on his gang’s main rival, the New England Mob, in an era when bringing down the Mafia was one of the FBI’s top national priorities.

    But the Boston FBI office was sharply criticized when the extent of Bulger’s alleged crimes and his cozy relationship with the FBI became public in the late 1990s.

    He has been the subject of several books and was an inspiration for the 2006 Martin Scorsese film “The Departed.”

    During his years on the run, the FBI received reported sightings of Bulger and Greig from all over the United States and parts of Europe. In many of those sightings, investigators could not confirm whether it was actually Bulger who was spotted or simply a lookalike.

    But in September 2002, the FBI received its most reliable tip in three years when a British businessman who had met Bulger eight years earlier said he spotted Bulger on a London street.

    After the sighting, the FBI’s multi-agency violent fugitive task force in Boston and inspectors from New Scotland Yard scoured London hotels, Internet cafes and gyms in search of Bulger. The FBI also released an updated sketch, using the businessman’s description of Bulger as tanned, white-haired and sporting a gray goatee.

    On Monday the FBI announced a new publicity campaign and accompanying public service ad that asked people, particularly women, to be on the lookout for Greig. The 30-second ad started running Tuesday in 14 television markets to which Bulger may have ties and will air during programs popular with women roughly Greig’s age.

    The new campaign pointed out that Greig had plastic surgery several times before going on the lam and was known to frequent beauty salons. The FBI also was offering a US$2 million reward for information leading to Bulger’s arrest.

    The pair was scheduled to make an appearance in Los Angeles federal court Thursday. Bulger faces a series of federal charges including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, narcotics distribution, extortion and money laundering. Greig is charged with harboring a fugitive.

    Bulger, nicknamed “Whitey” for his shock of bright platinum hair, grew up in a tough South Boston housing project, and went on to become Boston’s most notorious gangster. He led the violent Winter Hill Gang, a largely Irish mob that ran loan-sharking, gambling and drug rackets in the Boston area.

    After he fled, he became one of the nation’s most-hunted fugitives, charged in a number of murders that included the slayings of businessmen in Florida and Oklahoma. With a place next to Osama bin Laden on the “10 Most Wanted” list, he had a US$1 million reward on his head.

    Bulger’s younger brother, William, was one of the most powerful politicians in the state, leading the Massachusetts Senate for 17 years and later serving as president of the University of Massachusetts for seven years.

    For many years, William Bulger was able to avoid any tarnish from his brother’s alleged crimes. But in August 2003, William Bulger resigned his post as president of the University of Massachusetts amid pressure from Gov. Mitt Romney and Attorney General Thomas Reilly.

    (SD-Agencies)

    A life of crime

    Sept. 3, 1929: James Bulger is born to Irish immigrant parents living in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood.

    1956: Bulger is sentenced to federal prison for bank robbery.

    1960: Bulger’s younger brother, William, is elected to the state House of Representatives. John Connolly, a childhood friend from South Boston, works on the campaign.

    1965: Bulger is released from prison and becomes a top lieutenant to Somerville mobster Howie Winter, head of the Winter Hill Gang.

    1970: William Bulger is elected to the state Senate.

    September 1975: Bulger cuts a deal with Connolly, then an FBI agent, to provide information on the Italian Mafia in exchange for protection from the FBI.

    1977: Veteran agent John Morris is appointed to oversee Connolly and his underworld informants.

    1978: William Bulger becomes president of the state Senate and goes on to serve in the post longer than anyone else in its history.

    1979: After a former business associate implicates Whitey Bulger and gangster Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi in a horse race-fixing scheme, Connolly and Morris persuade federal prosecutors to leave the two out of the indictment. Twenty-one people are charged, including Winter, whose conviction paves the way for Bulger and Flemmi to assume control of the Winter Hill Gang.

    November 1980: Bulger and Flemmi help the FBI plant a surveillance bug in the North End headquarters of Boston Mafia boss Gennaro Angiulo.

    May 1981: Roger Wheeler, the owner of World Jai Alai, a gambling enterprise from which Bulger and Flemmi have been skimming money, is shot between the eyes in the parking lot of his country club in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The killer is Winter Hill Gang hitman John Martorano.

    Spring 1982: Bulger and Flemmi gun down a former henchman in broad daylight on a South Boston street to prevent him from telling about the Wheeler murder. Connolly files a report with the FBI saying rival gangsters made the hit.

    January 1995: Bulger disappears on the eve of his indictment on racketeering charges.

    May 2002: Connolly is convicted of racketeering for warning Bulger and Flemmi that they were about to be indicted in January 1995.

    2005: Federal and state law enforcement officials investigate leads and Bulger lookalikes in at least 19 countries.

    2010: The FBI appeals to plastic surgeons in the effort to locate Bulger and his longtime girlfriend Catherine Greig.

    June 22, 2011: Bulger arrested in Santa Monica, California, with Grieg.

    (SD-Agencies)