What Kind of Love is This?

The recent capture of Whitey Bulger has captivated the nation, but even more so in Massachusetts where Bulger was born, raised and conducted his business. For years Whitey's family provided plenty of provocative material for the local media. The Bulger brothers seemingly occupied opposite ends of the social strata. Whitey was a career criminal who began his errant lifestyle as a young teen. His brother Billy took a different path out of the the Irish ghetto in South Boston, earning a first class education at Boston College and Boston Law. Their brother Jack cashed in on his brothers' influence over Southie politics and was rewarded with a series of patronage positions throughout his adulthood.

Billy and Whitey both prospered from careful devotion to connections and constituency. Billy's education and connections in Irish Catholic Boston led to a successful career in public service - first as the President of the Massachusetts Senate and later as the President of the University of Massachusetts. The public that Whitey served brought him a different kind of respect and notoriety.

Whitey was mean and ruthless. Anyone who disappointed him in either love or business was likely to meet an ignominious end. His charisma both attracted and repelled. Billy was equally hardboiled but in a politically astute way.

But enough about the Bulger brothers. Their stories are well known and widely understood.

A much more fascinating character is Catherine Greig, the woman who ran away with Whitey. His girlfriend and companion for the last 16 years, she was with him when he was caught and may even have been the bait that led the FBI to Whitey's lair.

By all accounts, Catherine was a beauty who attracted Whitey's attention while he was married to his common law wife, Theresa Stanley. Catherine must have been equally enthralled because for ten years she carried on with Whitey while he lived with Theresa and took care of business in Boston. At the time she began her affair with Whitey, he was widely believed to have been behind the murders of two previous girlfriends and Catherine's two former brothers in law. She was able to overlook these allegations and over the subsequent years she overlooked much more.

When Whitey was tipped off in early 1995 that his arrest was imminent, he fled with Theresa Stanley in tow. But Theresa quickly tired of the fugitive lifestyle so after a few weeks on the run Whitey traded her for the woman who had always been number two. Catherine's twin delivered her sister to Whitey at a clandestine pick up location in South Boston. The fugitives fled to parts unknown. Whitey and his replacement moll managed to avoid the law for the next sixteen years.

When Whitey and Catherine were discovered they had been living a life that was far from the romantic crime lord existence that their pursuers imagined. Instead of living in luxury, they had spent 16 years in California as Carol and Charles Gasko in a modest rent controlled apartment. Whitey was 81 years old and cranky. They had no friends and even slept in separate bedrooms. When the FBI searched the Santa Monica apartment they found an armory-load of weapons along with $800,000 in cash.

It's conceivable to understand Catherine's initial attraction to to life on the run with her criminal boyfriend. He certainly offered an excitement she never experienced in her South Boston neighborhood. There must have been a thrill to being pursued by the FBI and outwitting them month after month. But as the years went by, the excitement of fugitive living must have worn thin.

Catherine's neighbors in Santa Monica all reported that she was a sweet woman who allowed only superficial relationships and paid for everything in cash. Her "husband" didn't get such high marks. He was said to be irritable and possessive, yelling at Catherine whenever he thought she was talking too long with acquaintances. Their twenty year age difference became a problem too and Catherine confided in a neighbor that her husband was suffering from dementia.

So what was the glue that kept Catherine tied to such an evil, ruthless killer? If he loved her he didn't demonstrate it with respect. She walked away from her real life with only a handbag, leaving her friends, family and beloved dogs behind. Although Whitey enjoyed somewhat of a "Robin Hood" image among Boston's Irish population, Catherine had to have known that Whitey wasn't on the FBI's most wanted list because of his good deeds. And a man who has killed 19 others is unlikely to behave with tenderness and empathy, even toward his girlfriend.

Did Catherine really love Whitey with such conviction that she was willing to sacrifice everything to be at his side? Or did she stay with him out of fear that he would arrange for her death if she left him? Or was she simply trapped by the consequences of the impulsive choice she made sixteen years earlier?

Some have speculated that she was the one who tipped off the FBI. If that's true, it would add rich complexity to her biography. Some day I hope she tells her story. It has to be one hell of a tale.