Where's Whitey?

At 7:00am I noticed my answering machine blinking with a message.

It is from my long time pal "Sue" saying, "turn on the news".

The last time she left a message on my answering machine like this early in the morning was on 9/11.

I thought to myself,"oh no".

The news head-line today is that Whitey Bulger, Boston's most notorious gangster, after decades of being on the lam, has finally been caught in California.

Whitey's elusive appeal has sort of turned him into a urban myth.

Four years ago, "Sue" and I were in Martha Vineyard. She spotted this guy who could have been a dead ringer for Whitey whispered to me, "there's Whitey", nudging me to look in the direction of some white haired guy with a hat and sunglasses standing outside of a bar on Martha's Vineyard. Whitey was one of those guys that looked like just about half of the retired population of men in Boston. It was no wonder it took the FBI this long to track him down. I figured he was either in Belize (where alot of those "America most wanted' guys go, Costa Rica , Thailand or perhaps dead.) I never figured his long time 'girl friend", Catherine Greig, was still with him either. I figured she was knocked off long ago like many of the females that had any contact with him.

Whitey became one of those notorious curiosity crime legends like outlaw Jesse James.

I read radio talk show host, Howie Carr's, book "The Brothers Bulger". At a book signing event, I met Howie Carr. We talked about his pug dogs and he gave me a couple of "Whitey' refrigerator magnets (along with a couple of funny "Patches" Kennedy and Ted Kennedy magnets as well) They are still posted on my refrigerator.

I had been working on and off on a comic book/graphic novel.

One of my characters is a bad boy cockatiel sporting a shamrock tattoo. He is called "Southie Boy". His 'hero" is Boston's legendary Irish gangster :Whitey Bulger.

I guess the game "where's Whitey" has finally ended.