Special Agent

Fugitive South Boston gangster James “Whitey’’ Bulger, wanted for 19 murders, was captured last night in Southern California, the result of a tip from FBI television spots that began airing this week. His capture ended a 16-year manhunt that spanned the globe. Richard DesLauriers, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office, and Steven Martinez, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, released a statement this morning confirming that FBI agents had arrested the fugitive, who was on the bureau’s Ten Most Wanted list, and his companion, Catherine Greig, in California.

LONG BEACH, Calif. - An Immigration and Customs Enforcement official shot by a colleague was the second in command in the region and may have been targeted for rejecting a transfer request by the gunman, a federal official said. The official said the victim is Kevin Kozak, a deputy special agent in charge of the Los Angeles area. The official with knowledge of the investigation wasn't authorized to speak publicly. The gunman had requested an internal transfer denied by Kozak, who was not the gunman's immediate supervisor.

Jack Walsh was a relatively new Secret Service agent when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and he soon was assigned to protect Jacqueline Kennedy and her two young children, Caroline and John Jr. "Those were difficult times," said Jim Christian, a retired special agent in charge with the Secret Service. "The nation was in mourning, she was probably the most important person in the United States, and the country pretty much adopted the children. " The assignment brought Mr. Walsh more than the standard chores of missing his children's birthdays so he...

Jack Walsh was a relatively new Secret Service agent when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and he soon was assigned to protect Jacqueline Kennedy and her two young children, Caroline and John Jr. "Those were difficult times," said Jim Christian, a retired special agent in charge with the Secret Service. "The nation was in mourning, she was probably the most important person in the United States, and the country pretty much adopted the children. " The assignment brought Mr. Walsh more than the standard chores of missing his children's birthdays so he...

Aug. 1999 “I’m here to tell you we are out to catch him.” — Barry Mawn, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office. Nov. 2000 “Our duty is to do whatever it takes to bring Whitey Bulger to justice.” — Charles Prouty, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office. Sept. 2002 “There’s a large team of investigators and analysts who work on this full time.” — Thomas Larned, the agent who oversaw the multiagency Bulger Task Force.

The FBI says it's preparing to deploy a task force aimed at targeting street gangs in Maine. Richard DesLauriers (de-LOR'-ee-ay), special agent in charge in Boston, said Friday that the FBI is working with local police to establish the Southern Maine Safe Streets Task Force. Similar task forces are already at work in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. DeLausiers says targeting violent street gangs is a priority for the FBI. Todd Difede (Di-FEE-dee), the FBI's supervisory special agent in Portland, says the goal is to have the task force up...

ASHLAND - An Ashland man who holds a physics degree from Northeastern University was charged yesterday with an Al Qaeda-inspired plot to send a remote-controlled aircraft carrying explosives into the Pentagon and the US Capitol "to kill as many people as possible," according to a complaint filed in federal court. Rezwan Ferdaus, 26, a US citizen whose only known previous crime was vandalism, told FBI agents working undercover as Al Qaeda members that he wanted to "change the world," according to the complaint.

Federal fisheries police say a sixth gray seal has been found shot to death on Cape Cod. The Yarmouth-based International Fund for Animal Welfare says the seal was identified Friday as shot after a CT scan. The news comes of five slain seals found on beaches from Dennis to Chatham over the last six weeks. The fund said ballistic evidence is being analyzed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Law Enforcement. A special agent with the office, Todd Nickerson, said the animals had painful deaths and the office is taking...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Former US representative Robert Shamansky has died at his Ohio home. He was 84. The cause of his death was not disclosed. Mr. Shamansky was a congressman from 1981 to 1983. An attorney, he resumed practicing law after he lost his bid for reelection to John Kasich, now Ohio's governor. Mr. Shamansky, a Democrat, also unsuccessfully ran for a House seat in 1966 and 2006. He was born in Columbus and graduated from Ohio State University in 1947 and Harvard Law School in 1950.

HARTFORD -- The FBI has rescinded health benefits that had been provided to the same-sex partner of a special agent since just after the couple wed in Massachusetts in May. Katy Gossman, a special agent with the FBI in New Haven, received an e-mail from the bureau informing her that her wife, Kristin, would be removed from her health plan. The Connecticut couple were married in Worcester, Mass., on May 20 and had been receiving spousal benefits since May 30, Katy Gossman said. The Gossmans were married just three days after same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts...

The FBI says it's preparing to deploy a task force aimed at targeting street gangs in Maine. Richard DesLauriers (de-LOR'-ee-ay), special agent in charge in Boston, said Friday that the FBI is working with local police to establish the Southern Maine Safe Streets Task Force. Similar task forces are already at work in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. DeLausiers says targeting violent street gangs is a priority for the FBI. Todd Difede (Di-FEE-dee), the FBI's supervisory special agent in Portland, says the goal is to have the task force up and running in one to two...

ASHLAND - An Ashland man who holds a physics degree from Northeastern University was charged yesterday with an Al Qaeda-inspired plot to send a remote-controlled aircraft carrying explosives into the Pentagon and the US Capitol "to kill as many people as possible," according to a complaint filed in federal court. Rezwan Ferdaus, 26, a US citizen whose only known previous crime was vandalism, told FBI agents working undercover as Al Qaeda members that he wanted to "change the world," according to the complaint.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Former US representative Robert Shamansky has died at his Ohio home. He was 84. The cause of his death was not disclosed. Mr. Shamansky was a congressman from 1981 to 1983. An attorney, he resumed practicing law after he lost his bid for reelection to John Kasich, now Ohio's governor. Mr. Shamansky, a Democrat, also unsuccessfully ran for a House seat in 1966 and 2006. He was born in Columbus and graduated from Ohio State University in 1947 and Harvard Law School in 1950.

The Massachusetts State Police warned the FBI last year that it had learned while tapping the phone of reputed Mafia capo Mark Rossetti that he was an FBI informant, but urged the bureau not to drop him, for fear it would make him suspicious and derail its investigation, according to a joint statement issued by the two agencies yesterday. The FBI was prepared to end its association with Rossetti after learning he was being targeted by the State Police in alleged criminal activity, according to the statement, "however, the Massachusetts State Police specifically requested the FBI...

PITTSBURGH - A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty yesterday to using the Internet to promote terror attacks against American military and civilian targets in posts he made on an Islamic extremist Web forum he moderated. He also pleaded guilty to having a loaded pistol when he allegedly bit two FBI agents who tried to question him. Emerson Begolly, 22, faces a mandatory minimum of five years in federal prison on the weapons charge and up to 10 years on one count of solicitation to commit a crime of violence.

Black Mass The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob By Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill The recent capture of James "Whitey" Bulger after 16 years on the run has garnered a lot of attention. But for Ray Jennings III, a Hingham resident who has been a general practice attorney at Jennings, Jennings & Fishman in Weymouth, interest in the Bulger case began long before last month's arrest. He grew up hearing about the infamous Bulger and his involvement in extortion, drug trafficking, and violence from both his grandfather, Ray Jennings,...

In "Now and Then," Robert Parker's 35th Spenser novel, the tough-talking, strong-armed, quick-witted, well-read private eye confronts a suave, smarmy Lothario of a college teacher engaged in some 1960s-style radicalism. Perry Alderson is too retro and too vague in his actions to warrant much attention from a post-9/11 FBI. Then his lover and his lover's husband, the cuckolded spouse who engaged Spenser in the first place, turn up dead. This is vintage Parker, filled with banter and repartee, swagger and rule-skirting.

Richard DesLauriers, the special agent in charge of the FBI in Boston, could be forgiven for sounding a bit miffed the other day, when he was forced to respond to the inescapable reality that a lot of people don’t necessarily buy the FBI’s version of how Whitey Bulger’s 16 years on the lam came to an end. After all, DesLauriers has been in town for just about a year, not nearly long enough to be infected with the cynicism that is virulent when...

It began with a phone call to the FBI field office in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, just a day after the bureau launched its latest publicity campaign aimed at capturing James "Whitey"' Bulger. Less than 24 hours after receiving the tip, authorities said, FBI agents and Los Angeles police arrested the infamous Boston crime boss and his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig, without incident at a Santa Monica, Calif., apartment building near the beach, ending a 16-year international manhunt.