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Case file s1360 · Money and markets · 2018
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2018
Whitey Bulger: Whitey Bulger US Marshals Service Mug1
Whitey Bulger. Unknown United States Marshals Service (United States Department of Justice) personnel.. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
30 October 2018
Place
Santa Monica, California, USA; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Hazelton, West Virginia, USA
Field
organised crime · Military on the timeline
Legal tradition
US federal criminal forfeiture and victim restitution · Common law
Historical event
the FBI informant scandal in Boston
Member of
Winter Hill Gang (Wikidata)
Money and marketsMurder and sudden deathSeized by the stateNowNorth AmericaUnited States

Whitey Bulger hid $822,000 in the walls of his Santa Monica flat, and the Marshals sold his belongings for his victims' families

James "Whitey" Bulger fled Boston in 1994 after his FBI handler tipped him that he was about to be indicted. He was on the run for more than 16 years. In June 2011 he was captured, aged 81, in a Santa Monica apartment he shared with his girlfriend, Catherine Greig. Agents found more than $820,000 in cash stuffed in the walls, 30 guns and a memoir he was writing. In 2013 he was convicted of taking part in 11 murders and sentenced to life. In March 2016 Judge Denise Casper ordered his seized property, including $821,799.49 in cash and a Stanley Cup ring, sold and the money divided among the families of people murdered by Bulger or his associates and people he extorted. In June 2016 the US Marshals auctioned more than 100 of his items in Boston, from a rat-shaped cup to a gold claddagh ring that brought $23,000. The sale raised $109,295 for the families of 20 murder victims and three extortion victims. The guns and the memoir were not sold. On 30 October 2018, hours after he arrived at USP Hazelton in West Virginia, Bulger, 89, was beaten to death in his cell. On 1 August 2024 inmate Paul DeCologero was sentenced to more than four years as a lookout. Fotios Geas, who prosecutors said struck Bulger, faced sentencing in September 2024†.

What the law took from it

Cash in the walls is forfeited the day it is found, and the victims are paid first.

Sources
  1. CBS NewsPress
  2. csmonitor.comPress
  3. NPRPress
  4. PBSPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Whitey Bulger hid $822,000 in the walls of his Santa Monica flat, and the Marshals sold his belongings for his victims' families,” story s1360, https://www.celebrity.estate/whitey-bulger-2018, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Money and marketsMurder and sudden deathSeized by the stateNowNorth AmericaCommon lawUnited States