Bulger traveled while a fugitive, hid cash in apartment walls, records show

LOS ANGELES — Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger kept hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash hidden behind the walls of his Santa Monica, Calif., apartment and traveled — sometimes in disguise and armed — to Boston, Las Vegas and Mexico to purchase pharmaceuticals, according to court records made public Monday in Boston.

The documents offer tantalizing additional details about how Bulger and his longtime companion, Catherine Greig, managed to live undetected in Santa Monica for at least 14 years, even though he was one of the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives.

The documents said that when FBI agents arrested Bulger Wednesday, they found $822,198 inside the apartment, "much of it in packages containing $100 bills that were bundled together and hidden inside a wall in the apartment."

Federal prosecutors wrote that the money allowed Bulger and Greig to have a "relatively comfortable lifestyle."

FBI agents are quoted in the documents as saying Bulger later admitted traveling from time to time outside the Santa Monica area.

"Bulger waived his Miranda rights and admitted that he had been a frequent traveler as a fugitive. Bulger acknowledged visiting Las Vegas on numerous occasions to play the slots and claimed he won more than he lost. Bulger also admitted traveling to San Diego and then crossing over into Tijuana to purchase medicines," court records say.

Brian Jenkins, a top analyst at the RAND Corp. and one of the nation's leading national security experts, said Monday the apparent ability of the notorious mobster to slip back and forth across the border showed that he was able to move around without attracting attention to himself.

"They're really not there checking every single document," Jenkins said.

"An 80-year-old guy from Santa Monica, they are going to just wave through," Jenkins said. "How many people drive down to Tijuana from Southern California to get medication? We are talking hundreds of thousands."

Officials with the U.S. Border Patrol would not immediately comment other than to say they were looking into the issue. In 2009, Border Patrol agents began requiring identification beyond a driver's license such as a passport.

Bulger and Greig went by the names Charles and Carol Gasko. The FBI said Thursday that they recovered false identification at Bulger's Santa Monica apartment but did not discuss whether the phony documents were passports or driver's licenses.

Bugler also told the FBI he once traveled to Boston "armed to the teeth" because he "had to take care of some unfinished business." No further details on that trip were available.

The 81-year-old is allegedly responsible for numerous crimes, including 19 killings, and faces two federal indictments, one from 1995 and the other from 1999.

The prosecutors also said Bulger told the U.S. Pretrial Services office in Los Angeles that his brother, former Massachusetts Senate President William Bulger, may be willing to help post bail for Greig, Bulger's girlfriend who was arrested with him after the couple was found in California. Greig is charged with harboring a fugitive.

"Of course, if that is true, William Bulger might also be willing to pay for an attorney to represent his brother, James Bulger," prosecutors say in their memo.

William Bulger could not immediately be reached for comment.