There is no question that Whitey Bulger could have been captured in Santa Monica years before he finally was, when the advice I had given in 2005 was followed in June 2011 and Bulger was captured within 48 hours.

The FBI and the Massachusetts State Police came to me in 2005 to help in their search for America's Most Wanted Whitey Bulger. For them I painted age-progressed portraits of Bulger and his woman companion and then organized, analyzed and structured all the materials that law enforcement agencies had on Bulger and his woman companion, and had them collect specific additional information.

I assembled and digitized all these materials, including the old black and white surveillance video tapes, his school, medical and army records, his journals, and his personal photographs that he left behind when he fled from arrest.

I pointed out that due to scoliosis, Bulger's posture and walk were distinctive and the FBI people wanted me to have an animation of him walking on the web site I was designing for the search. Unfortunately the search for Bulger had always been so underfunded that as late as 2005, I had digitize the old VHS surveillance tapes for the FBI, then pull out and digitally enhance the usable images of Bulger that were in them.

There was very little personal data in the files, so I sent law enforcement people to get information from doctors and dentists and answers to specific questions from such of his women friends as would talk, regarding his personal habits, his manner of dressing, and the medallion he wore on a long chain around his neck inside what I could see was a Champion brand deep V-neck T-shirt. It turns out he had left the chain and medallion with a woman and then had a friend retrieve it for him.

I was particularly interested in the personal habits of his woman companion such as information from beauty parlors, because I knew the best way to catch him was to find her- if he hadn't killed her. When they finally publicized the $2 million reward with that beauty parlor information on a popular women's TV show, they had Bulger in 48 hours, on June 22, 2011, in Santa Monica on Second Street, a few blocks from where I live on Ocean Avenue

When I was working on the Bulger materials, I had men from the FBI and the Massachusetts State Police talk to me in the park across the street from where I live on north Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica, This cliff-top park overlooks Santa Monica Bay and the Pier with its Ferris wheel. We were discussing the hunt for Whitey Bulger when there was a cell phone call that he was seen a few blocks away on California Avenue, walking towards Ocean Avenue.

A few minutes later, Bulger wasn't there, but I now know that if we had gone on down Ocean Avenue we would have found him on his way to the Pier.

It is now known that Bulger spent a lot of time on the Santa Monica Pier and talked with people there.
In 2008, an out-of-town visitor recognized Bulger sitting on the pier after seeing "America's Most Wanted" and through the show this was reported to law enforcement.

One wonders how many more times tips were provided that Bulger was in Santa Monica?

For 15 years, including the 5 years I had information about him on my own extensive web site (from which he would have know where I lived) he was living just a few blocks away.

On seeing photographs of him after he was captured, I am almost certain one Wednesday night during the break in the Santa Monica Symphony rehearsal, I saw him at around 8:30 PM in the 99¢ Store on Pico Boulevard. He was such a strikingly handsome elderly man with smooth skin, rosy cheeks, bright blue eyes, fine features and a snow white beard, that I took out my card to give him to ask if he would like to be photographed, but he was gone before I could give it to him. (They did do grocery shopping in the 99¢ Stores.)

From the photos I had studied, when combined with his ethnicity and fair hair, I presumed he could not grow a heavy full beard so I probably would not have recognized him with the beard unless unless I saw the darkened front tooth.  However, I would have recognized his posture and walk, and certainly the V-neck Champion brand T-shirts he always used to wear, the navy white web belt with a brass buckle and the unusual long gold chain that he left behind when he fled and had retrieved for him by a friend.

My advice for after he was caught was that a book by a Navy Seal be put in his cell and the next day that Navy Seal go into his cell and ask him to help his country with information he might have on how to recover the paintings stolen from the Gardner Museum in Boston. Adnice not taken.


I was using Bulger as the prototype in a new kind of web site for finding fugitives. It is a treasure hunt for the reward using visual clues so it works anywhere in the world, whatever the local language.

Unfortunately there were apparently still people in high places in the FBI in 2005 who did not want Bulger caught because he might implicate additional FBI personnel in his criminal activities. So the web site did not get funded and my way of finding Bulger through his woman companion was not used for five years, and when it caught Bulger in 48 hours.

My questions to Whitey Bulger:

You were a very reluctant student who never finished high school.
But you did get your high school equivalency when you were in the Air Force.
Were you planning to apply to Officers' Candidate School?

If you had remained in the military, would you have gone into the Seals or Rangers?

Would you be willing to help your home town Boston with the recovery of the Gardner Museum paintings?



A TREASURE HUNT FOR THE REWARD, USING VISUAL CLUES, TO FIND FUGITIVES ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, DESIGNED FBI BUT NEVER FUNDED.

Dear Jack,

This project is very important because it will result in the prototype for a Web site that will involve people all over the world in reporting the location of fugitives.

I have all of the qualifications and job experience to do this project- which requires designing the system, obtaining and preparing the visual and written materials, and putting the Web site on the Internet, and then publicizing it, and the work so far has gone very well.

My work comes under the category of Expert Consultant which can be paid by the hour, or engaged by the project. (Note: The photo-realistic full body animations you are interested in, if they are feasible, will be arranged, negotiated, and contracted separately with third parties.)

WHERE THE PROJECT IS TO DATE:

- We are well along on the system design.

- The information I requested on the fugitive Whitey Bulger who will be the prototype for the project has been very quickly and efficiently gathered for me by the people in Massachusetts law enforcement.

- I have analyzed all the materials and determined what will be useful and how to present it (which has been conveyed in my e-mails.)

- I have done age-progressed portraits of Whitey Bulger, which have also been sent in e-mails for suggestions by the people who know him best.

- I will be doing the full length portraits to show how his being 'round shouldered' (possibly from a congenital cervical kyphosis) causes his elbows to turn outward and prevents his arms from swinging normally when he walks. I will also show his cervical kyphosis/ankylosing spondylitis that is clearly visible in the most recent photos of him (and which is normally progressive).

CONVEYING ALL THE INFORMATION VISUALLY FOR NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING PARTS OF THE WORLD

Right now I am determining how the various types of information can be conveyed visually for people who do not speak English, because fugitives can be anywhere in the world.

As an example of a few of the things I have worked out for Whitey:
- A medicine bottle his Rx on the label, and '?' beside the bottle if we are not sure he is still taking it.
- A bookshelf with the generic subjects on the spines: 'Hitler', 'Nazi Germany', and 'Ireland'.
- Boston Red Sox cap and pennant because he is a fan of that team (and show him wearing that cap).
- An eyeglasses symbol with a book (and his Rx if we have it and he has astigma, not just presbyopia which changes as you age) A cut out photo of the last frames he was using with a '?'.

THE NECESSITY TO FOCUS ON FEATURES INDIVIDUALLY

It is a scientific fact that the human mind only 'sees' one feature at a time. We do not see the face as a whole except at a distance, therefore we want isolated close-ups of features with an arrow pointing to anything especially distinctive.

As just a few examples of the details for Whitey:
- A close-up of his teeth with an arrow to the darken front tooth and a '?' in case he now has caps or dentures.
- The shape of his nose with the sharp bump on the bridge.
- A depiction of his round shouldered posture and the characteristic way that turns his elbows outward and keeps his arms from swinging.

The above are just a few examples of how I will convey the information visually as well as in writing.

A WIDE VARIETY OF CLUES WHICH DIFFERENT PEOPLE WILL NOTICE

As I have said, different people will notice different things about the fugitive and then they will go on to the other information to confirm the identification.

For maximum effectiveness, this Web site must appeal to the treasure-hunting instinct that evolution has programmed into human beings- it must temp them with a large monetary reward and engage their minds with clues. It must be exciting enough that it attracts the publicity so it becomes well known. .............

BTW- The one source of valuable information we have not mined is the records from Bulger's three years volunteer service in the Air Force, including his medical records and the high school courses he took to get his diploma, and if he indicated he wanted to apply to OCS, which I conjecture was his motivation for getting the high school diploma.

As I suggested, his military service could be the key to getting his cooperation after he is apprehended. Put a book about some special ops hero in his cell and then have that person ask him to help his country by telling what he knows.

When last photographed, Bulger was dressed in a military white V neck T-shirt and white trousers with a naval officer's white web belt with gold buckle, and Bulger dresses in 'costumes' that express his view of his own identity.


Best wishes, Lynn

Dr. D'Lynn Waldron, FRGS
XXX Ocean Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90402
dlynn@dlwaldron.com
http://www.dlwaldron.com
310 XXX-XXXX