Mobster’s girlfriend gets 8-year sentence

BOSTON — The longtime girlfriend of mobster James “Whitey” Bulger was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in prison for helping one of the FBI’s most-wanted men stay on the run for 16 years, a life her attorney said she doesn’t regret because she still loves Mr. Bulger.

Catherine Greig showed no emotion when U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock handed down the sentence after listening to emotional pleas from relatives of those Mr. Bulger is accused of killing. Mr. Bulger, the 82-year-old former leader of the notorious Winter Hill Gang, is awaiting trial on charges involving 19 killings.

Greig, 61, pleaded guilty in March to charges of conspiracy to harbor a fugitive, identity fraud and conspiracy to commit identity fraud.

Greig’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, urged the judge to impose a sentence of a little over two years, arguing that Greig was in love with Mr. Bulger when she fled Boston with him in 1995.

“Catherine Greig fell in love with Mr. Bulger, and that’s why she was in the situation she was in,” Mr. Reddington said. “Miss Greig did not believe that Mr. Bulger was capable of these homicides.”

But prosecutors dismissed her professions of love and said Greig had numerous opportunities to leave Mr. Bulger during their time on the run.

“This was not a romantic saga,” U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said. “She helped and protected and concealed a fugitive.”

Family members of those Mr. Bulger is accused of killing lashed out at Greig during victim-impact statements, with one relative using an expletive to describe her. Another relative made a derogatory reference to her brother’s suicide, prompting Greig to cover her mouth and fight back tears.

Tim Connors, the son of a man prosecutors say Mr. Bulger killed on June 12, 1975, called Greig “a cold-hearted criminal.”

“You’re as much a criminal as Whitey and should be treated as such,” he said.

Patricia Donahue, the widow of Michael Donahue, a truck driver who prosecutors say Mr. Bulger killed in 1982, said she believes Greig is responsible for Mr. Bulger being able to remain a fugitive for so long.

“I believe he never would have survived all those years without her help,” she said.

Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Greig to 10 years in prison, citing the length of time she helped Mr. Bulger and the number of things she did for him, including taking him to medical appointments, posing as his wife so she could pick up his prescriptions and using false identities.

Greig and Mr. Bulger posed as married retirees from Chicago and had a stash of more than $800,000 in cash and 30 weapons in their apartment when they were captured last June in Santa Monica, Calif.

After the sentencing, Mr. Reddington told reporters that Greig has no regrets about what she did.

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