Crime Boss

Legendary Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger, who has been on the run for more than 15 years, was arrested Wednesday in Santa Monica, multiple law enforcement sources told The Times. Bulger, 81, fled Boston in late 1994 as federal agents were about to arrest him in connection with at least 19 killings, racketeering and other crimes that spanned the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. He headed an organized crime group that allegedly controlled extortion, drug deals and other illegal activities in the Boston area.

CANNES - The movie with the Nazi martial-arts fight and drag queens dressed as clowns had just ended when Nicolas Winding Refn, giddy with excitement, or as giddy as droll Danes get, leaned forward in his seat and initiated a rousing round of applause. The director he was cheering, the auteur-of-the-absurd Alejandro Jodorowsky, was sitting in front of Refn at the Cannes premiere of Jodorowsky's new film, titled “La Danza de la Realidad.” Refn soon bounded to his feet, hugged the octogenarian and kept the clapping going for nearly 10 minutes.

Michael Pitt arrives from a film set in Seattle dressed all in black, from his hat to his unlaced black army boots, and asks to sit outside so he can smoke and be in the California sunshine - an antidote to the nonstop rain he's been working in. The actor is in the midst of a new passion project - a movie called "You Can't Win," based on a 1926 memoir by Jack Black, a freight-hopping hobo, thief and adventurer whose canny assessment of...

A look at some recent and recommended books: BIOGRAPHY Photojournalist Tim Hetherington died in 2011 in Libya, two months after attending the Oscars for “Restrepo,” the documentary he made with Sebastian Junger. In “Here I Am: The Story of Tim Hetherington, War Photographer” (Grove Press, $25), the companion to an April HBO documentary, Alan Huffman vividly chronicles the short life of a man drawn to danger zones to capture the horrors of modern warfare. THRILLER Scandinavian crime fiction finds a new voice in Alexander Söderberg, whose dark, intricate debut novel “The Andalucian Friend” (Crown, $26)

A crime boss was acquitted of ordering the 1996 slaying of journalist Veronica Guerin, though the presiding judges said they had "grave suspicions" that he was responsible. A Special Criminal Court cleared John Gilligan, 48, on murder and weapons possession charges but convicted him on 11 counts related to running what was Ireland's biggest drug-smuggling operation. Gilligan received a 28-year sentence--the longest for a drug-related offense in Irish legal history.

An associate of imprisoned crime boss Nicodemo Scarfo was shot to death early today while parking his car near his home, police said. Authorities believe more than one gunman was involved but there were no suspects in custody. Police searched rooftops in the area of the shooting in search of evidence. Louis (Irish Louie) DeLuca, 51, was shot four times at 12:47 a.m. while he was parking his car near his house, Police Capt. Richard DeLise said. He died at 1:38 a.m. at Methodist Hospital.

An associate of imprisoned crime boss Nicodemo Scarfo was shot to death early Thursday while parking his car near his home, police said. Louis (Irish Louie) DeLuca, 51, was shot four times, a police captain said. No suspects were in custody.

A court has convicted an organized crime boss from southern Italy of 11 murders and sentenced him to 11 successive life terms in prison. The court in Palmi heard testimony that Giuseppe Piromalli, 64, was a chief in the N'Drangheta, a Mafia-like crime ring in Calabria, southern Italy. Prosecutors had asked the court to sentence Piromalli to three life terms for the murders, which occurred between 1978 and 1982, but the court delivered the harsher verdict last week.

U.S. prosecutors in Brooklyn charged imprisoned crime boss Vincent "Chin" Gigante, 73, and four associates with infiltrating the International Longshoreman's Assn. The Genovese crime family, which Gigante allegedly heads, used its control of the union to extort money from companies operating on the piers in the New York City-New Jersey metropolitan area and Miami, according to an indictment announced by Alan Vinegrad, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

A gunman firing a sawed-off shotgun killed the father-in-law of Naples' imprisoned crime boss Raffaele Cutolo as he left a barbershop Tuesday, police reported. Salvatore Jacone, 54, was shot twice at close range, police said. The killer, described as wearing a ski mask and sunglasses, escaped. Cutolo, who is serving five life terms in prison, married Jacone's daughter Immacolata, 27, in a jail house ceremony four years ago.

Seriously, y'all, let's try to settle this: When did Dolph Lundgren become so cool? In the last few years, he has gone from some sort of where-are-they-now punch line to the B-grade action movie's answer to Cary Grant. Forget how he looks with a rocket launcher, have you seen him rock a pocket square? After having come across as the suave one amid the hard-core macho puffery of the "Expendables" pictures as well as diving into the psychotropic madness of "Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning," with "The Package," Lundgren continues his recent streak of making the most of small roles, elevating each movie in the process.

A former Mexican liaison officer who worked closely with U.S. law enforcement was sentenced Monday to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to passing on sensitive information to organized crime members in Tijuana, federal authorities said. Jesus Quiñonez Marquez, 51, the former top liaison official for the Baja California attorney general's office, was arrested in 2010 as part of a wide-ranging investigation targeting the remnants of the Arellano Felix drug cartel. Quiñonez, in his plea agreement, admitted that he provided information to help crime bosses avoid arrest in a double homicide case in Tijuana.

Michael Pitt arrives from a film set in Seattle dressed all in black, from his hat to his unlaced black army boots, and asks to sit outside so he can smoke and be in the California sunshine - an antidote to the nonstop rain he's been working in. The actor is in the midst of a new passion project - a movie called "You Can't Win," based on a 1926 memoir by Jack Black, a freight-hopping hobo, thief and adventurer whose canny assessment of...

In the sequel "Don 2" the Indian movie star — frequently referred to as the biggest in the world — Shah Rukh Khan plays an international crime boss out for revenge against his enemies and profit from wealthy nations. In typical Bollywood style, the film is massively too long even by the standards of Hollywood's bloated award-season entries, stretching out what should be a zip-fast caper plot to well over two hours. That the only song-and-dance number within the story itself is situated in a nightclub is arguably the most believable thing that happens in the whole film.

James "Whitey" Bulger is alleged to have been involved in the following killings, according to federal indictments: March and April 1973: Michael Milano, Al Plummer,William O'Brien, James Leary and Joseph Notorangeli, members of a rival gang led by Al Notorangeli December 1973: James O'Toole, former associate of the Charlestown-based McLaughlin gang February 1974: Al Notorangeli, leader of rival gang October...

Legendary Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger, who has been on the run for more than 15 years, was arrested Wednesday in Santa Monica, multiple law enforcement sources told The Times. Bulger, 81, fled Boston in late 1994 as federal agents were about to arrest him in connection with at least 19 killings, racketeering and other crimes that spanned the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. He headed an organized crime group that allegedly controlled extortion, drug deals and other illegal activities in the Boston area.

Reversing a decision by local election officials, the Russian Supreme Court ruled Monday that reputed organized crime boss Sergei Mikhailov can run for parliament in elections scheduled for Dec. 19. Mikhailov, who spent 26 months in jail in Switzerland awaiting trial on organized crime charges before being acquitted in 1998, had been removed from the ballot on the grounds that he held dual Russian and Greek citizenship.

Reputed crime boss John Gotti was charged in New York with orchestrating another murder. The latest charges say Gotti sanctioned the 1990 killing of Louis DiBono, 63, an alleged Mafia "soldier." Gotti has been held without bail since last December, accused of the 1985 murder of former crime boss Paul Castellano. A newspaper reported that Gotti has been transferred to solitary confinement as a result of death threats by mobsters who blame him for increased attention by law enforcement officers.

Many of Mexico's top media companies agreed Thursday on first-ever guidelines for covering a drug war that has drastically increased risks for journalists. The 10-point accord, covering more than 700 outlets across the country, calls on news-gathering organizations to find ways to protect their journalists and avoid glorifying crime bosses. The guidelines also urge news organizations to unite against threats to journalists, such as by jointly publishing stories. Under the agreement, the companies should draw up standards for showing violent images, such as decapitated bodies, and provide more context when reporting on drug violence.

Some movie sets abound with producers and studio executives, others teem with entourages of dodgy hangers-on. Ben Affleck invited a slightly different class of visitors to his bank heist story "The Town" — a bunch of real-life criminals. "Pretty much everyone on the set was an ex-con of some sort," says Jeremy Renner, who stars opposite Affleck in the drama, opening Friday, about a quartet of Boston holdup artists whose luck may be running out fast. "And there were probably a couple of guys there who were still robbing banks.