That’s Not Whitey, That’s Grandpa!
When the new pictures of James “Whitey” Bulger came out a few weeks ago, we scoffed at them. Even Bulger’s ex-girlfriend said it wasn’t him. But Italian police are still on the lookout for the fugitive, and a man from Wakefield, Rhode Island got the Bulger treatment on his vacation.
Two days after the pictures of “Whitey” were released, Robert Dowdy walked out of a church in Perugia following morning mass, and was taken in by Italian police.
Dowdy sat through hours of police questioning, fingerprinting and picture-taking before getting in contact with someone from the U.S. Embassy.
“I said, ‘They think I’m Whitey Bulger, and it’s gone beyond the point of laughing because now I’m in a police station,’” Dowdy said. . . . “I have to believe that a professional police officer looking at the spec on this criminal, seeing that he’s 5 feet 6 inches, 5 feet 7 inches, 160 pounds and 10 years older than me,” Dowdy said.
While that probably put a dent in his sightseeing and pasta-eating itinerary, it does make for a pretty bad-ass travel story for the grandkids.
October 3rd, 2007 at 3:13 pm
I say we treat him like we treated that girl at the airport. Just because we thought he was Whitey, means he was Whitey, and should be prosecuted for hoaxing us. That’ll show him.
October 4th, 2007 at 11:19 am
As the daughter of Robert Dowdy, I would like to say that this was NO joke or hox. This was a matter of mistaken identity and a man worried about his family and wanting simly to say that the Italian Police got the wrong man. In this day and age this can happen to any one and if it was you and your family going through this you would think twice about someone playing a hox. We all know that Whitey is a wanted man,but make dam sure you got the right guy.
October 24th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
You’ll never catch me…