deborah feyerick takes you inside one of the biggest manhunts in fbi history. the church bells of saint monica, near the harbor in south boston, have sounded for generations of irish immigrants. it's a tight-knit community that has always protected its own. a place james "whitey" bulger, one of boston's most notorious gangsters, called home. bulger learned to fight and survive on the mean streets of south boston, known as southie to locals like john shay who decades later would work for bulger. >> the guy was legendary. >> he made tough guys shake. he made them shake. >> reporter: bulger's life of crime started early. arrested in his teens, he was robbing banks by age 20. his shock of blond hair earning him the name "whitey," a name he is staid to disguise. with his rugged good looks and reckless flamboyance, bulger imagined himself boston's version of hollywood's gangster, jimmy cagney. but instead of red carpets, he was headed to alcatraz. a string of bank robberies earning him ten years in federal prison at age 25. he did his time and upon release vowed he would never, ever go back. >> they had no hard proof. "boston globe's" reporter dick larry and justin o'neil ultimately unveiled the deal he cut to make sure of that. >> he got out of prison in 1965 and we started doing research in 1988, and he hadn't got so much as a parking ticket. >> whitey bulger, fresh from prison, went to work as a mob enforc enforcer, but bulger wanted more and federal investigators had said would stop at nothing to get it. >> then he went on a killing rampage. i think it's like a month, he killed six guys in 1972. >> he was ambitious in making his move. >> and he was making his move with this man, steve phlegmy, aka, the rifle man. among their alleged victims, flemy himself testified his own girlfriend, debora davis. >> back in those days before dna was in use to identify victims, he would personally get involved in cutting off the fingers or hands of the victims and extracting their teeth. >> tom fuentes, now a cnn consultant, ran the organized crime squad for fbi haur headquarters. give me three words that describe whitey bulger. >> stone-cold killer. >> but why kill debby davis? because she knew bulger's secret connection with another man from southie. >> it was like meeting ted williams. and the idea of equating a gangster to a baseball player shows you twisted values and perceptions that is part of john connelly. >> john connelly was a young, ambitious fbi agent who grew up in the same housing projects. back in the '70s and '80s, the fbi's number one priority was taking down the italian mafia. bulger became connelly's prized informant. >> and he did everything, including breaking all kinds of laws over the years to keep that alive. >> in a series of ground-breaking articles for the "boston globe," lehr and o'neil uncovered a dangerous alliance. >> connolly tipped him off and bulger killed him. so connelly had to realize right away how serious and deadly this arrangement was. >> protected by connelly and others, bulger's criminal enterprise skyrocketed. court documents show bulger knew when police were watching, knew when they were moving in, and ultimately knew when to disappear. >> he was shaking down bookmakers and loan sharks. this was a guy who was a really bad guy. >> everything that i wanted to be. >> as his power grew, so did that of his younger brother, billy. >> i just want you to know, we're all on this open microphone, mr. president. >> a tough as nails politician, well respected as president of the massachusetts state senate. >> how do you beat a guy, psychopathic with intelligence and the connections that he has in that world, brother's a senate president? fbi is under -- is protecting him? it was, you know, one big family living in the projects like this. >> john shea, now a changed man, once ran bulger's multimillion dollar operation. he served 12 years in prison rather than break southie's code of silence. >> whitey being a rat? stevie being a rat? and this is what i took an oath to? an oath of honor. it was heartbreaking. >> documents show fbi agent connelly continued to feed bulger secret information, at times with deadly results. >> bulger got charged with a crime, he could no longer be an informant. >> attorney bill christie represents families of several of bulger's alleged victims, including the family of billy halloran, a drug dealer who cut a deal with the fbi, only to be gunned down as he left a popular boston restaurant. according to testimony at a civil trial, fbi agent connelly told bulger where to find halloran. >> bulger cornered him and shot him 22 times, starting from the leg up to his torso, up to his chest. 22 times with no head shot. so he inflicted as much pain as he could, and also did it in a fashion to make sure that he knew halloran would die. >> in a case of wrong place, wrong time, michael donohue was giving halloran a ride home. donohue was killed instantly, leaving behind a wife and three young kids, who to this day blame the fbi in the death. >> john connelly, he's a big reason why my father is dead. zpr there >> there's a hole in your heart and you're thinking about what's going to take place hopefully in the future, and then there's no future with that person. so that's a pretty gut-wrenching feeling. >> in 1994, whitey bulger's nearly 20-year reign came to an end, in what was likely connelly's parting gift, authorities say he alerted bulger to a pending indictment, and true to his word had never returned to prison, bulger disappeared with his longtime mistress, katherine greig, leadilea leading to one of the fbi's greate esest embarrassments and largest manhunts. >> what was whitey bulger's life about? >> power, strength, money. he was like a king, that guy. he was like a king. >> coming up, how one of america's most notorious gangsters remained comfortably hidden for nearly 16 years. >> he became tell vis of gangsters. 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[ female announcer ] lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. lets go... haha. if you have high cholesterol, you may be at increased risk of heart attack and stroke. don't kid yourself. talk to your doctor about your risk and about lipitor. santa monica is the perfect place to retire. beautiful beaches packed with people. an ideal place to blend in or disappear. that's precisely what whitey bulger did. the reputed crime boss and his longtime girlfriend, katherine greig, setting up house, blocks away from the ocean in a corner apartment, partially hidden by trees. bulger had planned ahead, knowing he may one day run. says tom fuentes, who spent years tracking the fugitives. >> he had, you know, millions of dollars in cash. he took off to a number of different countries and cities and put cash in security safe deposit boxes that could access later. so he didn't need to be contacting people. he could establish a new identity and eventually just take over a new name. >> that identity, mr. and mrs. charlie and carol gasgo, a self-described chicago businessman and his younger wife, who were into nutrition and long walks, and who secretly stuffed stacks of cash and heavy-duty assault weapons in their apartment walls. these are your neighbors. >> yeah, that's the way i saw them. >> and that's how you sauls aalw them? >> yeah, always him with the hat. i didn't know he was bald. >> 88-year-old catalina shrank eventually befriended her upstairs neighbors, but there were privacy neighbors you didn't cross, like asking them to hold a spare key in case of emergency. >> she said, let me talk to my husband, and she came back, and she said, no, charlie doesn't want you to give him anything. no, we dona't want to. >> by all accounts, whitey bulger kept a low profile, didn't have any problems with the people who lived on his hall. according to one neighbor, he didn't divulge much about himself, but one neighbor said he told him he lived in chicago and fought in the korean wars. from his crime days, bulger knew the easiest way to get caught was to become complacent. so he changed his patterns, even when it came to getting his hair cuts. salon owner, fehima betts. >> i asked him to make appointment, but he never did. he just walked in. never left any number or anything. >> in fact, they had numerous fake identities. after his arrest, bulger told authorities he went gambling in las vegas, took trips to tijuana to buy medication, and even returned to boston on business, allegedly telling agents he was armed to the "t." all the while, the fbi was scrambling to find the gangster who had corrupted bureau agents. >> that's probably the worst thing. former fbi special agent in charge barry moen arrived in boston two years after bulger disappeared. he put bulger on the fbi's top ten most wanted list, and had him featured in various crime shows, even in a dick tracy comic book. >> we weren't trying to not find him, and when you looked at what he did, it's impossible to draw that conclusion. >> officials say 12,000 leads came in over 16 years. fuentes leading the fbi's international effort, says they followed up bulger sightings in ireland, london, and south america. >> there was thousands of police officers involved in that round-the-clock operation. so anytime there was a sighting of him worldwide, everybody went full bore to follow up on those leads to try to find him. so in a way, he became the elvis of gangsters. he was constantly being spotted somewhere. >> have you seen this woman? >> the break in the case came in late june after the fbi paid for a public service announcement aimed at finding bulger's girlfriend. it never even aired in los angeles, but a new story led to a crucial tip and an arrest three days later. bulger lured into the garage on a ruse that someone had broken into his locker. these are some of the 30 weapons fbi agents confiscated from bulger's apartment. >> van number one, van number two. >> after more than 5,000 days on the run, bulger was brought back to boston in handcuffs, charged with 19 murders. in court, he denied them all. the damage he caused to the fbi still haunts the bureau to this day. in hindsight, do you think the fbi acted too slowly to follow up on rumors that there was a leak and a dangerous leak that was letting whitey bulger run free? >> yes. i do think that. >> how this place out is anyone's guess. bulger turns 82 in september. will he cooperate? stand trial? cut a deal? depends on who you ask. >> at that time -- >> but his former drug boss, john shea, now a writer, says bulger has the feds right where he wants them. >> he's playing them. trust me psychologically, he is playing them. is he giving them information? is he talking to them? you guarantee he is. >> so why here? why sonia the statue of santa monica? consider this, in south boston, bulger grew up attending the church of saint monica. perhaps it's just a coincidence. perhaps it's a clue, some kind of locator. after all, whitey bulger left little to chance. next on cnn presents, kaj larson explores why the u.s. navy built this remote camp in the frigid arctic. and goes under the ice on a nuclear submarine. and later -- >> no, it's not good. it is not good enough. >> they don't just cheer on the sidelines -- >> that's it! >> a team determined to win a world championship at any cost. >> you know, this is it. this is what's going to determine the success of your year. the answer... it's all in the wrap. covergirl introduces new lashperfection mascara. 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[ male announcer ] time to check your air conditioning? come to meineke now and get a free ac system check and a free cooler with paid ac service. meineke. we have the coolest customers. it's a pleasant 60 degrees at my home in l.a. today, but where i'm going, it could be as cold as 60 below zero. every two years, the u.s. military conducts an operation in the arctic circle called ice exercise. better known as ice-x. the arctic region consists of eight countries that surround a vast ice-covered ocean. no one country owns the arctic. there are some agreements that govern who controls what territory, but as the ice melts, those lines on the map are changing and each nation is competing to claim its arctic border, to claim a greater piece of the valuable high north. i don't really think that often about what's going on in the arctic, but with global warming opening up vast riches of resources and with nuclear subs converging underneath the polar ice cap, i wanted to know what's going on at the top of the world and why. as i launched to the arctic, i talk via skype with arctic expert, professor robert hubert, about the spike of activity in the region. >> most of the arctic states are now moving towards the improvement of their combat-capable forces within that region. and no one is, of course, calling for an arctic war or a conflict at this point in time. it is telling that we have two american attack submarines doing scientific research off the coast of alaska. prudo bay, alaska, the last stop before heading to the ice station. it's time to get armed with some real cold weather gear. let's bring on the arctic. >> hopefully everyone's been given one of these books, survival in the arctic. >> the only way to get where we're going is a six-seater bush plane. finally, amidst a sea of arctic ice, we spot the camp. >> how you doing? >> hi, sir, i'm kaj larsen. with the u.s. submarines just below my feet, i get my first look at a series of simple wooden huts built in the last two months to protect everyone from the extreme conditions. look at this right here. below ten degrees right now. about 50 people from sailors to scientists have been adjusting to living at the ice station over the course of the exercise. >> there's no magazine rack or anything in there. and also importantly the effectiveness of toilet paper is significantly diminished at minus 40. >> just basic survival at the camp is a challenge. >> you can't go outside without carrying a rifle in case a polar bear attacks. while we're standing on five feet of ice right now, we actually are moving 2 to 4 miles per hour. it's just floating. over the course of the one-month-long ice exercise, it will move about 70 miles, just from drift alone. so why am i here? why as the arctic become a hot spot? the world, it's physically changing beneath my neat. with global warming, the polar ice cap is melting, opening up an ocean for the first time since the ice age. this has created access to all kinds of new resources, but it's alsocreated competition at the top of the world. if the arctic sea open up, ships traditionally rely on the panama canal route can instead use the northwest passage, saving hundreds of miles and hundreds of millions of dollars. a third of the world's natural gas is believed to be underneath the polar ice cap. the arctic riches contain everything from oil to minerals to diamonds. but not everyone believes the quest for resources means competition. in i was briefed by professor lawson brigham. professor brigham's colleague from the university of calgary disagrees. >> i think at this point, we're on the cusp of becoming remilitaryized. people are thinking much more military terms than they ever did since the end of the cold war. and back at ice camp, military exercises are, indeed, underway. >> maverick, roger, this is at last, all lines delta. >> the command hut monitorings and communicates with the u.s. submarines 24 hours a day. >> that's new hampshire here. and this is the "connecticut" right here. and that's us in the middle. >> in the past, submarines had to surface to communicate. one of the systems in development allows the base camp to send text to the submarine und under the ice. >> almost like a tweet, i tweet the submarines down here, i press send, there's a microphone down there, that blasts out the sound, it sounds like crickets. >> many of operations are classified, but what we saw was an amalgam of testing and sonar all under the umbrella of testing. what's the purpose of ice-x? >> the reality is that the american navy is clearly showing that it is back. >> this is a land grab. this is the u.s. presence in the inorth. but we're not alone. other nations are rapidly building their capabilities in the arctic as well. russia is creating an arctic armed forces. just this month announcing it will deploy two army brigades, including special forces, and it has resumed strategic bomber flights over the north pole. the canadian government is building eight patrol vessels. norway is building five new frigates. in reality, the battle is not for this desolate sheet of ice i'm sitting on, the real value is beneath the surface. and that's where we're going next, on a nuclear submarine, under the ice. another good thing about geico is, they've got, like, real live people working there 24/7. so like say you need to report a claim, alright. a real person will be there to help you. then you can use geico.com to view photos of the damage, track your claim, print an estimate. you want an english muffin? 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