Josh Bond (35:54)
I managed a hotel and an apartment building in Santa Monica for about seven years. I lived in the apartment building and I had an office in a hotel across the street. Super easy commute. It's great. When you live in la, you meet a lot of interesting people when you manage an apartment building. For example, there was a retired couple who lived in the apartment next to mine, the Gasko's. And the first time I met the husband, I was in my apartment playing guitar and trying to write a song and there's a knock on the door and I opened to find a 70 year old man holding a black case. And he tells me that he heard me playing music and he liked it, which was good and he thought I could use this black Stetson cowboy hat. So really nice gesture. I thanked him and he said his name was Charlie. So fast forward four or five years and I'm taking a nap on my couch. I'd been working for like two weeks straight, no days off, on call every night. But this particular Wednesday I was taking off work early. I was going to see this band, My Morning Jacket in Hollywood. I was meeting a friend, all planned out. At 2pm the phone rang and my co worker is at the hotel with the FBI. So before I know it, I'm on the phone with an FBI agent and he says, I need to talk to you about a tenant in your apartment building. And I'm on my couch. So I say, can we do this tomorrow? And he says, no, where are you? Come here now. So I get to my office and I have a seat and there's a larger man with a Hawaiian shirt and jeans on. He closes the door, he throws a manila folder down on the desk. He opens it and points to a sheet of paper. Across the top is Wanted. You know, the familiar wanted. And underneath a photo of a man and a woman with names. And he says, do these people live in the Apartment next to mine. And at first glance, I know the woman is my neighbor, Carol Gaskill. The man, not as familiar. But after another look, I know these guys. These are my neighbors. And while I don't, I've never heard the name Kathryn Greig, the name James J. Whitey Bulger is very familiar. I had heard this name many times when I was in college at Boston University, but I didn't really know anything about him. He was more of a Jimmy Hoffa type guy to me. He's like, oh, this guy's missing. He's never going to be found. It was almost like a joke. So I'm standing there and just. The FBI agent says, what do you think? I said, what does my face tell you? And he says, I need percentages. I said, 99.5, 100%. So he gets on his radio, and while this is happening, almost like a movie after an explosion where the sound just disappears. And you're trying to process something that you really don't. You're not familiar with, you don't know what's going on, and you don't know what's about to happen. So, you know, this is an old man who bought me a bike light one time because he was worried about me riding my bike at night without one. And now I'm discovering he's a notorious fugitive. So another agent quickly appears, and he says, we need the keys to his apartment, and, you know, we'll bust this door down if you don't give it to us. I said, okay, you know, here are the keys. And he left. And then the other agent, Hawaiian Shark, kind of walks, walks up to me, and he says, look, you know, this guy's pretty high on the most wanted list. One, two, maybe, I don't know, we could use your help apprehending him. So my first response is, I just gave you the keys to his apartment and told you he lives there, so I'm not really sure what else I can do. And he says, well, you know, we can't just go to his apartment. You know, we need. We have to make sure he's in there. If it's just her, you know, it doesn't really work for us, so why don't you go knock on the door and see if he's there? In the previous months before this, you know, Carol had been telling people in the building like, charlie has dementia, he has heart problems, and they put notes on their door during the day. Don't knock on the door. And I knew from talking to him over the Years that he slept during the day. So I explained this to the agent and, you know, without skipping a beat, he moves on. And he says, what are you doing tonight? And I say, well, I'm going to a concert. He said, you might want to cancel those plans. And so I call my buddy and tell him, look, I don't think I'm gonna make the show tonight, and I can't tell you why. So as the shock, the original shock is dissipating, I realize I'm going to be with these guys until they have him in cuffs. So, you know, what do you need me to do? And then things kick in. You know, we place an agent in the hotel at a window that has a good view of the balcony, of the Gasco's balcony. And then the agent wants to go to my apartment. So I take him through a back alley and some side streets. So we aren't walking in front of the apartment building, you know, clear view of Charlie and Carol. And we're stopping at cars and he's talking on the radio and there's agents everywhere. And I'm starting to think this is. This is a pretty big deal. It must be. There's this many people, you know, staked out in the neighborhood and I'm hearing chatter over the radio, you know, they just. They just closed their blinds. Did you tip them off? I've been with you the whole time. No, of course not. And so we get to my apartment and I draw on the floor plan of the Gasco's place. And we're throwing ideas back and forth of how to get this guy out of his apartment. And he's talking on the radio and we're in my living room, and my living room wall shares a wall with Charlie's bedroom. So, yeah, I'm like, you know, this guy can hear everything we're saying. Like he's replayed conversations I had at night with my friends, you know, asking me why we don't curse or fight as much as he and his friends did in his younger days. So I take the agent, we walk back into my bedroom, and we come up with an idea. We're going to break into his storage locker in the garage. So we go down to the garage and we walk out into the back alley and he goes to get his car. Had some bolt cutters in there. And I'm just pumped up, like I'm involved in something. It's like a movie, you know, I'm having fun almost at this point. And I call my brother because I got to tell Somebody. And I said, man, do you know who Whitey Poulter is? And he goes, no. And I said. I said, well, you know, I'm with FBI right now, and I think we're about to arrest this guy. He's the old man who lives next to me. And I had to hang up because the FBI agent came around the corner, and I don't think I was supposed to be on the phone. So. So, you know, we get in there and he's like, all right, stand by the elevator and whistle if anybody appears. While I break into this storage unit. And I'm sitting there and I'm. And the adrenaline and the energy of the situation is kind of helping me to forget about my relationship to these people over the last four years. I mean, this is the same man who, you know, bought me a Christmas present every year for the four or five years I lived there. And once the lock was broken, we go back to my apartment, and he's telling me, okay, this is what's going to happen. We're going to go down. I'm going to go down. We're going to get everything set. I'm going to call you, you knock on his door, bring him down. And I'm like, no, I'm going to go to the hotel. I'm going to call him, I'm going to tell him to meet me there. Then you guys take care of your business. So I'm in my office and I'm thinking about this guy, my neighbor, who took care of an old woman on the first floor, and who, one year, when I didn't write a thank you note for a Christmas present, he gave me. Gave me a box of stationery. And I'm like, what did this guy do? And so I go to Wikipedia and I'm reading murders and extortion and gambling. And I get to the bottom. In one of his last public sightings with one of his mafia buddies, there's a quote from him, and he says, you know, when I go down, I'm going out guns place. So around this time, I start to rethink my involvement and the day's event. And conveniently, my phone rings and it's the FBI. And they said, make the call. So I start to kind of. Look, man, I don't know. I just read something about this guy that's not. I don't know about this. He said, no, no, no, he'll never know. He'll never know. Which was obviously not true, but I was that close to getting to my concert. So I said, all right, I'll make the call. So I called the Gascos from the hotel, and there was no answer. And I was so relieved, so happy that they didn't answer the phone. And I called the agent back and said, hey, man, sorry they didn't answer. Gonna have to do something else. He's like, are you sure you don't want to knock on the door? And I'm like, look, man, curtain's closed, guns blazing. What if he comes to the door with the gun? And he says, I'd just be like, hey, man, what's going on? I'm thinking to myself, he would shoot me before I finish that one statement. And I tell him I'm not going to do that, but. And while this is going on, Carol calls back. And so I get on the phone and I explained to her that the storage unit's been broken into. And I can either call the police or Charlie can meet me in the garage and we'll look at it. So she discusses with him, and she's like, he'll be down in five minutes. I say, all right, great. Hang up, call the FBI. He's on his way. Do your thing. And then I walk outside, I call my friend, and I say, look, man, think I'm gonna make the show? I'll explain everything to you when I get there. And I'm standing in the courtyard of the hotel, and Carol walks out on her balcony, which is directly across the street, and she looks at me, and then she quickly looks down to the garage, and then she looks back at me. I don't know if she knew, but she looked worried and she walked back in. And then I got a call from the FBI and they said, we got him. Go to your concert. So I go change clothes, and I'm, you know, to the adrenaline and the rush. And I'm walking back to the garage. And as I open the door, I mean, it's like a slow motion shot of Suburbans and vans and FBI agents everywhere. And my neighbor Charlie Gasco is standing there with cuffs, in cuffs, surrounded by agents, laughing and telling stories. You know, he almost looked relieved. And, you know, I'm kind of staring at this. And as I pass him a few feet away, I see Carol standing there in cuffs. And there's maybe one agent with her. And the magnitude of everything that had happened started to sink in a little bit. And she looked at me and she said, hi, Josh. And I couldn't speak. I just meekly waved and walked to my car and got on the highway and called my brother. And said, you'll never guess what happened to me today. And he said, what? And I said, I helped the FBI arrest the most wanted man in the country. So a couple months later, you know, my family's a little worried about me, and my friends are taking bets on how much longer I have to live. And I get home one day and there's a letter in the mail from the Plymouth Correctional Facility. And I open it later on that night, and I see the same familiar cursive writing and the same shoot the shit dialogue tone that I knew from four years living next to Charlie Gasko. But in this letter, he's reintroducing himself as Jim Bolger. And so I wrote him back and I said, look, you know, I had something to do with the day of the arrest. And, you know, my family's a little worried, so, you know, just a little note of everything's good would be nice. So he rode back and he said, you know, look, they had me with or without your help. No worries. So that made, you know, made my mom feel better, Definitely. Anyway, new neighbors eventually moved in, and, you know, they seem like nice people, but what do I know?
