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A former mafia hit man is a suspect in Tuesday’s prison slaying of89-year-old James “Whitey” Bulger, a notorious New England mob boss turned informant, according to multiple news reports.
Bulger, who spent years on the lam and was the subject of theJohnny Depp-starringBlack Mass, was killed Tuesday at a federal prison in West Virginia.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of West Virginia said their office and the FBI were investigating Bulger’s death as a homicide. He was beaten to death,according to theBoston Globe.
Fotios “Freddy” Geas — a mafia killer who “hated rats,” a private investigator who knew himtold theGlobe— is suspected in the slaying, theAssociated Press, theGlobeand theNew York Timesreport.
Geas along with one other inmate are believed responsible in the killing, which occurred just hours after Bulger arrived at Hazelton Penitentiary, according to the AP.
TheGlobereports that, according to their sources, Geas did not deny involvement.
TheTimesdescribed Bulger’s killing as carefully planned, out of view of security cameras, and committed with a padlock stuffed into a sock.
“They apparently tuned him up to the point where he was unrecognizable,” one law enforcement official told the paper.
Two inmates, including Geas, were put in solitary confinement after Bulger’s death, theTimesreports, citing prison documents and prison employees.
Bulger’s former attorney Hank Brennan told the AP that Bulger was in a wheelchair recovering from a hip injury when he was attacked.
Geas, 51, is serving a life sentence for two murders — including the 2003 killing of mafia head Adolpho “Big Al” Bruno in Springfield, Massachusetts, theGlobereports.
Don Treeger/The Republican/AP
Private investigator Ted McDonough, who knew Geas, told the paper that “Freddy hated guys who abused women.”
“Whitey was a rat who killed women,” he said. “It’s probably that simple.”
Geas’ former attorney David Hoose told theGlobethat Geas “wouldn’t rat on anybody. And he had no respect for anyone who would.”
Bulger served for nearly three decades as the head of Boston’s Winter Hill Gang. His work as an informant for law enforcement gave him cover to commit violence.
He fled from federal authorities in 1994 and was finally arrested in 2011, in Santa Monica, California, and then convicted in 2013 in connection with nearly a dozen murders, among other crimes.
Bulger was serving two life sentences at the time of his death this week. In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his bid to have his convictions overturned.
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The U.S. Attorney’s Office would not comment because of the ongoing investigation.
In an earlier statement, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling for the District of Massachusetts, which prosecuted Bulger, said: “We received word this morning about the death of James ‘Whitey’ Bulger. Our thoughts are with his victims and their families.”
Patricia Donahue, whose husband’s shooting death was linked to Bulger, reportedly celebrated his demise.
“It’s been a long time waiting,” she told theTimes. “Now my family can relax a little bit, now that we don’t have to worry about hearing his name all the time.”
source: people.com
