BOSTON — The inmates who killed James (Whitey) Bulger, Boston’s notorious crime boss, deliberately moved out of view of surveillance cameras in a West Virginia prison before pummeling him with a padlock that was stuffed inside a sock, law enforcement officials said on Wednesday, as investigations began into how such a murder could have taken place in a supposedly secure facility.

Despite the attackers’ efforts to hide, officials said, cameras caught video images of at least two inmates rolling Mr. Bulger, 89, who was in a wheelchair, into a corner where the attack took place. Mr. Bulger was bleeding profusely when he was found by prison authorities at 8:20 Tuesday morning. Guards immediately undertook lifesaving measures, officials said, but he was pronounced dead.

A prison official identified one of the suspects as Fotios (Freddy) Geas, 51, a Mafia hit man from West Springfield, Mass. He is serving a life sentence at the Hazelton penitentiary in West Virginia for the 2003 killing of the leader of the Genovese crime family in Springfield.

Daniel D. Kelly, who has represented Mr. Geas for many years, said in an interview that he had no idea whether his client was involved in killing Mr. Bulger, who was an informant for the F.B.I., a relationship he manipulated as a cover while he betrayed and murdered rival gang members.

But Mr. Kelly did say that Mr. Geas “has a particular distaste for cooperators.” Mr. Kelly said that Mr. Geas’s feelings about informants were so strong that when he was given a chance to avoid a life sentence by cooperating with the authorities, he did not take it.

Mr. Bulger’s death, within hours of his arrival at the prison, raised numerous questions. Mr. Bulger, a longtime federal informer and a prolific killer over several decades, knew many who would want him dead. But how was he left vulnerable to a beating so forceful that it displaced his eyeballs?

“I’m not surprised that he got hit; I’m surprised that they let him get hit,” said Ed Davis, the former Boston police commissioner.

Mr. Bulger’s eyes appeared to have been dislodged from his head, although it was unclear whether his attackers gouged them out or if they were knocked out because he was beaten so severely in the attack. This information was relayed by a senior law enforcement official who oversees organized crime cases but is not involved in the investigation into Mr. Bulger’s death, and who said he had learned it from a federal official.

“They apparently tuned him up to the point where he was unrecognizable,” he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

Officials said the beating was carried out at least in part with a padlock-stuffed sock, a not uncommon method that inmates use to attack one another.
At least two inmates were quickly sent to solitary confinement after Mr. Bulger was found, according to three employees of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, who requested anonymity because the investigation was not public. Mr. Geas was among those sent to solitary, according to prison documents obtained by The New York Times.

Mr. Davis, the former police commissioner, said he was baffled that the prison had not done more to keep Mr. Bulger “away from a convicted organized crime hit man from Massachusetts.”

The United States attorney’s office in West Virginia said Wednesday that it and the F.B.I. were investigating Mr. Bulger’s death as a homicide. It had no further comment.

Mr. Bulger was serving two life terms in prison for his role in 11 murders committed when he controlled the Boston underworld over several decades.

He was killed after being in Hazelton for less than 12 hours, after he was transferred from another facility. By then, he had already established a record of troubling activity in other prisons.

At the Coleman prison complex in Florida in September 2014, he was disciplined multiple times, including once for masturbating in front of a male staff member and once, in February, for threatening a female medical staff member, according to the prison documents.

In February, Mr. Bulger told the female staff member that her day of reckoning was coming, according to a prison official with knowledge of the event. Mr. Bulger was sent to solitary confinement as a result and remained there until October when he was transferred to a facility in Oklahoma, according to the documents. On October 29, he was transferred to Hazelton.

The documents indicated he was transferred to Hazelton because he had completed medical treatment, not for disciplinary reasons.
But Mr. Bulger was said to be in questionable health. He was in a wheelchair for several years, according to Henry Brennan, one of his lawyers.

“He could stand up by himself, but he could not walk,” Mr. Brennan said in an interview Wednesday. “He was looking forward to getting out of solitary confinement to try to teach himself how to walk again.”

Mr. Brennan said that Mr. Bulger damaged his hip during his two years of pretrial incarceration in solitary confinement.

“He was continuously falling off the bed and injuring his hip,” Mr. Brennan said, adding that his inability to exercise also contributed to several health problems.

In his younger years, Mr. Bulger was a fitness fanatic who obsessed over taking care of his body and keeping in top physical condition.
Many in Boston, particularly in Mr. Bulger’s old stomping grounds in South Boston, were relieved at the news that the long, deadly saga of Mr. Bulger finally appeared over.

An 85-year-old man named Ed, who did not want to give his last name because he said he knew one of Mr. Bulger’s brothers and did not want to alienate him, spoke for many when he said that Mr. Bulger’s death represented a kind of justice.

“I hate to be morbid, but knowing the way of person he was, it’s probably a long time coming, seeing that he was responsible for so many other families’ and people’s misery over the years,” he said as he walked around Boston Harbor’s Castle Island, where Mr. Bulger frequently strolled with his associates.

“There’s an old saying, ‘What goes around comes around,’” he added.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/us/who-killed-whitey-bulger.html

Way too many coincidences here, and I don't believe in coincidences. He gets moved to a prison where there is at least five known made mobsters including a boss and also the most dangerous Prison in the Federal Prison system.

Also, for a mobster to go after another mobster the commission has to approve that and there is no way they could have gas lighted him so fast unless they knew he was coming and already gave the green light.

Plus when you transfer prisons you don't just go to general population they put you in solitary for the first couple weeks until they could determine if there is a threat to the prisoner.....

Bulger was a snitch.

Wasn't he ready to roll over on other f.b.I. he worked with. It's a mystery innit?

Bulger also had done numerous crimes only he knew about. Him being killed isn't a huge surprise. He died violently, how many died at his hands in the same violent way?

Think what you like, but I don't care how murders are executed. If their peers do them in like they killed someone else, then they got what they deserved. This lethal injection business is what those in government chose. Those, like Dahmer, who killed the way they did, should have been sent to the chair, or the gas chamber. Let them die painfully as they killed others.

One multiple murder case in my area, were three carpenters trying to get a job done, and were working late into the night. They were murdered, execution style, with a gas powered nail gun. Since I personally own one, I know they died very violently. They caught the guy that did it, and he's now serving 3 life sentences. Should he get it by other prisoners, the same way Bulger did, then he got what he deserved.

This thread upsets me. I know nothing about this man. But years ago I had someone help me who is considered a mean person in my area. A man threaten to call the FBI on him and the next day the guy was cut in half with a machine gun. But when me and my husband were teenagers and had no place to live, he gave us a place. All we had to do was pay the light bill. He owned a car lot and said we could drive any of them if we needed them. He is old now and lives walking distance from me. As old as I am I still don't understand how someone can be so mean and nice at the same time. His son contacted me a couple months ago looking for my ex. His son has always been very polite. I know his son has killed at least 1 man and got out of prison last year for attempted murder. He shot up a man's house so bad, it had to be torn down. The guy jump into the fireplace and survived the shooting.

He was worse then a snitch, he ratted out mobsters so he could further his own enterprise. That's a huge no-no.

He had seven years to do that... I do think someone wanted him silenced or this wouldn't have happened. It took some pull to get him into that prison with 4-5 other Mobsters.

couldn't have happened to a nicer guy!!!

Being Irish and from NYC and growing up there in the 70's we knew all too well of the Irish mob, The Westies in NYC ( Hells kitchen) and whitey an his boys up in the Boston area.

Fact is they were hire by the Italian mob at times to do their dirty work ( killing) and they were ruthless their tactics. And of course they ran their own rackets and did their own dirty work.

Featherstone and co. in N.Y.C. were different from the Italian mob killers. They would kill a person, chop off his fingers and mail them to his mother. Or put a person thru a meat grinder... they were sadist.. to make their point

Featherstone got it in N.Y.C Whitey got it .. now.. thy all get what's coming to them sooner or later

They were real.. they were there.. and they were killers. and they were also a embarrassment to the hard working Irish community

I'm glad they are gone. I am glad they were killed. They deserved it.

I was being nice.


Bulger was a C.I., for then prosecutor
Robert Mueller.

Guess who Bulger had dirt on?

Yep.

Whitey never worked with the Italians, he ratted on them. However in New York Castellano did bring on the Westies to handle hits while he ran the Gambino's and the Commission.

Bulger wasn't a CI for a prosecutor and even if he was Muller wasn't the one handling that area. Bulger was a CI for an FBI Agent named Connelly and Connelly is sitting in prison right now for helping Bulger.

The US Attorney's that gave him a pass were Weld, Harrington and McNamera Jr. (who was forced to resign due to his conduct with Bulger and other cases). Then Wyshak came in and cleaned the place up.

Nonetheless, Bulger earned a tire tool
to the back of his head, long ago.

Exactly

The guy who killed him is a hitman for one of the five families. For a made guy to do that he has to have the approval of the Commission, even if he is in prison. If not, it's an automatic death sentence.

And for him to get his hands on him, then he had to be allowed to do so by the authorities. And the authorities must have had a motive for doing so. Savi

They had to have guards on the payroll. The five families own cops, DA's and Corrections Officers. Their motive was probably pure greed.

And that's been that way for donkeys years. Yet he's been looked after, until now.
So something changed.

Like I said, growing up there I saw it.. all the time. I lived right down the street from Tommy Bilotti. He was a real.. prick, I was happy when he got killed. Everyone was. I know the relationship between the Italians and the Irish.

Btw, I use Castellano's grandsons dirt hauling business all the time. Good rates, good service..so the Irish and Italians are still working together here in the NYC area.. just this time it is legal ;)