James 'Whitey' Bulger's fatal beating: 'He was unrecognizable'

[DonViejo]

Source: The Boston Globe




By Katharine Q. Seelye, William K. Rashbaum and Danielle Ivory NEW YORK TIMES NOVEMBER 01, 2018

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 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 Bulger, 89, who was in a wheelchair, into a corner where the attack took place. 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, Massachusetts. 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 Kelly, who has represented Geas for many years, said in an interview that he had no idea whether his client was involved in killing Bulger, who was an informant for the FBI, a relationship he manipulated as a cover while he betrayed and murdered rival gang members.

Read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/10/31/james-whitey-bulger-fatal-beating-was-unrecognizable/aJslZdo66TgaTBQh652VjK/story.html

[Siwsan]

1. That's pretty much how he left the people he murdered

I'm certainly not advocating for beating anyone to death, let alone an 89 year old, wheel chair bound man, but some might think that there is a certain, primitive justice to his end.

[ProfessorGAC]

2. This Had To Be One LONG Term Beef

Bulger has been in jail for a long time. And he was on the run for years before that. Some outfit guys held a grudge for a very long time!

[Siwsan]

3. And it sounds like they moved him around, quite a bit

No doubt he was a high profile, high risk inmate. His work as an FBI informant would seem to be a reason to keep him in protective custody, yet he was in general population. It does kind of smell of a set up.

[marble falls]

6. My thought was he was left to the wolves by a system that reached the ends if it's ...

rope with him. He was left to the elements in an institution that been described as having a violence problem.

[Mr.Bill]

5. I don't think organized crime

has a statute of limitations on informing to the FBI.

[Siwsan]

8. It really was one of those, 'I'm shocked! Wait, no I'm not!' kind of news stories

He really was a deeply vile individual.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. I'm Sure They Don't

Joe Pistone is still living under an assumed name with the WPP and he WAS an actual FBI agent. Yeah, they don't forget.

[Jedi Guy]

15. I read an editorial by the prosecutor who put Geas away.

Apparently he wanted to be a made man, but couldn't because he wasn't Italian. So he settled for being a paid hitman and wanted to build himself a reputation for being vicious and cold-blooded. Now his claim to fame is killing Bulger. He basically stole Bulger's infamy.

He was already in for life without parole, and the death penalty is unlikely to be sought for killing Bulger. That being the case, what did he have to lose? About the worst that'll likely happen to him is being sent to ADX Florence supermax in Colorado.

It's speculation, sure, but at least from an informed source.

[ProfessorGAC]

17. I'm Sure Having A Hard Time Working Up Sympathy. . .

. . .but Bulger, but this guy was 20 years too soon. At least in Chicago, non-italians were "made" all the way back into the 70's.

You make them money, and get a powerful enough crew, they're good with you.

[Jedi Guy]

19. I don't profess to be a Mafia expert. That's just what the guy said in his editorial.

Doesn't surprise me that being non-Italian wouldn't be a barrier, given enough money changing hands. In my experience, very few people's principles will hold true when enough money is thrown at them.

That said, I imagine that a non-Italian made man and an Italian made man were treated differently. I'd also be willing to bet that there was a definite glass ceiling in terms of advancement.

[ProfessorGAC]

20. Perhaps In Boston, That Was Still The Rule

It was the policy for a LONG time. That sort of went away during the labor racketeering and drug trade era of the outfit.

But, maybe Boston didn't change their policy until long after NY and Chicago did.

[Judi Lynn]

29. He definitely looks like someone who threw himself into his work!

Thanks for the information on this guy. The country will be a lot safer if he just stays in prison.

[Jedi Guy]

30. Yeeeeeeeeeeeah.

I think it's just as well he'll never see the other side of a prison fence for the rest of his life. Sometimes, people just aren't able to live with civil society.

[maveric]

21. He'd been snitching on the Italian mob in Boston for decades.

The Anguilo’s and Patriaca’s have long memories for things like this.

[ProfessorGAC]

24. Yeah, I Read About That

There was also a documentary i saw on AHC about him. He was quite the scumbag.

[Cosmocat]

7. Yeah

I am not a Vengeance type person, but this guy did far worse to MANY during the course of his life, including people who wore complete innocent. Just seems like justice in some perverse way.

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. None of his victims lived to be 89

He should consider himself lucky in that regard.

[CentralMass]

9. Live by the sword... However, I wonder if some palms were greased.

[IADEMO2004]

11. LIHOP

[hexola]

12. more likely MIHOP

Not much difference though

[samnsara]

13. so it was reported this was the way the mob dealt with those who cooperated with the police...

...anyone else wonder if his move to this prison was JUST for these optics and maybe trumps message to those Muellers interviewing..? wont be safe in or out of prison if you rat trump out.

[samnsara]

14. ..i still think if there will be violence against trump it will be by one of his own kids..

...or a deplorable.

[CentralMass]

16. I doubt that has anyhing to do with it.

[Coventina]

18. Nobody should ever be beaten to death in prison.

Having said that, I'm finding it hard to muster outrage about this.

Reaping what you sow and all that....

[Demsrule86]

22. Somebody got paid off...moved and put in the general population...how will people testify

if this sort of thing happens...this guy was no loss but he helped put away many other bad guys. They need to investigate and prosecute and do a better job of protecting snitches or their won't be any. I would add that our prisons are disgrace.

[JonLP24]

26. I agree 100%

[Demsrule86]

31. I am often embarrassed by our justice system or lack there of.

[liberaltrucker]

33. I agree in principal

Just like I oppose the death penalty in principal.
However, once in a long while, a perpetrator comes along
whose crimes are so heinous, so reprehensible, that karma deals
them justice.

Mr Bulger is a prime example. As was Ted Bundy.

[Demsrule86]

34. I am against all executions...and it wasn't Karma but corruption that allowed this to happen and it

hurts us for when this happens again and we need someone to talk in order to stop the next bad guy. If you can't protect people there is no incentive to to turn states evidence.

[SergeStorms]

23. Whitey was a vicious thug....

and he was dispatched by another vicious thug. What comes around, goes around. Eventually.

[JonLP24]

25. I don't think they should allow any violence in prison

It is a slippery slope.

[Demsrule86]

35. I agree.

[aeromanKC]

27. Unrecognizable?

How do we know its him then..?? What if this is a set up to make us think he's dead. Perhaps he is now in Omaha making donuts?

[JonLP24]

28. Grim New Details About Whitey Bulger's Death Revealed

But questions continue to mount about why prison officials transferred the mob boss to a veritable lion's den.
By Andy Campbell
11/01/2018 12:16 PM ET

New details are emerging about the death of notorious mob boss Whitey Bulger on Tuesday after he was transferred to the general population of U.S. Penitentiary Hazelton, one of the most dangerous prisons in America.

Bulger ― who ruled Boston’s criminal underground for more than 20 years and stayed on the run for another 16 before his capture ― was reportedly beaten to death within hours of his transfer from a Florida prison to the high-security penitentiary in West Virginia on Tuesday.

Federal Bureau of Prisons officials say one of the weapons used to murder him was a lock in a sock. Bulger was in a wheelchair when “several potential suspects” beat him to death, officials told NBC. The lock in a sock is a particularly grisly method, which involves a lock placed in a sock and swung like a mace.

So far, federal officials have been dodging questions about who transferred Bulger and why. But reports by HuffPost and The Boston Globe suggest that whoever did so was throwing him into the lion’s den. There were plenty of inmates at Hazelton who hated him.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5bdaff87e4b01abe6a1bca89/amp

If it can happen to him it can happen to anybody.

[dalton99a]

32. Second suspect is Paul DeCologero - he dismembered a teenage girl

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/11/01/authorities-eye-second-suspect-whitey-bulger-murder/AKb1h4gfb4HttjK0vYPPOK/story.html

Paul J. DeCologero, a member of a notorious North Shore organized crime group that robbed rival drug dealers and dismembered a teenage girl they feared might give them up, has emerged as a second suspect in the murder of Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger.

DeCologero is serving a 25-year sentence for racketeering and the conspiracy that led to the 1996 murder of 19-year-old Aislin Silva of Medford. The so-called DeCologero Crew, headed by DeCologero’s uncle, Paul A. DeCologero, cut up and disposed of Silva’s body, which wasn’t found until 2006.

Paul A. DeCologero ordered Silva’s murder after police seized guns that his crew had stashed at Silva’s apartment and he feared she might cooperate with authorities.

Paul J. DeCologero’s role in that conspiracy was to obtain an especially strong strain of heroin that was meant to kill Silva with an overdose. When that plan failed, another member of the crew, Kevin Meuse, killed her by breaking her neck. Members of the crew then dismembered her in a bathtub and disposed of her body in a makeshift grave somewhere in the woods of the North Shore and in a dumpster in Danvers.