Three men were charged in 2018 with beating notorious mobster James Whitey Bulger to death in prison, the Justice Department said. Bulger was the godfather of the South Boston Irish mob and inspired the character of Frank Costello, played by Jack Nicholson in the film The Departed. He was both an FBI informant and a gangster. Of the now three accused, two are on the material execution count of murder.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Bulger ruthlessly ruled the Boston mob. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in August 2013. He was found guilty of 31 counts of racketeering, money laundering, drug trafficking, possession of weapons, belonging to organized crime and other crimes, including 11 murders.
In 1974, Bulger made a deal with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that is believed to have gotten him killed in prison. He became a snitch. He gave out information about his rivals in the Italian Mafia in exchange for some impunity for his misdeeds, which was later heavily criticized. The agreement lasted for years, until the FBI changed its criteria and prepared for his arrest on Christmas 1994. Bulger managed to escape with his wife thanks to a tip from a retired agent who had been his childhood friend. He was on the run for 16 years, 12 of them as one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives. He was arrested in Santa Monica in June 2010 after his wife was identified by a whistleblower whom The Boston Globe identified as Anna Björnsdóttir, Miss Island 1974, a former model and actress who was her neighbor.
After his conviction, he served the first part of his sentence in a Florida prison. In November 2018, he was transferred to Hazleton Penitentiary in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, where he was admitted in a wheelchair. He didn’t survive his first night.
Despite being unable to walk and having suffered numerous heart attacks, authorities changed his medical classification, indicating his health had improved, paving the way for his transfer to Hazelton. In addition, he was housed with the other inmates, whereas until then he had been housed in units intended for inmates such as spies or pedophiles, who were seen as protection from other inmates. After the gangster’s death, his family sued the government.
The three accused
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Fotios Geas, aka Freddy, 55, and Paul J. DeCologero, aka Pauly, 48, who were also inmates of the same prison, are accused of repeatedly punching Bulger in the head to the death. Sean McKinnon, 36, another inmate, is charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder alongside Geas and DeCologero. The Justice Department has not specified what involvement it attributes to him in the crime.
Geas remains incarcerated in Hazelton and is serving a life sentence for yet another gangster reckoning and also faces another charge of murdering a federal prisoner who was also serving a life sentence. DeCologero is no longer being held there but is being held in another federal prison. McKinnon faces another charge of making false statements to a federal agent. McKinnon was under federal surveillance at the time of the arraignment and was arrested in Florida on Thursday.
The security cameras picked up the images of Geas and DeCologero. The beatings left Bulger unrecognizable, with his eyes nearly gouged out and bruises all over his head. Given the evidence in the pictures, it was thought his indictment would be forthcoming. However, it has been almost four years since prosecutors charged her.
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