CBS Boston published August 18, 2022: 3 men indicted in Whitey Bulger's prison beating death.
CBS News
written by Staff
Thursday August 18, 2022
BOSTON – Three men have been indicted in connection with the prison beating death of Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger, the FBI announced on Thursday.
Bulger was killed in a federal prison in West Virginia nearly four years ago.
Fotios "Freddy" Geas, 55, Paul "Pauly" DeCologero, 48, and 36-year-old Sean McKinnon were charged Wednesday with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Prosecutors said mob enforcer Geas, of West Springfield, and DeCologero, of Lowell, allegedly hit Bulger in the head multiple times in October 2018 while they were inmates at United States Penitentiary Hazleton in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia.
Both men are also charged with aiding and abetting first-degree murder and assault resulting in serious bodily injury. Geas is separately charged with murder by a federal inmate serving a life sentence.
McKinnon is charged with making false statements to a federal agent.
Author Casey Sherman interviewed Gaes for his book "Hunting Whitey."
"Freddy Geas was an old-school gangster, and he lived by the code that you don't - quote, unquote - rat on your friends," Sherman said.
He said Bulger should never had been transferred to the prison where he died because he was a known FBI informant. The attack happened just hours after his transfer from the Florida prison where he had been serving a life sentence for 11 murders.
"Whitey Bulger was transferred to USP Hazelton, which they call "Misery Mountain." It's the most violent prison in the federal prison system," Sherman said.
Bulger was on the FBI's most wanted list for years before police arrested him in Southern California in 2011.
U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins released a statement about the arrests. "With the indictment announced today, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia has started the process of holding the men alleged to have violently ended a life accountable. In the truest of ironies, Bulger's family has experienced the excruciating pain and trauma their relative inflicted on far too many, and the justice system is now coming to their aid." She then listed the names of Bulger's victims.
Geas remains in USP Hazelton, while DeCologero is in a different federal prison system.
McKinnon was on supervised release when he was indicted. According to the FBI's Boston office, he was arrested Thursday in Florida.
Bulger was 89 years old at the time of his death.
Our History published January 2022: A Secret FBI Alliance Allowed Whitey Bulger To Become An Untouched Crime Boss. In 1995 ruthless murderer and Boston crime boss James 'Whitey' Bulger flees Boston to escape an impending arrest.
NBC News
written by Rich Schapiro
Tuesday August 23, 2022
Five hours before the notorious gangster arrived at USP Hazelton, one of the suspects told his mother in a recorded phone call that they knew he was on his way.
Inmates at the prison where James “Whitey” Bulger was killed knew in advance that the notorious gangster was being transferred there, according to a transcript of a phone call between one of the suspects and his mother.
“We’re getting ready to get another higher profile person here tonight,” Sean McKinnon told his mother on Oct. 29, 2018, according to a partial transcript of the call read by federal prosecutors in court Monday.
McKinnon went on to identify the arriving prisoner as Bulger, the former Boston crime boss.
“Stay away from him, please,” his mother, Cheryl Prevost, replied, according to prosecutors.
The call took place at 3:30 p.m., according to prosecutors.
Bulger, 89, arrived at the prison in Hazelton, West Virginia, five hours later, at 8:30 p.m. He was found bludgeoned to death at 8:07 a.m. the following morning.
Bulger’s death was a stunning security failure for the federal prison system. The previously undisclosed revelation that USP Hazelton inmates were tipped off to Bulger’s arrival raises additional questions about the federal Bureau of Prisons' handling of his transfer to one of the country's most violent prisons.
“It’s just absurd that this happened,” said Vito Maraviglia, a former Bureau of Prisons investigator who spent more than two decades investigating inmates for gang affiliations and other potential threats to determine where they should be placed inside federal prisons.
Maraviglia said he would have “raised holy hell over” Bulger being placed in the general population of a prison like USP Hazelton.
The Justice Department last week announced charges against McKinnon, 36, and two Massachusetts men with mob ties: Fotios “Freddy” Geas, 55, a mafia hitman who was sharing a cell with McKinnon, and Paul DeCologero, 48, who was a member of an organized crime gang led by his uncle.
Speaking at a detention hearing for McKinnon on Monday, prosecutors described what the surveillance system captured inside the prison, providing the most detailed account yet of the circumstances around Bulger’s killing.
Shortly after the cell doors opened up on their unit at 6 a.m., the three suspects met in the cell belonging to Geas and McKinnon. Six minutes later, all three walked out, according to prosecutor Hannah Nowalk.
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