Three men have been charged in the beating death of notorious mobster James Whitey Bulger in 2018 while he was in prison, the Justice Department has reported. Bulger was the godfather of the Irish mob in South Boston and inspired the character of Frank Costello, who was played by Jack Nicholson in the film infiltrators. He was an FBI informer as well as a gangster. Of the three accused now, two are for the material execution of the murder.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Bulger ruthlessly ruled the Boston mob. He was sentenced to life in prison in August 2013. He was found guilty of 31 counts of extortion, money laundering, drug trafficking, weapons possession, membership in organized crime and other crimes, including 11 murders.
In 1974, Bulger struck a deal with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that is suspected to have cost him his life in prison. He became a snitch. He provided information about his rivals in the Italian mafia and, in return, he got some impunity for his misdeeds, a deal that would later be heavily criticized. The agreement lasted for years until the FBI changed its criteria and was preparing to arrest him on Christmas 1994. Bulger managed to escape with his wife thanks to the tip of a retired agent who had been his childhood friend. . He was on the run for 16 years, 12 of them as one of the 10 most wanted fugitives by the FBI. He was arrested in June 2010 in Santa Monica after his wife was identified by an informant, whom The Boston Globe identified as Anna Björnsdottir, Miss Iceland 1974, a former model and actress who was his neighbor.
After being convicted, 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 the fact that he was unable to walk and had suffered numerous heart attacks, the authorities changed his medical classification, indicating that his health had improved, which paved the way for his transfer to Hazelton. In addition, he was admitted along with the rest of the prisoners, when until then he had been held in units designated for prisoners such as informers or pedophiles who were considered to need protection from other prisoners. After the mobster’s death, his family sued the government.
The three defendants
Photios Geas, also known as Freddy, 55-year-old Paul J. DeCologero, also known as Pauly, The 48-year-old, who were also incarcerated in the same jail, are the ones accused of hitting Bulger in the head multiple times until he died. Sean McKinnon, 36, another inmate, is charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder alongside Geas and DeCologero. The Department of Justice has not specified what participation he attributes to him in the crime.
Geas remains incarcerated in Hazelton serving a life sentence for another settling of scores between mobsters and also faces another charge for the murder of a federal prisoner who was also serving a life sentence. DeCologero is no longer being held there but in another federal prison. McKinnon faces another charge of making false statements to a federal agent. McKinnon was on federal supervised release at the time of the indictment and was arrested Thursday in Florida.
The security cameras captured 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 proof of the images, it was thought that the indictment of him would come soon. It has been nearly four years, however, until the prosecution has accused them.
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Source: EL PAIS
