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A Whitey Bulger mystery endures: Why was the ailing gangster moved to a violent
prison?

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News


A WHITEY BULGER MYSTERY ENDURES: WHY WAS THE AILING GANGSTER MOVED TO A VIOLENT
PRISON?

The federal government still hasn’t explained how the former mob boss and FBI
informant ended up in the general population of a prison like USP Hazelton.
00:06 /01:08

Tap to Unmute


3 MEN INDICTED IN WHITEY BULGER FATAL PRISON BEATING

01:08

Link copied
Aug. 21, 2022, 9:30 AM UTC
By Rich Schapiro

The USP Coleman II penitentiary in central Florida has long been known as a safe
place for government informants and other marked men in the federal prison
system. 

But when James “Whitey” Bulger arrived in 2014, Charles Lockett, the warden at
the time, wasn’t going to take any chances. He said he kept Bulger away from the
general population for six months and talked to the most influential inmates to
make sure they wouldn’t make a move on the elderly Boston mobster. 




“He’s an old guy, but gangsters don’t forget,” said Lockett, who is now retired.

After four years at Coleman, Bulger, 89, was transferred to a prison in West
Virginia with a much more violent reputation. Less than 12 hours later, the
wheelchair-bound crime boss was found beaten to death.


WHITEY BULGER KILLED WITH PADLOCK IN A SOCK, OFFICIALS SAY

Nov. 2, 201803:07


Federal prosecutors on Thursday announced charges against three men, including a
mafia hitman, in connection with the 2018 murder. But nearly four years after
the killing, the Justice Department has still not shed any light on how the
former mobster and FBI informant ended up in the general population of one of
the nation’s most violent prisons.


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“Although the defendants may be guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree
murder, the federal prison system also needs to be held accountable,” said
Robert Hood, a former Bureau of Prisons chief of internal affairs and former
warden at the ADX Florence “supermax” prison in Colorado. “The public needs to
know why the BOP knowingly created a death sentence for Whitey Bulger.”



Hank Brennan, Bulger’s longtime attorney, filed a lawsuit on behalf of his
family against the Bureau of Prisons in October 2020, alleging that the agency
had failed to protect him.

The suit, which sought $200 million in damages, was dismissed in January. U.S.
District Judge John Preston Bailey said in his ruling that federal courts were
barred by Congress from weighing in on prison housing decisions that resulted in
injuries or death.  

Brennan said he believes the Justice Department waited to file the charges until
after the civil suit was tossed to avoid having to turn over evidence that could
aid the family’s case. 

“They knew that a civil lawsuit could not proceed unless we knew who signed the
transfer order, who directed and who approved putting him in a place where
everybody knew he would be murdered,” Brennan said.



“They just don’t want this information to go to the public,” Brennan added. “And
they don’t want to prosecute their own, and they never will.”

Stacy Bishop, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern
District of Virginia, rejected Brennan’s claims.

“The civil case brought by Bulger’s family had no impact upon the criminal
investigation or the timing of the indictment,” Bishop said. 

A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons declined to comment, saying it does not
provide information related to investigations. 



Known for his platinum hair and penchant for violence, Bulger ruled the streets
of South Boston for decades. He disappeared in 1994 ahead of a looming
indictment and evaded police for more than 16 years. But the infamous fugitive
was captured in Santa Monica, California, in 2011 and ultimately sentenced to
two life terms for his role in 11 killings. 

He had no run-ins with other inmates at the prison in Coleman. But by the end of
his time there, he was confined to a wheelchair and was dealing with heart
problems and other health issues. 

It remains unclear why he was transferred to the penitentiary in Hazelton, West
Virginia rather than a prison medical facility. Known as “misery mountain,”
Hazelton had a very different reputation than the facility in Florida.  

Two inmates had been killed there in the previous six months, and prison workers
were complaining of dangerous staffing shortages. 



Bulger was wheeled into a cell just before 10 p.m on Oct. 29, 2018, prison
records showed. He was found dead at 8:21 a.m., a couple of hours after the
cells in his unit were unlocked so the prisoners could leave to eat breakfast. 

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Four inmates were immediately placed in solitary confinement. They included the
three men who were ultimately charged — Fotios “Freddy” Geas, 55; Paul
DeCologero, 48; and Sean McKinnon, 36 — as well as Bulger’s cellmate at the
time, Felix Wilson.

Fotios "Freddy" Geas in court in the Al Bruno murder case in Springfield, Mass.,
on April 14, 2009.Don Treeger / The Republican via AP file

Geas was serving a life sentence for murder and other crimes. He was an enforcer
for the New England mafia during the 1990s and the early 2000s, according to
federal prosecutors, making him a direct rival of Bulger, who was the leader of
Boston’s Irish mob . 

DeCologero was serving a 25-year sentence on racketeering and witness-tampering
charges. 



McKinnon was Geas’ roommate at the time of the killing, but he had no ties to
the mafia. He was serving a seven-year sentence for stealing guns from a
firearms store in Vermont. 

All three remained in solitary for more than two and a half years as the
investigation dragged on. 

By the time the indictment was returned, DeCologero and McKinnon had both been
transferred out of Hazelton. DeCologero was in a different prison; McKinnon was
on supervised release in Ocala, Florida.

Sean McKinnon.Family photo

At his initial court appearance, prosecutors said McKinnon acted as a lookout
while Geas and DeCologero repeatedly struck Bulger in the head, according to a
transcript obtained by NBC News. 



All three men were charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Geas
and DeCologero were hit with additional charges: aiding and abetting
first-degree murder, and assault resulting in serious bodily injury. McKinnon
was also charged with making false statements to a federal agent. 

Daniel Kelly, a lawyer for Geas, said his client’s indictment came as no
surprise, but he didn’t expect it to take this long. 

A mugshot of Boston gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger, Jr. poses for a mugshot at
Alcatraz on November 16, 1959 in San Francisco, Calif.Donaldson Collection /
Getty Images

“What’s missing from the indictment here is the people who put Mr. Bulger in
that position,” Kelly said. “They should be unindicted co-conspirators.”

It wasn’t known whether DeCologero had hired a lawyer. McKinnon’s lawyer did not
respond to a request for comment, but he had previously told NBC News that
McKinnon had nothing to do with the killing. 



Alex Little, a former federal prosecutor, said the lack of answers from the
federal government on the circumstances around Bulger’s transfer was likely due
to the slow-moving criminal investigation.



The criminal investigators were almost certainly probing whether any Bureau of
Prisons staffers deliberately placed Bulger in harm’s way as part of a
conspiracy with prisoners seeking to kill him, Little said. And those
investigators would not have wanted a report to come out with
yet-to-be-disclosed details of how Bulger ended up at Hazelton while the
investigation was ongoing.

“It would potentially bring to light pieces of the investigation that you’d
otherwise like to keep quiet,” said Little, who is now a lawyer in private
practice in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Justice Department Office of Inspector General has launched an
investigation. Lockett, the former warden at Coleman, said he was interviewed by
investigators a year after Bulger’s killing, but he hasn’t heard from them
since. 



A spokesperson for the inspector general’s office declined to comment on the
status of the probe. 

Lockett, for his part, said he still doesn’t understand why the elderly, ailing
gangster had been transferred to the prison in Hazelton and placed in a regular
housing unit. 

“I would have never done that,” Lockett said. “And if I had input, I would have
said, ‘No, no, no.’”


Rich Schapiro

Rich Schapiro is a reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

Ken Dilanian contributed.


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