Boston gangster is killed after prison transfer
James “Whitey” Bulger had amassed enemy after enemy over a lifetime of murder, extortion, double-crossing and — in a breach of the cardinal rule of his ilk — snitching on rival mobsters.
When Bulger was sent to federal prison about five years ago after more than a decade on the run, his enemies remained, their memories of him long.
That left some of those who followed his exploits back in South Boston unsurprised Tuesday when Bulger, 89, turned up dead in his jail cell, apparently beaten by fellow inmates, according to four Federal Bureau of Prisons employees.
“Anyone in criminal activity with him feels grossly betrayed that he was informing on them while he was supposedly their comrade and friend,” Michael Kendall, a former federal prosecutor from Boston who also once represented the family of one of Bulger’s murder victims, said of the trail of foes Bulger had left behind. “And anyone committed to law enforcement wouldn’t consider him a legitimate informant, because he just manipulated law enforcement to carry out criminal activity — including murders.”
No official details were given on the circumstances of Bulger’s death. But some federal prison employees, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because the information was not yet public, said Bulger did not die of old age. Rather, they said, he was beaten to death by at least two fellow inmates at the West Virginia federal prison, where he had been transferred the day before.
Inside a maximum security cell at the U.S. Penitentiary, Hazelton in Bruceton Mills, W.Va., Bulger was likely attacked early in the morning — sometime between 6 a.m., when cell doors were unlocked so inmates could go to breakfast, and 8 a.m., when the staff made rounds, federal prison employees said. Bulger had not emerged from his cell for breakfast and when prison staff went to check on him, they found him wrapped in blankets and unresponsive, they said.
When they tried to shake him awake, blood spattered the floor. He was dead.
One federal prison worker said the inmates involved in the killing were thought to be “affiliated with the mob.” Separately, a senior law enforcement official, who oversees organized crime cases but was not involved in the investigation into Bulger’s death, said he was told by a federal official that an organized crime figure was believed to be responsible.
And a lawyer for Bulger, J.W. Carney Jr., made clear that he blamed the prison system for the death of his client, whom, he said, he was proud to have been appointed to represent. “He was sentenced to life in prison, but as a result of decisions by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, that sentence has been changed to the death penalty,” Carney said.
Bulger had suffered a series of heart attacks while in prison — more than half a dozen over the years — and was expecting to be moved to a medical facility run by the Bureau of Prisons. Instead, he was relocated to the West Virginia facility, which has been plagued by violence, where he was placed in the general prison population, according to some of the federal prison workers.
After Bulger’s body was found, roadblocks were put in place outside the prison complex, and a lock down — meaning prisoners could not leave their cells — lasted into the evening.