3 charged in 2018 killing of Boston gangster Whitey Bulger
BOSTON — Three men, including a Mafia hitman, have been charged in the 2018 killing of notorious Boston crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger, the Justice Department said Thursday.
The charges against Fotios “Freddy” Geas, Paul J. DeCologero and Sean McKinnon come nearly four years after Bulger’s killing, which raised questions about why the known “snitch” was placed in the West Virginia prison’s general population instead of more protective housing. The men were charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Authorities have not revealed a possible motive for Bulger’s killing in October 2018, which came hours after he was transferred to USP Hazelton in West Virginia from a prison in Florida. He had been serving a life sentence for 11 murders and other crimes. Prosecutors allege Geas and DeCologero struck Bulger in the head multiple times, causing his death. Bulger, who ran the largely Irish mob in Boston in the 1970s and ’80s, served as an FBI informant who ratted on his gang’s main rival, according to the bureau. He later became one of the nation’s most-wanted fugitives. Bulger strongly denied ever being a government informant.
The Justice Department has also charged Geas, 55, and DeCologero, 48, with aiding and abetting first-degree murder, along with assault resulting in serious bodily injury. Geas faces a separate charge of murder by a federal inmate serving a life sentence, and McKinnon, 36, is charged separately with making false statements to a federal agent. Geas and DeCologero were identified as suspects shortly after Bulger’s death, according to law enforcement officials at the time, but they remained uncharged as the investigation dragged on for years.
All three were placed in solitary confinement throughout the probe, family members told The Boston Globe. McKinnon’s mother told the newspaper that her son, who was Geas’ cellmate at the time of Bulger’s killing, told her he didn’t know anything about the slaying. Daniel Kelly, an attorney for Geas, said Thursday that the charges aren’t a surprise, but don’t justify his client’s continued placement in solitary confinement. Emails seeking comment were sent Thursday to an attorney for Bulger’s family. It wasn’t immediately clear if McKinnon and DeCologero had attorneys to comment on their behalf.
