Three folks have been charged in the 2018 prison killing of the infamous gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, federal authorities mentioned Thursday.
Fotios Geas, 55; Paul J. DeCologero, 48; and Sean McKinnon, 36, have been charged Wednesday with conspiracy to commit first-degree homicide, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Northern West Virginia mentioned in a press release.
A prison guard discovered Bulger’s physique in his cell at 8:21 a.m. Oct. 30, 2018, at U.S. Penitentiary Hazelton in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, lower than 12 hours after he arrived in a switch from a federal penitentiary in Florida.
Prosecutors accused Geas and DeCologero fatally placing Bulger in the pinnacle a number of instances.
Geas and DeCologero have been additionally charged with aiding and abetting first-degree homicide and assault ensuing in critical bodily damage, the assertion mentioned. McKinnon was accused of creating false statements to a federal agent, it mentioned.
Geas and DeCologero have been behind bars after they have been charged. The FBI took McKinnon into custody in Ocala, Florida, an FBI spokesperson mentioned.
Authorities have described Geas — who’s serving a life sentence for homicide — because the central suspect in Bulger’s slaying. According to federal prosecutors, he was an enforcer for the New England mafia in the Nineteen Nineties and the 2000s, making him a rival of Bulger, who was the chief of Boston’s Irish mob and a secret FBI informant.
McKinnon was Geas’ cellmate at Hazelton, the place he was serving an eight-year time period for stealing weapons from a Vermont firearms retailer. Both males — alongside with DeCologero — have been positioned in solitary confinement in the hours after Bulger was discovered overwhelmed to demise.
McKinnon, who was launched from Hazelton in February and had lived at a midway home till he moved in with his mom in July, mentioned final yr that he’s harmless.
His mom, Cheryl Prevost, mentioned Thursday that she was shocked when she bought a name from the FBI on Thursday night saying he had been arrested. McKinnon was thriving in his new life in Florida, Prevost mentioned, the place he was working for a producing firm that produced mills.
“He just got a big bonus for being there three months and not missing any time,” Prevost mentioned. “He had started paying off his fines. He was doing so good.”
McKinnon referred to as her on the cellphone from his detention facility and informed her he was involved about shedding his job.
“He’s calling it a federal witch hunt,” Prevost mentioned. “But he’s just trying to go with the flow because there’s nothing he can do.”
DeCologero was serving a 25-year sentence for racketeering and witness tampering when he was charged.
It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not he or Geas have attorneys to talk on their behalf.
Bulger, who was in a wheelchair when he was fatally overwhelmed — and who was the inspiration for Jack Nicholson’s character in “The Departed” — had been on the run for 16 years when he was captured in Santa Monica, California, in 2011. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2013.
In 2019, Bulger’s household filed a $200 million wrongful demise swimsuit, claiming that authorities “deliberately” positioned him in hurt’s manner when he was transferred to Hazelton. A judge dismissed the suit final yr.
CORRECTION (Aug. 18, 2022, 8:30 p.m. ET): A earlier model of this text misstated when Sean McKinnon mentioned in an interview that he’s harmless in Bulger’s killing. He mentioned it in March 2021, not earlier this yr.