The USP Coleman II penitentiary in central Florida has lengthy been generally known as a secure place for presidency informants and different marked males in the federal jail system.
But when James “Whitey” Bulger arrived in 2014, Charles Lockett, the warden at the time, wasn’t going to take any probabilities. He mentioned he stored Bulger away from the common inhabitants for six months and talked to the most influential inmates to be sure that they wouldn’t make a transfer on the aged Boston mobster.
“He’s an old guy, but gangsters don’t forget,” mentioned Lockett, who’s now retired.
After 4 years at Coleman, Bulger, 89, was transferred to a jail in West Virginia with a far more violent fame. Less than 12 hours later, the wheelchair-bound crime boss was discovered bludgeoned to demise.
Federal prosecutors on Thursday introduced fees towards three males, together with a mafia hitman, in reference to the 2018 homicide. But practically 4 years after the killing, the Justice Department has nonetheless not shed any gentle on how the former mobster and FBI informant ended up in the common inhabitants of one in all the nation’s most violent prisons.
“Although the defendants may be guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, the federal prison system also needs to be held accountable,” mentioned Robert Hood, a former Bureau of Prisons chief of inside affairs and former warden at the ADX Florence “supermax” jail in Colorado. “The public needs to know why the BOP knowingly created a death sentence for Whitey Bulger.”
Hank Brennan, Bulger’s longtime lawyer, filed a lawsuit on behalf of his household towards the Bureau of Prisons in October 2020, alleging that the company had failed to defend him.
The swimsuit, which sought $200 million in damages, was dismissed in January. U.S. District Judge John Preston Bailey mentioned in his ruling that federal courts have been barred by Congress from weighing in on jail housing selections that resulted in accidents or demise.
Brennan mentioned he believes the Justice Department waited to file the fees till after the civil swimsuit was tossed to keep away from having to flip over proof that would help the household’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 mentioned.
“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 mentioned.
A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons declined to remark, saying it doesn’t present information associated to investigations.
Known for his platinum hair and penchant for violence, Bulger dominated the streets of South Boston for many years. He disappeared in 1994 forward of a looming indictment and evaded police for greater than 16 years. But the notorious fugitive was captured in Santa Monica, California, in 2011 and in the end sentenced to two life phrases for his function in 11 killings.
He had no run-ins with different inmates at the jail in Coleman. But by the finish of his time there, he was confined to a wheelchair and was coping with coronary heart issues and different well being points.
It stays unclear why he was transferred to the penitentiary in Hazelton, West Virginia fairly than a jail medical facility. Known as “misery mountain,” Hazelton had a very totally different fame than the facility in Florida.
Two inmates had been killed there in the earlier six months, and jail employees have been complaining of harmful staffing shortages.
Bulger was wheeled into a cell simply earlier than 10 p.m on Oct. 29, 2018, jail data confirmed. He was discovered useless at 8:21 a.m., a couple of hours after the cells in his unit have been unlocked so the prisoners might depart to eat breakfast.
Four inmates have been instantly positioned in solitary confinement. They included the three males who have been in the end charged — Fotios “Freddy” Geas, 55; Paul DeCologero, 48; and Sean McKinnon, 36 — in addition to Bulger’s cellmate at the time, Felix Wilson.
Geas was serving a life sentence for homicide and different crimes. He was an enforcer for the New England mafia throughout the Nineties and the early 2000s, in accordance to federal prosecutors, making him a direct rival of Bulger, who was the chief of Boston’s Irish mob.
DeCologero was serving a 25-year sentence on racketeering and witness-tampering fees.
McKinnon was Geas’ roommate at the time of the killing, however he had no ties to the mafia. He was serving a seven-year sentence for stealing weapons from a firearms retailer in Vermont.
All three remained in solitary for greater than two and a half years as the investigation dragged on.
By the time the indictment was returned, DeCologero and McKinnon had each been transferred out of Hazelton. DeCologero was in a totally different jail; McKinnon was on supervised launch in Ocala, Florida.
At his preliminary court docket look, prosecutors mentioned McKinnon acted as a lookout whereas Geas and DeCologero repeatedly struck Bulger in the head, in accordance to a transcript obtained by NBC News.
All three males have been charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree homicide. Geas and DeCologero have been hit with extra fees: aiding and abetting first-degree homicide, and assault leading to severe bodily harm. McKinnon was additionally charged with making false statements to a federal agent.
Daniel Kelly, a lawyer for Geas, mentioned his consumer’s indictment got here as no shock, however he didn’t count on it to take this lengthy.
“What’s missing from the indictment here is the people who put Mr. Bulger in that position,” Kelly mentioned. “They should be unindicted co-conspirators.”
It wasn’t identified whether or not DeCologero had employed a lawyer. McKinnon’s lawyer didn’t reply to a request for remark, however he had beforehand informed NBC News that McKinnon had nothing to do with the killing.
Alex Little, a former federal prosecutor, mentioned the lack of solutions from the federal authorities on the circumstances round Bulger’s switch was possible due to the slow-moving felony investigation.
The felony investigators have been nearly definitely probing whether or not any Bureau of Prisons staffers intentionally positioned Bulger in hurt’s manner as a part of a conspiracy with prisoners searching for to kill him, Little mentioned. And these investigators wouldn’t have needed a report to come out with yet-to-be-disclosed particulars of how Bulger ended up at Hazelton whereas the investigation was ongoing.
“It would potentially bring to light pieces of the investigation that you’d otherwise like to keep quiet,” mentioned Little, who’s now a lawyer in non-public follow in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Justice Department Office of Inspector General has launched an investigation. Lockett, the former warden at Coleman, mentioned he was interviewed by investigators a 12 months after Bulger’s killing, however he hasn’t heard from them since.
A spokesperson for the inspector common’s workplace declined to touch upon the standing of the probe.
Lockett, for his half, mentioned he nonetheless doesn’t perceive why the aged, ailing gangster had been transferred to the jail in Hazelton and positioned in a common housing unit.
“I would have never done that,” Lockett mentioned. “And if I had input, I would have said, ‘No, no, no.’”
