[102] Bulger was indicted in Florida for the murder of Callahan and in Oklahoma for the murder of Roger Wheeler, and could have received the death penalty in those states. [84] Before his 1987 death by drug overdose, McGonagle reportedly held Bulger responsible for the murders of his brothers, twins Donald and Paul McGonagle, who were killed in the fighting which occurred during the Mullen-Killeen gang war. [74][78] Michael Donahue, a friend of Halloran's from Dorchester, incidentally ran into him at the restaurant. "[35]:231232 As they adjourned to a nearby Japanese restaurant, Bulger finally revealed how exhausted he was with life on the run. Flanked by Weeks and Flemmi, Bulger would inform each dealer that he had been offered a substantial sum in return for that dealer's assassination. After reporting the story for several days, Corsetti was approached by a man who said, "I'm Jim Bulger and if you continue to write shit about me, I'm going to blow your fucking head off. Bulger was charged with murder, "conspiracy to commit murder, extortion, narcotics distribution and money-laundering". It is still unknown why Cosmo Dinardo and his accomplice Sean Kratz ended the lives of four men over marijuana deals, but there are some theories that can help explain why Dinardo devised his evil plan. [66] A confirmed report by an off-duty Boston police officer after a San Diego screening of The Departed also led to a search in southern California that lasted "a few weeks". "[119], On August 18, 2022, three men were indicted in connection with the beating death of Bulger: Fotios Geas, Paul J. DeCologero, and Sean McKinnon. And investigators narrowed in on suspects immediately after his shocking slaying in a . He was one of the most infamous criminals to ever be killed behind bars. On June 3, Paul E. Coffey, the head of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the Department of Justice, gave a sworn statement admitting that Bulger had been an FBI informant. Geas and DeCologero are accused of striking Bulger, 89, in the head several times in October 2018, causing his death, the district attorney's office said. [37], Bulger and eighteen other inmates, all of whom had volunteered in return for reduced sentences, were given LSD and other drugs over an eighteen-month period. Infamous Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger has been found dead in a US federal prison in West Virginia. If he had a gun on him, he would go out in a blaze of glory rather than spend the rest of his life in jail. [75][76] The Boston Globe identified the tipster as Anna Bjrnsdttir, a former model, actress, and Miss Iceland 1974, who lived in Bulger's neighborhood. [citation needed]. Winter Hill was never the same as far as wise guys go," he said. The FBI, by this time considered compromised, was not informed. UPDATE (Aug. 18, 2022, 5:00 p.m. The last nickname came from his habit of wearing cowboy boots, which he used to hide a switchblade. [19], Bulger was transferred to several facilities in October 2018; first to the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma and then to the United States Penitentiary, Hazelton, near Bruceton Mills, West Virginia. He then drove to Boston and dropped off Stanley in a parking lot. Bulger reminisced fondly about his time hiding out with a family in Louisiana. BOSTON (Reuters) - James "Whitey" Bulger's longtime partner in crime recalled on Friday how the mob boss killed the sidekick's girlfriend in 1981, strangling her after learning she knew about. Bulger, the ruthless leader who was at the helm of the South Boston-based Winter Hill Gang, was convicted in 2013 for his involvement in a slew of crimes, including 11 murders. Writing in 2006, Weeks recalled:[35]:235. [61], On November 17, 1999, Weeks was arrested by a combined force of the DEA and the Massachusetts State Police. There was no way that would be allowed. [45], "As a criminal, he made a point of only preying upon criminals And when things couldn't be worked out to his satisfaction with these people, after all the other options had been explored, he wouldn't hesitate to use violence. He was beaten to death by the inmates when he was in his wheelchair, soon after he arrived there. There were more and more names of Polish and Irish guys, of people we had done business with, of friends of mine. Whitey Bulger is the former leader of the Winter Hill Gang, an Irish-American crime family based in Boston, Massachusetts. The 89-year-old was discovered unresponsive at the maximum security facility shortly. Nearly four years after James "Whitey" Bulger's killing, 55-year-old Fotios "Freddy" Geas, 48-year-old Paul "Pauly" DeCologero, and 36-year-old Sean McKinnon were charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. He would not be arrested again for forty-six years.[41]. [17] On November 14, he was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences plus five years by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. She has been living quietly in South Boston with her twin sister Margaret McCusker. It was hard to figure out why Louie lied to Jimmy that night. James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger Jr. (/bldr/; September 3, 1929 October 30, 2018) was an American organized crime boss who led the Winter Hill Gang in the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, a city directly northwest of Boston. The disappearance of four young men took the media by storm, and it soon became a national headline. Whitey Bulger, the notorious and colorful Boston mobster whose life was captured on the big screen, has died in a federal prison and - according to TMZ - the death was gruesome and brutal.. Bulger had also set up safe deposit boxes containing cash, jewelry and passports in locations across North America and Europe, including Florida, Oklahoma, Montreal, Dublin, London, Birmingham and Venice. [2][3] On December 23, 1994, Bulger fled the Boston area and went into hiding after his former FBI handler, John Connolly, tipped him off about a pending RICO indictment against him. His family, and Halloran's, eventually filed a civil lawsuit against the U.S. government after learning that Connolly had informed Bulger of Halloran's informant status. He was issued a pistol permit within 24 hours. 'He was color coordinated,' Jimmy told me. [citation needed], In the summer of 1991, Bulger and Weeks, along with associates Patrick and Michael Linskey, came into possession of a winning Massachusetts Lottery ticket which had been bought at a store he owned. A week later, Tommy was dead. This led to him meeting more experienced criminals and finding more lucrative opportunities. Agents found "more than $800,000 in cash, 30 firearms, and fake IDs" at the apartment. [20] Bulger, who was in a wheelchair, was beaten to death by inmates on October 30, 2018, within hours of his arrival at Hazelton. And Jimmy said, "I'm never going to hurt like this again."[129]. the FBI.[8][9][10][11]. In the summer of 1983, tensions between the Winter Hill Gang and the Patriarca family escalated to an all-time high. I could see that a lot of the reports were not just against the Italians. The two of them traveled all over Europe, sometimes separating for a while. In Hunting Whitey: The Inside Story of the Capture & Killing of America's Most Wanted Crime Boss, authors Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge reveal how notorious gangster Whitey Bulger finally got caught. [98] On August 12, the jury convicted Bulger of 31 out of 32 counts in the indictment. [35][36] Evidence of the experiments were later confirmed as CIA documentation emerged. [97] However, rumors circulated that the psychologist[citation needed] was too sympathetic to Bulger, and may even have allowed him to use her cell phone. You're out of business. He repeatedly got in fights with other inmates who accused Bulger of being "a rat." The victim never testified, and all law enforcement documents were redacted of his full name; law enforcement had hoped he would cooperate fully and then go into witness protection. Whitey Bulger Death Bulger passed away on 30th October 2018 in the United States Penitentiary, Hazelton in West Virginia. He was beaten so mercilessly that he couldn't be recognized. "[35]:206. Jimmy and I were friends, not like father and son. He is 12 years of my life. Bulger developed a reputation as a thief and street fighter fiercely loyal to South Boston. Three men were charged Thursday in connection with the 2018 death of notorious mobster James "Whitey" Bulger, federal prosecutors announced. He then killed McIntyre and went upstairs to take a nap while Weeks and Flemmi removed the corpse's teeth with a pair of pliers and buried it in the basement. He was serving two life sentences for. In his letter about the events that almost led to his death he wrote, "I thought someone was taking target practice at us. Suspecting that this was not the first time this had happened, Cardinale sought to force prosecutors to reveal the identities of any informants used in connection with the case. In a long political career, William rose to become President of the Massachusetts Senate. [74], Authorities received a tip from a woman in Iceland that Bulger was living in an apartment near a beach in Santa Monica. it had been bullshit when Connolly told me that the files hadn't been disseminated, that they had been for his own personal use. At Coleman, Bulger started experiencing night terrors, which he attributed to the experiments he had taken part in while incarcerated in the 1950s, where he had been administered LSD. I would see, over and over again, that some of these people had been arrested for crimes that were mentioned in these reports. At the end of our dinner, he seemed more aware of everything around him. [85] The body of Paul McGonagle, of whom Greig's sister Margaret was a widow, lay hidden and buried for 25 years on Tenean Beach in Dorchester. FBI Agent John Morris was put in charge of the Organized Crime Squad at the FBI's Boston field office in December 1977. State and federal agencies were repeatedly stymied in their attempts to build cases against Bulger and his inner circle. "Whitey Bulger took over and my dad didn't like him. [] And I'm not particularly sympathetic to some of the people involved, some of the victims' families. After his 2011 arrest, federal prosecutors tried Bulger for nineteen murders based on grand jury testimony from Kevin Weeks and other former criminal associates. Bulger was beaten to death at USP Hazelton in October 2018 hours after he was transferred from a prison in Florida, where he had been serving a life sentence for 11 murders and other crimes.. [128] According to Cyr, "He used to say that there were four people he would turn up on a street corner for: Douglas, me, Billy, or his mother. Later that same night, Jimmy killed Buddy Leonard and left him in Tommy's car on Pilsudski Way in the Old Colony projects to confuse the authorities. [18] Bulger was incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary Coleman II in Sumterville, Florida. [74] In Oklahoma, where Bulger is alleged to have ordered the killing of businessman Roger Wheeler Sr., in 1981, Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris said, "It is our intention to bring Bulger to justice and to be held accountable for the murder of Mr. In January 1968, after Hubert "Smitty" Smith, an . Eventually, however, the massive profits of drugs proved irresistible. Weeks also said that Bulger enforced strict rules over the dealers who operated on his territory,[35]:156 strictly forbidding the use of PCP and selling drugs to children,[35]:179 adding that those dealers who refused to play by his rules were violently driven out of his turf. Bulger and the Killeens fled Boston, fearing they would be next. [76][77] Still, I wish I'd killed him. Nevertheless, he received an honorable discharge in 1952 and returned to Massachusetts. He had established a whole other person, Thomas Baxter, with a complete ID and credit cards in that name. Bulger, realizing he was on the losing side, secretly approached Howie Winter, the leader of the Winter Hill Gang, and claimed he could end the war by murdering the Killeen leadership. Even when there were 400 people in the bar, you always knew Louie was there. Bulger's life had many women - and not just Lindsay Cyr, whose affair with Bulger produced a son, Douglas Glenn Cyr, in 1967. Bulger's father worked as a union laborer and occasional longshoreman; he lost his arm in an industrial accident[31]:48 and the family was reduced to poverty. I got the feeling that he was resigning himself to the fact that he wasn't coming back. In 1993 and 1994, before the pinches came down, Jimmy and Stevie were traveling on the French and Italian Riviera. [1][13][14][15] Bulger and Greig were then extradited to Boston and taken to court under heavy guard. Bulger was in a wheelchair and had been beaten to death by multiple inmates armed with a sock-wrapped padlock and a shiv. ET): Sean McKinnon was one of three men indicted on Thursday in Whitey Bulger's death. The true story of Whitey Bulger, the brother of a state senator and the most infamous violent criminal in the history of South Boston, who became an FBI informant to take down a Mafia family invading his turf. Kevin Weeks, who wrote a memoir, "Brutal: The Untold Story of My Life Inside Whitey Bulger's Irish Mob" (2006, with Phyllis Karas), said that in 1993 and 1994 Mr. Bulger prepared for life on . Casper. Bulger and Flemmi were left out of the indictments. After interrogating McIntyre over several hours, however, Bulger decided that he did not have the discipline to cut ties with everyone. Senate president: A mix of family, Southie, power", "Ancestry offers Whitey and Billy Bulger", "Boston Crime Boss James 'Whitey' Bulger Wanted for Murder", "The CIA's Secret Quest For Mind Control: Torture, LSD And A 'Poisoner In Chief', The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War, "I-Team: Whitey Bulger's Notebook Chronicles LSD Prison Testing", "Whitey bulger: i was a guinea pig for cia drug experiments", "Gangster's Life Lures Host of Storytellers", "Bulger linked to '70s antibusing attack", "New Book Offers Glimpse Into 'Whitey' Bulger's Early Years", "Gerard O'Neill, Boston Globe Investigative Reporter, Dies at 76", "A Voice for Those Silenced in a Mobster's Reign", Former State Police Lieutenant Convicted Of Obstruction, "Mob underling's tale of guns, drugs, fear", "Mike Barnicle: The best friend a gangster could have: When Whitey Bulger was at the peak of his power, he could always count on a friendly columnist to do his P.R. [118] In January 2022, U.S. District Judge John Preston Bailey dismissed the lawsuit, ruling federal law did not allow his family the right to sue Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officials because Congress expressly puts custody of inmates in the hands of the BOP, and "has repeatedly limited judicial authority to review BOP housing decisions and to entertain claims brought by prisoners. By then he was 81 years old. From the start of his involvement with the FBI, Bulger "insisted that he would never give up the IRA". By 1982, Morris was "thoroughly compromised", having had Bulger buy plane tickets for his then-girlfriend Debbie Noseworthy to visit him in Georgia while he was being trained for drug investigations. It was Donald. [31], In 1980, Bulger was approached in Triple O's by Louis Litif, a Lebanese-American neighborhood bookmaker. However, the nickname "Whitey" stuck. In the next few months, three low-level Winter Hill Gang members were executed, mostly believed to be in retribution for the kidnapping. However, the verdict was overturned on appeal due to the late filing of the claims. I want to see him well protected. [51]:221223 Soon after, on May 11, 1982, Bulger, Flemmi, and Weeks were tipped off that Halloran had returned to South Boston. Billy said, 'Don't worry about it. Whitey Bulger has died. That night, as always, he was talking in his obnoxious loud voice. Donahue was shot in the head and killed instantly. It was over. Both families were awarded several million dollars in damages. Three men, including a Mafia hitman, have been charged in the 2018 prison killing of notorious Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday. In a 2004 interview, Winter recalled that the highly intelligent Bulger "could teach the devil tricks". After Bulger's arrest, Cyr announced her support of him,[131] stating: If he wanted to see me, I'd be happy to. "[122] William said that the only contact with his brother during the fugitive years was a short telephone call in January 1995, shortly after his brother was indicted. They were ruthless murderers, Whitey himself was hardened after several life events, like a stint in Alcatraz and the death of his only son. The killing, Nowalk said, took all of seven minutes. [16] On August 12, Bulger was found guilty on 31 counts, including both racketeering charges, and was found to have been involved in eleven murders. [64][65] Following his arrest, Bulger revealed that instead of being reclusive, he had in fact traveled frequently, with witnesses coming forward to say they had seen him on the Santa Monica Pier and elsewhere in southern California. However, Connolly failed to win Bulger's trust. [97] Whether Bulger was targeted randomly or deliberately is not known. [102], In September 2014, Bulger entered the Coleman II United States Penitentiary in Sumterville, Florida. The final cache included "91 rifles, 8 submachine guns, 13 shotguns, 51 handguns, 11 bullet-proof vests, 70,000 rounds of ammunition, plus an array of hand grenades and rocket heads". Most of South Boston's cocaine and marijuana trafficking was under the control of a crew led by mobster John Shea. Apparently, Louie had insisted that he'd come by himself and that nobody had driven him over. Bulger and Greig then went on the run together. According to an excerpt of a book on Bulger published by Boston magazine, Bulger only made one friend during his post-sentencing detention,[97] Clement "Chip" Janis, a young convict who was trusted to run art classes for other convicts. [92] In March 2012, however, Greig pleaded guilty to conspiracy to harbor a fugitive, identity fraud and conspiracy to commit identity fraud. Marshal. Up until then, I always believed he thought there was a chance he had beat the case. [43]:300301, On September 5, 2006, federal judge Reginald C. Lindsay ruled that the mishandling of Bulger and Flemmi caused the 1984 murder of informant John McIntyre, awarding his family $3.1million in damages. "[35]:58 Litif responded that, as Bulger was his friend, he had nothing to worry about. She worked as a dental hygienist. [100], On November 14, 2013, Bulger was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment, plus five years. He had the means and kept a low profile. Whitey Bulger's face was completely 'unrecognisable' after prison killers gouged out the gangster's eyes and tried to hack off his tongue The 89-year-old Irish-American mobster was bludgeoned. [83] He was from a family that led the Mullen Gang and was injured during a mob gunfight in 1969. Three years have passed since Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger was killed at a West Virginia prison, but federal officials investigating his death have yet to charge anyone, the. [127] Bulger and Cyr began living together in 1966, when Cyr was 21 and a waitress at a North Quincy caf. Inmates knew mob "snitch" James "Whitey" Bulger was coming to the West Virginia prison where he was murdered, a Florida court was told Monday.