The Details of Whitey Bulger's Killing Are Hard to Read

Crime boss was apparently 'unrecognizable'
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 1, 2018 11:30 AM CDT
The Details of Whitey Bulger's Killing Are Gruesome
This June 23, 2011, file booking photo provided by the US Marshals Service shows James "Whitey" Bulger.   (U.S. Marshals Service via AP, File)

More gruesome details of Whitey Bulger's fatal prison beating are out: "They apparently tuned him up to the point where he was unrecognizable," one law enforcement official tells the New York Times. The Boston crime boss's eyes were "dislodged" from his head, though it wasn't clear whether that was due to the severity of the beating or the killers' reported attempts to gouge out his eyes. Surveillance video captured at least two inmates rolling the 89-year-old's wheelchair into the corner of his cell where the attack took place, out of view of the cameras. TMZ's sources say three inmates were involved. Bulger was beaten with a padlock inside a sock; he was covered in bruises, bleeding profusely, and reportedly had "several dents in his head" when prison authorities found him. CNN's source confirms the report that the attackers also tried to cut out Bulger's tongue.

A prison official confirms that Fotios "Freddy" Geas, the incarcerated hit man rumored to be behind the slaying, was allegedly involved. Geas' lawyer says he has no idea whether his client had anything to do with it, but notes that he does have "a particular distaste for cooperators." Bulger was a longtime FBI informant. Geas and at least one other inmate were sent to solitary confinement after Bulger's death, sources say. Federal officials are investigating the death as a homicide, and investigations have also begun into why Bulger was left in the general prison population after being transferred to the West Virginia prison where he was killed. Still, many in Boston were relieved to see Bulger, whom a federal jury found culpable in 11 killings, gone. Says one 85-year-old, "There's an old saying, 'What goes around comes around.'" (Click to see Bulger's rat-shaped pen holder.)

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