By Alanna Durkin Richer | Related Press
BOSTON — Three males, together with a Mafia hitman, have been charged within the 2018 killing of infamous Boston crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger, the Justice Division mentioned Thursday.
The fees in opposition to Fotios “Freddy” Geas, Paul J. DeCologero and Sean McKinnon come practically 4 years after Bulger’s killing, which raised questions on why the identified “snitch” was positioned within the West Virginia jail’s normal inhabitants as an alternative of extra protecting housing. The boys had been charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree homicide.
Authorities haven't revealed a doable motive for Bulger’s killing in October 2018, which got here hours after he was transferred to USP Hazelton in West Virginia from a jail in Florida. He had been serving a life sentence for 11 murders and different crimes. Prosecutors allege Geas and DeCologero struck Bulger within the head a number of instances, inflicting his demise.
Bulger, who ran the largely Irish mob in Boston within the Seventies and ’80s, served as an FBI informant who ratted on his gang’s important rival, in line with the bureau. He later turned one of many nation’s most-wanted fugitives. Bulger strongly denied ever being a authorities informant.
The Justice Division has additionally charged Geas, 55, and DeCologero, 48, with aiding and abetting first-degree homicide, together with assault leading to critical bodily damage. Geas faces a separate cost of homicide by a federal inmate serving a life sentence, and McKinnon, 36, is charged individually with making false statements to a federal agent.
Geas and DeCologero had been recognized as suspects shortly after Bulger’s demise, in line with legislation enforcement officers on the time, however they remained uncharged because the investigation dragged on for years.
All three had been positioned in solitary confinement all through the probe, members of the family informed The Boston Globe. McKinnon’s mom informed the newspaper that her son, who was Geas’ cellmate on the time of Bulger’s killing, informed her he didn’t know something in regards to the slaying.
Daniel Kelly, an legal professional for Geas, mentioned Thursday that the costs aren’t a shock, however don’t justify his shopper’s continued placement in solitary confinement.
Emails in search of remark had been despatched Thursday to an legal professional for Bulger’s household. It wasn’t instantly clear if McKinnon and DeCologero had attorneys to touch upon their behalf.
Geas stays in jail in Hazelton. DeCologero is being held in one other federal jail facility. McKinnon was launched from jail final month after pleading responsible in 2015 to stealing weapons from a firearms seller. He was on federal supervised launch when the indictment was handed down, and was arrested Thursday in Florida.
Bulger was the third inmate killed in six months at USP Hazelton, the place staff and advocates had lengthy warned of harmful circumstances on the penitentiary nicknamed “Distress Mountain.”
Bulger’s household sued the Federal Bureau of Prisons and 30 unnamed staff of the jail system over his demise, alleging it appeared the gangster was “intentionally despatched to his demise.” A federal choose dismissed the household’s lawsuit in January.
Bulger fled Boston in late 1994 after his FBI handler, John Connolly Jr., warned him he was about to be indicted.
After greater than 16 years on the run and with a $2 million reward on his head, he was captured at age 81 in Santa Monica the place he had been dwelling in a rent-controlled house close to the seashore together with his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig.
He was convicted in 2013 of the 11 slayings, in addition to extortion and money-laundering after a sensational racketeering trial.
His switch to Hazelton was prompted by disciplinary points, a federal legislation enforcement official informed The Related Press in 2018. The official insisted on anonymity as a result of they weren't approved to launch particulars. In February 2018, Bulger threatened an assistant supervisor on the jail in Florida, telling her “your day of reckoning is coming.”
A jail staff’ union official informed the AP that yr that sending Bulger to the troubled federal penitentiary that housed different New England gangsters was like giving him a “demise sentence.”
However Bulger by no means admitted to working for the FBI. Court docket papers made public within the civil case introduced by his household confirmed that he was interviewed by workers after arriving at Hazelton about whether or not there have been causes he needs to be stored out of the final inhabitants. An consumption screening kind signed by Bulger mentioned he answered “no” to questions resembling “have you ever assisted legislation enforcement brokers in any means?”
DeCologero was a part of an organized crime gang led by his uncle on Massachusetts’ North Shore referred to as the “DeCologero Crew.”
He was convicted of shopping for heroin that was used to attempt to kill a teenage woman his uncle needed useless as a result of he feared she “would betray the crew to police.” The heroin didn’t kill her, so one other man broke her neck, dismembered her and buried her stays within the woods, court docket information say.
Geas was a detailed affiliate of the Mafia and acted as an enforcer, however was not an official “made” member as a result of he’s Greek, not Italian.
Geas and his brother had been sentenced to life in jail in 2011 for his or her roles in a number of violent crimes, together with the 2003 killing of Adolfo “Huge Al” Bruno, a Genovese crime household boss in Springfield, Massachusetts. One other mobster ordered Bruno’s killing as a result of he was upset he had talked to the FBI, prosecutors mentioned.