FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

News

Infamous crime boss Whitey Bulger found dead after prison transfer, report says

The 89-year-old was recently transferred to a West Virginia penitentiary
Infamous crime boss Whitey Bulger found dead after prison transfer, report says

James “Whitey” Bulger, the infamous Boston crime boss serving a life sentence, has been killed, according to reports. Bulger was found dead after being recently transferred to the high-security United States Penitentiary Hazelton in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia. Earlier this week, he had been transferred from a Florida prison to one in Oklahoma.

Bulger, an Irish-American who was serving a lifetime sentence for killing at least 11 people, had just been moved to the prison in West Virginia when reports began to circulate that he’d been murdered there. The union president at the prison told a local news station that a “homicide” had occurred, but it was unclear if it was Bulger. The 89-year-old’s health was reportedly deteriorating.

Bulger was convicted in 2013 after spending 16 years on the run as one of the nation’s most wanted criminals. He headed up the notorious Winter Hill Gang in Boston for years, responsible for “unfathomable” acts that terrorized the city, in the words of one federal judge. Authorities captured Bulger and his girlfriend in Santa Monica in 2011.

Bulger’s brother, William Bulger, was an influential member of the Democratic Party in Boston and served as the longest-running president of the Massachusetts Senate.