Breaking News! Prosecutors Announce Plea Deals for 3 Men Charged in Whitey Bulger’s 2018 Prison Killing

WASHINGTON – Three men charged with the 2018 prison murder of famed Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger have made plea deals with prosecutors, according to court documents released Monday.

The plea agreements for Fotios “Freddy” Geas, Paul J. DeCologero, and Sean McKinnon were made public nearly six years after the 89-year-old criminal was battered to death in his cell at a problematic West Virginia jail.

Geas, a former Mafia hitman, and DeCologero, a Massachusetts criminal, were charged with repeatedly punching Bulger in the head while McKinnon acted as a lookout.

DeCologero informed an inmate witness that Bulger was a “snitch” and that as soon as he entered their unit, they planned to murder him. DeCologero also informed an inmate that he and Geas used a belt with a lock attached to pummelled Bulger to death, according to authorities. Geas and DeCologero were recognized as suspects shortly after Bulger’s death, but they went uncharged for years as the investigation continued.

Prosecutors in West Virginia federal court sought the court to schedule hearings for the men to modify their not-guilty pleas and be punished, but they did not disclose any information on the plea deals, which have not yet been entered in court.

Belinda Haynie, Geas’ attorney, declined to comment on Monday. The attorneys for the remaining two defendants did not immediately reply to The Associated Press’s requests for comment.

The Justice Department announced last year that it will not seek the death penalty for Geas and DeCologero, who were charged with murder. All three males were charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, which can result in a life sentence. McKinnon was also charged with providing false information to a federal agent.

Bulger, who ran Boston’s primarily Irish mob in the 1970s and 1980s, was an FBI informant who turned on his gang’s major opponent. He became one of the country’s most wanted fugitives after escaping Boston in 1994 on a tip from his FBI handler that he was likely to be charged. He was apprehended at the age of 81, after more than 16 years on the run.

In 2013, he was found guilty of 11 murders and hundreds of other gangland crimes, many of which occurred while he was allegedly an FBI informant.

Bulger was assassinated only hours after being moved from a Florida prison to USP Hazelton in West Virginia and placed in the general population. Following Bulger’s death, experts generally criticised his transfer to Hazelton, where personnel had already raised concerns about violence and understaffing, as well as his placement in the general population rather than more protective accommodation.

A Justice Department inspector general investigation concluded in 2022 that his death was the consequence of numerous layers of managerial failings, pervasive incompetence, and defective Bureau of Prisons rules. The inspector general discovered no proof of “malicious intent” by any bureau personnel, but claimed a sequence of procedural errors left Bulger at the mercy of rival criminals behind jail.

DeCologero, a member of an organized crime gang managed by his uncle in Massachusetts, was convicted of purchasing heroin in order to attempt to kill a young girl his uncle wanted dead because he worried she would betray the group to authorities. The heroin did not kill her, so another man snapped her neck, dismembered her, and buried her body in the woods, according to court records.

Geas was a close Mafia associate and enforcer, although he was not an official “made” member because he is Greek rather than Italian. He and his brother were sentenced to life in prison in 2011 for their roles in a number of violent crimes, including the 2003 murder of Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno, a Genovese crime family head in Springfield, Massachusetts. According to authorities, another gangster ordered Bruno’s killing because he was furious that he had spoken with the FBI.

McKinnon was on federal supervised release after serving a prison sentence for stealing rifles from a firearms dealer when he was arrested on charges in Bulger’s death.