3 men charged in 2018 prison killing of Whitey Bulger have plea deals, prosecutors say

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three men accused in the 2018 prison killing of notorious Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger have taken plea deals with prosecutors, according to court documents filed Monday.

The plea deals for Fotios “Freddy” Geas, Paul J. DeCologero and Sean McKinnon were revealed nearly six years after the 89-year-old gangster was beaten to death in his cell at a troubled Virginia prison from the West.

Geas, a former mob hitman, and DeCologero, a Massachusetts gangster, were accused of repeatedly hitting Bulger in the head while McKinnon served as a bodyguard.

DeCologero told an inmate witness that Bulger was a “spy” and that as soon as he entered their facility, they planned to kill him. DeCologero also told an inmate that he and Geas used a belt with a padlock attached to beat Bulger to death, prosecutors said.

Geas and DeCologero were identified as suspects shortly after Bulger’s death, but remained elusive for years as the investigation continued.

Prosecutors in federal court in West Virginia asked the court to schedule hearings for the men to change their pleas to not guilty and be sentenced, although they did not provide further details about the plea agreements, which were not filed in court .

Belinda Haynie, a lawyer for Geas, declined to comment Monday. Attorneys for the other two defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

The Justice Department said last year it would not seek the death penalty for Geas and DeCologero, who were charged with murder. All three men were charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, which carries up to life in prison. McKinnon was also charged with making false statements to a federal agent.

Bulger, who led Boston’s largely Irish mob in the 1970s and ’80s, served as an FBI informant who criticized his gang’s chief rival. He became one of the nation’s most wanted fugitives after fleeing Boston in 1994 on a tip from his FBI handler that he was about to be indicted. He was captured at the age of 81, after more than 16 years on the run.

In 2013, he was convicted of a string of 11 murders and dozens of other gang crimes, many of them committed while he was said to be an FBI informant.

Bulger was killed just hours after being transferred from a Florida detention center to USP Hazelton in West Virginia and placed in general population. Bulger’s transfer to Hazelton, where workers had already sounded the alarm about violence and understaffing, and his placement in general population instead of more secure housing was widely criticized by experts after his murder.

A Justice Department inspector general investigation found in 2022 that his killing was the result of multiple levels of management failures, widespread incompetence and flawed policies at the Bureau of Prisons. The inspector general found no evidence of “malicious intent” by any bureau employees, but said a series of bureaucratic blunders left Bulger at the mercy of rival gangsters behind bars.

DeCologero, who was part of an organized crime ring run by his uncle in Massachusetts, was convicted of buying heroin that was used to try to kill a teenage girl his uncle wanted dead because he feared she would betray the police crew. The heroin didn’t kill her, so another man snapped her neck, dismembered her and buried her remains in the woods, court records show.

Geas was close to the Mafia and acted as an enforcer, but was not an official “designated” member because he is Greek, not Italian. He and his brother were sentenced to life in prison in 2011 for their roles in several violent murders, including the 2003 killing of Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno, a Genoese boss of the Springfield, Massachusetts crime family. Another mobster ordered Bruno killed because he was upset that he had spoken to the FBI, prosecutors said.

McKinnon was released on federal supervision after serving prison time for stealing guns from a firearms dealer when he was arrested on charges of Bulger’s murder.

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Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia.