Ex-Mafia Hitman Sentenced To 25 Years For Killing Whitey Bulger In Prison

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (AP) A former Mafia hitman was sentenced to 25 years in prison Friday in the 2018 fatal prison bludgeoning of notorious Boston gangster James Whitey Bulger .

Federal prisoner Fotios Freddy Geas was sentenced in federal court in northern West Virginia after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and assault resulting in serious bodily injury

Prosecutors said Geas used a lock attached to a belt to repeatedly hit the 89-year-old Bulger in the head hours after he arrived at the troubled U.S. Penitentiary, Hazelton, from another lockup in Florida in October 2018. Defense attorneys disputed that characterization, saying Geas hit Bulger with his fist.

Geas, 57, already was serving a life sentence for previous violent crimes. The Justice Department said last year that it would not seek the death penalty against him in Bulgers killing.

Bulger, who ran the largely Irish gang in Boston in the 1970s and 80s, also served as an FBI informant who ratted on his gangs main rival, according to the bureau. Bulger strongly denied ever being a government informant.

Bulger became one of the nations most wanted fugitives after fleeing Boston in 1994 thanks to a tip from his FBI handler that he was about to be indicted. He was captured at age 81 after more than 16 years on the run and convicted in 2013 in 11 killings and dozens of other gangland crimes.

Another Hazelton prisoner, Massachusetts gangster Paul J. DeCologero, was sentenced to more than four years in prison in August on an assault charge in Bulgers killing. Prosecutors said he acted as a lookout for Geas. A third inmate, Sean McKinnon, pleaded guilty in June to lying to FBI special agents. McKinnon was given no additional prison time and was returned to Florida to finish his supervised release. He had served a sentence for stealing guns from a firearms dealer.

 According to court records, prisoners found out ahead of time that Bulger would be arriving at the West Virginia facility. DeCologero and Geas spent about seven minutes in Bulgers cell during the attack.

A prisoner testified to a grand jury that DeCologero told him Bulger was a snitch and they planned to kill him as soon as he came into their unit.

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

Plea deals for Geas, DeCologero and McKinnon were disclosed May 13. Geas and DeCologero were identified as suspects shortly after Bulgers death, but they remained uncharged for years as the investigation dragged on.

After the killing, experts criticized Bulgers transfer to Hazelton, where workers had already been sounding the alarm about violence and understaffing, and his placement in the general population instead of more protective housing.

A Justice Department inspector general investigation found in 2022 that the killing was the result of multiple layers of management failures, widespread incompetence and flawed policies at the federal 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.

That year, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Bulgers family against the bureau and 30 unidentified prison system employees.

In July, the U.S. Senate passed legislation to overhaul oversight and bring greater transparency to the bureau following reporting from The Associated Press that exposed systemic corruption in the federal prison system and led to increased congressional scrutiny.

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