A former Mafia hitman, Fotios “Freddy” Geas, is facing sentencing for the fatal prison assault on Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger. Geas changed his plea from not guilty after reaching a deal with prosecutors. The assault occurred in October 2018, at the U.S. Penitentiary, Hazelton in West Virginia, where Geas used a lock attached to a belt to repeatedly strike the 89-year-old Bulger in the head.
James “Whitey” Bulger, a notorious figure in the Boston underworld, was known for running the Irish mob in the 1970s and ’80s. Despite working as an FBI informant and providing information about his gang’s rival, Bulger denied being a government informant. Bulger evaded authorities after fleeing Boston in 1994 and was apprehended at the age of 81 in 2011. He was later convicted of multiple crimes, including 11 murders.
Geas, already serving a life sentence for previous violent offenses, was charged with murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in Bulger’s death. Prosecutors confirmed that last year the death penalty would not be pursued in this case. Plea deals for Geas and two other Hazelton inmates were made public in May, with the court scheduling Geas’s sentencing for the same plea hearing.
During the assault on Bulger, another prisoner, Paul J. DeCologero, was involved and sentenced to over four years in prison for acting as a lookout while Geas carried out the attack. A third inmate, Sean McKinnon, admitted to lying to FBI agents about the incident. Reports from a witness revealed that DeCologero had planned the attack on Bulger due to a belief that he was a “snitch”.
