James "Whitey" Bulger Killed in Prison Fight

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Category: World News

Published on Tuesday, 30 October 2018 21:49

Written by Janet Walker

James "Whitey" Bulger, 89, convicted Mob boss who spent 15 years living quietly in Santa Monica, California while hiding from federal authorities, was killed the day after he arrived at West Virginia's Hazelton Maximum Security prison.

Bulger, who along with his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig, now 67, were captured in after federal authorities received a tip from a local resident after seeing the aging Boston mobster's face on a crime show.

On June 22, 2011, more than one hundred federal, state and local police along with SWAT surrounded the rent controlled apartment capturing Bulger and ending one of the longest manhunts in history.

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After his arrest, he was extradited to Boston, Massachusetts, and his trial began in June. He was tried on multiple counts of racketeering, money laundering, extortion, and weapons charges, including complicity in 19 murders. The state's star witness was former Bulger associate Kevin Weeks. Two months later, Bulger, was convicted of all but one of the racketeering counts and found guilty of 11 murder. He was denied his rights to present a defense.

Bulger attorney Hank Brennan, a former prosecutor, was shocked at the attempts to cover up the federal deal Bulger maintained he was given. All appeals were shut down as well. Bulger was sentenced to two consecutive life terms.

Whitey Bulger, born September 3, 1929, a career criminal, one argued the bad seed of the family, depending on who was talking as his brother, William Bulger was the former president of the Massachusetts Senate. During the 1970's Bulger led the Winter Hill Gang, an Irish organized crime family, in Boston's "Southie" neighborhood. It was also the rise of New York's Italian Organized crime families and bold Mob hits.

The FBI maintained Bulger was an informant who in exchange for information on any potential Mob hits planned against the Special Agent John Connolly. Although all information on the deal mysteriously disappeared and could never be presented as evidence, it is widely known and generally accepted that Bulger and another informant essentially ran Connelly and FBI Agent John Morris.

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For many Bulger was a mythical legend, who in absentee maintained control running the neighborhood long after he fled having been tipped off on his impending arrest.

Reports have surfaced that Bulger was murdered by a former mob hit man, also housed in Hazelton Maximum Security prison, to whom Bulger was a simply a federal rat who murdered women and jail house justice took care of what the courts wouldn't.