Inside the West Virginia prison where James “Whitey” Bulger was beaten to death, there is little shock about his violent demise, apparently at the hands of fellow inmates. The notorious 89-year-old former Boston mobster, who was serving two consecutive life sentences plus five years for his role in 11 murders, was found unresponsive at 8:20 a.m. Tuesday just hours after he arrived at the prison. A Mafia hit man identified as Fotios “Freddy” Geas, who is serving a life sentence at the prison for murder, is a suspect in Bulger’s death, the Associated Press reported. “Am I surprised there’s been another murder? No,” said Richard Heldreth, president of Local 420 of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 800 employees at the U.S. Penitentiary Hazelton in Bruceton Mills, W.Va. “It wouldn’t surprise me if there was another one tomorrow. We are severely understaffed.” Advertisement The U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of West Virginia and the FBI are investigating Bulger’s death as a homicide — the third inmate slaying at the Hazelton prison in seven months. In September, inmate Demario Porter, 27, who was serving a 26-month sentence for a parole violation, was killed in a violent altercation with another inmate. In April, inmate Ian Thorne, 48, who was serving a 20-year sentence for conspiracy to commit murder, was killed in a fight in a housing unit. Union officials have raised a flurry of concerns over the last year about acute understaffing and lethal violence at the prison, which is categorized as a high-security lockup. There are more than 3,000 inmates at the prison complex. “We’re short of 42 correctional officers,” Heldreth said, noting that the Hazelton complex is authorized to have 445 correctional officers but only has 403. “It affects the security of the prison.” Prisons across the nation have dealt with extreme shortfalls in correctional officers since the Trump administration imposed a hiring freeze in January 2017 and the Bureau of Prisons stopped filling vacant positions. At the beginning of this year, the agency eliminated 6,000 positions nationwide, a 14% reduction in staffing levels. The cuts included 127 jobs at Hazelton. James “Whitey” Bulger as a young man. (Associated Press) With fewer staff, corrections officers find it harder to control contraband, keep an eye on inmates and respond swiftly to emergencies in the massive facility, said Justin Tarovisky, executive vice president of Local 420 at Hazelton. In an effort to fill in the gaps, he said, the Bureau of Prisons regularly leans on teachers, secretaries, counselors and other civilian employee with little to no experience to serve as corrections officers. While all prison workers get the same initial basic training, workers who typically work security are more familiar with the inmates and better equipped to anticipate problems. Advertisement “Take a teacher, an electrician or a plumber and throw them in there for a day, they’re not familiar with anything,” Heldreth said. “It’s a bad situation as we have to be on our toes working around these guys.” Staff who responded Tuesday morning began life-saving measures, but Bulger was pronounced dead by the Preston County medical examiner, the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement. The agency did not say why Bulger was transferred to Hazelton from U.S. Penitentiary Coleman in Sumterville, Fla. Nor did it comment on why Bulger, a high-profile elderly inmate, was allowed to enter the prison’s general population given his long record of violent killings. “He was sentenced to life in prison, but as a result of decisions by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, that sentence has been changed to the death penalty,” Bulger’s defense attorney, J.W. Carney, said in a statement. Advertisement Over the last year, a stream of U.S. congressmen and senators — from both sides of the political aisle — have joined union officials in raising the issue of public safety at the prison. “Inadequate staffing creates dangerous conditions for our corrections officers and our communities,” said Rep. David B. McKinley (R-W.Va.) after the April slaying at Hazelton. “When our federal prisons have to resort to using nurses or cooks to fulfill the duties of correctional officers, the solution isn’t to cut positions. You need to increase your staffing levels.” This month, a congresswoman representing the District of Columbia, Eleanor Holmes Norton, urged Justice Department Inspector Gen. Michael Horowitz to open a formal investigation into the “appalling” conditions at Hazelton. James “Whitey” Bulger and girlfriend Catherine Greig before he became a fugitive. (Boston Globe) Advertisement According to Norton, the family of one inmate said he had been “beaten badly by … prison guards to the point they fractured his ribs,” while another reported he was attacked by guards and left in solitary confinement, unable to receive medical attention for days. Last week, a bipartisan group of five U.S. senators, including Joe Manchin III and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, wrote to Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions to express “deep concerns” about staffing at the Bureau of Prisons, specifically mentioning the recent homicides at the Hazelton facility. “This is unacceptable,” they wrote. UPDATES: Advertisement 3:40 p.m.: The story was updated with reaction from prison union leaders and politicians. The story was originally published at 11:10 a.m.<doc-sep>No official details were given on the circumstances of Mr. Bulger’s death. But some of the federal prison employees, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because the information was not yet public, said Mr. Bulger did not die of old age. Rather, they said, he was beaten to death by at least two fellow inmates at the West Virginia federal prison, where he had been transferred to the day before. Inside a maximum security cell at the U.S. Penitentiary, Hazelton in Bruceton Mills, W. Va., Mr. Bulger was likely attacked early in the morning — sometime between 6 a.m., when cell doors were unlocked so inmates could go to breakfast, and 8 a.m., when the staff made rounds, federal prison employees said. Mr. Bulger had not emerged from his cell for breakfast and when prison staff went to check on him, they found him wrapped in blankets and unresponsive, they said. When they tried to shake him, blood spattered the floor. He was dead. One of the federal prison workers said that the inmates involved in the killing were thought to be “affiliated with the mob.” Separately, a senior law enforcement official, who oversees organized crime cases but was not involved in the investigation into Mr. Bulger’s death, said he was told by a federal official that an organized crime figure was believed to be responsible. And a lawyer for Mr. Bulger, J.W. Carney Jr., made clear that he blamed the prison system for the death of his client, whom, he said, he was proud to have been appointed to represent. “He was sentenced to life in prison, but as a result of decisions by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, that sentence has been changed to the death penalty,” Mr. Carney said. Mr. Bulger is by no means the first organized crime figure to be killed once arrested, tried, convicted and sent off to serve his time.<doc-sep>Notorious Boston mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger was found dead at a West Virginia prison on Tuesday, federal officials told NBC News. Bulger, 89, was reportedly killed at Hazleton Penitentiary, a federal prison where he'd recently been transferred, according to multiple reports. It is not yet clear why Bulger was moved. The mobster was reportedly beaten to death by fellow inmates who left him disfigured beyond recognition, according to The New York Times. ADVERTISEMENT The penitentiary where Bulger was killed is known as one of the federal system's roughest prisons, according to local outlet WVNews. The former organized crime boss led the Winter Hill Gang in Boston for years before he was convicted in 2013 of 11 murders across multiple states. He was also convicted of racketeering, extortion, conspiracy, money-laundering and drug dealing. Bulger spent 16 years as one of the nation's most-wanted fugitives until he was captured in 2011, NBC reported. He was serving two life sentences. -- Updated 4:24 p.m.<doc-sep>
Notorious mobster James "Whitey" Bulger was found unresponsive in his cell at Hazelton Penitentiary James “Whitey” Bulger, the notorious Boston mob boss who spent 15 years on the lam and was the subject of a movie starring Johnny Depp, was found dead Tuesday at a federal prison in West Virginia, PEOPLE confirms. Bulger, 89, was found “unresponsive” at approximately 8:20 a.m. at Hazelton Penitentiary in Bruceton Mills, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE. “Life-saving measures were initiated immediately by responding staff,” the statement read. “Mr. Bulger was subsequently pronounced dead by the Preston County Medical Examiner.” The bureau said the FBI is investigating his death. Bulger had been serving two life sentences. “No staff or other inmates were injured, and at no time was the public in danger,” the statement said. It is unclear how the mobster died, but three sources told the Boston Globe that a fellow inmate with Mafia ties is being looked at in his death. The Globe reported Bulger had been at the facility since Monday. whitey-bulger-3 James “Whitey” Bulger | Credit: REX/Shutterstock Bulger was convicted in 2013 of 31 federal criminal counts including participating in drug dealing, extortion and murder. He was also convicted of committing or ordering the murders of 11 people during the 1970s and ’80s. whitey-bulger-2 James “Whitey” Bulger | Credit: Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty For nearly three decades, Bulger served as the head of Boston’s Winter Hill Gang. He fled Massachusetts in 1994 after an FBI agent warned him he was about to be indicted. (Bulger had been an FBI informant.) Bulger spent more than 15 years on the run, but authorities caught up with him in 2011, apprehending him in Santa Monica, California. Actor Johnny Depp portrayed Bulger in the 2015 film Black Mass. In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his bid to have his convictions overturned.