'Whitey' Bulger dead: Inmate with Mafia

West Virginia gangster James "Whitey" Bulger was beaten to death by inmates Tuesday in an attack that marks the final, brutal chapter in the life of one of Boston's most notorious villains.

Two inmates were under investigation in the attack, including Fotios "Freddy" Geas, 51, a West Springfield Mafia hit man serving a life sentence for the 2003 slaying of the leader of the genovese crime family in Springfield, according to several people briefed on the attack. The men were captured on video surveillance by Bulger's cell around 6 a.m., according to one of the people.

It was about two hours later that Bulger was found, with his eyes almost gouged out, the people said.

Bulger, 89, was convicted in 2013 of participating in 11 slayings while running a sprawling criminal organization in Boston from the 1970s through the 1990s.

Bulger, who was serving a life sentence, had been sent to the US Penitentiary Hazelton, just weeks after a Washington, DC, congresswoman had called for an investigation into conditions at the prison, where two other Inmates had been killed this year.

Hazelton is a high-security prison in Bruceton Mills, W.Va., near the Maryland border, where tall brown grbad grows by the side of the road. On Tuesday night, six officers, all of whom wore helmets and bulletproof vests, stood in front of two barriers that blocked the meandering road towards the facility.

In a statement, the US Bureau of Prisons said Bulger was found unresponsive at the prison at 8:20 am Tuesday morning.

Life-saving measures were initiated immediately by responding staff. Mr. Bulger was subsequently pronounced dead by the Preston County Medical Review, "the agency said. No staff or other inmates were injured.

Bulger had a long history as an FBI informing who provided information about his Mafia rivals to help protect his own violent criminal enterprise. To many, the circumstances of his death raised suspicions.

"Said Michael Von Zamft, a prosecutor in the Miami-Dade State Attorney's office and part of the team that feels Bulger's FBI handler to prison for murder.

He said: "This is going to be a coincidence or something more."

As of late Tuesday, no charges had been announced in the attack. Geas and the other inmate had been placed in lockdown pending investigation, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

Had been sent to the West Virginia facility after a quick stop Oklahoma City transfer site. Before that, he had been incarcerated at a Florida prison for several years. His health has been declining, prompting speculation that he was going to be moved to a federal medical facility, according to a person familiar with his situation.

Instead, he was sent to USP Hazelton.

JW Carney Jr., Bulger's defense lawyer in his federal trial, said in a statement, "It has been sentenced to life in prison, but a result of decisions by the Federal Bureau of Prisons". .

Brian T. Kelly, a former federal prosecutor who was part of the team that prosecuted Bulger, said Bulger "lived a violent life and it's not surprising that he would eventually meet a violent death."

"Prison is a violent place and informants are not too popular," he said. "To suggest it's a conspiracy of some sort by the government is preposterous. He was in prison for seven years and this would be a slow-moving conspiracy. "

Relatives of Bulger's Victims of Mobster, Bulger died a violent death.

"There's one less scumbag on this earth," said Patricia Donahue, whose husband, Michael, was gunned down by Bulger along the Boston Waterfront in 1982 while giving a ride to the gangster's intended target, Brian Halloran.

"They say you die, do you know?" Donahue said. "I'm glad that he's dead, and I'm glad that he died the way he did."

Bulger was held in the general population unit of the prison, according to the prisoner. Billy St. Croix, who was killed by Bulger and St. Croix's father Stephen Flemmi, said he was surprised that Bulgarians would place in the general population at a jail where Mafia members and badociates were incarcerated.

"He obviously made a lot of enemies," he said. "I get it, but it does not give me my family any comfort. It does not bring my sister back. "

St. Croix said Bulger's family.

"I take no pleasure in his death. None. "

The prison has come under scrutiny in recent months. An inmate was killed in a fight in September, and another inmate was killed in a fight in April, according to the Associated Press.

Richard Heldreth, President of the Local 420 of the American Federation of Government Employees, who represents the union workers at the prison, said the prison, but problems have been getting worse.

"This facility is severely understaffed," he said.

Earlier this month, District of Columbia Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton Called for Department of Justice General Inspector Michael Horowitz to investigate "the alleged appalling conditions inmates are facing" at the prison.

"Serious allegations have been raised with regard to the treatment of homelessness in the Special Housing Unit," Norton wrote in a letter to Horowitz. "Based on the evidence presented to my office, I believe that the federal government is in a position to reduce the incidence of adverse events. These horrific and entirely unacceptable outcomes. "

After a federal jury convicted Bulger in 2013, he was sent to a high-security penitentiary in Arizona but soon ran into trouble because of a relationship with a female psychologist who was counseling him. In 2014, he was transferred to US Penitentiary Coleman II in Sumterville, Fla. He was there until last week when the recent transfers began.

It's unclear why he was moved. One person familiar with the situation said Bulger's health had declined, but said he had also had disciplinary problems in Florida. The West Virginia Prison is not a medical facility.

Bulger fled Boston just before his January 1995 racketeering indictment and a fixture on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List in Santa Monica, Calif., In 2011. He and his girlfriend, Catherine Greig, had spent 16 years, pbading themselves off as a retired couple, living in a rent-controlled apartment blocks from the beach.

Enrique Sanchez, who was a supervisor at the Princess Eugenia complex where Bulger lived, said he was saddened by Bulger's death.

"I feel bad," said Sanchez, now 70, in Spanish. "I'm going to remember him as a friend because that's what he always was to me. Everyone is going to remember him according to the experiences they had with him. Those he [hurt] will be happy. But he was always good with me. "

Sanchez said, "Bulger when Bulger wrote about it in Arizona, saying it had been stolen by other inmates, Sanchez said.

"'I have to defend myself or they'll kill me,'" Sanchez recalled Bulger writing. "I told him to take care of himself because he is not lacking in people."

Sanchez said that he always wanted to write a letter after the letter. On Tuesday, Sanchez learned from his son that Bulger had died.

"This closes the chapter," Sanchez said. "It's the end of the novel."

Brian MacQuarrie, Maria Cramer, John R. Ellement, Travis Andersen, Emily Sweeney, Martin Finucane, Matt Rocheleau, and Jess Bidgood of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Shelley Murphy can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @shelleymurph. Kevin Cullen can be reached at [email protected].