Report: Whitey Bulger sent prison letters outlining his failing state of health



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Bulger, leader of an Irish gang in South Boston and an FBI informant for many years, was killed in a federal prison in West Virginia last year, hours after his transfer from an institution in Florida. He was 89 years old.

The Globe got access to some of the letters Bulger sent to Candace Lind, whose father was doing laundry in another prison – Alcatraz – while Bulger was there in the 50s and 60s. She started writing for Bulger in 2014 after being sentenced to 11 lives in prison for life.

The newspaper reported that Bulger had written that he had had eight heart attacks and chest pains that he was relieving with pills and oxygen. He added that he had written daily letters to his girlfriend Catherine Greig and that he wished that she would come to visit him after his release in 2020, the Globe reported.

The Bureau of Prison records obtained by CNN last year indicate that Bulger was suffering from hypertension, aortic stenosis, and prostate and bladder problems. But the prison authorities determined that he had improved enough to be sent to a prison with fewer medical services, the Globe reported.

Former prison officials and experts have strongly questioned the decision to transfer a known personality like Bulger to a reduced security prison, particularly because of his health problems.

"Do not worry about me," Bulger wrote in February 2018, according to the Globe. "I'm too bad to die."

He told Lind that he hoped to be transferred from a Florida prison to a medical facility.

According to his death certificate, he was transferred to Hazelton, West Virginia, an American penitentiary, where he died as a result of a blunt head injury. Nobody was charged for his death.

A previous request for a Bulger transfer from Florida prison officials was denied in April 2018. The records show that the request was coded to indicate that Bulger required higher level medical care, or level of care 4, for severely affected prisoners daily nursing care.

The reason why the first transfer request was refused is not clear. In October, however, a transfer request was approved and coded to indicate that it was no longer necessary to be in a medical facility.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons said last November that it was not disclosing the reasons for the specific transfers of detainees. "According to the balance of payments policy, the designation process includes an examination (including) of the question of whether there is a known threat to the safety of other detainees," the office said. from the prison office.

That's what we learned from Whitey Bulger's death certificate.

"There was no known threat to Mr. Bulger from other inmates when they were appointed to the Hazelton Institution."

The bureau declined to comment in front of the Globe, saying it "wanted to protect the integrity" of an ongoing investigation by the FBI and the US Attorney's Office. These agencies refused to comment, according to the newspaper.

The former guardian of Hazelton told NBC News that he did not think staff were missing out on their homework.
"Frankly, I think he wanted to die," NBC Charles Lockett, the former warden of Florida Penitentiary Institution, told NBC. "I think whatever his problems, he managed to make peace with them."

Lind told The Globe that it's "crazy".

The Globe also reviewed letters sent by Bulger to Charlie Hopkins, a former Alcatraz detainee, and the writings of Hopkins and Lind "depicting a man determined to survive even though his health was deteriorating."

In other letters, Lind told the Globe that Bulger was describing some of his crimes, including murders.

Bulger also wrote that he was in prison because of a cat.

What lies behind the death of Whitey Bulger?

In June 2017, he wrote that his girlfriend, Greig, was feeding a homeless cat and had attracted the attention of a neighbor while Bulger and his partner were hidden in California.

The neighbor saw a show about the couple on television and called the FBI.

"I predict that feeding this cat would cost me – I knew we had been noticed for that," Bulger wrote, the Globe reported. "Catherine said that if we do not feed the cat, he will starve."

CNN contacted Lind Tuesday but received no immediate response.

CNN's Eric Levenson, Ray Sanchez, Jason Hanna, Jason Carroll, Darran Simon, Julia Jones and Melanie Schuman contributed to this report,

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