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Notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger was killed Tuesday at a West Virginia prison, federal prosecutors said.
“The FBI will be conducting an investigation into the death of James Bulger. No other information will be released at this time,” Stacy Bishop, a spokeswoman for William J. Powell, the US attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia, said in a statement.
Three people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said a fellow inmate with Mafia ties was being investigated for the slaying at the US Penitentiary Hazelton.
Bulger’s brother, John, said in a brief telephone interview Tuesday that the family had not been notified of his death.
The WV News website reported that a male inmate was slain overnight at the maximum security prison where Bulger, 89, was being held. A union official said a man had been killed, but he didn’t know who.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons didn’t immediately respond to inquiries seeking comment.
It was not the first death reported at USP Hazelton this year. According to The Associated Press, an inmate at the prison was killed in a fight in September, and another inmate was killed in a fight there in April.
Bulger, who had been serving a life sentence for 11 murders, had landed Monday at the West Virginia facility after a quick stop at an Oklahoma City transfer site. Before that, he had been incarcerated at a Florida prison.
USP Hazelton is located in Bruceton Mills, W. Va., with a minimum-security satellite camp, according to the Bureau of Prisons website.
J.W. Carney Jr., Bulger’s defense attorney in his federal trial, declined to comment on the reports of his death.
Bulger’s appellate attorneys, James H. Budreau and Hank Brennan, said they had no information and declined comment.
The former South Boston crime boss and longtime FBI informant was one of America’s most wanted criminals until his capture in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2011 after more than 16 years on the run.
In 2013, a federal jury in Boston convicted him of participating in 11 murders in the 1970s and 1980s while running a sprawling criminal enterprise involved in gambling, extortion, and drug trafficking.
Bulger was transferred to US Penitentiary Coleman II in Sumterville, Fla., in 2014 from another high-security penitentiary in Arizona after his relationship with a female psychologist who was counseling him came under scrutiny.
Conditions at USP Hazelton have come under scrutiny recently.
Earlier this month, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton called for US Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz to open a formal investigation “into the alleged appalling conditions inmates are facing at” the Hazelton facility, citing the deaths of the two inmates earlier in the year “during violent altercations,” an Oct. 18 news release from Norton’s office said.
“Serious allegations have been raised concerning brutal treatment of inmates housed 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 employees serving in this facility have likely received inadequate training, are under-supported, and are being compelled to perform duties outside the scope of their positions and their training, which is leading to these horrific and entirely unacceptable outcomes.”
John R. Ellement, Travis Andersen, Emily Sweeney, Matt Rocheleau, and Martin Finucane of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Travis Andersen can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TAGlobe. Shelley Murphy can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @shelleymurph.
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