Authorities Suspect Murder of Whitey Bulger to Be Second Suspect

Paul J. DeCologero, a member of a notorious North Shore criminal group who stole rival drug traffickers and dismembered a teenager whom they feared to give up, turned out to be the second suspect in the assassination of James "Whitey" Bulger, a Boston offender.

Federal authorities suspect that DeCologero and another Massachusetts organized crime member, Fotios "Freddy" Geas, brutally beat Bulger to death in his cell with a padlock locked in a sock Tuesday morning, within 11 hours of his arrival at Hazelton American Penitentiary, West Virginia. according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the issue.

Geas, 51, is a mafia man serving life imprisonment for two murders. He comes from West Springfield, while DeCologero, 44, is from Lowell. According to the forces of order, their criminal orbits never crossed, but they knew each other in prison. The Globe reported Geas's alleged involvement on Tuesday.

The presence of DeCologero in Hazelton Prison, along with Geas and Paul Weadick, another Massachusetts organized crime figure serving a life sentence for murder, raises further questions as to why which officials of the United States Bureau of Prisons did not place Bulger in isolation after his transfer from a Florida jail. until they could determine whether Hazelton's detainees posed a threat to Bulger's safety. Instead, Bulger was immediately placed in the general population, which allowed his assassins to have easy access to it.

DeCologero is currently serving a 25-year jail sentence for racketeering and conspiracy that led to the 1996 assassination of 19-year-old Aislin Silva of Medford. The so-called DeCologero crew, led by DeCologero's uncle, Paul A. DeCologero, cut and threw Silva's body, which was only found in 2006.

A lawyer who represented DeCologero during her call in 2015 said she was unaware that her name had been revealed about Bulger's murder and declined to comment on Thursday.

Those who know Geas, including his former lawyers and a private investigator who worked for him, said he harbored extreme hatred for informants such as Bulger, and that he was held responsible for the murder committed by a friend.

The possible motive of Paul J. DeCologero is not so obvious, according to repressive sources, but, like Geas, his conviction was guaranteed by former criminal partners who became government witnesses, including DeCologero's father, John DeCologero.

Paul A. DeCologero ordered the assassination of Silva after the police seized weapons that his crew had concealed in Silva's apartment and feared that she was cooperating with the authorities.

The role of Paul J. DeCologero in this conspiracy was to obtain a particularly strong heroin strain that was supposed to kill Silva with an overdose. When this plan failed, another member of the crew, Kevin Meuse, killed him by breaking his neck. The crew members then dismembered him in a bathtub and laid his body in a makeshift grave somewhere in the woods of the North Shore and in a dumpster of Danvers.

Paul J. DeCologero was outraged to see his father become a government witness and testify against him. In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors described him as a full member of the DeCologero crew led by his uncle, "Big Paul."

"Paul J. was one of Paul A.'s main 'foot soldiers', available at Paul A.'s for drug trafficking, robbery, robbery and, ultimately, the murder of Aislin Silva, Prosecutors wrote.

But DeCologero's lawyer claimed that he was not a leader in this criminal activity, that he was unarmed when he committed robberies and that "his criminality was driven or affected by his own addiction ".

"Paul J. was nothing more than a lower-level drug dealer who was himself an addict and who sometimes acted like a puppet for his dominant uncle," wrote the lawyer. John Wall's defense in a sentencing memorandum.

"Paul J.'s involvement in crime and drug abuse in the family was early and involuntary. Both parents were drug addicts and drug traffickers. He was physically assaulted by his father and others. He saw his father physically abusing his mother "and" never had a positive role model or support system of any kind ".

When DeCologero got in trouble at age 15, a psychiatrist from the Ministry of Youth Services found that he was "too emotional and immature" and that he was "easily driven," according to court records . A doctor who had examined him before being convicted in 2006 for conspiracy to kill, said Silva Devaologero, said that Mr. DeCologero "could be rushed and reckless in his taking decision ".

DeCologero appealed, but the US First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his conviction in 2015, noting that he had approached a drug dealer Lowell to ask him to do so. heroin "powerful enough to overdose". He then returned to the dealer and complained that the heroin had bought earlier "was not loud enough" to get someone "off the road."

Unlike Geas, who was unlikely to leave prison, DeCologero was released on August 30, 2026.

Law enforcement officials said Geas admitted to attacking Bulger, but said he acted alone. No charges were laid.

It is not known how Geas and DeCologero learned that Bulger had arrived at the prison barely 11 hours before his attack.

Richard Heldreth, President of Local 420 of the Federation of Government Employees, who represents officers at Hazelton Penitentiary, said that he did not think any of the correctional officers had been warned at the time. In advance that Bulger would visit the institution or that we would inform potential enemies who might expect it.

"They did not know until he arrived," Heldreth said. "I have never heard of anything like" Look at it. Make sure he stays away from this guy.

The penitentiary has become increasingly dangerous over the years, due to staff cuts and attrition that have left approximately 40 correctional officers out of 450. Hazelton is allowed to surrender in the prison with 1,277 inmates. Secretaries, GED teachers, plumbers and prison electricians received a two-week training as substitute correctional officers. Every day 10 to 15 civilian employees will act as guards in the prison.

"It's a very violent establishment and it's not a suitable place," Heldreth said. "Knowing that everyone knows about media, movies and Wikipedia, it seemed very strange."

Heldreth testified that the employees and correctional officers with whom he spoke were astonished that Bulger was brought to Hazelton.

"Why did he come here first and why was he placed in the general population? This is the hottest issue of all, "said Heldreth.

Heldreth said that he did not think that there was a policy of isolating prominent inmates or a separate unit of the general population, but that it would have been logical to maintain the Bulger's separation.

Heldreth stated that two officers usually guarded each unit and that the day Bulger was killed, the numbers were normal. But he tries to check the reports of the prison staff who told him that there were not enough local people in the institution and that the counselors who are usually in the unit interact with the detainees.

Mr. Heldreth has said for years that he urged the Bureau of Prisons to strengthen the number of officers and employees in the penitentiary.

"It's sad that it takes something like that" to attract attention, he said. "I think it's a system failure. . . . Our job is to protect [inmates]. I see this as a failure of our mission when such things happen. "

Maria Cramer of Globe staff contributed to this report in West Virginia. Kevin Cullen can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ GlobeCullen. Shelley Murphy can be contacted at [email protected]