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By Andrew Blankstein, Tom Winter and Rich Schapiro
James "Whitey" Bulger, head of the Judicial Police of Boston, after being strangled and beaten to death in his cell, was wrapped in a blanket and placed in bed to make him feel sleepy, told NBC News several law enforcement officials.
Bulger's killers went so far as to rest his head on the pillow after hitting him several times with a padlock inserted in a sock, officials said informed of the case.
The grim details reveal for the first time efforts to conceal the murder of the 89-year-old wheelchair bound gangster, who was found unresponsive at around 8:20 am on Tuesday in Hazelton Federal Penitentiary in West Virginia.
Investigators are considering several potential suspects, including a New England Mafia murderer who is said to despise revolvers, and is investigating why a prisoner as well known as Bulger has been placed in the population.
Officials said the federal investigation also examined the circumstances surrounding Bulger's transfer from a correctional facility from Florida to West Virginia, plagued by violence and a shortage of staff.
Two more detainees have been killed in Hazelton in the last six months and a reduction in the number of workers has led prison union officials and politicians to demand a wave of new hires to increase security.
Bulger, who led the Irish crowd in Boston while advising the FBI to weaken his rivals, arrived at the West Virginia jail the night before his assassination.
He was sent north after receiving numerous offenses at Coleman Penitentiary in Florida.
Bulger was cited for being masturbated in front of a male staff member in 2015 and reportedly threatened a nursing supervisor in February of this year, according to prison records.
"Your day of accounts is approaching," he told the worker, according to a police source.
Bulger was placed in solitary confinement and remained there until 23 October, when he was sent to a transfer center in Oklahoma.
The geriatric gangster arrived at Hazelton at 18:45. Monday night, according to the records of the prison.
A prison staff member told NBC News that Bulger was coming down from a correction bus in his wheelchair. The records show that he was placed in his cell at 9:53 pm. The housing was already closed at that time, according to a member of the penitentiary staff.
But when a new detainee arrives in a housing area, other inmates usually take note of it, the staff member said.
"It's almost like in movies," said the worker.
Bulger has agreed to be placed in the general population, according to repressive sources.
But the chief of the underworld and the informant of the FBI, once dreaded, did not resist long.
The confinement during the night is lifted after the count of the prisoners of 5 o'clock in the morning. The detainees are then allowed out of their cells to go to the refectory, providing a window of opportunity for a prisoner attempting to attack another detainee.
According to police sources, Bulger was found unresponsive in his cell after being away for breakfast.
Federal investigators are studying Bulger's medical classification during his transfer to West Virginia, repressive sources said. There are four levels of medical care at the Bureau of Prison, with the highest number representing a more serious state of health.
Documents obtained by NBC News show that Bulger, who has heart problems, was rated at level 2 in West Virginia, a lower level than other medical institutions in the federal penitentiary system. The documents also show a code indicating that his medical treatment is complete, which allows his orientation towards the general population.
Prison employees told NBC News that it was not unusual for an elderly or sick prisoner to be transferred to Hazelton because of its proximity to JW Ruby Memorial Hospital in the nearby city of Morgantown.
However, some prison staff and union officials were surprised that Bulger was in habitual housing rather than in an area where well-known prisoners are separated from the general population.
Hazelton Prison is recognized as one of the country's most violent penitentiaries, said Rick Heldreth, president of the AFGE 420 Workers Union.
"I thought it was unusual for this particular inmate to be placed in the general population of our facility, given the level of violence and the type of inmates housed in this facility," Heldreth told NBC News.
"This decision would have been well above us."
Heldreth said that Bulger's reputation as a camouflage crowd would have made him particularly vulnerable to attack.
"In the general population, you are in a housing unit with 120 inmates and they have full access to you," Heldreth said. "I know how he was labeled by the justice system and that it does not go very well with our prison population."
The prison was suffering from a personnel shortage triggered in 2017 when the Trump government ordered a hiring freeze at the federal level, prison union officials said.
Since then, staff members who have left the premises because of their retirement or for other reasons have not been replaced, resulting in the loss of 880 staff, which numbered 880 people, to 797 people, according to the union.
The fall forced the prison to occasionally transfer plumbers, teachers and other staff to officer positions to fill the gaps, Heldreth said.
Funds were allocated for the creation of more than 40 correctional officer positions, but no hiring was done, union officials said.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons did not return a request for comment.
Barely four days before Bulger's murder, Senator Joe Manchin, DW.V., sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, expressing concern over "failure to follow clear congressional guidelines to engage more people". 39 full-time correctional officers "at Hazelton and in other institutions. .
"Last month, another inmate was killed in the same West Virginia facility, marking the second homicide in this facility in just five months," said Manchin of Hazelton. "It's unacceptable."
Prison union officials said the small numbers had direct and disastrous consequences.
"We can never stop everything. Prisons are dangerous places by nature, "said Heldreth. "But the more staff you have, the better your chances of finding a weapon or stopping a fight or attack before it becomes deadly."
Another union official, Justin Tarovisky, said the decline in the number of correctional officers had compromised the safety of workers and inmates.
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