Whitey Bulger attackers try to cut their tongue, says federal official

Bulger, 89, was beaten during the fatal attack on Tuesday at Hazelton Prison in Bruceton Mills. The gangster of South Boston died the day after his transfer from another establishment, victim of the brutality of which he had been victim.

At the time of the fatal attack, Bulger was part of the general prison population, which allowed his attackers to talk to him easily, said a federal official familiar with the investigation.

Investigators believe that he was attacked by more than one person. At least one of the inmates involved has links to organized crime in Massachusetts, said the official.

A suspect is a man hit by the mafia

One of the two suspects of the brutal assault has been identified as Fotios "Freddy" Geas, a mafia man struck in Massachusetts, the New York Times reported, citing unnamed sources. He added that Geas had been placed in solitary confinement after the murder.

Geas, 51, is serving a life sentence in the same prison for the 2003 murder of a crime leader and another man whom he thought was an FBI informant.

Hazelton US Penitentiary is a high security facility that houses 1,270 offenders.

No staff members or detainees were injured in the attack, said the prison office. Federal officials are investigating Bulger's death as a homicide.

"He marks the complete circle"

A man who wrote a book on the much feared crime chief said that he was dead as before.

"He lived violently and he apparently died violently," said Dick Lehr, author of "Whitey: The Life of the Most Famous Boss in America".

"This marks the complete circle of a terrible life."

Bulger was arrested in June 2011 after escaping federal authorities for more than 16 years. He spent the rest of his life in jail for a series of crimes including his role in 11 murders. Before leaving, he was a long-time FBI informant.

A federal jury convicted him of 31 counts including racketeering, extortion, money laundering, drug trafficking and possession of weapons. The jury found him guilty of 11 murders committed between 1973 and 1985.

The circumstances of this week's transfer remain unclear. Bulger had also been housed in federal penitentiaries in Oklahoma and Tucson, Arizona.

Captured nearly two decades later

Bulger left the city in anticipation of an imminent indictment and was captured in California a decade and a half later.

In 2012, his girlfriend, Catherine Greig, was sentenced to eight years in federal prison for identity fraud and helps the mafia boss to avoid capture. Before their arrest, they lived under false names in Santa Monica, in what Bulger described as "a 16-year honeymoon".

After fleeing Massachusetts, investigators learned that the long-time gang leader from South Boston had been an FBI informant and that his FBI official had informed him.

His story has inspired several films, including the Oscar-winning film "The Departed" (2006), in which Jack Nicholson played the role of a character inspired by him.

In 2015, actor Johnny Depp played him in the movie "Black Mass".