Three inmates charged with killing crime boss 'Whitey' Bulger enter plea agreement

Tom Winter and Tim Stelloh
Updated ·2 min read
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Three federal inmates accused of killing notorious Boston crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger while he was incarcerated have agreed to a plea and to be sentenced in the case, according to federal court documents filed Monday.

Fotios Geas, 55; Paul J. DeCologero, 48; and Sean McKinnon, 36, were all charged in Bulger’s death in October 2018 at a federal jail in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia.

The specific terms of the plea were not disclosed in the documents.

Authorities have previously described Geas — who is serving a life sentence for murder — as the central suspect in Bulger’s slaying. According to federal prosecutors, he was an enforcer for the New England Mafia in the 1990s and the 2000s, making him a rival of Bulger, who was the leader of Boston’s Irish mob and a secret FBI informant.

McKinnon was Geas’ cellmate at Hazelton, where he was serving an eight-year term for stealing guns from a Vermont firearms store. Both men — along with DeCologero — were placed in solitary confinement in the hours after Bulger was found beaten to death.

NBC News first reported in 2018 that law enforcement officials said Bulger was killed when a lock was placed in a sock and used to beat him in the head until he was dead.

Bulger controlled the streets of South Boston for more than three decades beginning in the 1970s and earned a reputation for being ruthless to his rivals and a Robin Hood-like figure to residents.

Bulger also worked as informant for the FBI, feeding it tips that led to the arrests of mobsters who crossed him or competed with him. He vanished three decades ago after a corrupt federal agent told him about an impending indictment.

Bulger was a fugitive for 16 years. He was captured in 2011 living with a longtime girlfriend in a modest apartment Santa Monica, California, apartment filled with cash and dozens of weapons.

Two years later, he was convicted of participating in 11 murders and several other crimes, including extortion, money laundering and drug-dealing. He was sentenced to two consecutive life terms plus five years.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com