A former Mafia hitman was sentenced to 25 years in prison Friday in the 2018 fatal prison bludgeoning of notorious Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger. Federal prisoner Fotios "Freddy" Geas was sentenced in federal court in West Virginia after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and assault resulting in serious bodily injury, the AP reports. Prosecutors said Geas used a lock attached to a belt to repeatedly hit the 89-year-old Bulger in the head hours after he arrived at the troubled US Penitentiary, Hazelton, from another lockup in Florida in October 2018. Defense attorneys disputed that characterization, saying Geas hit Bulger with his fist.
Geas, 57, was already serving a life sentence for previous violent crimes, and was a close associate of the Mafia who acted as an enforcer but was not an official "made" member because he is Greek, not Italian. The Justice Department said last year that it would not seek the death penalty against him in Bulger's killing. Another Hazelton prisoner, Massachusetts gangster Paul DeCologero, was sentenced to more than four years in prison in August on an assault charge in Bulger's killing. Prosecutors said he acted as a lookout for Geas. A third inmate, Sean McKinnon, pleaded guilty in June to lying to FBI special agents. McKinnon was given no additional prison time and was returned to Florida to finish his supervised release. More:
- Bulger, who ran a largely Irish gang in Boston in the 1970s and '80s, also served as an FBI informant who ratted on his gang's main rival, according to the bureau. Bulger strongly denied ever being an informant.
- According to court records, prisoners found out ahead of time that Bulger would be arriving at the West Virginia facility. DeCologero and Geas spent about seven minutes in Bulger's cell during the attack. A prisoner testified to a grand jury that DeCologero told him Bulger was a "snitch" and they planned to kill him as soon as he came into their unit.
- After the killing, private investigator Ted McDonough told the Boston Globe he was not surprised that Geas was a suspect. "Freddy hated rats," McDonough said. "Freddy hated guys who abused women. Whitey was a rat who killed women. It's probably that simple."
(More
Whitey Bulger stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
