Notorious Boston gangster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger has reportedly died behind bars in prison after he was transferred to a prison in West Virginia.
UPDATE: TMZ has reportedly learned that emergency dispatchers received a call from the prison for an inmate in cardiac arrest. It has been reported that staff members at the facility performed CPR.
Whitey Bulger was a prominent figure in Boston’s organised crime scene from the 1970s until the mid-90s, when he fled the area.
Captured in 2011, he was later found guilty of federal racketeering, extortion, conspiracy and 11 murders.
He had been moved on Tuesday to USP Hazleton, a high-security prison next to a minimum security satellite camp in Bruceton Mills.
President of the corrections officer’s union at Hazelton, Richard Heldreth, told WV News a male inmate had been killed there overnight but could not immediately confirm the identity of the victim.
Bulger embarked upon a life of crime at the age of 14 and had become a prominent figure in Boston’s organised crime scene by the late 1970s. From 1975 to 1990, Bulger also served as an FBI informant, tipping off the police to the Patriarca crime family while also building his own crime network.
After fleeing the Boston area in 1995, Bulger landed on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list.
He was caught and arrested in Santa Monica, California, in June 2011 after a 16-year manhunt. A tipster had notified the FBI that the 81-year-old fugitive and his girlfriend Catherine Greig had been living in a rent-controlled apartment as retirees. The FBI had the building manager lure Bulger to the garage of the apartment by telling him the lock on his storage locker was broken.
In the garage, Bulger was surrounded by FBI agents and local police officers. He initially insisted he was his alias, Charlie Gasko, according to FBI special agent Scott Garriola, until he eventually admitted: ‘You know who I am; I’m Whitey Bulger.’
The notorious crime boss was found guilty of federal racketeering, extortion, conspiracy and 11 murders.
Throughout his criminal career, Bulger amassed $25 million, according to federal court files.
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