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Posted on: September 8, 2024, 03:57h.
Last updated on: September 8, 2024, 03:57h.
A Mafia hitman already serving life for murder was sentenced to 25 years on Friday for the prison killing of James “Whitey” Bulger.
Bulger, the former leader of the Irish Mob in Boston, was bludgeoned to death in October 2018 with a lock attached to a belt by Fotios “Freddy” Geas, according to prosecutors, although Geas claims he used his fist.
The 89-year-old Bulger was wheelchair-bound and in frail health when he was attacked just hours after being transferred to USP Hazelton, W.V. His eyes were nearly gouged out and his tongue almost cut off.
It was a violent end to a violent life. As the boss of Boston’s Winter Hill Gang, Bulger controlled gambling, extortion, loansharking, truck hijackings, and arms trafficking rackets throughout eastern Massachusetts from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. In 2013, he was convicted of 11 murders.
But he was also a long-time FBI informant. Bulger’s cooperation with the feds helped to put many of his competitors in prison, while allowing him to his run his operations with impunity for many years. It also earned him a lot of enemies.
Who is Fotios Geas?
Geas is reputedly an associate of the Genovese crime family who could not become a made man because he has Greek ethnicity, not Italian. He operated as an enforcer for the family out of Springfield, Mass., often working with his brother, Ty Geas.
The Genovese family is allied with the Patriarca Crime Family, also known as the New England Mafia, which was severely weakened by Bulger’s FBI cooperation.
Geas has been in prison since 2011 after being convicted of multiple crimes, including the 2003 murder of crime boss Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno.
Initially charged with murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in relation to Bulger’s death, Geas ultimately pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and assault resulting in serious bodily injury. His new sentence will be served consecutively with his existing life sentence.
Fellow inmate Paul J. DeCologero, who acted as a lookout during the attack, was sentenced to more than four years in prison in August on an assault charge. A third prisoner, Sean McKinnon, pleaded guilty in June to lying to the FBI in relation to the incident. He was given no additional prison time.
16-Year Fugitive
Bulger famously went on the run in 1994 when his FBI handler, John Connolly, tipped him off that the feds were building a case against him.
The gangster was a fugitive for the next 16 years, until agents traced him to an apartment in Santa Monica where he had been living quietly with his partner, Catherine Greig.
In November 2023, Bulger was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment for murder racketeering.