James Whitey Bulger was an exemplar of what a white Irish Catholic American from South Boston can accomplish in successfully following his dreams and hopes without a Harvard education and a real rich parental pedigree.
If he had been born Jamal Blackie Jones a black African American Muslim with a Morehouse education and a real rich parental pedigree he would not have been so blessed and lucky and old.
MAGA!
3
@Blackmamba
Many whites were really suffering--that was part of the genesis of the problem. The politicians played them to build their own power. James Bulgar made them feel like they were someone. By the time they fully realized what was going on, they were harmed very badly.
1
The line between Whitey Bulger and Donald Trump is a fairly thin one. To paraphrase Bob Dylan, Some men steal with a six-gun, some with a fountain pen. Or, as Jack Nicholson, in “The Departed says, “It’s a world full of rats”.
14
@Steve Griffith; Stop the nonsense.
1
@Ryan I’m all for that.
2
@RyanAt least Trump wasn’t complicit in the coverup of the dismemberment of Virginia resident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s body. Oh, I forgot. He was. How about if I stop the nonsense when he does?
7
No tears will be lost for such a depraved man but what bothers me here is absence of the rule of law on our society's part. If we want his punishment to be beaten to death then let's just sentence him to that. But if you are sentenced to life in prison you should expect to serve that sentence and not be beaten to death. The physical violence inmates in our prisons experience to me is the stuff of Turkish, North Korean or Iranian prisons, not a first world civilized country. Shame on us for this being the state of affairs in our incarceration system.
16
Mr. Bulger's brutal end is yet another in a long string of murders--executions, really--behind prison walls. Lawlessness prevails no matter what side of that wall you find yourself. Chilling indeed.
8
I’m always amazed at how, as a society, we lionize individuals who wouldn’t think twice about beating you senseless or killing you. The modus operandi of organized crime is brutal subjugation of anyone perceived to be a threat or offer the opportunity for financial gain. It’s a strange phenomenon to idolize a person who wouldn’t hesitate to ruin you if they believed that you wronged them or had something they wanted.
6
From an Irish perspective it is not uncommon for one egg in the clutch to turn out bad. The big difference is the number of murders he was allowed to commit. A big issue in Ireland from 1916 and the following seven years was the psychopaths who joined the IRA. They were regarded as loose cannon who endangered the organization and were forced to leave the country immediately or be killed. The FBI using Irish gangsters to knock off Italian gangsters while a clever short term ploy was without a doubt a colossal failure of policing. In Ireland he would have been knocked off by his associates shortly after his second or third murder.
1
What grins wider than the cat that ate the canary?
The canary that ate the cat.
Bulger was an evil criminal, but never said he was anything else. The FBI and US Attorney's office in Boston were sworn to protect the public and serve justice. They didn't, consciously, willfully, and profitably.
5
When captured Bulger had $830,000 cash. Where did he get that money from?
2
For years you would hear people particularly those who resided in their neighborhoods defend the likes of a Bulger or a Gotti. “You know they might not be the nicest people but they keep the neighborhood safe”
I would always respond “Yeah but they cause a lot of problems for everyone else”
1
live by the sword....
1
Subtract the murders, and other violence, and what you have is Donald Trump.
5
Not too many people with good things to say about this man. Most I've heard are happy he is gone. But, a life is a life and should be respected whatever... I would say the same about Hitler (as the personification of evil), and from what I hear this man ranked up there with that evil guy.
Should an evil soul receive peace in the hereafter?
Did not we see this kind of killings all the time in movies ??
According to the article there were: "...disclosures that for some 15 years he had been a federal informer, and that the authorities had turned a blind eye to his crimes..."
Former F.B.I. agent Steven Albury was recently sentenced in Minnesota for publicly disclosing what seems to be the FBI Confidential Human Source Policy Guide, dated 21 SEP 2015. That guide, obtained from 'The Intercept' describes how the F.B.I might have approached and communicated with Bulger. From the Guide:
"3.7.2 (U) Methods of Approach [U//FOUO) The three types of approaches discussed below [Affiliated Approach, Non-affiliated Approach and Covert Approach] are available to an SA during a Type 5 assessment." (p. 22)
"3.7.2.2 (U//FOUO) Nonaffiliated Approach [...] Affirmative denial constitutes the use of the covert approach and includes the use of apparel or props (e.g. wearing a plumber's uniform or driving a cable truck) to intentionally misdirect the SA's or TFO's affiliation with the FBI or other LE or intelligence agency. [...] If the PCHS [Potential Confidential Human Source] asks whether the SA [Special Agent] or TFO [Task Force Officer] is employed by the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] or another LE [Law Enforcement] or intelligence agency, and the SA or TFO affirmatively denies the affiliation, the SA may complete the contact with no additional authority. If the SA intends, while using true name, to continue to make these representations in the next substantive cont..." (p. 23)
I am totally not understanding those who think that poor, decrepit Whitey deserved a better death. For god's sake, using pliers, he pulled out the teeth of a victim so she couldn't be identified. And then buried her in the basement. And had to move her when the house was later sold. Whitey is not a person and he did not deserve a good death.
2
Jailed convicts have been murdered by other jailed convicts for as long as prisons have been around. I recall when Jeffrey Dahmer was murdered. The only reason his murder and the murder of Whitey Bulger were and are headline news is because of their own brand of notoriety. I do not ever recall seeing an article, obituary or detailed magazine piece naming other jailed convicts who were murdered by fellow inmates.
That environment is beyond comprehension with its own degree and frequency of violence, brutal beatings, rape and murder. Often times guards turn the other way. While these scenarios may appear to be getting worse, the brutal truth is that prison life has rarely been a safe place for prisoners. I'm amazed that anyone ever gets out alive, much less is left unscathed.
7
Bulger was smart. Not your average mobster murderer:
1. He successfully played the FBI as an informant for years while still a mobster robbing and killing.
2. THEN he successfully hid in plain sight in the USA from 1994 onward.
3. He went to prison in his 80s when most USA males have already passed on.
Some would argue Bulger got away with his crimes. Prison was barely a blip in his last elderly years of life.
The FBI should be embarrassed. They messed up repeatedly with Bulger.
6
@K Henderson
Bolger was a sociopath. Sociopaths have no empathy for others and no guilt about anything that they do to others. What made him smart? Life is short. Spending as did Bolger was a stupid waste of it.
After Bulger and Greig were arrested, I realized I'd seen them twice walking near their apartment in Santa Monica. They appeared to be garden-variety seniors out for an afternoon walk. But both times, I sensed something amiss about them. The man was giving off a vibe of being extremely ill at ease and tightly wound. I thought to myself, "I wonder what's going on there?!" If only I'd known. But for the record, Bulger appeared uncomfortable in his own skin and quite unhappy.
63
@jg grace
The New York Times doesn't say it, but Catherine Greig is still in jail:
CATHERINE E GREIG
Register Number: 57820-112
Age:
67
Race:
White
Sex:
Female
Located at: Waseca FCI
Release Date: 09/29/2020
6
There is a very interesting Moth Radio Hour Story told by Whitey Bulger's young next door neighbor in Santa Monica who was enlisted by the FBI to assist them as they closed in on capturing him. His utter shock upon discovering that the apparently amiable elderly man living quietly next door is America's most wanted criminal is quickly supplanted by his fear that Whitey will put a hit out on him from prison. He decides to write to Whitey and explain the situation, asking for his understanding. To his surprise, Whitey writes back and says not to worry. The young man may have the distinction of being the only person to survive crossing Whitey.
137
While Bulger likely had very few redeeming qualities, we know exactly what kind of people beat an 89 year old man beyond recognition. It's a violent end from violent criminals.
But what kind of people allow it to happen on their watch?
What kind of persons say, "Serves him right?"
Bulger wasn't sentenced to be beaten to death, he was sentenced to be incarcerated. He was an old man. He was in the custody of the State. It's not like it was not known that he had enemies. Bulger's lack of redeeming qualities is absolutely no excuse for us to act like criminals, too.
286
@Dejah
What kind? Sadistic prison guards, that's what kind.
You have to be a sadist to do that job. It gives you total power and control over those deemed "less" than you, and there's no way they can retaliate.
I understand that he was "transferred because he threatened someone in the Florida penitentiary, but the man was 89 years old. You don't put someone like that in the general population. I wish he suffered until he was 99.
15
@Dejah....I'm not sure who the "us" you are referring to are, but obviously he was killed in prison by a criminal. I believe prison is the place where criminals go to pay for their crimes......so acting like a criminal already got the murderer a cell in that prison.
10
@Dejah - So sad... I'm sure he followed the same code whilst murdering others...
An eye for an eye. Karma.
15
Bolger's final comeuppance should have been at the hands of G-d, not his fellow prisoners. As the article says, things have gotten out of hand during the Trump administration. There aren't enough guards, which leaves everyone, including prison personnel, at risk.
How can we call ourselves a civilized society when men are beaten to death and raped while in our government's custody. I don't care who he is or what he did, this is not what a civilized nation allows.
344
@paula I agree with you 100%.
14
@paula
I disagree with you 100%
10
@paula
G-d, as you call him/her/it/them is asleep, on an extended vacation, died back in the 1960's, just does not care, or does not exist. One of the greatest arguments against the existence of a supreme being that cares a whit about the affairs of humans is that people like Mr Bulger are allowed to not only exist, but prosper while inflicting such pain.
20
So anyone sentenced to the prison system is subject to an extra-judicial sentence of the inmates and/or guards. Why have courts and judges?
3
A fitting end to a dreadful man who lived a life of violence. Was his death ordered? Probably; he had many enemies. Why wasn't he better protected? I have a feeling that the authorities are just as happy to be rid of this murderous criminal who played both sides against the other lest he reveal embarrassing secrets. In any event, no tears will be shed for his passing that indeed the world is a better place without him. On the whole he escaped punishment in this life - let's hope it awaits him in the next.
1
A lot of commenters are perplexed how a prison could allow this invalid to be killed on his first day in a new, violent prison. The only sensible answer is that they wanted him killed, right away, after years in prison. The real question isn’t how could this happen, but why. Some authorities must have wanted this.
3
@Pete Prokopowicz
Tough welcoming party.
5
Given how he totally scammed and embarrassed the FBI and the Justice Department, it’s reasonable to speculate that more than one person in the federal government had no qualms about transferring Bulger to one of the most dangerous federal correctional facilities in the nation.
Families of his many victims, and associates of the Patriarca family won’t be losing any sleep either.
1
Bulger wasn't a informant in the true sense of the word. perhaps, he felt a civic duty to inform on the mafia.
3
The FBI was working for him.
1
well it appears he has served his debt to society. His life sentence term is now complete.
3
I find this article so fascinating. First that an 89 year old elderly man would be left unsupervised in gen. pop. Fishy at best... But also this entire article seems to have been crafted based on the details of federal prison officials snitching to the press in exchange for "anonymity". Then you have Mr. Bulger an infamous mob boss and his brother a one time leader of the Senate...organized crime and politics. Two sides of the very same coin. Funny how life is full of gray with little black and white. Proves there's a very fine line between good and evil.
3
It's hard to imagine that , once you've gotten into bed with the Mob, and crossed them. you have any right to be surprised when they put a hit out on you. He avoided this a lot longer than one might have expected.
2
"All Souls: A Family Story from Southie" by Michael Patrick MacDonald is an excellent account of growing up in 1970's South Boston when Bulger cast a menacing shadow. MacDonald is a great story-teller, you won't be able to put the book down.
4
I suspect that Bulger's being continually moved from one Fed prison to the next is the hidden clue of just how repelling he truly was to not only the other prisoners, but to the guards as well. Someone as criminally murderous and manipulative as Bulger so obviously was, the hundreds of victims families he affected, he undoubtedly came into the penal system with a huge red bulleye on his back.
Because of that, I can't help but wonder is why he wasn't ordered to serve his sentence in one of the penal psychiatric units. The man was an octogenarian for crying out loutd. And, not only for his own safety, but for closer supervision, barring the only option being solitary. Inquiring minds......
3
My mother and her siblings grew up in "the projects" in South Boston, neighbors to the Bulgers. My mother married and settled in the suburbs, but like many of her relatives and friends, she kept close connections to the old neighborhood all her life. I often visited there until my grandmother died, and I never heard anyone say a good word about Whitey Bulger. No one I met considered him any kind of local hero or someone they could respect or admire for any reason whatsoever.
295
@NIcky V: Thanks for the first hand information. Very interesting perspective into the real Whitey Bulger, not the legend he and his minions tried to perpetuate.
66
@Richard J read the books of Patrick Michael MacDonald, who grew up in the South Boston Projects and lost at least three siblings to the drug scene. Whitey was definitely no hero. MacDonald has gone on to become a professor.
16
I’m truly sorry that this man was a horrible person - but still, he didn’t deserve to die like this. This is why there are secret guards. The man was 89. Irrespective of personal feelings he was still being punished and would have been for the rest of his life.
6
James "Whitey" Bulger was allegedly killed by a fellow inmate who "hates rats." Often DA's and law enforcement get lazy and place too much emphasis on "informants" and "snitches": "rats" who cannot be trusted and are looking out for themselves, not necessarily for the truth. Make them ALL take polygraph exams by independent examiners! Being murdered in federal prison by a fellow inmate who "hates rats" is a seemingly reasonable explanation of a motive for the murder of James "Whitey" Bulger. Jeffrey "The Cannibal" Dahmer was also murdered by a fellow inmate who didn't like pedophiles, homosexuals and cannibals, or maybe just wanted to make a name for himself. Jack Ruby also gave an explanation for his murder of Lee Harvey Oswald while Oswald. WAS this murder of former Boston Mob Boss James "Whitey" Bulger a "hit" to silence him? Being beaten, raped or murdered in prison is NOT part of the sentence. Concealing or excusing murders, drug use, rape, and violence by prison inmates and prison guards is a serious problem in some prisons. The FBI misused its "witness protection program" and its "informant" program by allowing Bulger to orchestrate murders while under FBI "supervision." "Whitey" Bulger knew "where the bodies were buried." Lee Harvey Oswald was also a "Man Who Knew Too Much."
2
Now we hear from those who believe in vigilante justice in the prison system. They applaud murder. They are sick.
6
So the good old FBI used an Irish thug to go after Italian thugs. That's just dandy.... J.Edgar Hoover messed this organization up so much it has never recovered.
I also think as repugnant as this man was, it is not right that he is killed in jail probably while guards looked the other way. It goes to show how corrupt the prison system is.
6
@Doctor Woo
JEdgar created the FBI, he made it what it is. That there is any good in it is accidental.
Nothing honorable, interesting or admirable about a third rate psychopath untreated. Just a sad case of arrested development and pathologic violence, finally reaching its own conclusion.
4
I really really really wish we could stop making celebrities out of people this rotten.
7
@PW Like Trump?
9
Whitey Bulger got to live to the ripe old age of 89: his many victims didn't.
7
Where's the Rembrandt, Whitey? Or did you take that information to your grave as well as god knows what else.
1
The Times of course left out the cooperation that the FBI was giving Whitey and even knew and allowed him to commit murder. The FBI should have been prosecuted as well but our media just has to be made to report any crime done by the badge wearers.
4
Mr. Bulger has no fans in these comments but we should be asking what kind of country allows such a man to thrive in a world of crime, corrupt police and FBI, prisons out of control, and politicians and officials of the state on the take: a country for, by and of criminals from the various gangs, different "maifias," gangsters and banksters, CEOs of corporations that break the laws all the time (pollution, price fixing, bribes, etc), tax cheats and all sorts of criminals in high places committing sex crimes -- even in the ministry with bishops and cardinals covering it up, government violating the rights of minorities and women, putting children in detention camps, illegally suppressing the vote, etc). Our President wants to make "America Great Again" -- a country with more Bulgers and his enablers,big and little, than ever! Who would have thought the Whore of Babylon would turn out to be a man?
5
I have worked in prison systems in the Northeast. No way an inmate of Whitey Bulger's advanced years and at least some assumed physical vulnerabilities is left in gen population unattended. His death deserves to be investigated, no matter the life he lived. Otherwise we all become savages.
96
@Craig M.
This is one of the intended "unintentional" consequences of the republican tax cuts and de-funding efforts and corrupting efforts to convince people that government by the people does not work.
I'm sure it was an incompetent accident and Whitey was the recipient of the dubious honor of being the expected but unknown random victim of cuts intended to cause such events to further the goal of running our society based on fear. Ironic no? That this man whose whole life was based on making others live in fear is the random victim.
3
@Craig M.
You are SO right; further, the "gen population" should not be free to mingle with each other either, or to serve in any service capacity in prison, at any time. We need more isolation for all prisoners, with very limited personal contact with insiders or outsiders permitted. The way to break up the gangs is to break up and scatter all members in near virtual isolation; and outside, to know just who lives in every building, with all of us under watch. Sorry folks, we should all get used to a new definition and limitation of "civil rights".
1
About when Mr. Bulger was captured after many years in hiding in California, my husband and I were in the process of adopting a fluffy, long-haired, white cat. The cat had been abused in his former home and was terrified of my husband and I. His first day with us he hid in a reclining chair for several hours while we turned the house upside-down, frantically trying to find him. The shelter told us his name was "Snow," but after hearing a news story about Whitey Bulger, we decided to name our new cat after the Irish mobster. After all, new kitty was pure white, he was in hiding (from us) for several days, and we were pretty sure that when we left the house he was plotting to kill us. That was five years ago, and the name has stuck. When the "real" Whitey Bulger was killed yesterday I started getting texts from friends, "Your cat's namesake just died!" We broke the news to "our" Whitey Bulger last night. He is hiding his grief pretty well.
10
It took a while but Karma did catch up with him. However, I think prisons are highly political and corrupt at the administrative level and within the inmates.
1
Whitey Bulger is an insignificant player in a larger drama unveiled by this murder.
For good or bad, Mr. Bulger did not receive a death sentence.
Yet he is the latest example of a badly compromised and damaged correctional system that has repeatedly shown itself incapable of protecting the lives and safety of inmates.
It is beyond comprehension that such a high profile inmate, long known to have served as an FBI informant, was placed in the general prison population immediately on arrival.
This calls for a serious investigation, not because Bulger deserves it, but because we all deserve to know that -- in a just system -- a sentence is a sentence is a sentence.
14
No matter what your crime is, you shouldn't have die this way !
What were the prison guards doing ? Goofing off ?
5
I remember the Winter Hill gang very well, growing up in Somerville, Mass. Bulger, not so much. Fitting end.
3
I grew up in Boston and met Bulger one time. His eyes were dead, and somehow, at the same time, menacing. I was a harmless young girl, did not even live in Southie so I wasn't aware of all of his power but somehow I could tell he would kill me as easily as putting out a cigarette. It's been more than 35 years and thankfully I've not met anyone else like that. I could not watch the movies about him and when my son asked me what I felt when I heard he was dead, it was relief.
39
I am appalled and actually shocked that Mr. Bulger was beaten to death in a Federal Prison.
The reason I am shocked is that Federal prisons are purportedly safer than county or state prisons, in the U.S.
Being beaten to death is not a way to die.
There are other prisoners who die from being beaten to death by prison Deputy Sheriffs. An example, a horrible example, occurred in the Jail in the nerve center of the world, San Jose, California's Santa Clara's County Jail, a stone's throw to the Glorious Gods of Google who reside on mount Olympus there, in San Jose. Three "guards" were convicted of second degree murder, the beating to death of a man in prison for violating a frivolous drug charge. The Judge who ruled in the criminal case was furious at the guards and the jail and he wrote a scathing critique of the prison. He HAD to sentence the man pursuant to penal /health and "safety" laws of those years - just a few past. They have now changed radically.
Though Mr. Bulger committed horrible acts of violence, rather sociopathologically, and murdered violently many people, he did not deserve to be killed in such a horrible manner.
For me, the whole concept of jail in the US is wrongful.
People should be incarcerated but not tortured, nor whittled down to nothing. Prison reform is needed.
55
The coldest moment of my life was the time Whitey Bulger stared at me & a friend, his icy blue eyes as piercing as any blade he likely used at one time or another.
My 4 encounters with Bulger, early ‘90’s, he came into where I worked, a quirky mountaineering/ ski shop on Comm Ave
A cold Boston January, Bulger was in full “Robbin Hood” mode for the 1st 2 encounters, a week apart. I didn’t know who he was then, just a guy peeling off the $100’s, exhorting his entourage to get anything they wanted. I remember explicitly him saying with a wink “I’m on Social Security”. He had just co-opted a $19 mill lottery ticket, making the original owner an offer difficult to refuse.
The last encounter, just weeks before his 16 years on the run, he was accompanied by a very big, quiet guy. His muscle. A friend was there too, gearing up for the coming Winter’s activities. By then I knew who Bulger was, my friend didn’t.
Bulger & his guy were bantering - “we’re going hunting, broad hunting” -prompting my friend to make a disparaging comment about Bulger. Desperately quieting my friend, informing him it was Bulger, & fortunately being just out of earshot, Bulger nevertheless knew we were talking about him.
That’s the moment I caught his eyes. They were cold, soullessness. I shivered.
Whitey let us be, leaving us with a story at best. I know others were not so lucky. He left many with sullied souls. Others, well he just left them dead, their families with nothing but tears.
138
@Bill in Vermont
He was also a big Red Sox fan.
2
@Gurd
another strike
2
Snakes in a pit. Arm them with knifes and we can save a whole lot of taxpayer money. Any thoughts about "honor among thieves" is pure fiction. These are vile and deranged humans.
4
He was a trophy among cons, and the inmates who murdered him will be revered by their peers. Brutal end to a brutal life.
3
@Keith They take perverse pride in beating up an 89 year old man? This sure does not speak well for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, or current administration.
1
As a federal law clerk intern, I sat in on parts of the Angiulo trial securing 1986 convictions of that Italian mob kingpin in Boston, in part on the basis of Bulger's collusion with the corrupt FBI agent Connolly that resulted in many deaths. Bulger and his henchman Flemmi advised where to bug Angiulo's lair. It was plainly a big den of thieves, from the Irish mob to the Italian mob to the public officials. You just didn't know if there were really any people in the vicinity who were straight shooters. You just felt slimy walking out of the courtroom. The concerns expressed by some on this comment board about prison safety are missing the point. What's remarkable is that the wardens were able to protect Bulger for seven years from those who were itching to kill him. In the end, Bulger's only friends were the wardens.
12
Unless he repented, his prison has just begun. I grew up in a rough, part Irish neighborhood. There were fine people and there were other more very very violent people...a mysterious mix. I prayed for decades for two awful Irish thugs of that area.
2
I do not give a whit about Bulger, but WHO runs that prison, anyway?
This episode reminds me of an E. A. Poe story where the inmates have taken over an asylum. Except maybe in this case, it's the mafia?
If I were in any position to decide, the staff would be replaced - ALL the staff - and every last one of these losers would be on welfare where they belong.
4
@Ebenizer B. I assume you will be the first applying for the job as security guard. Then you can watch yourself as you become damaged by your own fear,suspicion and the constant threats and violence. Be careful what you wish for. Good luck in your new job.
@Jennifer Selwyn
Maybe in this case you assume too much. I was very happy as a field archaeologist, but I really did my job. Before that, I spent almost a lifetime on big printing presses that could have swallowed me up in a second's inattention, but I really did my job. The sexual threats, the constant fear, the sudden and bloody violence, I left those behind me when I finally got out of those orphanages... but I DO know them intimately. I grew up with them.
They're a bit like old friends you don't want to talk to anymore.
So I reiterate : if those people can't stand the heat and do their jobs properly, let them get out of the kitchen.
Very confused. Is this the US of A —the same country that has a Constitution and Bill of Rights guaranteeing citizens freedom from cruel and unusual punishment? I think bludgeoning to death while under government confinement constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and yes, there is a cause of action there. I don’t know the education level of NYTs readers but I thought the ability to subscribe and enter a comment would screen those who passed citizenship in grade school from those willing to overlook our country’s foundation when presented with the ultimate moral question of whether to grant all citizens equal protection under the law— even those whom we find most despicable. Perhaps all of you want to start a committee to judge for yourself who gets to be brutally bludgeoned and just throw our Constitution and judicial system out the window. If not the Bulgers in our society, whom does the Bill of Rights protect?
14
Bulger was a horrible human being. But an 89 year old convict being beaten to death in prison as a possible mob hit is not justice. I know for some - for some of the families of his many victims (some killed or tortured with the knowledge and even acquiescence of FBI when he was an FBI informant) - Bulger got what he richly deserved, but that’s vengeance and not justice.
Bulger does not deserve to be romanticized about, to have movies made about his cruel and vicious life. If he was beaten to death by a mob hit while not in prison, I wouldn’t particularly care about his death - I would still want those who killed him brought to justice, just like I was glad to see Bulger captured, tried in a fair trail and sent to prison (I don’t believe in the death penalty - a system where blacks and the poor are disproportionately punished and some 3 to 4 % in death row inmates or those executed are innocent).
But Bulger’s death while in a Federal prison is one more sign that both our Justice system and our Prison system are badly broken in this country.
I more thing for us to be ashamed of as a nation.
10
I have no love for Whitey Bulger but
"Mr. Bulger was beaten unrecognizable by inmates shortly after he had arrived at the prison, the Hazelton federal penitentiary"
This is extremely disturbing that he could be attacked and ultimately killed while held under Federal custody. He was a rat and a murderer but I would hope that we are better than this.
7
Bulger was the star witness in People v. Mueller.
1
I don't understand his being moved to a very violent prison and dumped in there where he would be killed immediately. How does this happen? I agree with Thomas. Who runs these prisons?
4
Isn't Ray Donovan supposed to be loosely based on Whitey Bulger?
1
Leaving Bulger alone with the general prison population is beyond suspicious. This is basically a hit sanctioned by some in the government who wanted Bulger to die and wanted it to be brutal.
Bulger deserved to be punished, but this sort of behavior by the government and by prison officials is barbaric. It is a shame that the people behind this will almost certainly get away with it.
9
This is just another sterling example of the Trump Administrative's failure to lead or manage any aspect of true American governance. He had not lead at all, and mis-manages all Federal agencies to the point of caricature and buffoonery.
1
I am not going to opine on Mr. Bulger's crimes. The crime I want to comment on is the existence of the brutal Bureau Of Prisons that doesn't stop the beating to death of an 89 year old. Or anyone of any age. It is disgusting and it is completely uncivilized. There is a great deal wrong with what we call criminal justice in this country -- books can be and have been written about it -- but when we throw people into prisons and take away any ability they have to defend themselves surely their physical safety is our responsibility. Disgusting.
5
Someone said on a radio show that prisoners kill famous prisoners for bragging rights, but who brags about killing an 89 year old in a wheelchair?
2
My first thought: It took two guys to beat a 90 year old man to death?
Second thought: The victim's relative who said, "now he'll have to pay for it" was right. Years in prison, then ended the way he ended so many others. It may not be the justice he deserved, but it's a form of justice.
Third thought: why do monsters like this always have girlfriends? Bulger had a woman willing to spend her life with him hiding out, albeit in Santa Monica. Still. Even guys on death row. Ted Bundy got a woman to marry him in prison. What's up with that?
2
Not that I miss him, but what type of management is taking place in these prisons that allows a man to be beaten to death?
3
@Me
Get hired there and find out. Suckiest most dangerous job. Good luck.
So Hazelton is rife with violence yet the Federal Bureau of Prisons chose to bring him there. Wow sounds like they wanted him to die without using a needle. I was always suspicious of homeless people who say they feel safer sleeping on the streets than in a homeless shelter here in NYC. But regardless of how one feels about Whitey Bulger and his crimes, no one should be beaten to death inside a maximum security prison. Someone with his past and his age should have been isolated from the rest of the prisoners. This is the kind of stuff you expect to read about what happens in Mexico a tunnel could be dug all the way to the most notorious prisoner's cell that allowed him to escape. Sounds like someone paid off some guards to be out of sight while Bulger was being beaten and murdered. Mr. Trump you worry about a caravan over a thousand miles away. Seems like we are living south of the border when one of the most notorious prisoners could be beaten to death in one of your federal prisons.
3
What goes around....
Not a tear of sorrow shed here, but this should never have happened in a federal penitentiary within days of Whitey Bulger's arrival there. It's hard not to suspect government complicity in the death of an inmate put so soon under its care.
4
Pretty Machiavellian that Bulger is killed upon arrival in prison, no? Can someone in Justice or the Prison System be getting rid of a problem? Was Whitey going to start talking now about people still in the system? Did someone fear the ramblings of an 89 year old? We’ll never know, but there’s a book in there somewhere that could become a script.
It frightens me to know that even now - with all our 21st Century prowess - the Mob in America remains formidable.
If we emptied our prisons of those who've been convicted of marijuana possession only, then the guard-to-inmate ratio would be altered considerably in favor of the guards.
Therefore, President Trump should wave his magic crayon (perhaps the purple one) to sign an executive order to legalize the god-given herb today, and to release all prisoners that are incarcerated for nothing but possession (or distribution) of marijuana.
10
@Billy
Digressive but righteous.
Major problem: admitting we (via our legislators, judiciary, etc.) have supported bogus laws with excessive penalties for what should never have been a crime.
Hard sell, to get so many powerful (and monied) interests to eat crow.
Also, reparations for imprisonment on false laws (as opposed to the normal deficit of false evidence or some such) would cost a pretty penny. Don't mess with my taxes.
Digressing slightly, is it infuriating or merely sad that expensive certification requirements for marijuana cultivation look like a way for rich (primarily) Whites to benefit from that which put poor (typically) POC in long-term, hard-time jail sentences in the recent past?
As Baretta used to say: "That's the name of 'dat tune."
My mother helped run/oversee a coffee manufacturer in Southie for 20+ years. The majority of the employees were lifelong residents of South Boston. At this time, Southie was an incredibly insular area in which to live. People could easily live, work, shop, practice their religion, attend school...all in South Boston, without ever leaving. My mother knew a pair of older sisters, who grew up with Jimmy and Billy; they would adamantly declare, “those Bulger boys are good boys. Good boys.” I suspect they had been drawn in by Jimmy’s “Robin Hood” routine for the longtime residents of the neighborhood.
19
It's not just guys like Whitey Bulger & Jeff Dahmer who get killed in prison. An old friend of mine was arrested in a demonstration and sentenced to prison. He was no mobster, just a gay activist. The guards set him up to be gang-raped. He contracted AIDS as a result (this was before the current therapies) and died a few years later.
16
A friend of mine on Facebook commented that he now can begin to serve his second life sentence.
"There is no dignity in wickedness, whether in purple or rags; and hell is a democracy of devils, where all are equals."
Herman Melville
8
"...He was sentenced to life in prison,” Mr. Carney said, “but as a result of decisions by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, that sentence has been changed to the death penalty.”
It's a scandal and an outrage that prisons don't prevent crimes of this sort within their walls. But somehow, in the case of Bulger, I can't work up much sympathy.
8
While it is hard to feel sympathy for Bulger, I am concerned about what is going on in our prisons. A sentence of life in prison is not the same a sentence of being beaten to death. And of course, many prisoners who are beaten to death, or otherwise die in prison violence, are serving time for much lesser crimes. A few are doubtless innocent. Millions of dollars were spent to catch and prosecute Bulger. An elaborate sentencing process was employed when a judge sentenced him. And then that sentence is effectively nullified by poor prison management. A prison warden, guard, or fellow prisoner should not have the final say about what happens to any prisoner. That is what judges are for. One wonders why he was moved repeatedly? Any move would seem to be a risk, as we see now. I can only hope that the prisoner found beaten beyond recognition is really Bulger. It would be a shame if some other prisoner got beaten to death just so that Bulger could quietly escape.
18
Never like to hear of anyone dying, that being said most everyone he killed probably deserved it and was of similar character.
No particularly terrible loss on either side.
1
Interesting how many of the comments reflect a disdain for the FBI, one calling it Bulger's enabler. I wonder what the informed individuals making those remarks think about the FBI in relation to President Donald J. Trump? For the sake of consistency, I hope the same, but I doubt it. At any rate, the murder of Mr. Bulger was wrong, just as the murders to which he allegedly conspired was wrong. RIP Mr. Bulger. Thank you.
1
Proof that the authorities do not really run prisons. The inmates are in charge.
5
I don't care who he was or what he did, what happened is the shameful consequence of criminal negligence if not outright conspiracy. An 89 yo man beaten beyond recognition? Really? If there is justice, someone beyond just the two perpetrators need to face criminal prosecution. Yes, I am talking about prison staff. The way we treat prisoners in this country is truly despicable. History will judge us not by the ideals we espouse, but by our actions and we will be found wanting.
6
@The F.A.D.
I've been very briefly on the floor of a California State prison. Privacy does not exist in such places. What I cannot figure is how the heck James Bulgar was beaten without the awareness of correction staff.
1
Far be it from me to know anything about the mob, mob hits or mob related violence and revenge, but for inmates to beat an 89 year old man to death to the point of being unrecognizable is pretty pathetic and cowardly. I know a lot of elderly men in the work I do and most can do only the basics in life to survive but most could not survive a fall or trip down a stair or two. I'm no fan or supporter of Bulger but he was also almost 90 years old. Just how much resistance could someone have at that age? His murder was violent and extreme and brutal. It also occurred shortly after he arrived at the Hazelton federal penitentiary. Sounds like the classic premeditated and orchestrated mob hit. I guess that's the code by which mobsters, especially sociopathic murdering mobsters, live and die by. This entire scenario and story is sickening. Only Hollywood could make something and someone so evil so glamourous.
3
Not funny--the government should have protected him, not put him where it knew he'd likely be attacked.
Beaten to death was not the sentence---and would not be legal.
We want the government to obey the law, always, no exceptions for disliked people.
6
While I decry the violence of Whitey’s demise there is some poetic justice to it. I’ve looked into the eyes of men without morals, shark eyes, seeing only food in humans around them upon which to feed.I will not mourn Mr Bulger’s death but find abhorrence in its execution.
Whitey Bulger is gone and that is no aggregate loss to humanity but rather an impetus to the good among us to survive. Compassion, empathy, humility, integrity...human values that may define us each and, communally, all. May Whitey’s faults be a guide to all who value a human vision greater than material acquisition of wealth and/or power. There but for my own recognition of humanity, go I.
3
Bureau of Prisons owns this mess. Eighty-nine year old guy in a wheel chair is transferred to a different prison and killed within 24 hours of arrival. They haven't said yet, but I'd bet "no prison employees saw the assault" will be part of the follow up press release.
9
This is the third homicide at that prison in recent years.
Sure ain't no Marriott.
2
Leave it to Trump to be unable to run even federal prisons, shortchanging them by not running them with enough guards to prevent the violence. The list of his shortcomings gets longer and more dangerous each and every day.
1
Yes! It’s all Trumps fault!
Yet another stain on our prison system, a blow inflicted by the liberal policy of coddling criminals. People in penitentiaries are supposed to be doing penance, not having a good time and being able to exercise their murderous instincts. They should all be in solitary, except for the time they are making small ones out of large ones, so that they cannot harm the weakest among them, let alone harm their guards. Access to educational reading materials and educational programs in their cells, fine, but nothing else.
1
@james
HAving a good time?
As the badger said: "don't pretend to be stupider than you are"
What the justice system should have done to him had to be done by the "peoples justice system."
1
You know, if we are imaginative - no conspiracy please! - we could constructive a few alternative path to this story.
Was he really that careless or did he get caught because he needed serious medical care. Free health care in your old age is still a good deal!
Then the timing of this transfer. Was it a coincidence? Or arranged? By whom? On CBS, it is said he was beaten unrecognizable. Why?
So many questions, chances are there won't be many answers.
2
@Bos
Health care in prison is often notoriously bad.
1
Several commenters have mentioned the cost prison. It is high. Most prisons should be outsourced to Mexico. Could probably reduce the cost per prisoner to a few thousand dollars per year.
6
And deminish the profits of the prison industrial complex? Not to mention that our#1 Industry would be out sourced and no longer say "made in the USA."
8
@Michael Bitter
Outsource our prisoners to Mexico, to cut costs? Cute thread. Very funny.
Federal Bureau of Prisons, the government that funds it, private prisons and other parasitic business sectors buying corrupt politicians to keep things the way they are?
Instantly, totally believable.
Not so funny.
Your comment and its antecedents:
Recommended, but with an admixture of irritation.
"and that the authorities had turned a blind eye to his crimes in exchange for his snitching on the Mafia."
So... why weren't the "authorities" involved sent to prison as well?
I suppose few will grasp the political-heteronomy involved in allowing government to engage in black ops within civil society itself. Allowing an undercover spy to get away with murder in order to obtain secrets of greater tactical value is a commonplace tactic in war. So too, allowing a city to be bombed in order to keep secret the cracking of a code. But war-time tactical decisions of this nature have no place in civil society.
The United States has been so besotted with war-metaphors -- "war on poverty," "war on crime," "war on cancer" -- that we have been dulled to the fact that *any* kind of war is inimical to the concept of civil society. "Societas" derives from "socius" meaning "partner, companion, ally" Who fights "war" against an ally?
When a person breaks the law, he has betrayed his civic companions and, upon investigation, should be punished. But that is not the same as proactively waging war against putative enemies at large. The entire thrust of the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments is to place limits on how government deals with (not "fights") crime. When the government becomes a law breaker, by aiding or even silently acquiescing in crime, it becomes the chief lawbreaker and looses its moral authority. It literally strives against what it stands for.
18
@Chip The specific war-time tactical decision you mention, allowing a city to be bombed in order to keep secret that a code has been cracked, should also not be part of any civil society. The indiscriminate bombing of civilians dates from the First World War. We are too used to it now, but it is a crime against humanity and should never be used, no matter what the cost to the military. We condemn Assad, and rightly so, but we don't do so from any kind of moral high ground. We have been just as guilty as he in the last century.
3
As for FBI & police looking the other way in exchange for cooperation during his life of crime, he was - and likely is - the tip of the iceberg, and is still going on. His victims during that time (including innocent bystanders ... which also includes one man who was left quadriplegic for life) can blame the FBI.
6
I don't think he deserved to RIP.
He should have been let alone to rot in prison for the rest of his natiral life.
8
Every living thing is part of the continuity of life on this planet and every death is an end of that long line of life back to the first cell. So we are all related distantly to a common ancestor. So when someone dies it's a distant relative of all of us.
That aside, this man made his life into a source of misery for so many others, that we cannot say that he will be missed. It's only sad that he chose to spend his limited time so wastefully.
22
@Casual Observer
That’s the view from 42 light years up. Let’s balance it with an on-the-ground, microscopic view:
Whitey B. was a persistent and destructive cancer cell that threatened the health of a vital organ. He had to be isolated to protect the organ. And his isolation, with other cancer cells, led to his decimation.
1
Was he the last living person who had been incarcerated at Alcatraz?
8
@DJK633 I think he may have been the last living current federal inmate to have done time at Alcatraz.
This is wrong.
If the death penalty is imposed, so be it.
If not, the death penalty shouldn't be imposed in prison.
He had it coming, many will say. Then where do we draw the line on killing murderers in prison? How many do they have to commit -- one-- six-- twenty -- for us to shrug it off? And who sanctions it?
What's the point of the court system if it becomes OK to execute people in prison?
75
@TerryPoint taken. It is never OK to execute any person, no matter how vial the person. I would like to think that no one actually sanctions such a murder, for that is what it is, but I suspect that many who suffered because of this brutal sociopath who dominated not only the lives of survivors of those murdered by him but the whole of Southie in Boston where he dominated more than one entire generation, will not mourn his passing. He was the ultimate bad man and as much as I, you and others do not condone the killing of any life, I imagine there is a sigh of relief by many who suffered under his dominance and absolute cruelty, all done for his own self gratification. I don't think many, if any, weep for him.
1
@Terry--the internet says 168 died in the Oklahoma City bombing, so your "shrug index" is somewhere between one and 168, because we all universally shrugged off Tim McVeigh. Bulger's murder is unfortunate, but I doubt most will have any trouble shrugging.
1
What's not to love about the guy and his work? I'm sure he'll be missed by Warden Coakley and Acting Director Hurwitz who had a hand in facilitating his murder and timely death. (Managing Custody and Care, Prisoner transfers and all that business that can get a fella killed when money changes hands, wink, wink).
9
@Gordon Jenkins Cry me a river, Mr. Jenkins. As a lifelong resident of South Boston, I watched this evil pervert terrorize innocent people and ruin lives. Save your concern for someone who deserves it.
1
“Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged”. Samuel Johnson.
He deserved nothing better, and I am certain he would have agreed.,
16
A domestic terrorist who spent decades under the protection of the FBI. Late and lamented?
11
I'm from Boston, left long ago, but remember the Bulger influence. One book I highly recommend is "All Souls: A Family Story from Southie," by Michael Patrick MacDonald. MacDonald gives a first-hand telling of the horror that Bulger, Flemmi and Martorano oversaw.
The only thing I'd add about Bulger, which MacDonald's book alludes to, is this: during the height of "the busing crisis" (more accurately "white pogroms against Black people"), it was Whitey who attempted to bring the Klan into South Boston. That was circa 1975 or 1976, well before a lot of people say Whitey was a gangland kingpin, or whatever.
Well, I lied, I'll add one other thing. The FBI was Whitey's enabler. If you're one of the many who are looking to the FBI as a check on Trump, good luck.
33
That is a healthy dose of Karma. For all of you lamenting a 89 year old being beaten to death, keep in mind that Bulger would still be giving out similar orders to do the same to others if he was out in the world still and making decisions.
44
Live by the sword, you get the rest.
27
The Irish love our bad boys. Except perhaps when they're priests molesting children. Whitey Bulger was a villain straight from an Edward G Robinson film, though, photogenic and amoral. He met a suitably wicked death at the merciless hands of his fellow inmates, it's related in another article.
19
@Tournachonadar
He wasn't photogenic. For years the police had NO photos of him and all we saw was the mug shot from the 1950 that is part of this article.
Everyone in Southie knew who he was though.
@matty
But maybe not what he looked like.
It's fitting that his demise came at the hand of old adversaries. He earned this ignominious death.
16
@Nitin
Really? He was beaten to death by two other geriatric prisoners?
1
Listen to the first season of the Crime Town podcast. Very interesting to see how far his ties went
5
@Sarah Silvernail...the season about Providence?+
Whitey crossed too many. Could have been the Mafia or the IRA. He embarrassed the FBI. Ironically, he could have died forgotten of natural causes like Gotti. Now he joins criminal legend, dying violently and mysteriously.
13
Was he given time to pray first? That's what he did for the women he strangled...
16
@Joall heart.
all heart
That’s a lot of words devoted to an obit for a deeply evil man who ruined a lot of lives. Maybe now the people he victimized can toss his memory into the dumpster of history.
21
@Oliver Jones
A lot of words, yes, but good for circulation. Anyone who attracts Depp is like a jumped shark.
The criminal's credo, "live by the sword, die by the sword," is apt for this monster. He got precisely what he deserved. Too bad it took this long.
13
To quote Moms Mabley “They say you shouldn’t say nothing about the dead unless it’s good. He’s dead. Good!’
37
Whaaaat? A mug shot with a hat on? Come on NYT, don’t pay homage to this guy. Post him as he was—a criminal.
16
@Luis Gonzalez
It's a MUG SHOT. He was a criminal. Hence the mug shot. The NYTimes did not take that mug shot. The Boston Police did.
1
He deserved to be in prison, of that we can be sure. What disgusts me are the comments from New York Times readers celebrating his death. Their glee is disgusting and disgraceful. They should be ashamed of themselves. There is no difference between their joy and Trump calling for violence against ethnicities, members of specific religions, and institutions such as the free press.
25
@Jason Bennett
I don't think that they get that the reason for the article is that the prison system failed. It is not supposed to permit violence against the inmates but clearly that is not what happens.
2
@Jason Bennett Well, except he was a violent criminal and Trump's enemies' only crimes are disagreeing with him. That is a significant difference. He was moved to this prison after threatening a prison employee!
1
@Jason Bennett--I'm sure most of the families of his victims would disagree with you. What's disgusting is the reverence for someone so evil. Karma caught up with him. Not a single NYT reader caused his death. He's not someone whose memory should be revered.
2
I just read an article in the NYT by Danielle Ivory and William K. Rashbaum that he was beaten to death shortly after his arrival to the new prison.
So I guess it's true - what goes around comes around.
Not one ounce of remorse was ever shed BY Bulger and no doubt not one ounce will be shed FOR him.
17
This fate came 70 years too late.
18
There is glaring irony in the fact that Bulger was unrecognizable even after he died.
16
Someone remind me ... where is his famous brother? Is he long gone into the beyond?
3
@Annie
William “Billy” Bulger is still very much alive and well. He’s living in Southie.
@annie
@mom2graceb
According to the Massachusetts Open Checkbook list of state pensions, (William) Bulger is currently receiving a pension from Massachusetts at a rate of $200,486 annually.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bulger
2
Watching “the Departed” later.
RIP Whitey Bulger
5
He had made so many friends in his long and illustrious career.
3
One of my favorite euphemisms is "organized crime figure," which weirdly elevates someone who used to be called just plain "mobster" or "Mafia thug." Even when the victim is nearly 90, it takes a lot to beat him "unrecognizably" to death, particularly when he's in custody. So who in the Federal Bureau of Prisons got paid to look the other way? And is the current head of the bureau another Trump appointee who's lining his pockets at the expense of the taxpaying public? The sordid saga of Whitey Bulger ain't over yet.
26
Was a heads up given by persons in the Federal Bureau of Prisons that Bugler would be transferred to an out of control institution, and to whom was it given?
Were persons within the FBOP directed to send him to an institution where he could be murdered? What parties directed them to do so?
Was this murder a joint action by mobsters and federal employees?
Did Bugler still have relevant information, was he cooperating, and who was the information against?
Who knew about any cooperation?
Will Buglers estate sue the FBOP for failing to protect him?
Reads like a "True Crime" pulp fiction weekly.
42
How is that any modern prison doesn't have every inch under video surveillance so as to determine who has beaten to death another prisoner?
If any old liquor store can do it, shouldn't a high-security prison get it right?
105
@Doug McKenna
Especially for a facility constructed in 2004.
17
@Doug McKenna
A reporter from Boston stated on PBS the NEWS HOUR,
that it was a mob who beat him to death.
How is it, that a Federal prison allows a mob to encounter or get into proximity a single prisoner who is in a wheel chair and ill?
2
@Doug McKenna
They most certainly DO.
There's no way an 89 year old should be in the general population with anyone other than other geriatrics.
2
He was found beaten to death? He didn't die in prison. He was murdered in prison. Who is responsible?
44
@Lynn he is.
2
@Lynn
Who is responsible?
Probably someone with a deep grudge.
good ole U.S. of A running a death house for those ' other dyploribal or dispossed 47 %; that lack a living wage, access to a good science based education and lack access to a minimal medical system. He, who makes it all great is he who has the gold so the U.S. says??? SAD
6
“He was sentenced to life in prison,” he said of Mr. Bulger, “but as a result of decisions by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, that sentence has been changed to the death penalty.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Good. No longer a parasite on society.
14
Ignominy and banality are relentless pursuers of the cruel.
10
It seems a fitting end to one so dispossessed of moral values. He who lives by the sword...
12
If you are familiar with the facts, a better characterization of Whitey's relationship with the FBI jumps out at you than that he was an "informant." Instead, the FBI was providing HIM information, which led to killings of rival mobsters. That's why FBI agent Connolly went to prison.
28
No one knew he was being beaten?
"...was found beaten to death on Tuesday in prison. He was 89.
Two Federal Bureau of Prisons employees... said Mr. Bulger had been beaten unrecognizable by inmates... He was found unresponsive at 8:20 Tuesday morning, according to a statement..."
Where was he found? In his cell? How did those who beat him get in? Was he found in a common area? And that common area wasn't guarded or patrolled by anyone?
This whole thing smells as bad as his entire life was ugly. His death is suspicious, and I'm guessing he was moved specifically so an end could be put to his miserable life.
75
@Euphemia Thompson I worked for a very short time at a prison in California. There are many places where this could happen.
@Euphemia Thompson
It was retaliation for threatening someone in the Florida penitentiary.
I had heard he was throwing out the first pitch at Fenway Park next year. Guess not.
4
What, is this a banana republic?
What's happened to law and order? There is a loss of order.
This is not ok.
43
@Billy
No, once again:
A banana republic refers to certain Central American dictatorships whose economy relied on ONE cash crop, bananas, and who gave ultimate authority to the corporation(s) (United Fruit Company) who controlled the banana plantations and grew that fruit.
The USA's economy is way to diverse to devolve into a one-crop economy.
Be sure to tell that to anyone / everyone who blurts out this falsity.
2
@matty good point, I guess one could say that under the oligarchs and their puppets in DC we are a fruit salad republic !
2
My recollection of the reports of his trial is that he hardly denied the crimes (but falsely claimed immunity) but railed against the accusations of his cooperating with the FBI.
2
I have no sympathy from convicted mob criminals of any age However I think it’s outrageous that our prisons cannot protect prisoners that are sentenced in order to pay a penalty for a crime committed. After all he wasn’t sentenced to the death penalty however that was the price he paid while in prison custody. No one can deny that are prisons, rather federal or state, are a disgrace and a blot on our nation, among many others that were currently dealing with. While the fate of this convicted criminal is not at the top of my list of urgent issues it’s still indicative of the fact that the rule of law does not apply equally and fairly in this country. That is the real issue!
38
Not that I am a proponent of violent crime, organized or otherwise, but when such a high profile prisoner is transferred to a facility which is known to have problems with violence, doesn’t it beg the question as to why he was not in administrative segregation?
Or is the rest of the country just going for more of a Riker’s Island approach to manufactured recidivism?
24
It was just a matter of time. The prison system could move Whitey Bulger around and around, but his past -- and all the thugs -- was bound to catch up with him. Don't feel sorry, anyone. He was 89, but he lived a very long life and quite handsomely. On the other hand, his victims died horrible deaths at his hands. I was born in East Boston. I don't remember that much but I read four good books on this guy, Bulger. He brought so much grief and misery to people, not just the murders, but the fatherless children, the women whose teeth he extracted so they wouldn't be identified -- all because of the mistake of dating his pal, the one they call the Rifleman. So many others he stole and ruined all he touched. And he lived to be 89.
11
No love for Bulger, but I'm disgusted by our prison system. Anyone, any person convicted of a crime, should be able to do his/her time without being harassed, intimidated, beaten, or violated in any way. I'm not asking for a country club, just basic human decency.
26
Were they able to recover the contents of all the bank deposit boxes, foreign bank accounts, etc.?
4
@seattle expat
NO. His companion would not cooperate with the FBI on that matter.
1
the coda with the film review is exquisite. well done !
2
How likely is it that the authorities did not know he would be killed if transferred there? Not very.
20
A detailed audit of the records showed that information attributed to Bulger had already been received by the FBI from other sources. At one concluding point in "Black Mass," Bulger defends himself to Weeks by pointing out that the cash was flowing from Bulger to the FBI, not the other way around. This was his proof to Weeks that it was actually the canary who had eaten the cat.
4
My father loved to read about NY city politics and crime syndicates when he was a young man. He was the most peaceloving man I knew, so it was always a conflict for me to hear him talk about the NY City gangs. He taught me early on that 'Violence begets violence.' Be careful who you get mad at.
So Whitey lived by violence and died by violence. How sad that the old proverb of my dad came true for him in a gruesome way.
2
Too bad he did not divulge the fate of the paintings stolen from the Gardner Museum in 1990. Bulger is widely suspected as being involved.
15
Is no one repulsed by the vision of an 89 year-old man being beaten to death in an American prison? If prison officials intentionally threw him to the wolves, they should be held criminally responsible. And, if they are, let's hope that their jailers don't do the same.
19
@JG--Is no one repulsed by the way this thug treated his victims? Honestly, why aren't the victims first and foremost in everyone's minds?
2
It was reported that he was on the verge of dying from various ailments and just plain old age (after all he was 89 years old). The hitman did Bulger a favor, he assisted him in a mafia type suicide. He was too frail to continue any semblance of life in a top security prison and unable to go to Switzerland or Brussels to commit assisted suicide. He has joined the ranks of those who "live by the sword die by the sword."
1
It was reported last week on the local news here in MA he was transferred to the WV prison because he was in the end stages of an undisclosed disease that the Oklahoma prison was not equipped to handle.
4
The authorities knew that putting him in general population was a death sentence. ''Hazelton, which has been plagued by violence, was the latest in a series of prison transfers for him.''
''Attorney J.W. Carney Jr. said in a statement Tuesday that Bulger "was sentenced to life in prison, but as a result of decisions by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, that sentence has been changed to the death penalty." AP
Did he have more dirt to share on federal authorities that were his co-conspirators?
5
This makes me think about Jeffery Dahmer getting beaten to death in a Wisconsin prison. Dahmer and two or three other inmates were declared a 'cleaning crew' and sealed off in a part of the prison to clean without guard presence. One of the 'cleaning crew' members was a lifer who had beaten prisoners to death previously. None of us are shedding any tears for Dahmer or Bulger, but you have to wonder how many deaths get set up by prison staff for prisoners who are nowhere near the evil that those two represent.
32
it was payback for the Luca Brasi murder.
4
I think mean people live longer.
12
*I see that heroes and heroines often live longer too.
i worked in a restaurant in the south end of boston in the mid 70's, there was a certain bunch of people who would take over the bar on some sunday afternoons and one day a young woman came into the kitchen and grabbed a cheesecake and threw it at one of the men. in all the drama the owner came into the kitchen and was looking out the window in the door, visibly nervous. I asked what was wrong and he replied, It's the Irish wise guys." it wasn't bulger, but john callahan, who was found murdered and stuffed into the trunk of his car at the miami airport.
9
No one should die in custody of the authorities. That is not how prisons should work. And he was 89.
But it's hard to find much sympathy for him, isn't it?
66
@Simon DelMonte
Bingo.
5
@Tom
The issue is no longer about sympathy for a sociopathic gangster/FBI informant, but concern for a society based, in theory, on law and order and not vigilantism or the brutal silencing of federal inmates who might “snitch.” I was reminded of the rat in the final image of Scorsese’s great film THE DEPARTED. Who ordered this killing and why now? Who allowed it and why? Money? Fear? Both?
4
@Simon DelMonte yes, very hard!
On the one hand, he should have been incarcerated much earlier and spent longer in jail. On the other hand, we aren't paying $32 to 60K a year keeping him alive and fed, clothed and housed any more.
It's one thing to allow minor criminals to remain on the streets, but one like Bulger should never be maintained in order to catch other criminals. The cost to society is way too high.
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@Barbarabut that was the determined sentence for Bulger and not left to the whims of opinion.
6
@Barbara you can thank the feds for helping him "get away" while the corruption ran amuck all that time while he lived under there noses near the beach in Cali..just pathetic and comical.
2
There will be people celebrating in the streets of Boston tomorrow not only for the Red Sox championship. In Boston, revenge is typically served ice-cold, and from a great distance.
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Where have they gone?
This generation's men of equivalent "values" have put on suits and ties, gotten law degrees, and infiltrated the Rhode Island and Massachusetts bars.
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@Dick Purcell
Re "This generation's men of equivalent "values" have put on suits and ties, gotten law degrees, and infiltrated the Rhode Island and Massachusetts bars."
And Wall Street (Banksters) and K-Street and certain politicians.
1
In Massachusetts, the criminals just, well, are criminals doing criminal things. It is all quite simple and straightforward.
In New York, the criminals become politicians doing criminal things. And when convicted of something or other, they collect pensions.
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@Michael Read up on Whitey's brother, William, who helped him evade capture and yet collects a $200k pension from Massachusetts and was President of the State Senate as well as of the University of Massachusetts system.
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@Michael: Same situation in Philly. State and federal convictions of Philly judges, former US Congressman Fattah, and steel worker union manager. The list is long, going back beyond Abscam. It was once stated that Philadelphia is "contented and corrupted." The Superbowl victory was good for the fans, but did nothing to change the political climate.
2
Mr. Bulger had been beaten unrecognizable by inmates.
Regardless of his past and his worth as a living human being how would a high profile 89 year old inmate such as Bulger be alone with fellow inmates with enough time to be beaten unrecognizable upon arriving at a new facility?
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@Marie
Don't care how. He deserved it.
34
The mafia wasn't the only entity with a major score to settle. I'm surprised it took this long.
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@Marie He angered or embarrassed the wrong corrections officer. I worked in the criminal justice system, and there are no accidents, mistakes, or coincidences. Just an abundance of ego.
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Found guilty of monstrous crimes over such a long period. It's still a shame that a prison can't protect the life of a prisoner.
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I think "Black Mass" was actually a fairly good gangster movie, showing the mundane aspects of being in a criminal gang, and being highly accurate about Bulger's history.
It's good that he's dead, naturally everyone has to die sometime, but it's good that he died behind bars. Good too that he knew all his ambition had come to nothing but him rotting in a cell.
I think his story is primarily one of an intelligent sociopath doing what comes naturally. He was completely sociopathic, as a lot of gangsters and Trump are, and thus he had no concept of other people as really having feelings, or lives of their own. The only thing that mattered in his life was him. Seems to me if we want to prevent this sort of person from doing a lot of damage, we have to find them early in life, and treat them if possible, or confine them if not.
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@Dan Stackhouse
If he were black, I think, people would have a bit more sympathy for him. They'd say, what other choice did he have? Fifty years ago, Southie was a white ghetto. I'm sure that Bulger was a sociopath. but a lot of black sociopaths are lionized for overcoming the adversity of poverty. If Bulger had been in Belfast, he'd have wound up an IRA legend most probably.
The type of scorn people here are pouring on him is the scorn and hate I reserve for people who abuse and misuse children, something which Bulger never did.
I think Bulger probably felt like he won. Once you cross 80, it doesn't matter if you're in jail or out free, because age itself is a prison. If he escaped jail until his 80's, that'd seem like winning.
4
Such presumptions by reading an article or a book or a movie don’t justify a person being beaten to death. He was being punished and was in prison for that. The security guards needed to protect him. If we think it’s acceptable to take law into our own hands then why should we even have one. The guy as bad as he was, he was a human being!
2
@richguy--So it's okay he murdered women, though, right? And tortured them in the process. All good, right?
I reserve my scorn for murderers and torturers of women, especially. And yes, I hate people who make excuses for murderers and torturers.
3
Round up the usual suspects
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Heisenberg
1
@PeterC
There's a prison full of 'em - take your pick...
From reports here in Boston, it appears that the Black Hand of old enemies lifted up to cause his end.
Boston Globe: "Three people briefed on the situation, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said a fellow inmate with Mafia ties was being investigated for the slaying of the 89-year-old Bulger at the US Penitentiary Hazelton."
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@GClarke
It does not matter. The Mafia has offered nothing in this country but misery and harm to others, too.
At least in Sicily, the Mafia began as a resistance movement to an unjust political system. Here it's just been a bunch of nasty people exploiting people who came here to live better lives.
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@Casual Observer
The Mafia in Sicily became resistance fighters only after they were promised free reign in Sicily and Italy by the Allies, in a deal negotiated by Lucky Luciano.
Nothing patriotic about it.
Just business.
14
@BKKBOS
I think that the Mafia began about a thousand years earlier after a different invasion and occupation of Sicily.
"James (Whitey) Bulger . . . was found dead on Tuesday in a West Virginia prison. He was 89."
I keep thinking about that old adage, "Only the good die young."
With the passing of James (Whitey) Bulger, I wonder what the cost saving measures will be for no longer paying for his incarceration?
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@Marge Keller Since the prison isn't closing and prison workers are generally salaried and I highly doubt that the number of workers or their hours will be reduced because one prisoner is gone, there will probably be no cost-saving whatsoever.
14
Dear Marge,
It's actually not as high as we'd think, the average cost per prisoner in Federal prisons was about $36,300 last year. I don't think he got much special treatment, although he did get moved around a lot, probably to stave off the inevitable mafia hit on him.
3
@Martin Brooks
I hear ya Mr. Brooks, but at the same time, I keep reading about how much it costs to house a single prisoner for one year. Depending on the study one reads, the costs do vary. The city of New York pays $167,731 to feed, house and guard vs. $75,560, to house a prisoner in California.
1
The Boston Globe is reporting, citing three unnamed sources, that Bulger was killed and “a fellow inmate with Mafia ties” was being investigated in connection to his death.
Well, all those transfers were deliberate so he'd be killed by someone "on the inside."
Thanks feds.
105
@matty, Or perhaps to keep him from being killed and it didn't work this time.
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@matty
I totally agree with you and support this theory. Odd how he was "found" unresponsive. Where was he? If not inside his cell at 8:20, then he had to have been in an unguarded common area, left there for his "buddies" to do their homework.
2
@me, just me
Doubt it. Prison guards are totally sadistic. That's why they do that job, because they have total control and power over people they consider "less" than them and they know there's no way they can retaliate. They enjoy that. They live for that.
I'm not sorry he met his demise this way, only that an 89 year old man shouldn't be in the "general" population. He should have been with other 89 year old men.
6
It's unfortunate that in this article Bulger is pretty much glorified - his trials and tribulation. There should not have been an article detailing all the "accomplishments" he had in his life. He deserves to be forgotten.
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@Joan
He's not being glorified.
He deserves to be forgotten indeed, but he was notorious and won't be. That's simply a fact and not glorification.
34
@Joan
I too hope he gets his "second death" when nobody remembers him anymore. That doesn't mean that I celebrate his first death, but I will say it couldn't have happened to a more deserving person. Good riddance, he will not be missed.
The TV series "Brotherhood" (2006-08) was also inspired by the Bulger brothers, though it's set in Rhode Island.
24
@midwesterner There was also a Law and Order episode with many of the same details, including the professor brother.
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@midwesterner
No kidding? It was an excellent series, good writing, great acting, and each episode was more compelling than the last. Thanks for the intel.
14
@Maggie Oh, I know that one! Callie Lonnigan and his brother. They're twins, and of course one of them is a gangster who is also an FBI informant. I never put together that Bulger was the inspiration. Thanks for pointing it out.
1