"Serial-killing hoodlum dead in prison"

October 30, 2018 12:54 PM

James "Whitey" Bulger, 89, killed in a West Virginia prison. (Credit for title: Mefi's Own™ adamg's blog entry) He won the lottery. His brother is William M. Bulger, former Massachusetts state senator and University of Massachusetts president. And he was one of Boston's most notorious gangsters, on the run for 16 years until captured in 2011. Tons of coverage at the Boston Globe (article limits); here's their timeline, and their news story of his death, and his obituary.
posted by Melismata (25 comments total)

Honestly I'm surprised he wasn't killed earlier. Everyone in the U.S. knew he was allowed to remain on the streets because he was informing on other mobsters to the FBI for years.
posted by msalt at 1:02 PM on October 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

What's weird, or perhaps suspicious, is he was just moved to that prison a couple nights ago. So now I wonder if he was moved there in order to have him killed, or someone who was already at that prison and wanted him dead just seized the opportunity.

I don't know enough about him, or prison, or whatever to even guess, but it all seems a bit too coincidental.

I guess I don't really care one way or another about the dude, but he certainly lived a life. Shame so much of it was causing pain for other people.
posted by bondcliff at 1:03 PM on October 30, 2018 [4 favorites]

but it all seems a bit too coincidental.

As was that lottery ticket. Yup.
posted by Melismata at 1:05 PM on October 30, 2018 [4 favorites]

Yeah, I remember at the time everybody assumed that somebody else had the winning Lotto ticket, and Whitey muscled a share out of it. Whether he needed the money had less to do with it than the opportunity the annuity provided to launder some of his less legitimate income.
posted by ardgedee at 1:18 PM on October 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

Mr. Bulger,… was found dead Oct. 30 while completing the first of his two life sentences.

He certainly did complete that first life sentence. Too bad about the second.

As for the lottery scam, more details can be found here.
posted by TedW at 1:57 PM on October 30, 2018 [6 favorites]

I don't quite understand how the lottery annuity could be used to launder money. Can someone explain that?
posted by OrangeDisk at 3:08 PM on October 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

He pays the winner cash under the table for a share in the winnings, which legitimizes the income he receives.
posted by donpardo at 3:15 PM on October 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

Likely no conspiracy here, just the Feds moving him around until someone who had a grudge, fixed things up.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 3:29 PM on October 30, 2018

.)
posted by Schadenfreude at 3:41 PM on October 30, 2018

Honestly I'm surprised he wasn't killed earlier. Everyone in the U.S. knew he was allowed to remain on the streets because he was informing on other mobsters to the FBI for years.

There’s a great podcast out right now called Last Seen, about the infamous, unsolved, half-billion-dollar (in paintings) 1990 robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It is mentioned in passing that pretty much everyone in Boston organized crime was an FBI informant.
posted by Sys Rq at 4:56 PM on October 30, 2018 [9 favorites]

He was also portrayed onscreen by Johnny Depp and (less literally) Jack Nicholson.

Apparently, the Mafia has been eager to kill Bulger since it came out that his deal with the FBI was immunity for informing on them.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:58 PM on October 30, 2018

> I don't quite understand how the lottery annuity could be used to launder money. Can someone explain that?

"I see you only earned $85,000 this year. How did you manage to add $200,000 to your bank account?"
"I saved up some money and bought a walkup on the south side. That's the rent income."
"Do you have receipts for it?"
"Nah, tenants pay me in cash. I'm doing them a favor, they're just starting out you know."
posted by ardgedee at 5:19 PM on October 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

At Least He Didn't Die a Legend

So that was the nightmare into which the federal system placed a guy whom people on both sides of the law wanted dead years ago. I am shedding no tears for Whitey Bulger. He was a serial killer with an FBI handler, which is not something that ever should happen in federal law enforcement, and he died because of a universe of shortcomings that never should exist in the federal penal system. There's some rhyming history with that, I guess. At least he died a grubby crook's death. He didn't die a legend, and that was all to the good.

posted by homunculus at 5:51 PM on October 30, 2018 [10 favorites]

Melismata, thank you for mentioning "article limits." I appreciate that.

I am..not sure what to make of that lawyer statement.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:46 PM on October 30, 2018

When he turned state's evidence, the FBI made a Faustian bargain in which Bulger was the devil. I find it hard to believe that they got more out of him than they risked; the guy was, as far as can be ascertained, a serial killer who found the ideal calling.

If I were working in the morgue, I'd be tempted to put a stake in his chest and a rock in his mouth, just to make sure he stays dead. You can never be too sure.
posted by Kadin2048 at 7:42 PM on October 30, 2018 [5 favorites]

IIRC, there's a hiring freeze on in the federal prison system, which means that a lot of employees whose main function is not acting as corrections officers are being pushed into filling that role. (Technically they are supposed to be capable of filling that role as emergency backups--not for the routine in the long term.)
posted by praemunire at 8:02 PM on October 30, 2018

Can't say I'm sorry for Bulger, but I suspect his lawyer has a point, given the timing after the move.
posted by tavella at 8:07 PM on October 30, 2018

How do you know he's dead? Best FBI witness protection gimmick ever. He could be sitting in a little two-bedroom bungalow in Irvine watching Fox News and drinking scotch.
posted by JackFlash at 8:13 PM on October 30, 2018 [6 favorites]

He could be sitting in a little two-bedroom bungalow in Irvine watching Fox News and drinking scotch.

Not possible. I’m writing this from Irvine, and we don’t have any two bedroom bungalows.
posted by sideshow at 8:39 PM on October 30, 2018 [7 favorites]

Not possible. I’m writing this from Irvine, and we don’t have any two bedroom bungalows.

yeah, yeah. reeeal slick there, Whitey. did that one hit too close to home?
posted by the hot hot side of randy at 10:27 PM on October 30, 2018 [9 favorites]

How do you know he's dead?

They could get a DNA sample from his fantastically-well-connected brother, who claimed to know nothing about Whitey's career.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:48 AM on October 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

From wikipeidia: "several inmates had attempted to gouge his eyes out with a shiv"

Must be one of those typical practices performed on dead rats or something, not sure if I've heard about that before.
posted by e1c at 8:04 AM on October 31, 2018

Whitey Bulger's Real Life Was Crazier Than the Movies
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:53 AM on October 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

So he was placed in an understaffed prison, in general population, where known Mafia members were incarcerated. Why now? Why not seven years ago?
posted by mecran01 at 1:37 PM on October 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

According to updated articles, some people (not all) are saying that he requested to be housed in the general population. I wonder if, at age 89 and in poor health, he was just tired of living.
posted by Melismata at 7:47 AM on November 1, 2018 [1 favorite]