Second Inmate Sentenced in Beating Death of Whitey Bulger
The New York Times
Prosecutors said the inmate, Paul J. DeCologero, acted as a lookout in 2018 during the fatal beating of the notorious Boston underworld figure.
One of the inmates charged in the fatal prison cell beating of James (Whitey) Bulger, the shrewd and savage organized crime boss who lorded over Boston’s underworld for decades, received an additional sentence of more than four years on Thursday for his role in the attack.
Paul J. DeCologero, a Massachusetts gangster who is serving 25 years behind bars for his activities in the violent DeCologero Crew crime gang, pleaded guilty to an assault charge after prosecutors dropped the more serious counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder — which would have carried a potential sentence of life in prison.
Before the new conviction, Mr. DeCologero, 50, had been eligible for release in December of 2026. Now, that release date has been pushed back to 2031.
Mr. Bulger, who had been suffering from a life-threatening cardiac condition and was dependent on a wheelchair, was found pummeled to death in his cell on the morning of Oct. 30, 2018. It was only hours after he had been transferred from a Florida prison, where he had been serving two consecutive life sentences for his role in 11 murders. He was 89.
Prosecutors have said that Mr. DeCologero had denounced Mr. Bulger as a “snitch” to a fellow inmate and told the inmate that he and another prisoner charged in the case, Fotios Geas, 57, had made plans to kill Mr. Bulger as soon as they saw him enter their unit, located in a federal correction facility in West Virginia known for housing a large number of organized crime convicts.
Prosecutors initially said that Mr. DeCologero and Mr. Geas, a New England Mafia associate who was serving time for his role as an enforcer and hit man, together flogged him in the head with a lock attached to a belt.
