A federal judge ruled on Monday that a man accused of killing infamous Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger in prison will remain behind bars while he awaits trial.
When Sean McKinnon, 36, was detained on federal supervised release on Thursday in Florida, he was accused of conspiring to commit first-degree murder, among other crimes.
Fotios “Freddy” Geas, 55, and Paul J. DeCologero, 48, two additional men charged in Bulger’s murder, were already incarcerated.
The men are accused of plotting Bulger’s murder hours after he was moved from a prison in Florida to USP Hazelton in West Virginia in 2018. Bulger was serving a life sentence for 11 murders and other crimes. He had previously worked as an FBI informant and was later one of the country’s most wanted fugitives.
Authorities claim that while McKinnon served as a lookout, Geas and DeCologero repeatedly struck Bulger in the head. Separate charges of making false statements to a federal agent have been brought against McKinnon. He allegedly told federal agents that he was unaware of Bulger’s fate.
Prosecutors requested that McKinnon be held in custody until his trial, and U.S. Magistrate Judge Philip Lammens in Florida granted their request, citing McKinnon’s flight risk and danger to the public.
Questions have been raised about why the 89-year-old was transferred to the prison known as “Misery Mountain” and housed in its general population rather than in a more protective setting since authorities have not disclosed a potential motive for Bulger’s murder.
Geas’ Hazelton cellmate McKinnon admitted guilt in 2015 to stealing 12 handguns from a Vermont gun dealer. In February, he was transferred to a halfway house, and in July, he was let out.
A lawyer who represented McKinnon at his detention hearing on Monday was emailed for comment.
DeCologero was found guilty of purchasing heroin used to attempt the murder of a teenage girl that his uncle wanted killed because he was worried that she would reveal the crew to law enforcement.
DeCologero was a member of an organised crime gang in Massachusetts that was led by his uncle. She wasn’t killed by the heroin, so according to court documents, another man broke her neck, severed her body, and buried her remains in the woods.
Mafia hitman Geas and his brother were given life sentences in prison in 2011 for their involvement in a number of violent crimes, including the murder of Genovese crime family boss Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 2003.
Gaes was consulted by author Casey Sherman for his book “Hunting Whitey.”
According to Sherman, who spoke to CBS Boston, “Freddy Geas was an old-school gangster who lived by the code that you don’t – quote, unquote – rat on your friends.”
He claimed that because Bulger was a well-known FBI informant, he should never have been moved to the prison where he died.
According to Sherman, “it’s the most violent prison in the federal prison system.”
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by Bulger’s family members in January. The family had accused the Federal Bureau of Prisons and 30 unnamed employees of the prison system of failing to protect Bulger by moving him to a prison with constant inmate violence.