Former mafia hitman Freddy Geas was bored with prison life. He decided to liven things up by beating Whitey Bulger to death. The former notorious Boston gangster didn’t last long in Hazelton Penitentiary, pronounced dead mere hours after arrival. Contrary to popular belief, Geas didn’t whack Whitey with “a lock attached to a belt.” Freddy set the record straight about that in court at his sentencing hearing.
Still in prison
Fotios “Freddy” Geas doesn’t mind the 25 years in prison he was sentenced to on Friday, September 6. The “former mafia hitman” is already in for life. He proudly admitted whacking James “Whitey” Bulger back in 2018.
There wasn’t much reason to deny it and by cooperating with the warden he got a lenient sentence. He was afraid they were going to do something really drastic for punishment. Like take away his TV privileges.
For the record, Geas cheerfully pleaded guilty to “voluntary manslaughter and assault resulting in serious bodily injury.” The judge sentenced him to 25 more years in prison, after he completes the life term he is already serving.
Bulger got a chance to escape the Florida humidity, if not custody, with a trip to “the troubled U.S. Penitentiary in northern West Virginia.”
Prosecutors claimed “Geas used a lock attached to a belt to repeatedly hit the 89-year-old Bulger in the head.” Objection, the Defendant declared. “Defense attorneys disputed that characterization, saying Geas hit Bulger with his fist.”
The Just Us Department had already decided last year “that it would not seek the death penalty against him in Bulger’s killing.” He’d love that. The extra prison sentence means he can kiss any chances for an early parole goodbye.
Head of Irish Mafia
Bulger’s gang of largely Irish mobsters gave the Italians a run for their money. While the Sicilians controlled New York and New Jersey, the Irish held Boston in an iron fist. During the 1970s and ’80s Bulger was also a paid rat for the feds. He kept the FBI well informed of what his main rival was up to, the Federal Bureau of Instigation claims.
“Bulger strongly denied ever being a government informant.” It didn’t make getting life insurance any easier. He knew full well any prison time would be a death sentence, so he ran and hid.
Whitey became one of the nation’s most wanted fugitives after fleeing Boston in 1994. The handler he denies having tipped him off “that he was about to be indicted.”
He managed to lay low for a full 16 years. He was captured at the age of 81 in 2013. They sent him to prison for “11 killings and dozens of other gangland crimes.”
Massachusetts gangster Paul J. DeCologero got an extra four years for serving as lookout. A third inmate, Sean McKinnon, lied to FBI special agents but they said, so what? Everybody does that, even FBI agents. “McKinnon was given no additional prison time and was returned to Florida to finish his supervised release.”
Records from the proceedings note that “prisoners found out ahead of time that Bulger would be arriving at the West Virginia facility. DeCologero and Geas spent about seven minutes in Bulger’s cell during the attack.” One prisoner “testified to a grand jury that DeCologero told him Bulger was a ‘snitch‘ and they planned to kill him as soon as he came into their unit.” That’s what happens to snitches in prison.
