On Thursday, Federal prosecutors said that three former prisoners were charged with killing a gangster who was also in prison.
They have been accused of plotting with the two Massachusetts inmates to kill James “Whitey” Bulger, a notorious South Boston gangster who was beaten to death in his cell at a West Virginia prison in 2018.
Bulger was the third prisoner to die at the Hazelton jail in the past six months. Staff and supporters had been warning for a long time about the dangerous conditions there.
MassLive says that Bulger’s family has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons and 30 unnamed prison employees over his death.
The victim’s family said that Whitey “deliberately sent him to his death” at the prison known as “Misery Mountain.”
Fotios “Freddy” Geas is charged with killing Whitey Bulger
Fotios “Freddy” Geas is one of three people charged with killing Winter Hill mobster Whitey Bulger. He is a hitman for the West Springfield mob.
On October 30, 2018, Bulger’s body was found in his cell at the U.S. Penitentiary Hazleton in Bruceton Mills. He was 89 years old at the time. He had been moved from a prison in Florida twelve hours before.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of West Virginia said that Geas, Paul J. DeCologero, and Sean McKinnon were all charged with plotting to kill someone in the first degree.
The police say that Geas and DeCologero hit Bulger in the head many times. They were also accused of helping to plan a murder in the first degree and an attack that caused serious bodily harm.
If another murder case is brought against Geas by a federal prisoner who is already serving a life sentence, the death penalty could be used.
At the same time, McKinnon was arrested yesterday in Florida, where authorities say he was on federal supervised release at the time he was indicted.
Who is Fotios “Freddy” Geas, the man who might have killed Whitey Bulger?
Fotios “Freddy” Geas is a 55-year-old thug who works for the Genovese crime family in New York.
Freddy, a former hitman for the Mafia who used to live in Springfield, Massachusetts, often worked with his brother Ty.
In 2018, he was sent to prison on charges that he planned to kill Whitey Bulger, the leader of the Winter Hill Gang.
In 2009, Frank Dabado, the president of the Bronx cement union, was the target of a failed attempt to kill Geas, who was accused of being the getaway driver.
Why did Fotios “Freddy” Geas have to go to jail?
Fotios “Freddy” Geas was in jail because he was accused of killing Gary D. Westerman and Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno, the mob boss in Springfield.
He is accused of killing the two in Agawam, Massachusetts, in 2003 by shooting them in the head, beating them with a shovel, and burying them there.
Daniel D. Kelly, who works for Geas and is based in Springfield, says that Freddy was kept in solitary confinement for years before he filed the allegations.
Kelly said, “These accusations are serious, but they’re not serious enough to keep him locked up for more than three years.”
The lawyer said that he hoped the investigation would be fair and that, if blame was due, it wouldn’t be put on the institution or its employees.
The 55-year-old is still in jail in Hazelton, and DeCologero is being held in a different federal prison.
Fotios “Freddy” Geas and his wife have a daughter
Fotios “Freddy” Geas is thought to have been married because he has a daughter named Taylor Geas. But his wife’s name hasn’t been made known to the public yet.
In 2016, Taylor wrote a piece for MassLive and The Republican about her thoughts on her dad’s case.
Taylor remembered thinking that her dad was always in the army and that she never got to see him. She didn’t know the truth until she was in the eighth grade.
Fotio’s daughter told him that she found out the truth when she started reading news articles with his name and words like “heists,” “murder,” “enforcer,” and “criminal” in the headlines.
Taylor also said, “If we look at this situation through the eyes of the system, you could say justice was done, but if you look at this situation through the eyes of a daughter, it was the most unfair.”
Find out more about the family of Fotios “Freddy” Geas
Fotios “Freddy” Geas comes from a family of Greek people. He was born on April 4, 1967, in Springfield, Massachusetts.
His brother is named TY Geas, and he and Anthony Arillotta were in the same gang.
In 2003, Anthony became an official member of the Genovese gang. He had asked the Geas brothers to kill his brother-in-law, Gary Westerman.
Geas and his younger brother Ty had a bad name in Western Massachusetts. In 2011, both of them, along with the late mob boss of the Genovese crime family, Arthur Nigro, were found guilty of murder and racketeering.
Fotios ‘Freddy’ Geas Criminal career
Geas was born into a Greek family, so he couldn’t be part of the Italian Mafia by birth. Geas and his brother Ty were known and feared enforcers in their neighborhood. Anthony Arillotta, who was also in the mob, worked with the Geas brothers. Arillotta became an official member of the Genovese crime family in 2003. Gary Westerman was Arillotta’s brother-in-law. He had asked the Geas brothers to kill him. Acting boss Arthur Nigro also set up a hit on Adolfo Bruno, an old gangster. Both of the hits were done in 2003.
Geas was accused of killing Gary Westerman and Adolfo Bruno in 2009. He was also charged with being the getaway driver in the failed attempt to kill Frank Dabado, the boss of the Bronx cement union, after Dabado got into a fight with Nigro over Tony Bennett concert tickets.
Geas was shocked when Arillotta, a person he used to work with, testified against him at his trial in 2011. Geas was known for his strict rules. He hated people who told lies and men who hurt women. Geas refused to work with the police, so he was given a life sentence.
Whitey Bulger’s death
Whitey Bulger, a well-known Boston gangster, was moved from the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City to the United States Penitentiary in Hazelton, West Virginia, on October 29, 2018.
[4] Bulger, who was 89 years old, was found dead in the prison at 8:20 a.m. on October 30. Bulger was in a wheelchair, and several inmates with a sock-wrapped padlock and a shiv beat him to death. His eyes were almost gouged out, and so was his tongue. [6] [7] [8] This was the third time in 40 days that someone had died at the prison. [9] Just a few days before the most recent death in Hazelton, correctional officers had told Congress that the facilities were dangerously short-staffed.
Geas was the main person who was thought to have planned Bulger’s death.
He, Paul DeCologero, and Sean McKinnon were all charged with first-degree murder in August 2022.