Inmates at the violent West Virginia prison where infamous gangster James "Whitey" Bulger was brutally murdered in 2018 were tipped off he would be transferred there, according to a Justice Department watchdog tasked with reviewing the killing.
Though Bureau of Prison employees did not act with "malicious intent or an improper purpose," there were "serious job performance and management failures" that compromised Bulger's safety at Hazelton prison in West Virginia, the DOJ Inspector General's office said in a new report.
He had been housed in the general population at Hazelton for less than 12 hours before he was found beaten to death Oct. 30, 2018. Three Hazelton inmates, including a Mafia hitman, were charged in his death Aug. 18, 2022.
The DOJ Office of the Inspector General opened an investigation due to "unusual" circumstances in Bulger's transfer to Hazelton. His age, his ailing health and his notoriety as an FBI informant each gave rise to questions over his transfer to one of the most violent prisons in America, nicknamed "Misery Mountain."
The 99-page report details how federal prison officials had approved Bulger's transfer from a Florida prison — Coleman II — even though he had known health problems. It also presents troubling evidence that BOP officials had let slip to inmates that Bulger would soon arrive at the prison, apparently unaware of the obvious threat to Bulger's life that information would cause.
More than 100 BOP officials were made known of Bulger's upcoming transfer to Hazelton. Some of those officials had openly discussed the transfer in the presence of Hazelton inmates. Additionally, news stories were reporting the details of Bulger's impending transfer. "Everyone knew" Bulger would be killed because he was a "rat," one inmate told prison officials, according to the report.
The report indicated that prison officials decided to send Bulger to Hazelton because it was closer to his family in Boston, had appropriate medical care facilities and "took good care of the inmates." But investigators found the steps BOP personnel took to assess the threat to Bulger from other inmates were "lacking." Several BOP officials said they were unaware of Bulger's notoriety or did not consider his identity in making decisions about his transfer, the report said.
Investigators found that officials at the Florida prison, supported by the Bureau of Prisons medical director, had downgraded Bulger's health assessment, which cleared the way for his transfer to Hazelton.
"Our investigation revealed serious BOP staff and management performance failures at multiple levels; bureaucratic incompetence; and flawed, confusing and insufficient BOP policies and procedures," Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in a video statement.
"We found it particularly troubling that Coleman personnel placed Bulger, an 89-year-old inmate who used a wheelchair and had serious heart conditions, in a single cell in Coleman’s special housing unit, or SHU, for eight months while Coleman staff bureaucratically struggled with how to transfer him to a new facility."
FBI FILES ON MURDERED BOSTON MOB BOSS ‘WHITEY’ BULGER DECLASSIFED
Bulger, 89 at the time of his death, ran the largely Irish mob in Boston in the 1970s and ’80s, and served as an FBI informant who ratted on his gang’s main rival, according to the bureau. He later became one of the nation’s most wanted fugitives before his arrest in 2011 and conviction in 2013 on numerous violent crimes, including his role in the murder of 11 people.
Despite his violent criminal history, the FBI recruited Bulger as an informant in 1975. Bulger committed numerous other crimes, and his handler, FBI Special Agent John Connolly, was later convicted on corruption charges.
Bulger strongly denied ever being a government informant. An intake screening form Bulger signed after his arrival at Hazelton said he answered "no" when asked if there were any reasons he should be kept out of the general population and if he ever assisted law enforcement in any way.
"The fact that these serious deficiencies occurred in connection with a high-profile inmate like Bulger was especially concerning given that the BOP would presumably take particular care in handling such an inmate’s case," Horowitz said. "In our view, no BOP inmate’s transfer, whether they are a notorious offender or a non-violent offender, should be handled like Bulger’s transfer was in this instance."
Fox News' Stephanie Pagones contributed to this report.
