US Prison Bureau 'Incompetence' Led to Mobster Whitey Bulger’s Jailhouse Murder - Watchdog

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The death of notorious mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger after a jail transfer was the result of bureaucratic incompetence and management failures at multiple levels of the US Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), the Justice Department's Inspector General (OIG) said in a report.

Bulger, 89, was killed on October 30, 2018, less than 12 hours after being transferred to US Penitentiary (USP) Hazelton in West Virginia from USP Coleman in Florida. Security footage showed two to three incarcerated individuals rolling Bulger, who was in a wheelchair, into a corner room, where he was beaten to death.

"The fact that the serious deficiencies we identified 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 a high-profile inmate’s case," the report said on Wednesday.

"We found that did not occur here, not because of malicious intent or failure to comply with BOP policy, but rather because of staff and management performance failures; bureaucratic incompetence; and flawed, confusing, and insufficient policies, and procedures."

The OIG also said widespread knowledge of Bulger’s transfer among BOP officials made it impossible to determine employees responsible for improper disclosures, "which resulted in numerous Hazelton inmates being aware of Bulger’s transfer to Hazelton days before it occurred."

"This knowledge among Hazelton inmates subjected Bulger, due to his history, to enhanced risk of imminent harm upon his arrival at Hazelton," the report said.

The inspector general said more than 100 BOP employees knew about the transfer, and some spoke openly about it in front of those serving time.

"The transfer specifically to Hazelton raised additional questions because of the record of violence among inmates at Hazelton, which housed gang members and inmates with connections to organized crime," the report said. "Based on our review of incident records, Coleman was a safer facility."

In addition, the report said officials downgraded Bulger's medical care status in order to transfer him, even though the ex-mobster was elderly and suffered from cardiac-related health problems.

For about 30 years, Bulger was the brutal head of the Winter Hill Gang in Boston, where he was also an FBI informant ratting out his mafia rivals before bolting from the city in 1994.

Bulger spent 16 years on the lam, was on the FBI’s Most Wanted List and was arrested in Southern California in 2011 when he was 81. He was sentenced to two life terms for 11 murders, gun trafficking, and a number of other crimes.