Whitey Bulger, one of the most notorious gangsters in American history, was found dead at 8:20 a.m. on Tuesday inside U.S. Penitentiary Hazelton in West Virginia. He was 89 years old. According to TMZ and other outlets, Bulger had only just been moved to this facility, after having been spending his life sentence behind bars in Florida. He was transferred briefly to Oklahoma City last week and had only just recently arrived in Hazelton shortly before his murder. Bulger had manage to evade federal authorities for more than 16 years prior to his arrest in June 2011. He was found guilty in 2013 for his role in 11 murders, although it is believed he took part in many more than that. In November of that same year, Bulger was sentenced to two life terms plus five years for his role as architect of a criminal enterprise that, in the words of a federal judge, committed “unfathomable” acts that terrorized a city. Overall, Bulger was found guilty at the time on 31 counts, including racketeering, extortion, money laundering, drug dealing and weapons possession. “The testimony of human suffering that you and your associates inflicted on others was at times agonizing to hear and painful to watch,” US District Court Judge Denise Casper said at the crime boss’ sentencing, adding: “At times, I wish we were watching a movie, that what we were hearing was not real. “But as the families of victims know all too well, it’s not a movie.” Bulger’s life was documented on the big screen on multiple occasions, however. Most famously, Johnny Depp portrayed Bulger himself in the 2015 film Black Mass. It’s also widely assumed that Jack Nicholson’s character in The Departed was based on Bulger. Johnny Depp is pictured here as Whitey Bulger. Details regarding Bulger’s death remain almost entirely unknown at this time. A union official for correctional officers at the high-security prison told WV News there was a homicide at the facility, yet couldn’t say whether it was Bulger. Hank Brennan, Bulger’s lawyer, told BuzzFeed News, he couldn’t “confirm or deny it at this point.” “The Federal Bureau of Investigation was notified and an investigation has been initiated. No staff or other inmates were injured, and at no time was the public in danger,” the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement. An original photo released by the FBI in 1984 depicts James “Whitey” Bulger. In 2016, auctioned items seized from Bulger’s Santa Monica, California, apartment raised almost $110,000 to compensate victims’ families. He was born on September 3, 1929, in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Bulger had a son with a waitress and former model named Lindsey Cyr, but he died at the age of six from Reye syndrome after having an allergic reaction to an aspirin injection in 1973. We hope he does not rest in any kind of peace. View Slideshow: Celebrities Who Died in 2018: In Memoriam
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Whitey Bulger, Notorious Mobster, Found Dead in Prison
