Notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger has been killed in a US federal prison in West Virginia, according to US media.
The 89-year-old was found dead in his cell at the maximum security facility shortly after being transferred there from a Florida jail.
Bulger, who was convicted in 2013 of 11 murders, inspired several films based on his dark life.
Bulger was captured in California in 2011 after a 16-year manhunt.
The former leader of South Boston’s Winter Hill gang inspired the film Black Mass featuring Johnny Depp, and The Departed which won the Academy Award for best picture in 2006.
His death comes on the same day that he was transferred to the Hazelton penitentiary in West Virginia, which houses 1,385 inmates, according to reports.
The Bureau of Prisons declined to comment last week on why Bulger – who was serving a life sentence – was being moved.
The details of his death have not been announced, but a local union official for correctional workers at the prison told CBS that a “homicide” occurred on Tuesday morning.
“This is the third homicide in seven months at our facility,” Richard Heldreth said in a phone interview. “We are very understaffed, we are short about 40 officers.”
Source: bbc.co.uk
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