Cosa Nostra News

The family of James Whitley Bulger, the notorious gangster/snitch murdered almost one year ago allegedly by two men with organized crime ties, will file a $200 million wrongful death claim against the government over the brutal prison house murder in West Virginia last October. Questions remain about Bulger's death. The family said the legal filing was to learn the reasons why the 89-year-old was beaten to death within 24 hours after his arrival in general population at U.S. Penitentiary Hazelton. One of the suspected killers allegedly confessed to murdering Bulger. Bulger was killed in his cell at the notorious Hazelton lockup on Oct. 30, 2018. He died minutes after he suffered “blunt force injuries of the head," according to his death certificate. He was buried in St. Joseph Cemetery in West Roxbury. Hank Brennan, an attorney for Bulger, this week sent a statement to the Wall Street Journal, noting: “We believe that James Bulger was deliberately placed in harm’s ...

 FINAL One of the most notorious gangster/snitches of the 20th century, James (Whitey) Bulger, who was found beaten to death inside a West Virginia prison last October, no longer wanted to live -- and that is what led to his doomed transfer from a Florida "safe haven." And that's basically all there is to it, says Charles Lockett, the Florida penitentiary’s former warden, who retired in December. That's according to a recent  interview with NBC News. We can add tidbits from that interview to the vast repository of knowledge about Whitey Bulger's murder that's been accumulating since the October 30 event. We also can add Bulger's death certificate, which was recently made public -- and which disagrees with what the medical examiner reported. What else did we recently learn? At least one of the three key suspects remains in solitary confinement. But six months into the murder, and much remains unknown. Federal officials still haven't charged ...

Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger’s attorney, Hank Brennan, told the WSJ that he intends to sue the government for wrongful death and negligence. The lawsuit is part of his effort to uncover why the authorities sent the notorious gangster to the U.S. Penitentiary Hazelton in West Virginia and placed him in with the general population. Brennan will file the lawsuit on behalf of Bulger’s estate. “It’s important for the family and the public to know why the prisons decided to wheel an 89-year-old man with a history of heart attacks into one of the most dangerous prisons in the country,” Brennan told the WSJ. Brennan has represented Bulger since 2011, when he was captured after 16 years on the lam. He defended the longtime FBI informant at the 2013 trial that found the Irish mob boss guilty of committing a range of crimes, including multiple murders, extortion, money-laundering and drug-dealing from the 1970s to the mid-1990s. A BOP spokesperson said that Bul...

UPDATED Flipping on the street is supposed to be the end of a gangster's story, but for Whitey Bulger, it was only the start.... Bulger denied who he was until the end He ratted out rivals -- he murdered, he extorted, and he double-crossed, time and again. He (and partner Stephen Flemmi) killed women -- at least two. When a tipoff told him it was time to face the music, he ran and hid and stole 16 more years, as a pretend human being. He'd certainly had lots of success pretending to be a gangster. And in the end, even after he was caught, Bulger strenuously denied ever being a federal informant. Those who followed his exploits back in South Boston were not surprised at how this story ended. “Anyone in criminal activity with him feels grossly betrayed that he was informing on them while he was supposedly their comrade and friend,” Michael Kendall, a former federal prosecutor from Boston who also once represented the family of one of Mr. Bulger’s murder vic...

UPDATE 2, Oct 31, 11:23 am Former Genovese Springfield crew associate Fotios “Freddy” Geas is currently in solitary with one other inmate after surveillance video caught the two, and probably others, killing James (Whitey Bulger), the South Boston mobster and FBI informer, hours after he was moved to US Penitentiary Hazelton in West Virginia. James (Whitey) Bulger Bulger, 89, was found unresponsive at 8:20 this morning, according to a BOP statement. Life-saving measures were initiated but he was pronounced dead. Bulger -- who was wheelchair bound -- was in general population Tuesday morning when he was approached by two or more inmates, one of them Geas, who wheeled him into a corner that could not be seen by surveillance cameras. The inmates beat Bulger -- one used a lock in a sock as a weapon -- until he was unconscious. He was beaten unrecognizable and it's unclear if there was an attempt to gouge his eyes out or if his eyes had popped out due to the v...

Former New England mob boss Francis (Cadillac Frank) Salemme, 85, has appealed his conviction and life sentence for the 1993 murder of Steven DiSarro, a South Boston nightclub owner. Salemme's attorney filed the appeal Wednesday He and co-defendant Paul Weadick, 63, were both convicted in Boston federal court in June. Weadick also is appealing. DiSarro, a 43-year-old father of five, was killed to prevent him from cooperating with federal authorities. His remains were unearthed behind a Providence mill building in 2016. The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston will hear the appeal. Salemme was in the Federal Witness Protection Program when DiSarro’s remains were discovered, leading to Salemme's arrest. At the sentencing hearing, DiSarro’s son, Michael, told Salemme about irony. “(Y)ou killed our father for thinking he was going to rat and become a snitch. When actually, Mr. Salemme, you ended up being the snitch... “You are a coward a...

Francis Salemme, the former New England Mafia boss accused of killing nightclub owner Steven DiSarro in 1993, was found guilty of the murder by a federal jury at the Moakley Courthouse in South Boston. 1993 surveillance photo: Salemme, left, Flemmi, back to camera, Salemme Jr. right at The Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Mass. On June 22, the jury reached its verdict after four days of deliberations. Salemme, 84, was charged in the killing of DiSarro, who owned the Channel and was a federal witness. DiSarro's body was found in 2016. Salamme associate Paul Weadick, 63, also was found guilty of the murder. Sentencing is set for September 13. Murdering a federal witness carries a life sentence. Salemme had been arrested in Connecticut in 2016, after living in Atlanta as "Richard Parker" in the federal witness protection program before fleeing. "Today, one of the last New England mafia bosses, Frank 'Cadillac' Salemme along with an accomplice, Paul Wea...

Francis (Cadillac Frank) Salemme’s murder trial starts this month. Cadillac Frank: What a long, strange trip..... Salemme, 84, was arrested in 2016 while in the U.S. Federal Witness Protection Program. He and Paul Weadick, 62, of Burlington go on trial April 24 in U.S. District Court. The centerpiece of the case is the May 10, 1993, hit on Steven DiSarro, 43, who then owned the popular waterfront rock club The Channel. "Extremely distraught” and dubious about a sit-down he’d been summoned to with the then-boss of the New England Mafia, DiSarro left a note at his Westwood home for one of his sons. In the note, he wrote that his sons wouldn't see him again anytime soon. DiSarro then stepped into a car waiting for him and disappeared, prosecutors will allege during Salemme’s murder trial. Stephen (The Rifleman) Flemmi and Robert P. DeLuca, are slated to testify, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Wyshak Jr. Prosecutors will paint a chilling, det...

He's the lawman who locks up corrupt lawmen, and he's investigated everyone from wiseguys to CIA and FBI agents. John Durham. Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham, at the University of St. Joseph in West Hartford on Monday, March 5, 2018, gave a rare, candid speech about his role as a special prosecutor in the Whitey Bulger case. Durham is among this country's most respected prosecutors and he's known for maintaining an extremely low profile. He's prosecuted mobsters, corrupt federal agents, and even a former Connecticut governor. He was empowered by United States attorneys general to investigate some of this nation's dirtiest laundry, including  CIA operations that allegedly involved torture and coverups . He was nominated by President Donald Trump, and was endorsed by Republicans and Democrats alike, to be Connecticut's top federal prosecutor. "Perhaps realizing that his new role calls for higher visibility, (he) delivered a lec...