Three men indicted in prison beating death of Boston gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger

His accused killer, Fotios "Freddy" Geas, 55, a reputed one-time crime family enforcer, was indicted on Wednesday on a charge of murder by a federal inmate serving a life sentence, the Justice Department said in a statement. At the time of Bulger's death, Geas was serving a life term at Hazelton for the 2003 murders of Genovese crime family boss Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno and associate Gary Westerman.

Three men have been indicted on multiple felony charges in the 2018 prison beating death of James "Whitey" Bulger, who lived a double life as one of Boston's most notorious mobsters and as a secret FBI informant before going on the run for 16 years. The announcement by the U.S. Justice Department on Thursday shed new light on the long-unsolved killing of Bulger, who was slain at the age of 89, five years into a life sentence he was serving for 11 murders and other offenses he was convicted of in 2013.

Bulger was found fatally bludgeoned in a high-security federal prison in West Virginia - the U.S. Penitentiary, Hazelton - where he had been transferred in a wheelchair a day earlier. His accused killer, Fotios "Freddy" Geas, 55, a reputed one-time crime family enforcer, was indicted on Wednesday on a charge of murder by a federal inmate serving a life sentence, the Justice Department said in a statement.

At the time of Bulger's death, Geas was serving a life term at Hazelton for the 2003 murders of Genovese crime family boss Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno and associate Gary Westerman. Geas, long suspected of involvement in Bulger's death, is still incarcerated at Hazelton.

Geas, along with two co-defendants, Paul J. "Pauly" DeCologero, 48, and Sean McKinnon, 36, was also charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. DeCologero is no longer held at Hazelton but remains an inmate elsewhere in the federal prison system, the Justice Department said. McKinnon, who was on supervised release from federal prison at the time of the indictment, faces an additional charge of making false statements to a federal court. He was arrested on Thursday in Florida, according to the department.

It was not immediately known whether any of the three defendants had legal representation. Bulger's body was discovered wrapped in a sheet, and he had been beaten so badly that blood was found coming from his ears, according to accounts of prison staff at the time.

Bulger, who was a bank robber early in his criminal career, operated his Winter Hill gang for more than two decades in the insular, Irish-dominated South Boston neighborhood, engaging in loan sharking, gambling, extortion, drug dealing and murder. He did so with the tacit approval of an FBI agent, John J. Connolly, who looked the other way when it came to Bulger's crimes so Bulger would supply information on other gangsters.

Bulger, portrayed by Johnny Depp in the 2015 film "Black Mass," was feared for his short temper and brutality. Prosecutors said he strangled two women with his bare hands and tortured a man for hours before shooting him in the head with a machine gun. After he retired from the FBI, Connolly tipped off Bulger about a coming indictment, sending the mobster on the run in 1995. But law enforcement caught up with Bulger 16 years later, acting on a tip from a former Icelandic beauty queen that led to his capture in June 2011 in Santa Monica, California, where he had been living with his long-time girlfriend.

Connolly was convicted in 2008 of racketeering, bribery and second-degree murder for his role in the slaying of an accountant who Bulger feared would testify against him.

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