Loved ones of the people killed in association with the crimes of James ‘Whitey’ Bulger are happy he’s been murdered; Bulger is shown here in a 2011 United States Marshals Service mug shot file photo
The surviving relatives of the victims of James ‘Whitey’ Bulger are speaking out about happy they are that the notorious Boston mobster was killed on Tuesday in a West Virginia prison.
Bulger, 89, was found dead overnight on Tuesday at USP Hazelton, a high-security prison with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp in Bruceton Mills.
He had been serving multiple life sentence after being found guilty in 2013 of racketeering charges and involvement in 11 murders, including the killing of Michael Donahue in 1982.
Donahue’s widow, Patricia Donahue, told CBS Bulger’s murder brought relief to her family.
‘We’re very happy that the man is not here any longer because we don’t have to hear his name again,’ she said.
‘Myself? I’d like to open up a champagne bottle and celebrate.’
Patricia Donahue, widow of James ‘Whitey’ Bulger victim Michael Donahue, has said she’d ‘like to open up a champagne bottle and celebrate’ his murder in a West Virginia prison on Tuesday; Patricia is shown here after the guilty verdict was read in Bulger’s trial, on August 12, 2013
Michael Donahue was killed nearly 40 years ago when he offered a ride home to a man allegedly targeted for death by Bulger because he was talking to the FBI.
Patricia and Michael’s son, Tommy, also shared his feelings on the murder of the Mafia boss.
‘I’m surprised and pleased,’ Tommy Donahue said.
‘I didn’t think anyone was going to get to kill him. I thought he would die an old man in jail. This is happy news for our family.’
Michael Donahue was killed nearly 40 years ago when he offered a ride home to a man allegedly targeted for death by Bulger because he was talking to the FBI; Bulger is shown here after a hearing in 2011 as he is escorted from a US Coast Guard helicopter to a waiting vehicle at an airport in Plymouth, Massachusetts
Verified Twitter user and travel editor Priscilla Pilon shared her connection to the terrible acts of violence that Bulger was associated with when he was a free man
Verified Twitter user and travel editor Priscilla Pilon shared her connection to the terrible acts of violence that Bulger was associated with when he was a free man.
‘#WhiteyBulger and his thugs ruthlessly lured my dad’s friend Eddie Connors to a phone booth and shot him because he refused to pay protection money for his bar,’ she tweeted on Tuesday.
‘Justice has been done, a little late IMO.’
A fellow inmate with Mafia connections is being investigated in Bulger’s homicide, two sources told the Boston Globe.
During his life of crime, Bulger led a largely Irish mob that ran loan-sharking, gambling and drug rackets in the Boston area.
He also served as an FBI informant who ratted on his gang’s main rival.
He became one of the nation’s most-wanted fugitives after fleeing Boston in late 1994.
After more than 16 years on the run, Bulger was captured at age 81 in Santa Monica, California in 2011, where he had been living with his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig.
In the past seven months, there have been three homicides at Hazelton, with the officers’ union blaming chronic under-staffing
Bulger had recently been moved Hazelton from a prison in Florida after a stint in a transfer facility in Oklahoma City.
Bureau of Prisons officials and his attorney declined last week to comment on why he was being moved.
In the past seven months, there have been three homicides at Hazelton, with the officers’ union blaming chronic under-staffing.
‘We are very understaffed,’ the union president told WPRI12.
Bulger was born in Boston on September 3, 1929, the son of a longshoreman and his first-generation Irish immigrant wife.
During his life of crime, Bulger led a largely Irish mob that ran loan-sharking, gambling and drug rackets in the Boston area; Bulger is seen here in a mugshot on his arrival at the Federal Penitentiary at Alcatraz on November 16, 1959 in San Francisco