Vermont’s Sean McKinnon is one of three people arrested in solitary confinement as suspects in the murder of Whitey Bulger. After four years, they were charged with Bulger’s murder. All three men were arrested for plotting to kill someone in the first degree.
Personnel who saw Whitey’s body said he was beaten to death. “It could have happened by putting a lock in a sock or a fist.”
A padlock in a shock is a common prison weapon, made by placing regular padlocks in socks and swinging them hard at targets. Before police found the body, at least two prisoners walked in and out of the cell, according to people working there.
Before being sent to West Virginia, Bulger was in the country’s largest federal prison in Coleman, Florida. Still, police records show he was fined for threatening a healthcare worker.
Who is Sean McKinnon from Vermont? Wikipedia bio
James “Whitey” Bulger was a well-known organized crime figure in South Boston who was killed in prison in 2018. Three men, one of whom used to live in Montpelier, were accused of killing him.
Prosecutors said Geas and DeCologero remained in prison after killing Bulger, but McKinnon was released under federal supervision and arrested Thursday in Florida.
McKinnon was arrested in Ocala, Florida, where he resided. After Bulger was killed, McKinnon was one of several people held alone in prison. McKinnon is also accused of telling lies to a federal agent.
Sean McKinnon said for the first time that he has not received a clear answer as to why he is still in solitary confinement more than two years after the notorious mobster was beaten to death at Hazelton Federal Penitentiary in West Virginia.
Whitey Bulger’s killer, Sean McKinnon, has been accused of killing many people
One of the officers who killed Whitey Bulger, who was then in solitary confinement, was Sean McKinnon.
Although McKinnon had nothing to do with Whitey being beaten up, he was accused of lying to a federal agent.
Geas and DeCologero allegedly killed Bulger in October 2018 while they were inmates at the US Penitentiary in Hazleton, West Virginia. They are suspected of repeatedly hitting Bulger on the head and killing him that way.
In addition to conspiracy charges, they were charged with first-degree murder and assault causing grievous bodily harm. Shortly after his death, federal prosecutors said they would investigate it as a possible homicide.
First, Sean McKinnon was in prison for stealing a gun.
Sean McKinnon was initially jailed for stealing a gun.
McKinnon was found guilty of breaking into the R&L Archery in Barre and stealing 12 guns, which he then traded for heroin. In January 2016, he was sentenced to eight years in prison.
In October 2018, Bulger was transferred to Hazelton Penitentiary in West Virginia. The next morning he was found dead in his wheelchair. He ran away for 16 years before being caught, convicted of 11 murders and other crimes, and sentenced to life in prison in 2013.
Whitey Bulger Personal Data
Whitey Bulger was the nickname of James Joseph Bulger, Jr. He was born on September 3, 1929 in Dorchester, Massachusetts and died on October 30, 2018 at Hazelton US Prison in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia. He was the leader of the Boston-area Winter Hill Gang and a major figure in organized crime from the late 1960s to mid-1990s. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) placed him on its 10 Most Wanted List for more than a decade until he was caught in June 2011.
James Joseph Bulger Sr. was Bulger’s father. He was born in Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, which is now part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. His parents were Irish. After James Sr. moved to Everett, Massachusetts, he married Jane Veronica “Jean” McCarthy, whose family was of Irish origin. James Joseph Bulger Jr., their first child, was born in 1929.
Bulger’s father was a union worker and sometimes a longshoreman. He lost his arm in an accident at work and the family became impoverished. The Mary Ellen McCormack Housing Project opened in South Boston in May 1938. The Bulgers moved in and that’s where their kids grew up. William Bulger and John P. Bulger did well in school, but James Bulger Jr. became involved in street life.
Early in his criminal career, Bulger was nicknamed “Whitey” by local police because he had blonde hair. Bulger hated the name. He would rather be called “Jim”, “Jimmy” or even “Boots”. The surname came from the fact that he liked to wear cowboy boots in which he hid a switchblade. But people kept calling him “Whitey.”
Whitey Bulger’s early years as a criminal
Bulger rose to fame as a thief and street fighter who loved South Boston dearly. Because of this, he met more experienced criminals and found better ways to make money. In 1943, when he was only 14, Bulger was arrested and charged with theft. At the time he was a member of a street gang called the Shamrocks. Eventually, he would be arrested for assault, forgery, and armed robbery. Bulger was sent to a place for troubled teenagers for these crimes.
Shortly after being released from prison in April 1948, Bulger enlisted in the US Air Force, but he hadn’t changed. He spent time in a military prison for several assaults, and Air Force police arrested him in 1950 for absenteeism without permission. Nonetheless, in 1952 he was finely discharged and went back to Massachusetts.
