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An investigation by the Justice Department’s top watchdog uncovered „serious“ failures in the Bureau of Prison’s handling of the prison transfer of notorious mobster James „Whitey“ Bulger prior to his murder in custody in 2018, a new report released Wednesday said.
Bulger was found dead in his prison cell just 12 hours after his arrival at the U.S. Penitentiary Hazelton in West Virginia after suffering brutal injuries to his head and face. Three inmates in the prison have been charged in connection with his murder and are awaiting trial.
The Justice Department’s inspector general mounted a separate investigation into how the agency handled Bulger’s transfer. While its report Wednesday said investigators did not find evidence of „malicious intent“ or purposely improper behavior on the part of BOP officials, they identified numerous failures at multiple levels of the prison system as well as puzzling bureaucratic issues in how Bulger’s transfer was allowed to go through.
„In our view, no BOP inmate’s transfer, whether they are a notorious offender or a non-violent offender, should be handled like Bulger’s transfer was handled in this instance,“ Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in a statement accompanying the release of the report.
Bulger was 89 years old and in a wheelchair at the time of his transfer from the high security federal prison at USP Coleman II in Florida to USP Hazelton, where he was immediately placed within the general population despite his notoriety as one of New England’s most sinister gangsters and previous history as an informant for the FBI.
