A federal court in northern West Virginia on Friday sentenced a former Mafia hitman to 25 years in prison for the 2018 beating death of notorious Boston mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger, according to reports.
Photios “Freddy” Geas, 57, was sentenced after pleading guilty to manslaughter and assault causing serious bodily injury. According to PBS.
The court indicted Geas and two other defendants, Paul J. DeCollogero and Sean McKinnon, in August 2022 for murdering the 89-year-old Bulger on or about Oct. 30, 2018. Court documents Geas and DeCollogero were accused of killing Bulger “by repeatedly striking him in the head,” while McKinnon was accused of lying to federal investigators and the Department of Justice. said.
According to the New York Post, Bulger was beaten with a padlock wrapped around a sock. ReportedHis eyes had also been nearly gouged out. According to CBS News.
According to the Associated Press, Bulger had been booked into the United States Penitentiary (USP) at Hazelton in Bruceton Mills just hours before his death. Reported. (Related article: Some of Whitey Bulger's most heinous crimes)
Ex-Mafia hitman sentenced to 25 years in prison for murder of Whitey Bulger https://t.co/QIFfZiOoxi pic.twitter.com/uhP8kB33Lc
— Toronto Sun (@TheTorontoSun) September 6, 2024
At the time of Bulger's murder, Geas was serving a life sentence at Hazelton Prison for his involvement in a variety of violent crimes, including the murder of Adolfo Bruno, a captain in the Genoese crime family La Cosa Nostra, in the early 2000s. According to He was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and convicted in 2011. His brother, Ty, was also sentenced to life in prison.
According to the FBI, both brothers were associated with La Cosa Nostra.
Geas avoided the death penalty for killing Bulger because the Justice Department said it would not seek the death penalty against him, according to the Associated Press.
DeCollogero, 50, pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced in August to more than four years in prison. According to He could have faced a 10-year sentence, according to the Associated Press. He was initially accused of taking part in Bulger's fatal bludgeoning, but prosecutors and defense lawyers later concluded he was merely a lookout, the AP reported. He is reportedly already serving a 25-year sentence for conviction for obtaining heroin with which he attempted to kill a teenage girl.
McKinnon reportedly pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents in June. Because he was on probation for another crime before he was charged, he received no further jail time and returned to Florida to complete his probation.
Bulger was reportedly involved in crimes including rival gang wars, an Irish Republican Army gun-smuggling operation, the murder of several suspected FBI informants, and extortion from drug traffickers, and he also cultivated a relationship with former FBI agent John Connelly, providing them with information to benefit his own interests. According to From History.com.
