Boston

Bulger's Former Prison Warden Believes He Wanted to Die: Report

"I think whatever issues he had, he had come to peace with them," said the former warden of a Florida prison that housed the Boston gangster

Boston mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger reportedly may have wanted to die amid his poor health, according to the gangster’s former warden.

NBC News reports Charles Lockett, a former warden of the Florida prison that housed Bulger for a few years, said the ex-crime boss was suffering from chest pains and refused to see an outside heart doctor.

"Quite frankly, I think he wanted to die," Lockett told NBC News. "I think whatever issues he had, he had come to peace with them."

Bulger, 89, was found beaten to death in his cell on Oct. 30, 2018, just hours after his transfer to a West Virginia prison. Authorities said the Boston gangster was repeatedly hit with a lock stuffed inside a sock. His body was positioned to make him appear as if he were sleeping.

The official cause of death was "blunt force injuries of the head," according to Bulger’s death certificate.

"He killed a lot of people, but he wasn’t a bad old guy," Lockett told NBC News. "Every Friday, I would walk that entire penitentiary and I would see him and he would speak to me. He was a nice, respectable guy, the murderer that he was."

John Bulger, the mob boss’ brother, reportedly questions why his sibling ended up at USP Hazelton.

"He was supposed to go to a medical center and all of a sudden he gets transferred to an institution in West Virginia and no one seems to know why he went there," he told NBC News.

The 89-year-old was transferred to West Virginia after his medical classification showed his health suddenly improved. An official told the Associated Press he was transferred because of disciplinary reasons.

Contact Us