By Steve Neavling
The night before notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger arrived at a new prison in West Virginia in October 2018, the plot to kill him was revealed in a phone call.
Sean McKinnon, one of three men accused of murdering Bulger, told his mother of the plan, ABC News reports.
“Yeah, we’re getting ready to get a — getting ready to get another higher profile person here tonight,” McKinnon allegedly told his mother from the Hazleton prison.
A recording of that conversation was played in court Monday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hannah Nowalk said that “as soon as they saw Bulger come into the unit, they planned to kill him.”
McKinnon, 36, and two others were charged in killing of Bulger last week.
McKinnon was the lookout, while Fotios “Freddy” Geas, 55, and Paul DeCologero, 48, killed Bulger in his cell, Nowalk said.
The motive for the killing has not yet been revealed.
Bulger, who was 89 and wheelchair bound, was found beaten to death inside his cell on Oct. 30, 2018, just hours after he was transferred to Hazelton, which is nicknamed “Misery Mountain.” The transfer came after the wheelchair-bound ex-mob boss threatened a Florida prison nurse who suggested he see an outside heart doctor.
Bulger was serving two life sentences for his 2013 conviction of participating in 11 murders.
To outsiders, Bulger’s murderers had been a mystery for nearly four years. But the three men who were charged had been sent to solitary confinement after the fatal attack.
It’s not clear why nearly four years has passed until charges were filed.
