BOSTON (WHDH) - When asked about the prison death of his mobster brother, John “Jackie” Bulger told 7News that he had no idea that James ‘Whitey’ Bulger had been found killed in prison Tuesday morning.
“I have no idea. It’s the first I’ve heard of it,” Jackie Bulger said when Byron Barnett broke the news to him in South Boston.
Whitey Bulger was found unresponsive around 8:20 a.m. at the United States Penitentiary Hazelton in West Virginia, according to a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He was pronounced dead soon after.
“I heard he wasn’t feeling well a while back,” Jackie Bulger said of his 89-year-old brother. “I don’t have anything to say right now.”
Richard Heldreth, head of the U.S. Penitentiary Union in Hazelton told 7’s Steve Cooper that Whitey Bulger was murdered.
Jackie Bulger previously served jail time for lying to authorities investigating his brother, who was one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives for 16 years.
Whitey Bulger was convicted in 2013 for his role in 11 murders.
This is a breaking news story; stay with 7News on-air and online for the latest developments.
(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)