Skip to main content
Cloudy icon
72º

A Whitey Bulger mystery endures: Why was the ailing gangster moved to a violent prison?

SAN FRANCISCO - NOVEMBER 16: Boston gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger, Jr. poses for a mugshot on his arrival at the Federal Penitentiary at Alcatraz on November 16, 1959 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) (Donaldson Collection, 2022 Getty Images)

The USP Coleman II penitentiary in central Florida has long been known as a safe place for government informants and other marked men in the federal prison system.

But when James “Whitey” Bulger arrived in 2014, Charles Lockett, the warden at the time, wasn’t going to take any chances. He said he kept Bulger away from the general population for six months and talked to the most influential inmates to make sure they wouldn’t make a move on the elderly Boston mobster.

Recommended Videos



“He’s an old guy, but gangsters don’t forget,” said Lockett, who is now retired.

For more on the story, visit NBCNews.com.


Loading...