The Inside Story of Freddy Geas: How a Prisoner Executed a Mob Boss from Behind Bars

So, picture this: just hours after Whitey Bulger—the Boston mob boss turned infamous snitch—checks into a West Virginia prison, along comes Freddy Geas, a former Mafia enforcer with a serious vendetta against rats, carrying nothing more than a padlock and a shiv. Within seven minutes, Bulger is dead, his reputation as one of the most notorious underworld figures forever sealed by a brutal, prison-yard takedown. Now, why would Geas, who likely never met Bulger, decide to murder a man already serving life behind bars? Was it cold revenge, mob code, or just a twisted bid for infamy inside those bleak prison walls? Either way, this shocking act transformed Freddy from relative obscurity into a household name in mob history—because in the criminal world, notoriety is the ultimate currency. Ready to dive into the gritty tale behind the headlines? LEARN MORE

In October 2018, former Genovese family associate Freddy Geas killed Whitey Bulger just hours after the infamous Winter Hill Gang boss arrived at the United States Penitentiary, Hazelton in West Virginia.

Collier County SheriffFreddy Geas, the Mafia enforcer who killed Whitey Bulger at a West Virginia prison in 2018.

In the early morning hours of Oct. 30, 2018, Freddy Geas crept into a prison cell at the United States Penitentiary, Hazelton in West Virginia. He was armed with a padlock and a shiv — and he used them to kill one of history’s most notorious mobsters.

Whitey Bulger, the former boss of Boston’s Winter Hill Gang, had been transferred to Hazelton just 12 hours earlier. He was serving a life sentence for racketeering, money laundering, extortion, and murder, but that’s not why Geas killed him.

Geas reportedly hated rats, and Bulger had notoriously worked as an FBI informant against his rivals. While Geas — who had Mafia ties of his own — had likely never crossed paths with Bulger before, he couldn’t resist the opportunity to take out the infamous snitch.

The Early Crimes Of Freddy Geas

Fotios “Freddy” Geas was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1967. He and his brother, Ty, started committing petty crimes in their teenage years. Then, in 1996, Geas was arrested for stealing a tractor trailer filled with goods. His accomplice was Gary Westerman — a man he would later kill.

The Geas brothers also worked with Anthony Arillotta, who was inducted into the Springfield faction of the Genovese crime family in 2003. Freddy and Ty were Greek, so they couldn’t become made members of the Mafia — but they could be enforcers.

MassLive/YouTubeGary Westerman was once Freddy Geas’ partner in crime — but Geas brutally murdered him after he cooperated with the police.

Indeed, Freddy Geas was involved in multiple murders alongside Arillotta in 2003. First, that May, Geas served as a getaway driver during an attempted hit against Bronx union boss Frank Dadabo. The acting boss of the Genovese family, Artie Nigro, allegedly ordered the hit after he got into a dispute with Dadabo over Tony Bennett concert tickets. Dadabo was shot nine times, but he survived.

Then, on Nov. 4, 2003, Geas killed Westerman, his former partner in crime. Arillotta wanted Westerman dead because he was allegedly talking to the police about Genovese family crimes, so Geas bludgeoned him with a shovel, shot him in the head, and dumped his body in a ditch. Three weeks later, Geas enlisted a hitman to kill Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno, a captain in the Genovese family.

It wasn’t until 2011 that Geas was charged with these crimes — and it was the testimony of Arillotta himself that sealed his conviction. After refusing to cooperate with the police, Freddy Geas was sentenced to life in prison.

But his most infamous murder was yet to come.

The Prison Murder Of Whitey Bulger

Geas was incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary in Hazelton, West Virginia, in 2018 when he learned that 89-year-old Whitey Bulger was set to be transferred to the facility.

Bulger was the former boss of the Winter Hill Gang, Boston’s infamous Irish mob. In the 1970s, Bulger began passing information about the gang’s rivals to the FBI. He was released as an informant in the early 1990s — at which point the FBI started investigating Bulger’s own crimes.

Boston Police DepartmentBefore he was killed by Freddy Geas, Whitey Bulger spent time at Alcatraz, headed the Winter Hill Gang, worked as an FBI informant, and spent 16 years on the lam.

The mobster went on the run, and he managed to evade arrest for more than 16 years. When Bulger was finally caught in 2011, he was sentenced to life in prison. He was initially incarcerated in Florida, but on Oct. 29, 2018, he was transferred to Hazelton.

It’s unclear exactly how Freddy Geas learned that Bulger would be arriving at the facility — but by the morning of Oct. 30, he’d decided to kill the disgraced mob boss.

Around 6 a.m., Geas and another inmate named Paul DeCologero entered Bulger’s cell. When they left seven minutes later, Bulger was “unrecognizable,” as reported by The New York Times in 2018.

Geas had beaten Bulger to death with a padlock and sliced him with a shiv. The mobster’s eyes had come out of their sockets, and his tongue was partially cut off.