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

The Inside Story of Freddy Geas: How a Prisoner Executed a Mob Boss from Behind Bars
Whitey Bulger Death Newspaper Headline

New York Daily NewsWhitey Bulger was 89 years old and in a wheelchair when Freddy Geas beat him to death.

Geas, DeCologero, and their lookout, Sean McKinnon, were charged with murder. The charges against McKinnon were ultimately dropped, and DeCologero was sentenced to an additional four years behind bars after pleading guilty to assault.

Freddy Geas also accepted a plea deal, and he received a 25-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter and assault. But what sparked the vicious murder in the first place?

Why Did Freddy Geas Kill Whitey Bulger?

It was clear that Geas was guilty. There was surveillance footage of him entering Bulger’s cell shortly before the mobster was found dead. But his motives remained a mystery.

Bulger had given the FBI information on many of his rivals, but Freddy Geas wasn’t one of them. The two men had seemingly never even met. By the time Geas became involved in the criminal underworld, Bulger was already on the run.

However, Ted McDonough — a private investigator who knew Geas — told the Boston Globe in 2018: “Freddy hated rats. Freddy hated guys who abused women. Whitey was a rat who killed women. It’s probably that simple.”

Geas’ former defense attorney, Daniel Kelly, concurred with McDonough. As he told CBS News at the time, Geas “certainly didn’t like people who cooperated with the government. That’s the whole reason he’s behind bars.”

Freddy Geas In The Courtroom

WWLP-22News/YouTubeFreddy Geas appears in court following the murder of Whitey Bulger.

What’s more, another inmate at Hazelton testified that DeCologero told him Bulger was a “snitch” shortly before the murder.

In 2024, Anthony Arillotta spoke about Freddy Geas in an interview with VladTV. He mentioned a rumor that Bulger had implicated one of Geas’ prison buddies in a murder, but Arillotta had other ideas about Geas’ motives.

“[W]hen he came out of prison in ’01, he was different,” Arillotta said. “He liked being around guys that committed murders. He liked the camaraderie of being around crazy lunatics… He wanted to be one of them.”

“[Bulger] didn’t do nothing to him where it was a revenge type thing,” Arillotta continued. “There’s no connection… There was no personal interest other than the fact that he’s Whitey Bulger. Whitey Bulger’s name is as big as Al Capone’s, as big as John Gotti Sr… Whitey Bulger is that infamous.”

“The guys go in there and they beat him to death,” said Arillotta. “And [Freddy] gets the notoriety now.”

So, did Geas really have a reason to kill Whitey Bulger? Was he simply angry that Bulger had snitched on so many people? Or did he just want to make a name for himself behind bars?

Freddy Geas himself has never made a statement about his role in Bulger’s death. He was already serving a life sentence, so the additional 25 years had no real impact on his fate. But regardless of his motive, his actions certainly transformed him from a little-known Mafia enforcer to the perpetrator of one of the most shocking murders in mob history.


After reading about Freddy Geas, the man who killed Whitey Bulger, go inside the stories of 13 infamous Mafia bosses. Then, learn about the assassination of Gambino family boss Paul Castellano.

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