ATLANTA — James "Whitey" Bulger, the murderous gangster who benefited from a corrupt relationship with the FBI before spending 16 years as one of America's most wanted men, died in federal prison Tuesday.
He was 89. Bulger,was nicknamed "Whitey" for his bright platinum hair.
The notorious Boston gangster was found unresponsive Oct. 30 at the U.S. penitentiary in West Virginia where he'd just been transferred, and a medical examiner declared him dead shortly afterward, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
A prison union official says the his death is being investigated as a homicide. According to the New York Times, he was apparently beaten by fellow inmates.
Bulger, the model for Jack Nicholson's ruthless crime boss in the 2006 Martin Scorsese movie, "The Departed," led a largely Irish mob that ran loan-sharking, gambling and drug rackets. He also was an FBI informant who ratted on the New England mob, his gang's main rival, in an era when bringing down the Mafia was a top national priority for the FBI.
Bulger was born outside of Boston in 1929. Less than 30 years later, the notorious gangster would find himself in Atlanta.
Bulger was convicted of bank robbery and sent to the United States Penitentiary in Atlanta, beginning the most bizarre stretch of his life.
In 1957, Bulger reportedly started taking LSD as part of an experiment through Emory University. He would get time knocked off his sentence, but he later described it as one of the worst experiences of his life.
Bulger tried escaping the Atlanta prison twice, and was later sent to the infamous Alcatraz. Released in 1965, Bulger went on to terrorize the streets of Boston for nearly three decades.
Bulger disappeared in 1994 after he was tipped off by an alleged corrupt FBI agent that he was about to be arrested. With a $2 million reward on his head, Bulger became one of the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" criminals, with a place just below Osama bin Laden.
He went in hiding for years and was arrested 16 years later outside his apartment in Santa Monica, California.
A few years later, a similar scene played out here locally. In 2016, "Cadillac Frank" Salemme, a longtime associate of Bulger's, was arrested in Fulton County. He had been hiding under the name Richard Parker.
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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington, John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, and William J. Kole in Boston contributed to this report.
