A new report released Wednesday from the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General found the Bureau of Prison made “serious” failures during the prison transfer of infamous Massachusetts mobster James “Whitey” Bulger. The notorious mob boss was murdered while incarcerated in 2018, just 12 hours after his transfer to “Misery Mountain” or Hazelton Penitentiary in West Virginia. Bulger, who was 89 years old and in a wheelchair at the time, was immediately thrown in with the high-security prison’s general population—even though he was an FBI informant, according to ABC News. Three incarcerated people were charged in connection with the murder and still awaiting trial. The DOJ’s watchdog said in the report that it didn’t uncover any evidence that BOP officials had “malicious intent” in the transfer but found many failures throughout the process and questioned why the transfer went through. “In our view, no BOP inmate’s transfer, whether they are a notorious offender or a non-violent offender, should be handled like Bulger’s transfer was handled in this instance," Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in a statement with the report’s release.
