Notorious Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger was found dead on Tuesday at a prison in West Virginia, one day after he was transferred to the high-security facility to serve the remainder of his life sentence, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said.
According to press reports, Bulger, 89, was murdered but there was no immediate confirmation from the authorities.
The prisons bureau said Bulger was found "unresponsive" Tuesday morning at the facility in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia.
"The Federal Bureau of Investigation was notified and an investigation has been initiated," it said in a statement.
Bulger was serving a life sentence in prison for murder, racketeering, extortion, money laundering, possession of firearms and other crimes. Arrested in 2011 after 16 years on the run, Bulger's life of crime has been the subject of several movies and books.
Bulger was arrested in Santa Monica, California, where he had been living under an assumed name with his longtime girlfriend Catherine Greig. She was sentenced separately to eight years for aiding and abetting him.
"The scope, the callousness, the depravity of your crimes, is almost unfathomable," Judge Denise Casper said at Bulger's sentencing in a Boston court in 2013.
A 12-person jury found the Irish-American octogenarian guilty of 31 separate charges that included 11 murders.
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