Sean McKinnon, the Felon who served as the lookout during Boston gangster James Joseph ‘Whitey’ Bulger's murder, will not serve time for his part in the crime.
Knewz.com has learned that the man was let off the hook on Monday, June 17, after admitting to lying to federal agents.
Prosecutors serving on the case made the recommendation that McKinnon receive credit for spending 22 months in custody.
The latter followed his being accused of contributing to the death of Bulger on the day he was transferred to West Virginia’s United States Penitentiary (USP), Hazelton in 2018.
By the time the indictment was filed in 2022, Mckinnon had just been released under federal supervision after serving time for stealing firearms from a gun dealer.
His co-accused Fotios “Freddy” Geas and Paul J. DeCologero – who were charged with bludgeoning 89-year-old Bulger on the head until he died while McKinnon kept watch – will appear in court for sentencing on September 6 and August 1 respectively.
According to WBUR, the two used a lock attached to a belt buckle to clobber the aging mob boss after DeCologero told an unnamed prisoner that Bulger was a “snitch”.
DeCologero and Geas were suspected of the murder shortly after Bulger’s death was discovered but were only indicted in 2022.
Both men were charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder while at the same time, McKinnon was charged with making false statements to a federal agent, per CNN News.
Geas and DeCologero both are expected to submit guilty pleas on their next court date.
Bulger headed up the largely Irish Winter Hill mob in the 1970s and ‘80s while he seconded as an informant to the FBI, passing them information on his rivals.
It was during this period that his handler tipped him off to an impending indictment.
Bulger responded by fleeing and remained at large for 16 years before he was arrested in 2011 in Santa Monica, California.
He was found guilty of eleven murders along with a string of gang-related crimes and sentenced to two life sentences.
He served his longest stretch in Florida’s Coleman II prison where he spent a prolonged amount of time in solitary confinement.
According to NBC News, various inmates knew that the former crime boss would be moving to the West Virginian penal facility before he arrived, and some even placed bets on how long he would remain alive.
Oblivious to this, Bulger begged to be allowed into the prison’s general population.
“I got two life sentences,” he told one of the staffers. “I want to go to the yard.”
According to WV Metro News, one inmate recalled that there was yelling about Bulger being a rat for at least an hour after his arrival.
At 6:26 A.M. the morning after his arrival, CCTV footage showed two men leaving his cell. Two-and-a-half hours later, Bulger was pronounced dead.