Freddy Geas | |
---|---|
Born | Fotios Geas April 4, 1967 |
Other names | Freddy Geas |
Criminal status | Incarcerated at ADX Florence |
Criminal charge | 2 counts of murder in aid of racketeering |
Penalty | Life imprisonment (2011) |
Fotios "Freddy" Geas (born April 4, 1967) is an American criminal and an associate of the Genovese crime family, based in New York City. He is a former Mafia hitman operating out of Springfield, Massachusetts and often worked with his brother Ty Geas.
Geas is accused of having orchestrated the 2018 murder of Winter Hill Gang mobster Whitey Bulger in prison, and was charged in relation to the incident in August 2022. [1] His trial was scheduled to begin in December 2024, but in May 2024, he made an undisclosed plea deal with the U.S. attorney's office in the Northern District of West Virginia.
Geas was born into a Greek family; therefore, he could not be a made member of the Italian Mafia. Geas and his brother Ty were well known enforcers feared within their community. The Geas brothers worked with Anthony Arillotta, another mobster. In 2003, Arillotta was formally inducted into the Genovese crime family Springfield faction. Arillotta had requested that the Geas brothers kill his brother-in-law, Gary Westerman. Acting boss Arthur Nigro organized a hit on aging gangster Adolfo Bruno. Both hits were carried out in 2003. [2]
In 2011, Geas was charged with the murders of Gary Westerman and Adolfo Bruno. [3] He was also indicted as the getaway driver in the failed assassination attempt of Bronx union boss, Frank Dadabo, after Dadabo was involved in an argument with Nigro over Tony Bennett concert tickets.[ citation needed ]
During the 2011 trial, Geas was shocked to see his former associate Arillotta testify against him. Geas was known for his strict code. He despised snitches and men who abused women. Geas refused to cooperate with law enforcement and was sentenced to life in prison. [2]
On October 29, 2018, infamous Boston gangster Whitey Bulger was transferred from the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City to United States Penitentiary, Hazelton, in West Virginia. [4] At 8:20 a.m. on October 30, the 89-year-old Bulger [5] was found unresponsive in the prison. Bulger was in a wheelchair and had been beaten to death by multiple inmates armed with a sock-wrapped padlock and a shiv. His eyes had nearly been gouged out and his tongue almost cut off. [6] [7] [8] This was the third homicide at the prison in a 40-day span. [9]
Correctional officers had warned Congress just days before the most recent Hazelton death that facilities were being dangerously understaffed. [7] Geas was the primary suspect in orchestrating the killing of Bulger. [6] [10] [11] In August 2022, he, along with Paul DeCologero and Sean McKinnon, were indicted on first degree murder charges. [12] In September 2023, Geas was transferred to ADX Florence. [13] The trial was scheduled for December 2024. [14] In May 2024, the trio made an undisclosed plea deal with the U.S. attorney's office in the Northern District of West Virginia. [15] In June 2024, prosecutors dropped the charge that McKinnon was involved in the slaying, and he plead guilty to lying to the FBI about whether he knew the other two men; he was sentenced to 22 months time served and was released. [16] In August 2024, prosecutors dropped two charges against DeCologero, first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, in exchange for a guilty plea of assault resulting in serious bodily injury. The judge sentenced DeCologero to 51 months. Geas was scheduled to have his plea agreement unsealed and sentencing on September 6, 2024. [17]
The Gambino crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. The group, which went through five bosses between 1910 and 1957, is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963, when the structure of organized crime first gained public attention. The group's operations extend from New York and the eastern seaboard to California. Its illicit activities include labor and construction racketeering, gambling, loansharking, extortion, money laundering, prostitution, fraud, hijacking, and fencing.
James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger Jr. was an American organized crime boss who led the Winter Hill Gang, an Irish Mob group in the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, a city directly northwest of Boston. On December 23, 1994, Bulger fled the Boston area and went into hiding after his former FBI handler, John Connolly, tipped him off about a pending RICO indictment against him. Bulger remained at large for sixteen years. After his 2011 arrest, federal prosecutors tried Bulger for nineteen murders based on grand jury testimony from Kevin Weeks and other former criminal associates.
The Genovese crime family, also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the American Mafia. The Genovese family has generally maintained a varying degree of influence over many of the smaller mob families outside New York, including ties with the Philadelphia, Cleveland, Patriarca, and Buffalo crime families.
The Winter Hill Gang was a loose confederation of organized crime figures in the Boston, Massachusetts, area. It was generally considered an Irish Mob organization, with most gang members and the leadership consisting predominantly of Irish-Americans, though some notable members, such as Johnny Martorano, are of Italian-American descent.
Stephen Joseph Flemmi is an American gangster and convicted murderer and was a close associate of Winter Hill Gang boss Whitey Bulger. Beginning in 1975, Flemmi was a top echelon informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The Irish Mob is a usually crime family–based ethnic collective of organized crime syndicates composed of primarily ethnic Irish members which operate primarily in Ireland, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, and have been in existence since the early 19th century. Originating in Irish-American street gangs – famously first depicted in Herbert Asbury's 1927 book, The Gangs of New York – the Irish Mob has appeared in most major U.S. and Canadian cities, especially in the Northeast and the urban industrial Midwest, including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Chicago.
Harold Paul Rico was an FBI agent, indicted for murder in 2003. He was accused of the 1968 framing of four men for murder but died before his trial would have taken place.
Francis Patrick Salemme, sometimes spelled Salemmi, also known as "Cadillac Frank" and "Julian Daniel Selig", was an American mobster from Boston, Massachusetts who became a hitman and eventually the boss of the Patriarca crime family of New England before turning government witness.
The Angiulo brothers, were the leading Italian-American crime group from Boston's North End, from the 1960s until the mid 1980s. Also, the street crew extended into East Boston, Roxbury, Waltham, Newton, Watertown, parts of Revere, and all other predominantly Italian American neighborhoods in Eastern Massachusetts. Their criminal organization was dubbed "In-Town", because one had to go in to town to visit the Angiulo Brothers.
John Joseph Connolly Jr. is an American former FBI agent who was convicted of racketeering, obstruction of justice, and murder charges stemming from his relationship with James "Whitey" Bulger, Steve Flemmi, and the Winter Hill Gang.
The Patriarca crime family, also known as the New England Mafia, the Boston Mafia, the Providence Mafia or the Office, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family operating in New England. The family consists of two distinct factions, one based in Providence, Rhode Island, and the other in Boston, Massachusetts. The Patriarca family is primarily active in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, with other territory throughout New England.
Luigi Giovanni "Baby Shacks" Manocchio is an American mobster from Providence, Rhode Island. He is the former boss of the New England-based Patriarca crime family, which is part of the American Mafia.
The United States Penitentiary, Hazelton is a high-security United States federal prison for male inmates in West Virginia. The high-security facility has earned the nickname "Misery Mountain" by the inmates who are incarcerated there. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The facility has a satellite prison camp for minimum-security male offenders.
John Vincent Martorano is an American former gangster and former hitman for the Winter Hill Gang in Boston, Massachusetts, who has admitted to 20 mob-related killings.
The Lucchese crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. Members refer to the organization as the Lucchese borgata; borgata is Mafia slang for criminal gang, which itself was derived from a Sicilian word meaning close-knit community. The members of other crime families sometimes refer to Lucchese family members as "Lukes".
Adolfo Bruno, also known as "Big Al", was an Italian-born American mobster who was a caporegime with the Genovese crime family based in New York City, who ran the Springfield, Massachusetts faction of the family.
Gennaro Joseph "Jerry" Angiulo Sr. was an American mobster who rose to the position of underboss in the Patriarca crime family of New England under Raymond L. S. Patriarca. Angiulo was convicted of racketeering in 1986 and was imprisoned until being released in 2007. According to a member of the Angiulo Brothers, he was "probably the last very significant Mafia boss in Boston’s history".
The Bonanno crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City as part of the criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia.
This is a list of organized crime in the 1940s, arranged chronologically.
The Springfield faction of the Genovese crime family is a group of Italian-American mobsters who control organized crime activities in the Springfield, Massachusetts area. The Springfield faction is a crew led by a caporegime who oversees illegal activities in racketeering, illegal gambling, loansharking and extortion. Salvatore "Big Nose Sam" Cufari was a Genovese family caporegime who became the most influential leader the Springfield faction in the 1940s.