Inmate Sentenced to More Than 4 Years in Prison Killing of Boston Gangster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger

James "Whitey" Bulger (R) is escorted from a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter to a waiting vehicle at an airport in Plymouth, Mass., on June 30, 2011. Stuart Cahill/The Boston Herald via AP

CLARKSBURG, W.Va.—An inmate was sentenced to more than four years Thursday for his role in the 2018 fatal bludgeoning of notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger in a troubled West Virginia federal prison.

Massachusetts gangster Paul J. DeCologero was sentenced in federal court after pleading guilty to an assault charge. He could have faced up to 10 years in prison. DeCologero was already serving a 25-year sentence handed down in 2006 after he was convicted of buying heroin used to try to kill a teenage girl.