The warden at a federal prison in West Virginia where Boston gangster Whitey Bulger was killed says he’s retiring at the end of next month.
The Dominion Post reports U.S. Penitentiary at Hazelton warden Joe Coakley announced his retirement Tuesday. Coakley served as the prison’s warden since March 2016.
The 89-year-old Bulger was bludgeoned to death at the prison on Oct. 30 just hours after his transfer from a Florida prison. Two other inmates were killed at the prison last year.
A union official at the prison says he’d like to see Coakley’s replacement named quickly in order to address staffing shortages and other concerns at the prison. Richard Heldreth Jr., president of Local 420 of the American Federation of Government Employees, says the recent federal government shutdown “has put us even further behind in this regard.”