Whitey Bulger's Attackers Tried to Cut Out His Tongue.
BALDWIN: We're learning new gruesome details about Tuesday's murder of notorious mobster James "Whitey" Bulger. Federal law enforcement says he was beaten to death, to the point where he was unrecognizable. They say they believe multiple inmates were involved and at least one has New England mafia ties. The "New York Times" quoted sources saying they gained access to Bulger's cell, wheeled him into a corner, and beat him with a padlock inside a sock and that they tried to cut him tongue out. The "Boston Globe" reports that Bulger had helped frame one of his friends for murder. Prosecutors say Bulger's death is being investigated as a homicide. With me now, Shelly Murphy, author of "Whitey Bulger, America's Most Wanted Gangster." she has covered organized crime in the Boston area since 1980. Shelly, nice to see you. Incredibly gruesome about what we're learning has happened. What are you hearing about Whitey Bulger's final moments of life?</s>SHELLY MURPHY, AUTHOR OF "WHITEY BULGER, AMERICA'S MOST WANTED GANGSTER": It sounds like his final moments were everybody bit as brutal and merciless as the murders that he committed, that the details are that, yes, you know, two inmates at least were seen walking into his cell in the morning that he was brutally beaten, there were scratches around his eyes, indicating that maybe they tried to gouge his eyes out. By all accounts a very brutal end. This from a guy who inflicted, you know, he tortured his victims. So, his end was very much like his own crimes.</s>BALDWIN: Shelly, you've covered him for years. You wrote the book on him. When you first heard he'd been killed in his cell, what was your immediate reaction?</s>MURPHY: I was stunned frankly. I was stunned. I believed an inmate of his high-profile nature, not only because of all the enemies he earned within the underworld and within the mafia but also because we knew he'd been a long-time FBI informant. Generally, the Bureau of Prisons puts people like that in places that they consider safe. Earlier he had been at a prison in an area with like convicted sex offenders, with gang members who had disavowed their gang affiliations. I think he had reason to believe that he was safe in general population in Arizona and in Coleman, but Hazelton was a completely different place. I think it was stunning that he arrived there and was put in a place where anybody in that unit could walk into his cell.</s>BALDWIN: Does it sound in any way like a setup? Why was he even sent to this maximum-security prison in West Virginia in the first place?