AUSTIN, Texas, March 26 (UPI) -- Authorities confirmed they are investigating a prison plot to kill Texas state Sen. John Whitmire, who heads a committee to oversee the state's prison system.
No charges have been filed in a case, opened last week, in which an informant in a Texas prison alerted authorities the "Mexican Mafia" gang targeted Whitmire, D-Houston, to be killed at a restaurant where he often has lunch, the Austin (Texas) Statesman-American reported Tuesday.
"I was told a hit had been ordered on me because of poor conditions on death row at the Polunsky Unit, like I have anything to do with that. Did I take it seriously? Hell, yeah," Whitmore said, a reference to the Allan B. Polunsky Unit, a prison in West Livingston, Texas.
Whitmire and investigators familiar with the case said Monday the threat seemed credible.
Whitmire has been put under protection as a result, the newspaper said.
