'Whitey' Bulger now in federal transfer prison in Oklahoma City

BOSTON, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Boston mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger has been moved to a transfer prison in Oklahoma City, federal authorities said Tuesday.

Bulger could be tried in Oklahoma for allegedly killing Roger Wheeler, a millionaire businessman, in 1981. U.S. District Judge Denise Casper, who presided at Bulger's Boston mob trial, ordered him Friday to pay Wheeler's estate $6 million, the Boston Globe reported.

While Bulger, 84, sentenced by Casper to two consecutive life terms, could face the death penalty in Oklahoma, prosecutors have not said if they plan to try him, the Boston Herald reported.

Bulger was transferred to Oklahoma City from a federal holding facility in New York. He was held in the Plymouth County Jail after his return to Massachusetts from Santa Monica, Calif., where he had been living quietly under an alias with his girlfriend for more than a decade until his arrest in 2011.

Federal authorities have not said which prison will become Bulger's permanent home, citing security reasons.

Casper has ordered Bulger to pay $25.5 million to the families of his 11 victims, the Globe said Monday. The other payments range from $185,000 to just under $4.5 million.

Bulger also owes $25.1 million in restitution to the government, though it's unclear where the money he owes will come from, the newspaper said. Authorities have seized just a fraction of what he owes from him in cash and property.

Casper sentenced Bulger in November after he was convicted of a long list of crimes, including 11 killings, during his years as head of Boston's Winter Hill Gang.