CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Patricia Donahue’s husband, Michael, was killed in a spray of bullets in 1982 when he offered a ride to a neighbor whom the mobster James (Whitey) Bulger wanted dead. The murder, which Mr. Bulger was eventually convicted of, left Ms. Donahue a widow, and her three young sons fatherless.

So when Ms. Donahue learned in recent days that Mr. Bulger’s estate had filed a $200 million wrongful death claim against the federal government over Mr. Bulger’s fatal beating in a West Virginia prison, it rekindled her pain, she said.

“I know they’re looking for answers because they didn’t like the way that their brother died, and all I would say is, ‘What goes around comes around,’” she said.

“The ironic thing,” she added, “is that we never got answers, you know.”

The legal claim by Mr. Bulger’s estate accuses the Bureau of Prisons, Justice Department and United States Marshals Service of abuse, negligence and recklessness in Mr. Bulger’s death last October. It seeks answers about why Mr. Bulger, a former F.B.I. informant who was 89 and in a wheelchair, was transferred to the Hazelton federal penitentiary in Bruceton Mills, W.Va., a prison known to be dangerous for informants; hours later he was found beaten to death in his cell. Mr. Bulger was serving two life sentences for his role in 11 murders, including Mr. Donahue’s.