John Joseph Connolly Jr. (born August 1, 1940)[2] is an American former FBI agent who was convicted of racketeering, obstruction of justice and murder charges stemming from his relationship with Boston mobsters James "Whitey" Bulger, Steve Flemmi and the Winter Hill Gang.
Connolly was indicted on December 22, 1999, on charges of alerting Bulger and Flemmi to investigations, falsifying FBI reports to cover their crimes and accepting bribes.
The nineteen-year-old Whitey, who was already notorious as the leader of the Mercer Street gang, bought the other neighborhood boys ice cream and convinced an awestruck Connolly to accept the treat.
[14] Connolly attended Boston College with the encouragement of Billy Bulger, and after graduation took classes at Suffolk University Law School.
Acting again on the advice of Billy Bulger, by now a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Connolly sought out career opportunities in law enforcement.
[17] In 1968 he met with H. Paul Rico's FBI partner, Special Agent Dennis Condon, and Boston Police Department Detective Edward Walsh, an old friend of the Connolly family.
The letter began, "Dear Edgar, It has come to my attention that the son of a lifelong personal friend has applied to become a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ..."[17] Connolly was appointed to the FBI in October 1968.
Connolly began his FBI career in the Baltimore and San Francisco field offices before being transferred to New York City.
[18] A year after he arrested Mafioso Frank Salemme, the FBI transferred Connolly to its Boston field office in the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in 1973.
"[14] Boston FBI Special Agent Robert Fitzpatrick said: Connolly just became a force unto himself, a vortex in a constantly changing system.
[26] Connolly's first wife, Marianne Lockary, was his childhood sweetheart whom he married as he neared graduation from Suffolk University Law School.
In 1988, Connolly married Elizabeth L. Moore, a court stenographer who worked at the FBI headquarters at Government Center, Boston.
Gianelli and Connolly purchased adjoining properties in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, from Rocco Botta, a reputed Mafia extortionist.
Their adjacent homes were built by Thomas F. Tuffo, the real estate partner of Kevin P. O'Neil, who the FBI claimed was a long-time money launderer and enforcer for Bulger and Flemmi.
[27] Connolly first met with FBI informants Stephen Flemmi and Whitey Bulger at a coffee shop in Newton, Massachusetts.
Louis Litif, one of the top bookmakers and a Winter Hill Gang mob associate, was one of Connolly's handball partners at the Boston Athletic Club.
Retired FBI Special Agent Joseph D. Pistone wrote in the book, The Ceremony, "The reign of the Patriarca Family is virtually ended.
[30] Callahan was murdered by John Martorano, who left the corpse in the trunk of a Cadillac in a Miami International Airport parking lot.
Morris stated that he began leaking information to them after Connolly delivered a case of wine and an envelope stuffed with $1,000 cash from the pair.
[35] Former U.S. Attorney and current U.S. District Senior Judge Edward F. Harrington testified for the defense, stating that Connolly was a star agent who was credited with using informants to help weaken the New England Mafia.
The panel held that since Connolly did not "carry or discharge the gun that was used to kill John Callahan in South Florida", it was not appropriate to convict him of murder.
Judge Leslie B. Rothenberg, who had been the lone vote for conviction in the earlier hearing, wrote, "It now no longer matters whether the defendant hired (procured) a hit man, turned to his mob friends to murder Callahan, served as a lookout, provided the gun, or pulled the trigger himself, he is a principal in the first degree."