Ex-FBI agent indicted in 1982 killing
Jailed agent had link to fugitive Boston mob boss
From Susan Candiotti
CNN
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- An ex-FBI agent serving 10 years for tipping off a reputed crime boss was indicted on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy Wednesday, CNN has learned.
The charges against former FBI agent John Connolly stem from the killing on August 1, 1982, of accountant John Callahan, who was said to be linked to the Irish underworld's James "Whitey" Bulger and his Winter Hill gang in Boston, Massachusetts.
Bulger is on the FBI's list of 10 Most Wanted Fugitives with a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
His brother, William Bulger, former president of the Massachusetts State Senate, stepped down as president of the University of Massachusetts in 2003 after months of pressure by Gov. Mitt Romney. He had accused Bulger of being evasive during congressional testimony about his fugitive brother's whereabouts.
Connolly is serving a 10-year sentence at a federal prison in North Carolina for convictions in 2002 on racketeering and obstruction of justice charges. He was found guilty of tipping off James Bulger and now-convicted hit man Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi about an impending racketeering indictment.
Flemmi later testified that the FBI knew about and approved his crimes while he was the agency's informant.
Flemmi has since confessed to killing Callahan and 10 others in Boston and Oklahoma.
Callahan was an accountant for a Miami jai alai fronton. Another confessed hit man, John Martorano, has told authorities he was hired to kill the fronton's owner, Tulsa businessman Roger Wheeler.
Law enforcement sources said Connolly, then an FBI agent, provided the "set up" information to members of James Bulger's mob that Callahan was someone who had to be "taken out" because he was acting as an FBI informant.
A parking lot attendant at Miami International Airport discovered Callahan's decaying body stuffed in the trunk of his silver Cadillac. According to The Miami Herald, the killer left a dime on Callahan's chest, a mob warning against "dropping a dime" -- or making a phone call -- to authorities.
According to sources, Connolly is set to be released from prison in 2010. But one law enforcement source told CNN, "Not after this indictment."
