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Trial for Ex-FBI Agent Opens Listen to story (Real Audio)
BOSTON - September 08, 2008 - Bob Oakes: The disgraced former FBI agent John Connolly, who recruited Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger as an informant, is serving a 10-year prison sentence for racketeering, but now he faces life in prison. Connolly faces first degree murder and murder conspiracy charges for the killing of a Boston gambling executive in Miami in 1982. Among the government witnesses is the man who admits to pulling the trigger, along with Bulger association, and an admitted corrupt FBI supervisor. WBUR'S David Boeri has reported on the Bulger mob and the FBI for years, spoke with John Connolly in Miami a few weeks ago, and joins us now. David, what are the allegations against John Connolly? David Boeri: Think of this as the second round of the criminal trial that started in federal court here in Boston in 2002. Among the charges in that trial was that Connolly told Whitey Bulger the names of men who were secretly informing against Bulger and therefore caused them to be killed. Back then Connolly was charged with obstruction of justice. But this time the trial is in state court in Florida, and there are more witnesses, and the charge is that Connolly actually initiated the murder of a potential witness, named John Callahan, by telling Bulger that if that witness talked to police, they'd all end up in prison. John Callahan was murdered, shot in the back of the head in Florida, and found in the trunk of his car in 1982. Oakes: But prosecutors aren?t saying John Connolly pulled the trigger. Boeri: The hitman was John Martorano, a professional killer who's admitted to killing twenty people. But Martorano has never spoken to or met John Connolly. Martorano says he got the order from Bulger and Bulger's partner Stephen Flemmi to kill that witness, Callahan before he could talk to the cops. What's new in this case is that now Stephen Flemmi has also turned government witness and he too will testify that Connolly warned them that the cops were pursuing John Callahan who could put them all in prison. Oakes: What kind of deal did Martorano and Flemmi receive from the government in return for agreeing to testify? Boeri: That's the interesting thing. Connolly supporters and even neutral observers call it outrageous. Martorano spent just 12 years in prison before his sentence was reduced. It comes to about seven months served for each murder he committed, although the government says it never would have been able to solve the murders without his admission. Still, he's gotten a great deal, for becoming a government witness. They even gave him $20,000 spending money after he got out of prison. Yet Flemmi got an even better deal. By agreeing to testify Flemmi was spared the death penalty which two states were prepared to seek against him. If ever you were looking for criminals who epitomize the ugliness of prosecutorial deal making, Martorano and Flemmi are your guys. Altogether the government's witnesses against Connolly account for at least four dozen murders. Oakes: How strong is the case against Connolly said to be? Boeri: For the state of Florida and the federal prosecutor from Massachusetts who'll be helping try Connolly, this is not a strong case. The evidence is circumstantial and it?s heavily based on hearsay. There's no explicit statement from Connolly to the conspirators to kill the potential witness. Rather they said he warned them that if the witness talked to police they were in big trouble. Now of course, the prosecution will argue that Connolly knew what would happen when he told a bunch of killers that John Callahan was a threat to them if he talked. And to bolster its case the prosecution is going to introduce testimony that Connolly had warned Bulger before about potential informants against him. And in each of those instances, Bulger murdered the informants. It's a rogue's gallery of stone cold killers ... and prosecutors insist they're telling the truth but getting beyond reasonable doubt may prove difficult. Oakes: What does Connolly say about this second trial? Boeri: He calls the government and the mobsters liars and worse. He says he's the victim. And he proclaims his innocence on this charge and the charges for which he was convicted in 2002. In fact, he told the judge at a hearing I attended in Miami that the prosecution offered him a deal three years ago to drop the first degree murder charge and give him just a few years. All he had to do was talk about other corrupt FBI agents in the Boston office, Connolly says, and he refused. In the end, it's been the ex-FBI agent who's adhered to the gangsters code of silence after all the gangsters in this case have squealed. The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks.
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