Former FBI supervisor: Bulger and Flemmi were dropped when Connolly retired

October 22, 2008 01:59 PM Email| Comments (1)| Text size – +

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

MIAMI -- Just a few days after FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. retired from the FBI in 1990, his longtime informants James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi were dropped by the bureau -- in part because Connolly claimed the notorious Boston gangsters had also retired, according to testimony today in Connolly's murder trial.

Retired FBI supervisor Edward M. Quinn testified that Connolly told him Bulger and Flemmi were "in semiretirement mode'' by 1990 and "my impression was they were living on a reputation more than on current events.''

Quinn said the FBI, at his urging, decided not to use the notorious gangsters as informants anymore because their handler, Connolly, was retiring and they no longer were providing information about ongoing criminal activities.

Several years later, when the FBI was targeting Bulger -- who had apparently not retired -- and conducting surveillance of the South Boston variety store that served as his headquarters, agents spotted Connolly in the area, Quinn said.

A prosecutor grilled Quinn about whether agents had argued over whether that sighting of Connolly should be included in surveillance reports. Quinn said he could not recall any argument. He also said he didn't know whether Connolly's presence near Bulger's store was ever documented by the bureau.

Though Quinn's revelations came while being questioned by the prosecution, he was actually called as a defense witness in the murder trial of 68-year-old Connolly, who is charged with plotting with Bulger and Flemmi to kill Boston business consultant John B. Callahan in 1982.

Flemmi testified last month that Connolly warned him and Bulger that Callahan was being sought for questioning by the FBI and would likely implicate the gangsters in the 1981 slaying of a Tulsa businessman. Hitman-turned-government witness John Martorano testified that, as a result of the tip, he lured Callahan to Florida and shot him to death.

The defense today attempted to bolster its claim that Connolly was a highly decorated FBI agent who was just doing his job when he used Bulger and Flemmi as informants against the Mafia, which had been the FBI's top target in the 1980s.

Quinn testified that Connolly handled four of the eight informants -- including Bulger and Flemmi -- who provided the FBI with the intelligence they needed in 1981 to plant a bug in the headquarters of New England Mafia underboss Gennaro "Jerry'' Angiulo on Prince Street in Boston's North End.

Bulger and Flemmi provided a detailed description of Angiulo's headquarters, helping agents who later slipped into the office undetected and planted the bug, which was used to prosecute Angiulo and the rest of the mob hierarchy in Boston, according to Quinn. However, Quinn also conceded that other informants could have provided the same information. And Quinn acknowledged that Angiulo and his associates were overheard on the FBI bug implicating Bulger and Flemmi in murders.

Connolly, who faces life in prison if convicted of Callahan's murder, is already serving a 10-year prison term for his 2002 federal racketeering conviction. He was found guilty in that case of warning Bulger and Flemmi to flee just before the gangsters were indicted on federal racketeering charges in Boston. Bulger, wanted for 19 murders, remains one of the FBI's 10 most wanted. Flemmi is serving a life sentence for 10 murders.