John Connolly (FBI)

Early life

John Joseph Connolly Jr. was the namesake and son of an Irish immigrant, John Connolly Sr., a Gillette employee for 50 years. Connolly's mother, Bridget T. Connolly (née Kelly), was a housewife. They lived in the Old Harbor housing project on O'Callahan Way until John Jr. was twelve years old.

In 1952 his family moved to the City Point neighborhood of South Boston. John Jr. was able to attend Columbus High School, a Catholic high school in the Italian North End neighborhood. He has a sister, Mary Ann, and a younger brother, James, who would later also seek a career in law enforcement, joining the DEA New England Division based in Boston. As a boy, Connolly would later tell reporters, his first memory of Whitey Bulger was of Bulger using his illicit earnings to buy ice cream cones for all the boys that swarmed around him in adoration.

Connolly would later answer to the nickname Elvis because of his thick black hair and also to "Neighbor", because of his early years of growing up in the projects. Connolly was a neighbor of the Bulger family, future US Representative Joseph Moakley, and Francis "Buddy" Leonard, who would later be murdered by Bulger in 1975 during his battle for power over the rackets. Connolly again met Bulger when the former was being beaten up by bullies at a park. According to Connolly, the teenaged Bulger came in and chased the bullies away.

Education

Connolly graduated from Boston College and attended law class and briefly attended Suffolk University Law School to study for a Bachelor of Law but withdrew without completing his law degree. He later earned a graduate degree in Public Administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

After completing his studies, Connolly worked as a teacher at South Boston High School and at Dorchester High School. 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. Both Condon and Walsh would later brag that they had "recruited" Connolly. He visited his old neighbor and State Representative Billy Bulger to discuss career opportunities in law enforcement.

On August 1, 1968, U.S. House Speaker John William McCormack wrote a personal note to J. Edgar Hoover on behalf of a constituent. 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..." He was appointed to the FBI in October 1968. FBI Supervisor John M. Morris, who would also face charges of corruption, was Connolly's supervisor during much of his time working for the FBI.

FBI career

Connolly began his FBI career in the Baltimore and San Francisco field offices before being transferred to New York City where he helped break up a child pornography ring. He wanted to return to Boston to be closer to his ailing father. In 1973 he was the first agent assigned to the FBI office in Boston and maintained an office at One Centre Plaza in Government Center, Boston.

In 1980 he moved to 48 Thomas Park in the Dorchester Heights neighborhood across the street from South Boston High School. During his career in the FBI, Connolly investigated organized crime. He was one of the primary agents involved in developing the Top Echelon Criminal Informants Program in New England. Over the span of his career he received eight commendations from every Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from J. Edgar Hoover through L. Patrick Gray, William Ruckelshaus, Clarence M. Kelley, James B. Adams, William H. Webster, John Otto and William S. Sessions. He is the brother-in-law of Arthur Gianelli who was later indicted with Joe "Joey Y" Yerardi, who oversaw John Martorano's criminal operations when he was a federal fugitive in Florida between 1978 and 1995.

In 1989, the DEA was probing the Winter Hill Gang for suspected drug trafficking. The DEA was aware that both a former roommate and John's brother James both worked for the DEA. As an FBI supervisor later noted in a memo, the head of the DEA's Boston office "quietly changed the duties of both these DEA special agents so they would not become aware of this matter."

Boston FBI Special Agent Robert Fitzpatrick said:

Connolly just became a force unto himself, a vortex in a constantly changing system. He stayed put as new agents in charge came and went. And he could take care of other agents. He became the guy who could get you sports tickets. He could help you get a day off through the secretaries. He made no secret that he could help you get a job after retirement through Billy Bulger. But he wasn't that much of an agent. He couldn't write a report. He was no administrator. He was just this brassy bullshit artist. We enabled him to some extent. No one had the stomach for examining what he was up to. We just never came to grips with that guy.

In 1990, after Connolly retired from the FBI, Billy Bulger lobbied Boston's then-Mayor Raymond Flynn to have Connolly appointed Commissioner of the Boston Police Department; Flynn instead appointed Francis "Mickey" Roache, who served from 1985–1993. Before he was brought up on criminal charges, Connolly was mentioned in the crime fiction book The Underboss: The Rise & Fall of a Mafia Family in 1989 by Gerard O'Neill and Dick Lehr which followed the FBI's crusade against Gennaro Angiulo with Connolly, John Morris and a team of fellow FBI agents.

Married life

Connolly's first wife, Marianne Lockary, was his childhood sweetheart whom he married as he neared graduation from Suffolk University Law School. In January 1982 he and Lockary, who cited an "irretrievable breakdown" of their marriage after a four-year separation, divorced. He married again in 1988 to Elizabeth L. Moore, a court stenographer who worked at the FBI in Boston.

Connolly had no children with his first wife but fathered three sons with his second wife, Elizabeth. When John and Elizabeth first married he bought a $80,000 condominium for them in Brewster, Massachusetts and took regular vacations to Cape Cod. His sister-in-law Mary Ann Moore, is married to Arthur Gianelli. Gianelli and Connolly purchased adjoining properties in Lynnfield, Massachusetts from a Rocco Botta, a reputed Mafia extortionist.

Meeting Flemmi and Bulger

Connolly first met FBI informants Stephen Flemmi and Whitey Bulger at a coffee shop in Newton, Massachusetts. He occasionally lectured FBI agents at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia on informant development tactics and techniques and was a member of the Boston FBI's Organized Crime Squad. Retired FBI Special Agent Joseph D. Pistone wrote in his book, The Ceremony, "The reign of the Patriarca crime family is ended. A substantial amount of the credit for the demise of that mob family must be given to one man, Special Agent John Connolly." Louis Litif, one of the top bookmakers and Winter Hill Gang mob associate, was one of Connolly's handball partners at the Boston Athletic Club. Connolly retired from the FBI honorably in 1990 and accepted the position of Director of Security/Public affairs for Boston Edison, from former Boston FBI Special Agent John Kehoe. Bulger nicknamed Connolly "Zip" because the lawman shared the same South Boston ZIP Code as the Bulger clan.

Murder trial, conviction, and sentencing

In 2005, Connolly was indicted on murder and conspiracy to commit murder charges in the 1982 slaying of John B. Callahan, and the 1981 murder of Roger Wheeler, owner of the World Jai Alai sporting corporation. Connolly stood trial in 2008 in Miami, Florida. Callahan was murdered by John Martorano who left the corpse in the trunk of a Cadillac in a parking lot at Miami International Airport.

Prosecutors alleged that Callahan was killed on the orders of Whitey Bulger and Stephen Flemmi after Connolly told them that the FBI was investigating Callahan's ties to the Winter Hill Gang in their ongoing investigation into Wheeler's death. Wheeler had been killed by Martorano in Tulsa, Oklahoma in May 1981.

During the trial, Bulger associates Flemmi, Martorano, and Kevin Weeks testified for the prosecution detailing Connolly's ties to Bulger and Flemmi. Bulger's former girlfriend, Theresa Stanley, testified for the defense about her travels with Bulger. Flemmi testified that Connolly warned them that the FBI wanted to question Callahan in the death of Wheeler and that Callahan "wouldn't hold up" and would probably implicate them. Also testifying against Connolly was his former FBI superior, John Morris, who admitted that he accepted $7,000 in bribes from Bulger and Flemmi. Morris stated that he began leaking information to them after Connolly delivered a case of wine and an envelope stuffed with $1000 cash from the pair.

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.

On November 6, 2008, a jury convicted Connolly of second-degree murder. According to the prosecutors, Connolly faced a possible sentence of 30 years to life in prison. Sentencing was postponed until January 2009, while Circuit Judge Stanford Blake considered a motion by the defense to dismiss the case. The defense argued that in Florida, when Connolly was convicted, the statute of limitations had expired for second-degree murder.

On January 15, 2009, Judge Blake sentenced Connolly to 40 years in prison, saying that Connolly "crossed over to the dark side." The judge agreed with the defense's argument involving the statute of limitations, but noted that their motion was past the deadline for such motions. The judge accepted the prosecutors' argument that Connolly abused his badge and deserved more than the 30-year minimum. The 40-year state sentence runs consecutively to the 10-year federal sentence.

Connolly served his time in FCI Butner Low facility at the Federal Correctional Complex, Butner, North Carolina. He was released from federal custody on June 28, 2011, and was transferred to a Florida State Prison to serve his 40-year state sentence. Connolly has stated that he had nothing to do with the Callahan murder. With Bulger's capture on June 24, 2011, Connolly's attorney said his client would appeal if Bulger corroborates Connolly's claim of innocence.

On May 28, 2014, Connolly's murder conviction was overturned by a panel of Florida's Third District Court of Appeal by a vote of 2–1. 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. On July 29, 2015, the full court en banc reinstated Connolly's murder conviction by a vote of 6–4, finding that the conviction was legally proper, even though he was on Cape Cod when Martorano killed Callahan. 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." Under Florida sentencing guidelines, Connolly must serve at least one-third of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole. Unless his sentence is reversed, he will not be eligible for parole until 2021.