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Miami Murder Trial Starting For Disgraced Ex-FBI Agent

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The Associated Press

Published: September 8, 2008

MIAMI - John J. Connolly was hundreds of miles away in 1982 when gambling executive John Callahan's bullet-riddled body was discovered in the trunk of Callahan's own Cadillac at Miami's airport.

The admitted shooter says he never met Connolly, the disgraced ex-FBI man at the heart of the agency's sordid dealings with Boston's Winter Hill Gang.

Yet Connolly will stand trial on murder and conspiracy charges this month as if he had pulled the trigger himself, because prosecutors say he secretly gave information that was crucial in setting up the hit. Jury selection is to begin today in a trial that figures to rehash some of the ugliest episodes in the Boston FBI's handling of the gang, once led by James "Whitey" Bulger and convicted killer Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi.

For years, both were top FBI informants on rival Italian mobsters. Connolly was their handler - and Connolly made sure they were shielded from prosecution for murder and many other crimes, a service for which he was eventually sent to federal prison on a racketeering conviction.

A congressional investigation concluded in 2003 that the FBI's relationship with Bulger and his cohorts "must be considered one of the greatest failures in the history of federal law enforcement." The scandal spawned several books and was the template for the 2006 Martin Scorcese film "The Departed," with Matt Damon playing a crooked Connolly-like law enforcement officer and Jack Nicholson as the Bulger-esque mobster.

And it led former Attorney General Janet Reno in 2001 - one of her last acts in office - to install reforms on FBI use of criminals as informants, including better monitoring and accountability.

The Callahan slaying is part of that history, detailed in court documents, interviews and investigative reports.

Callahan was president of World Jai-Alai, a Miami fronton, or facility, for the sport. World Jai-Alai was purchased in the late 1970s by Roger Wheeler, a businessman from Tulsa, Okla., who liked that ex-Boston FBI agent Paul Rico was part of the security team.

Soon, however, Wheeler suspected that Callahan was skimming profits for the Winter Hill Gang. He fired Callahan and ordered an audit. On May 27, 1981, Wheeler was shot in Tulsa by hit man John V. Martorano, who has admitted in court to 20 murders.

Callahan was targeted next because Bulger and Flemmi feared he would finger them for Wheeler's killing. Martorano pleaded guilty in 2001 to shooting Callahan and, with the help of an associate, stuffing his body into the trunk of Callahan's silver Cadillac.

Authorities found the car at Miami International Airport, with a dime placed on Callahan's body as a warning against potential informants not to "drop a dime," or rat out associates.

Rico, Connolly's former FBI colleague, eventually was charged in Wheeler's murder, but he died in 2004 before going to trial. A little more than a year later, Connolly was indicted by a Miami-Dade County grand jury in Callahan's killing. A conviction means a life prison sentence.

Connolly, 68, already is serving a 10-year federal prison stretch for racketeering and other charges from his associations with Bulger and his gang, including tipping his former informant off about an impending 1995 indictment.

Bulger fled before he could be arrested and remains a fugitive, a fixture on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list.

The federal jury that convicted Connolly in 2002 rejected evidence of his involvement in the Callahan killing, although the charge then was obstruction of justice. Connolly's attorney, Manuel Casabielle, said little new information has surfaced since.

"The reason you haven't seen much connecting John to the Callahan murder is because there isn't much. It isn't there," Casabielle said. "Most of what they have comes from two people who have admitted at least 40 murders between them."

Prosecutor Michael Von Zamft, however, said the state is confident in its case, even with key witnesses of questionable repute.

Martorano, the self-described hit man, is among the star witnesses, along with Flemmi and other Winter Hill Gang figures. The gist of Martorano's testimony, according to court documents, will be that it was Bulger who told him Connolly was involved in setting up the Callahan slaying.

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