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NEWS
Ex-FBI
agent Connolly is convicted
By Shelley Murphy and Thanassis
Cambanis, Globe Staff, 5/29/2002
John Connolly Jr. left the FBI a
hero for turning Boston's most
vicious gangsters into powerful
informants against the Mafia.
Yesterday the retired agent was
convicted of being a criminal
himself for protecting James
"Whitey" Bulger and
Stephen "The Rifleman"
Flemmi.
Pressure
increases for FBI reforms
By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff,
5/29/2002
The Connolly decision seemed to put
the onus on the FBI itself and a
culture that gave agents wide
latitude in consorting with
powerful underworld figures, legal
specialists said.
Verdict
in racketeering case caps decades
of animosity
By Thanassis Cambanis and
Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff,
5/29/2002
A bitter bond linking old-time
gangsters, veteran cops, persistent
investigators, and one fallen FBI
agent has held them all in an
enduring embrace for many decades.
Prosecution
witnesses failed to impress
By Douglas Belkin, Globe Staff,
5/29/2002
A juror who voted to convict
retired FBI agent John J. Connolly
Jr. yesterday said the panel was
not swayed by the parade of
immunized criminals who testified
against him so much as by
Connolly's own actions.
Photo
gallery 
Images of key players, places, and
events in the saga.
Globe
special reports
In-depth investigations from the
Spotlight Team.
Where's
Whitey? 
Follow the twists and turns of
Bulger's life on the run.
Suggested
reading
Want to read more on Bulger? Check
out these titles.
Whitey
chats
Globe reporters answer your
questions about Bulger.
Whitey
on the Web
Links to Bulger resources from
around the Internet.
Recent
coverage
Connolly
defense calls trial 'payback'
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff,
5/24/2002
etired FBI Special Agent John J.
Connolly Jr. is the victim of a
band of vengeful mobsters and an
FBI that made him a scapegoat to
cover its own mishandling of
informants James "Whitey"
Bulger and Stephen Flemmi, a
defense lawyer argued yesterday
during closing statements in the
ex-agent's federal racketeering
trial.
Breakdown
of charges weighed by jury
By Globe Staff, 5/24/2002
A breakdown of the charges against
retired FBI Special Agent John J.
Connolly Jr. that jurors must
decide on.
A
lose-lose situation
By Brian McGrory, Globe
Columnist, 5/24/2002
There are a couple of things that
could happen down at the federal
courthouse on this otherwise fine
spring day, and neither of them is
particularly good.
By
not testifying, Connolly gambled
By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff,
5/23/2002
On the last day of testimony in his
federal corruption trial, retired
FBI agent John Connolly found
himself facing a grim irony and a
make-or-break decision.
Connolly
said to question probe
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff,
5/21/2002
He's on trial for allegedly
protecting his longtime informant,
James "Whitey" Bulger,
from prosecution, but yesterday it
was revealed that retired FBI Agent
John J. Connolly Jr. once tried to
influence a corruption
investigation into the gangster's
brother, then Massachusetts Senate
President William Bulger.
Former
mob boss accuses Connolly in
racketeer trial
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff,
5/18/2002
Former New England Mafia boss
Francis "Cadillac Frank"
Salemme took the stand for the
government yesterday and accused a
retired FBI agent of tipping him
off to an indictment, pocketing
$10,000 in bribes, and leaking the
names of the informants who helped
the FBI bug a Mafia induction
ceremony.
Testimony
offers look at Mafia's bygone days
By Thanassis Cambanis, Globe
Staff, 5/18/2002
His head shook uncontrollably, the
result, he said, of the bullet
lodged in his stomach from a 1989
assassination attempt by a renegade
mobster outside a Saugus pancake
house.
Phone
records link Connolly, Bulger
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff,
5/17/2002
Even as retired FBI agent John J.
Connolly Jr. was assuring the FBI
that he wasn't trying to help his
former informants, James
"Whitey" Bulger and
Stephen Flemmi, beat a 1995 federal
racketeering case, he was making a
flurry of telephone calls to the
defense team and Bulger's cohorts,
according to records presented in
court yesterday.
Weeks
cool under grilling on witness
stand
By Thanassis Cambanis, Globe
Staff, 5/17/2002
Kevin Weeks styled himself a
straightforward gangland enforcer,
the kind of guy who wouldn't drop
hints about body bags when he could
threaten outright to kill someone,
an effective sort who kept track of
which drug-dealer shakedowns were
his and which bookies' profits
belonged to his patron, James
"Whitey" Bulger.
FBI
higher-up informed Connolly,
witness says
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff,
5/16/2002
The day after learning in a
top-secret briefing that
prosecutors were about to indict
longtime FBI informants James
"Whitey" Bulger and
Stephen Flemmi, the
second-in-command of the FBI's
Boston office allegedly tipped off
the pair's retired handler - who in
turn warned them to flee - a
longtime Bulger cohort testified
yesterday.
Connolly's
tale one of fabrication and
manipulation
By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff,
5/16/2002
The portrait of ex-FBI agent John
Connolly that emerged from historic
1998 misconduct hearings in US
District Court was that of a master
manipulator - a federal lawman who
allegedly falsified reports,
sabotaged other law enforcement
agencies' investigations, and even
misled his own colleagues to cover
up murders committed by his prized
informants, James
"Whitey" Bulger and
Stephen Flemmi.
Witness
tells of a disguised Bulger,
killing
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff,
5/15/2002
A local hoodlum who agreed to
cooperate with the FBI against
gangsters James "Whitey"
Bulger and Stephen "The
Rifleman" Flemmi feared that
if the pair learned of his betrayal
they'd "go to any extreme to
kill him, even if it means killing
his wife and family or
others," according to an FBI
report presented yesterday in
federal court.
Hitman:
Connolly aided Bulger as favor to
brother
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff,
5/14/2002
FBI Special Agent John J. Connolly
Jr. decided to protect South Boston
gangster James "Whitey"
Bulger in 1975 as a
"favor" to his brother,
William, who was then a state
senator, a confessed hitman
testified yesterday.
FBI
racketeering trial revisits killing
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff,
5/11/2002
It was 20 years ago today that gang
associate Edward ''Brian'' Halloran
was gunned down along the South
Boston waterfront. But yesterday,
in a federal courthouse just blocks
away from the murder scene, lawyers
battled over whether Halloran was a
victim of the Mafia - or the
casualty of a corrupt FBI agent.
FBI
head testifies to taking bribes
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff,
5/10/2002
A former FBI supervisor who had
already confessed that he pocketed
$7,000 in bribes from gangsters
James ''Whitey'' Bulger and Stephen
Flemmi admitted on the witness
stand yesterday that he solicited
$5,000 from another bureau
informant, identified only as a
big-time Mafia bookie.
Jury
is told of bribes from Bulger
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff,
5/9/2002
From the moment that FBI Special
Agent John J. Connolly Jr.
recruited South Boston crime boss
James "Whitey" Bulger as
an informant, according to
prosecutors, the relationship
between the lawman and the gangster
was turned upside-down.
Trial
of FBI agent Connolly begins
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff,
5/7/2002
Dueling mobsters, a few ex-wives,
more than a dozen FBI agents, and
perhaps a federal judge may be
called to testify at the federal
racketeering trial of retired FBI
agent John J. Connolly Jr.,
according to documents.
Trial
of former FBI agent set to begin
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff,
5/5/2002
He grew up in South Boston and made
a name for himself in the FBI after
recruiting James "Whitey"
Bulger as an informant. Now John
Connolly is going on trial on
charges that he shielded Bulger
from the law.
Michael
Flemmi guilty in weapons case
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff,
5/4/2002
A federal jury yesterday found the
brother of Stephen ''The Rifleman''
Flemmi guilty of hiding an arsenal
of weapons for the jailed gangster,
apparently believing the testimony
of two underworld figures who
testified for the prosecution and
will do so again in a series of
upcoming trials.
Son
says Flemmi hid cash in house
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff,
4/30/2002
Gangster Stephen ''The Rifleman''
Flemmi allegedly stashed $600,000
at his mother's South Boston home,
yet the government paid for five
lawyers to represent him against a
wave of indictments over the past
seven years because he claimed he
was broke.
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