John J. Connolly Jr., the turncoat FBI agent who befriended the Boston mob, has been shipped from a federal prison in North Carolina to a Miami-Dade County jail to face murder charges as an accomplice in a 1982 mob hit, prosecutors said Friday.
Connolly is accused of tipping off a group of gangsters in Boston's notorious Winter Hill crime syndicate about a crooked jai alai executive, John Callahan, who was expected to cooperate with prosecutors nearly 23 years ago.
Callahan didn't live long enough to talk. He was found in the trunk of a rented Cadillac in a Miami International Airport parking garage in August 1982. He had been shot two times in the head. His killers placed a dime on his chest -- a signal to others not to ''drop a dime'' on the mob.
A Miami-Dade grand jury indicted Connolly in May on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for his alleged role in Callahan's death. The 64-year-old Connolly, who retired from the FBI in 1990, is expected to make his first court appearance July 13 before Circuit Judge Barbara Areces.
Connolly's ties to the mob became a national embarrassment for the FBI, prompting a congressional inquiry into the bureau's use of criminal informants.
In 2002, Connolly was tried in Boston on several racketeering and obstruction counts for aiding the Winter Hill gang. The gang's leaders, James ''Whitey'' Bulger and Stephen ''The Rifleman'' Flemmi, also acted as underworld informants for Connolly, helping him to dismantle Boston's Italian mafia.
Connolly was convicted on charges that he warned Bulger and Flemmi about a pending indictment in 1994. However, the federal jury cleared Connolly of specific charges that he tipped off the mobsters about Callahan and two government informants who also ended up dead.
ON WANTED LIST
Thanks to Connolly's tip, Bulger went underground, and the 75-year-old has not been found. He's been on the FBI's most-wanted list for more than 10 years.
Connolly was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He's expected to be released in 2011.
In 2001, Miami-Dade prosecutors charged Bulger, Flemmi and hit man John Martorano with Callahan's murder. Flemmi and Martorano -- who have admitted to 10 and 20 murders, respectively -- have pleaded guilty in the Callahan case, and they are expected to testify against their former FBI handler.
Callahan, an accountant, was president of World Jai-Alai in Miami from 1974 to 1976 -- and a Winter Hill associate. He left the business when his mob ties threatened to derail the company's efforts to obtain a license for a Connecticut fronton. Investigators believe the mob tried to use Callahan to take over the jai-alai business.
SUCCESSOR KILLED
Callahan's successor at World Jai-Alai, Robert Wheeler, was also murdered in Tulsa, Okla., in 1981. Flemmi and Martorano have also admitted to that killing.
Connolly's Boston lawyer, Edward Lonergan, could not be reached for comment Friday. But earlier this year he maintained Connolly's innocence and criticized his Miami indictment.
