Ethics Newsline®

Prosecutors say defendant actually worked for the mob; thickening the plot is a deal offered to a hit man to testify against the agent — 12 years for 20 murders

MIAMI
One of the biggest scandals in recent law enforcement history unfolded last week in Miami as a former FBI agent went on trial for murder and conspiracy.

Former FBI agent John Connolly is accused of leaking information that resulted in the procurement of a hit man to murder an accountant, reports the Miami Herald.

Among the moral twists to the story is the allegation that Connolly, who developed the notorious Boston mobster Whitey Bulger as a secret informer, eventually turned into one of Bulger’s henchmen, reports Boston radio station WBUR.

John Martorano, a reputed hit man, last week testified that Connolly ordered him to kill the accountant because mobsters feared he might cooperate with law enforcement, according to reports from the Hartford Courant.

In addition to the purported involvement of an FBI agent in mob activities, press attention has focused on the fact that the admitted hit man has been allowed to go free after serving just 12 years for 20 murders.

The Boston Globe reports that the former head of the Massachusetts State Police said that investigators had “sleepless nights” after offering Martorano a deal in exchange for his testimony.

Foley said the deal was necessary because without it investigators would not have been able to solve the homicides or root out corruption in law enforcement.

Connolly, who retired from the FBI in 1990, is serving a 10-year stretch in federal prison for a 2002 racketeering conviction based on charges that he warned Bulger about an impending indictment.

The jury has not been informed that Connolly is a convicted felon, reports the Globe.

Sources: Boston Globe, Sep. 19 — Hartford Courant, Sep. 19 — WBUR, Sep. 19 — Miami Herald, Sep. 19.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Aug. 4 — Related Newsline story, Feb. 4 — Related Newsline story, Nov. 13, 2007 — Related Newsline story, May 14, 2007.