Convicted ex-FBI agent wants new trial

BOSTON, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Ex-FBI Agent John Connolly Jr. cited "utterly explosive" statements of a former Mafia driver in his request for a new trial on racketeering charges.

Connolly, 65, who retired from the FBI in 1990, was sentenced to 10 years in Boston for his conviction on racketeering and other charges for warning longtime informants in 1995 that they were about to be indicted.

Connolly was accused of warning James "Whitey" Bulger, Stephen "The Rifle" Flemmi and New England Mafia godfather Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme.

Connolly cited claims in FBI documents by onetime Philadelphia mob driver Roger Vella that -- while in jail -- Salemme admitted he lied during Connolly's trial and the government knew he lied, the Boston Globe and Boston Herald reported.

Among Vella's other claims was that former Massachusetts Senate President William Bulger financed his serial killer brother's flight from the law.

Connolly was awaiting trial on charges that he helped Bulger and Flemmi in the 1982 gangland slaying of a Miami businessman.