Mobster implicates ex-FBI agent

MIAMI, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Prosecutors say a member of Boston's notorious Winter Hill Gang has linked former FBI agent John Connolly to a conspiracy to kill mob witnesses.

Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi testified Monday that Connolly allegedly was paid by the gang to leak law enforcement secrets, The Hartford (Conn.) Courant reported Tuesday.

Connolly spent his part of the gang's profit with such exuberance that gang members feared he would be exposed, Flemmi, 74, a confessed 10-time killer told a jury in Miami.

Flemmi alleged he and gang member James "Whitey" Bulger met with Connolly hundreds of times between the 1970s and 1990, when Connolly retired from the FBI, to hear FBI secrets that compelled the gang to kill mob members, the newspaper reported, noting Bulger remains a fugitive.

Connolly, who is charged with murder, has claimed he is innocent in the death of former World Jai Alai president John B. Callahan, who was shot to death in Florida in 1982.