BOSTON, May 14 (UPI) -- A man who admitted to killing 20 people faced cross-examination Tuesday at the federal trial in Boston of a former FBI agent accused of racketeering.
John Martorano, testifying under a plea agreement and a promise to be placed in the federal Witness Protection Program, on Monday linked the defendant, retired Special Agent John J. Connolly Jr., to two gangland killings.
Connolly is charged with racketeering and obstruction of justice for allegedly tipping off Boston's Winter Hill Gang leaders James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi to investigations against them.
Connolly also is accused of tipping Bulger to a 1995 racketeering indictment. Bulger remains at large and is on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list.
Martorano, 61, portrayed Connolly as the Winter Hill Gang's source inside the FBI, and said information the agent leaked to the gang resulted in the slayings of Richard Castucci in 1976 and John Callahan in 1982.
The confessed killer said the South Boston-based Winter Hill Gang learned through Connolly that Castucci had tipped off the FBI to where two fugitive gang members were hiding in New York. Castucci, a Revere bookmaker, was found dead in the trunk of his car on Dec. 30, 1976.
Martorano also said he was ordered to kill former World Jai Alai President John Callahan after information from Connolly convinced Bulger and Flemmi that Callahan could implicate them in the 1981 slaying of Roger Wheeler, the owner of World Jai Alai.
Connolly also is charged with tipping off Bulger and Flemmi that low-level gangster Brian Halloran had implicated them in Wheeler's slaying. Halloran was slain in South Boston in 1982.
In his testimony, Martorano said Whitey Bulger told fellow gang members in the 1970s that he was told Connolly "owed his brother" -- state Sen. William Bulger -- "a favor for helping him stay on the straight road, to go to college, and not be a rogue."
Connolly and the Bulgers grew up in South Boston.
Martorano testified Connolly went to William Bulger and asked what he could do to help him in return, and William Bulger responded, '"Just keep my brother out of trouble.'"
In a statement late Monday, William Bulger, the former president of the state Senate and current president of the University of Massachusetts, denied asking any law enforcement official to help his brother.
When Connolly left the court Monday afternoon, he denied ever having a conversation with Whitey Bulger about Connolly's debt to William Bulger.
"These people are pure evil," Connolly said, referring to Martorano. "But unfortunately these are the kinds of people I had to deal with to get information."
Connolly has said he was just acting under orders from higher-ups in the FBI to get information from Irish gang bosses against members of the rival Italian Mafia.
He recruited Whitey Bulger and Flemmi as FBI informants in the mid-1970s and acted as their handler for the agency until his retirement in 1990.
Martorano agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in 1998 after learning that Flemmi and Bulger were longtime informants.
Martorano's plea agreement calls for a sentence of up to 15 years. He could be back on the street in three years, considering credit for good time and time served since his arrest in 1995.
