BOSTON, May 22 (UPI) -- Closing arguments were set for Thursday in the Boston trial of a former FBI agent accused of being corrupted by the underworld informants he was supposed to be controlling.
Retired FBI Special Agent John J. Connolly Jr. is on trial on federal charges of racketeering, obstruction of justice and accepting bribes from James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, leaders of the South Boston-based Winter Hill Gang.
Connolly, 61, handled Bulger and Flemmi as informants for more than two decades while he worked in the FBI's Boston office. He retired from the agency in 1990 and did not take the stand in his own defense on the advice of his attorney. He said after Tuesday's session he put his "trust in the jury system."
Before resting its case on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Boston, the defense presented a 1983 FBI training video in which Connolly instructed rookie agents on ways to deal with informants.
"You're going to either rule them or they're going to rule you," Connolly said on the video played for the jury.
Connolly, who reportedly recruited up to 30 underworld informants, said on the video, "You're dealing with a criminal here who might some day make an allegation against you and you don't want to put yourself in a position like that."
The government called several underworld figures who testified Connolly accepted gifts and more than $15,000 in bribes from the gang bosses, and in turn tipped them off to investigations against them. He also allegedly tipped Bulger and Flemmi off to their impending arrest in 1995 on racketeering indictments. While Flemmi was arrested as he prepared to flee, Bulger got away and remains a fugitive.
On the video, Connolly also advised recruits, "Be careful you're not making promises to these informants to authorize criminal conduct."
Connolly has said his supervisors authorized Bulger and Flemmi to continue their criminal activities, short of murder. He has said he never knew they had allegedly killed many of their 23 victims while acting as his informants against rival members of the Italian Mafia.
Prosecutors also allege Connolly leaked the names of three men who were cooperating with the government against Bulger and Flemmi, and that those three wound up dead.
"You're going to get friendly with them and you're going to like them," Connolly said about informants on the video, "but you can never forget who you work for and that you are an FBI agent."
