Posted on 05/14/2002 11:48:18 PM PDT by ninonitti
University of Massachusetts President William M. Bulger asked FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. more than 20 years ago to keep his gangster brother James J. ``Whitey'' Bulger ``out of trouble,'' a Winter Hill Gang hit man told a federal jury yesterday during shocking testimony also linking the retired agent to two mob murders.
John Martorano, a remorseless killer of 20 men, claimed Whitey Bulger told him the Bulgers had a friend at the FBI after William helped Connolly escape poverty and the siren song of crime in their South Boston neighborhood.
``He said he was told that Connolly owed his brother a favor for helping him stay on the straight road, go to college and not be a rogue,'' Martorano said. Connolly, who grew up near the Bulgers in a Southie housing project, allegedly wanted to repay the favor.
``He went to Billy and said, `What can I do to help you in return?' and Billy said, `Just keep my brother out of trouble,' '' Martorano testified during questioning by the prosecution.
Later yesterday, a spokesman for William Bulger said he was authorized only to respond with a brief statement.
``William Bulger has never asked any law enforcement official to help his brother,'' said Bulger spokesman Robert Connolly.
The testimony marked the second time in federal court the former Senate president was named in connection with his brother's close relationship to the FBI.
During 1998 hearings, an FBI supervisor testified that William Bulger once showed up at a dinner where Whitey Bulger, Steven ``The Rifleman'' Flemmi and Connolly were present.
William Bulger later denied the event took place.
John Connolly left court with his family yesterday denying he ever had a conversation with Whitey Bulger about his debt to William Bulger. He accused Martorano of concocting a story to avoid spending the rest of his life in prison.
``These people are pure evil,'' Connolly told reporters. ``But unfortunately these are the kinds of people I had to deal with to get information.''
In return for Martorano's testimony, the government has agreed to recommend that a judge sentence him to serve 12 to 15 years. Martorano, who has admitted his role in 20 murders, has been in prison since his 1995 indictment for racketeering and extortion.
Wearing a dark double-breasted suit and peering through tinted glasses, Martorano, 61, portrayed Connolly as the Winter Hill Gang's source inside the FBI when the gang coexisted with the Mafia to control Boston's gambling rackets.
The agent's words were the catalyst for hits on two men - Richard Castucci in 1976 and John Callahan in 1982 - according to the hit man, who admitted executing both men during a killing career spanning three decades.
The gang learned through Connolly that Castucci, a Revere nightclub owner, had given the FBI the location of fugitive gang members Joseph McDonald and James Sims, who were hiding out in a Greenwich Village apartment rented by Martorano, he said.
Martorano said he was forced to kill his own friend, former World Jai Alai president John Callahan, in 1982 after a tip from Connolly convinced Bulger and Flemmi Callahan could get them jailed for life in connection with a 1981 murder.
``They were trying to convince me their friend John (Connolly) said we're all going to go to jail for the rest of our life if something doesn't happen to John Callahan, because the FBI is going to put so much pressure on him,'' Martorano said.
Connolly told the gang that their former associate, Brian Halloran, had told the bureau that Callahan had tried to hire him to carry out the 1981 hit on new Jai Alai owner Roger Wheeler, according to the government.
Callahan then turned to Martorano to kill Wheeler.
Yesterday, Martorano claimed that another former FBI agent, H. Paul Rico, furnished the information about Wheeler's habits that allowed the hit man and his partner to kill the millionaire while he sat in his Cadillac at the Southern Hills Golf Course in Tulsa.
Callahan ``gave me a piece of paper written by Rico with all the information - his phone numbers, addresses,'' said Martorano, who sources said no longer has the note.
Tulsa police want prosecutors to indict Rico, now 78, for murder. Rico was head of security for Jai Alai after his FBI retirement.
During lengthy cross examination yesterday by Connolly's defense attorney, Tracy Miner, the hit man drew laughs as Miner attempted to paint him as a serial killer looking for early release.
She pointed out how his confession would have brought him 30 years in prison if prosecutors hadn't agreed to recommend a deal for 12 to 15.
``I wanted them to recommend three if they could,'' Martorano quipped.
When she noted his deal allows him to avoid the death penalty for murders in Oklahoma and Florida, Martorano claimed individual state laws were far from his mind when he was working.
``When I shot those people, I wasn't aware. It didn't matter,'' he said.
He sounded offended when Miner at one point implied that he used the services of prostitutes.
``I might give them money, but not for sex,'' Martorano said.
Martorano also testified that he helped secure a stolen 2-carat diamond ring in 1976 that Whitey Bulger gave to Connolly when Connolly was searching for a present for his first wife.
And Connolly received other things of value from the Winter Hill Gang, through Whitey Bulger, Martorano testified. ``Any chance we get to give him something, give him something,'' was the rule, he said. ``At all times, they (Bulger and Flemmi) said they took good care of him.''
He also said Connolly tipped the gang about a businessman who had gone to the FBI seeking protection when gangster Howie Winter tried to force him to take some mob pinball machines.
But Winter never acted on the tip. ``He dragged his feet and he got indicted,'' Martorano said.
He also fingered Connolly as the source of a tip Flemmi received in the 1980s that the FBI had found Martorano's Florida hideout. ,p. The hit man fled Boston in 1979 on orders from Bulger and Flemmi to avoid an indictment on race fixing charges. What was supposed to be a six-month sojourn turned into 16 years on the lam, he testified.
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