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Witness: Bulger, Connolly Had Twisted Relationship

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Sep 19, 2008 9:09 pm US/Eastern

Witness: Bulger, Connolly Had Twisted Relationship

Reporting
Bill Shields
MIAMI (WBZ) ― For years Massachusetts State police Colonel Tom Foley tried to break up fugitive mobster James "Whitey" Bulger's gang, facing hurdles everywhere he turned.  

What Foley didn't know is that the gangsters he was investigating were being tipped off by a rogue FBI agent.  

Foley faced disgraced agent John Connolly in Miami court Friday.  

"If John Connolly and the FBI had done their job we wouldn't have been in that situation," Foley said during his testimony.   

From 1984 to 1985, Foley chased Bulger and Stephen Flemmi.   

Prosecutors say Foley's efforts were thwarted because Connolly was tipping off the gangsters.  

"Bulger and Flemmi were untouched.  They were the most feared group operating in Boston," Foley said.  

In 1982, the gang hired hitman John Martorano to kill businessman John Callahan after they allegedly received a tip from Connolly that Callahan was working with the FBI.  

In 1995, police were going to finally indict Bulger and Flemmi on Callahan's murder.   However, at the last minute the FBI learned that both gangsters were planning on fleeing, Foley testified.  

Prosecutors say Bulger escaped because Connolly tipped them off.   

Then Martorano became an FBI informant in exchange for a 14 year sentence.   
"We were placed in that position because of a twisted relationship that John Connolly and the FBI had with Bulger and Flemmi that put us in a position where we had to make a decision like that," Foley said.   

Foley's testimony in and of itself will not likely convict Connolly of murder.  However, the highly-anticipated testimony of Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi will take place. Flemmi's testimony could put Connolly behind bars for life.  

Connolly is currently serving a 10-year sentence on federal racketeering charges.

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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