BOSTON – A former FBI agent convicted of second-degree murder for leaking information to Boston gangster James Whitey Bulger that led to the 1982 shooting death of a gambling executive can be released from prison on medical grounds, officials ruled Wednesday.
The Florida Commission on Offender Review voted 2-1 in favor of releasing John Connolly, who has cancer and is believed to have less than a year to live.
Connolly, who was Bulger's FBI handler, was convicted in 2008 over the killing of World Jai Alai President John Callahan in Fort Lauderdale in 1982.
Connolly tipped Bulger and another gangster, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, that Callahan was about to implicate the gang in another killing, authorities said.