Aging ex-FBI agent John “Zip” Connolly can stay a free man in Massachusetts, a Florida parole board has dominated.
The prediction that he’d be lifeless by now has, clearly, been confirmed incorrect. Still, the Florida Commission on Offender Review is permitting Connolly to convalesce indefinitely along with his spouse within the Bay State, the Herald has discovered. His subsequent overview with be in “two to seven years.”
Connolly was convicted of second-degree homicide in 2008 for carrying his FBI-issued sidearm when he met with mobster James “Whitey” Bulger in Boston to warn him of what businessman John Callahan knew. Bulger was murdered in a West Virginia jail in 2018.
Callahan, the previous president of World Jai Alai, was shot lifeless by John Martorano, one in every of Bulger’s hitmen. Martorano testified he was working for Bulger when he killed Callahan, who was additionally a good friend of his. Bulger needed Callahan lifeless as a result of the Boston businessman may implicate them in a 1981 slaying of one other World Jai Alai govt.
This insanity has left Callahan’s widow, Mary Callahan, to manage and stick with it as finest she will be able to. News of “Zip” Connolly’s fortunate break left her with combined feelings on the eve of Easter.
“You have to forgive, but you don’t have to forget,” Mary Callahan, who like Connolly is 80-plus years outdated, mentioned. She added a sufferer’s advocate with the Florida parole fee informed her Thursday Connolly can stay out of jail.
“He’s home with his family and his wife. We don’t have that,” Mary Callahan, a mom of two, added. “I’m glad I don’t have to make another decision on what to do — they’ve already decided. But this doesn’t mean it all isn’t hard. I think of our loss and it is huge.”
The fee voted 2-1 in February of 2021 to ship the disgraced G-man again to Massachusetts on a medical launch as a result of he had a couple of yr to stay after being referred to as “terminally ill.”
The Herald has filed a public data request with the Florida fee searching for the minutes and audio of Connolly’s listening to that befell Wednesday. Mary Callahan mentioned she was notified by mail too late to dial in for that listening to.
Connolly’s lawyer didn’t return messages left by the Herald.
Connolly can also be amassing a pension, because the Herald beforehand reported.
He stored his pension, regardless of being convicted of second-degree homicide in 2008, as a result of Congress handed the Hiss Act in 1954 that permits lawmakers, and due to this fact federal staff, to maintain their retirement advantages except convicted of espionage or treason.
The interstate compact signed by Connolly permitting him to relocate residence along with his spouse in Massachusetts states “termination of supervision” is about for December of 2047.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”