FBI Career
As an agent he was also one of the primary agents involved in developing the Top Echelon Criminal Informants Program in New England. He began his FBI career in Baltimore field office and then San Francisco field office before he was transferred back to New York City where he helped break up a child pornography ring. But he wanted to return to Boston to be closer to his ailing father. In 1980 he moved into the neighbourhood of Dorchester Heights across the street from South Boston High School, at 48 Thomas Park. During his career in the FBI, Connolly investigated organized crime and over the span of his career received eight commendations from every Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from J. Edgar Hoover through L. Patrick Gray, William Ruckelshaus, Clarence M. Kelley, James B. Adams, William H. Webster, John Otto and William S. Sessions. In 1973 he was the first agent assigned to the FBI office in Boston and maintained an office at One Centre Plaza in Government Center, Boston. He is the brother-in-law of Arthur Gianelli who was later indicted with Joe (Joey Y) Yerardi who oversaw John Martorano's criminal operations when he was a federal fugitive in Florida between 1978 and 1995. In 1989 the DEA was probing the Winter Hill Gang for suspected drug trafficking.
The DEA was well aware that John's brother James, and a former room mate of his both worked for the DEA. An FBI supervisor later noted in a memo, the head of the DEA's Boston office, "quietly changed the duties of both these DEA special agents so they would not become aware of this matter." Boston FBI Special Agent Robert Fitzpatrick said, "Connolly just became a force unto himself, a vortex in a constantly changing system. He stayed put as new agents in charge came and went. And he could take care of other agents. He became the guy who could get you sports tickets. He could help you get a day off through the secretaries. He made no secret that he could help you get a job after retirement through Billy Bulger. But he wasn't that much of an agent. He couldn't write a report. He was no administrator. He was just this brassy bullshit artist. We enabled him to some extent. No one had the stomach for examining what he was up to. We just never came to grip with that guy."
In 1990 after he retired from the FBI, Billy Bulger lobbied with Boston Mayor Ray Flynn to have Connolly appointed Commissioner of the Boston Police Department. Flynn instead appointed Francis Roache. Before he was brought up on criminal charges, John was mentioned in the crime fiction book The Underboss: The Rise & Fall of a Mafia Family in 1989 by Gerard O'Neil and Dick Lehr that follow the FBI's crusade against Gennaro Angiulo with Connolly, John Morris and a team of fellow FBI agents.
Read more about this topic: John Connolly (FBI)
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