Timothy A. Connolly 3rd - Who Brought Down Bulger and Flemmi?

Who Brought Down Bulger and Flemmi?

After the 1995 indictments of Flemmi and Bulger, there was widespread speculation as to who was responsible for bringing down these mob bosses.

A front page Boston Globe article stated:

Timothy A. Connolly 3d, a one time proprietor of a South Boston bar frequented by ne'er-do-wells, emerged as a crucial witness against Bulger, accusing Bulger of menacing him with a knife while extorting money.

Apparently (Connolly) worked as an informant for the FBI for several years before joining Chico Krantz and other bookie, Jimmy Katz, in the Witness Protection Program. In a deal brokered by then-U.S. Attorney John Pappalardo in 1991, Timothy A. Connolly 3d, (who owned the Corner Cafe.) became an FBI informant when he could not make his alleged extortion payments to Kevin Weeks, a close Bulger associate.

Connolly, who worked for a Waltham mortgage company, was pushed into investigator's arms, according to interviews and court records, simply because he took too long to help a drug trafficker in South Boston pay off a $40,000 debt to Bulger.

Connolly was summoned to the back room of the Rotary Variety store in South Boston in July 1989. And it was there, according to a court affidavit, that Bulger threw caution to the wind and did his own dirty work, menacing Connolly by drawing a long knife from a sheath on his leg, punctuating a tirade by stabbing nearby boxes and waving the blade around Connolly's face. Connolly was purportedly "fined" $50,000 that was to be split between Bulger and Weeks. Two years later, Connolly went to the U.S. Attorney's office and is now a cooperating witness who is believed to have worn a body wire around town last year."

For all intents and purposes, Whitey Bulger was untouchable until an incident that allegedly occurred one night in 1989. Late in the evening, Whitey allegedly arrived at his "office" behind the liquor store, to take care of some unfinished business. Reportedly, Whitey's associate, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, stood waiting inside. Their guest of honor was a local tavern owner named Tim Connolly, whom Whitey had allegedly targeted for extortion. Two days later, after Whitey had allegedly threatened Tim Connolly, Tim did the only thing he felt he could do. He returned to the liquor store with $25,000 cash. But Connolly also did something else. He went to the FBI. They, in turn, began building a case against the so-called "Don of South Boston." Connolly provided authorities with the evidence needed to build up a federal racketeering case against Bulger.

"Timothy Connolly...had a simple story of extortion to tell about Bulger putting a knife to his throat for money. But the U.S. Attorney's Office tried to turn Tim Connolly's solid single into a home run. They constructed an elaborate plan to infiltrate Bulger's financial operation...U.S. Attorney A. John Pappalardo decided to use Tim Connolly to get into Bulger's finances. He turned Tim Connolly over to two handpicked FBI agents who had no ties to John Connolly. They wired the mortgage broker as a way to get an inside look at Bulger's money laundering."

In 1997, it was publicly revealed that Jim Bulger and Stevie Flemmi were secret, Top Echelon FBI informants, ratting on the New England Mafia, while conducting murder and mayhem under the FBI's nose.

The ensuing FBI scandal, involving Bulger and Flemmi, has been called "one of the greatest failures in the history of federal law enforcement" and quite possibly "the biggest scandal in FBI history."

"Memos show that for more than twenty years, FBI headquarters in Washington D.C. knew that Boston agents were using hit men and mob leaders as informants and shielding them from prosecution for serious crimes, including murder."

As a result of this huge scandal, Tim Connolly was mostly forgotten on purpose. No one at the Department of Justice wanted to talk publicly about Bulger and Flemmi. Many of the Boston FBI agents involved in the Bulger and Flemmi case retired. Federal agents were forbidden to talk publicly about the case because of liability and potential obstruction of justice. But in 2003, the federal government quietly confirmed what had been rumored. Ex-FBI Special Agent (retired), John Gamel, Connolly's FBI handler and Supervisor of Organized Crime, appeared in front of a Congressional subcommittee and stated for the record:

"the case against (James "Whitey" Bulger) started in July 1990, when Tim Connolly was referred to the FBI by Tom Reilly, a private attorney. Connolly was a mortgage broker who prepared fraudulent mortgage schemes for associates of James "Whitey" Bulger. Connolly informed the FBI that James "Whitey" Bulger had personally extorted $50,000 from him and that he had been "shook down" in the backroom of a liquor store with a knife to his chest."