FBI Agent John Connolly’s Inexplicable Actions: How To Figure Them Out? 5/5

The trooper a straight shooter was flabbergasted. Under pressure knowing he had nothing to do with this false accusation he sweated a bit. After getting him thoroughly upset he was asked if he told anyone else about the information. This, of course, the FBI agents knew all along because they had arranged through the state police captain for him to tell this trooper to give Naimovich the same information. Asked who he might have told, the trooper  remembered that the captain had told him to tell Naimovich.

The finger was then on pointed at Naimovich. The trooper happy to be relieved of being under suspicion was determined to nail him. The state police started their investigation.

The were coming up with nothing.  Naimovich was working with me at the time. Some time later Agent Ring would tell them they found the leak. It was a secretary in their office. They insisted however that the investigation against Naimovich continue. Surprisingly, without having a reason to do so, the state police followed the FBI dictates. Never had I heard of starting an investigation of a person for a specific crime, discovering the person did not do it, but continuing the investigation to find something the person may have done.

To make a very long involved story short, the FBI did a wiretap on one of Naimovich’s informants who was also a bookie. This was an extraordinary action. The FBI never did wiretaps on local bookies unless it was part of a greater operation. This was another  first.

Obviously Naimovich was intercepted talking to him when reaching out for an information. The FBI then arrested the informant. It pressed him for dirt on Naimovich which the informant said he didn’t have. The next day the informant was brought to Jeremiah O’Sullivan who told him he was going away for a long time, he would  lose all his assets, his wife and kids would be on the street, unless he gave them information on Naimovich.

A couple of days later the informant came up with a good story which when presented to a grand jury resulted in Naimovich’s indictment and arrest. With Naimovich out of action my investigation into these guys which very well could have led to Whitey (we were on the telephone of and had a bug in the office of Abe Sarkas a top organize crime figure) came to a screaming halt.

Connolly fits nicely into this being part of the unit that started the investigation of Naimovich. He would have known through his contacts with Whitey and Flemmi that Naimovich was not a leak. He kept quiet and even testified at Naimovich’s jury trial against him before Judge Joseph Tauro, the same judge he would stand trial before a dozen years later. Naimovich was acquitted of the substantive charges against him, not a frequent happening in federal court.

Later Flemmi would testified before Judge Mark Wolf that Naimovich was his informant. At that time Naimovich had passed away. Unfortunately Judge Wolf in his wisdom believed Flemmi’s falsehood. It would later be discovered when Weeks turned state’s evidence that the state cop giving Flemmi information was Dick Schneiderhan.

It is difficult not to conclude Ring, Connolly, and others in his unit, some of whom had received gifts from and dined with Whitey and Stevie, brought about this prosecution to protect those two men they knew as top-level gangsters who had murdered people. They would do that so that Whitey and Stevie would be saved some money and protected from being caught. They were indifferent to the fate of Naimovich who faced a trial where if convicted he could very well have spent double figures in a federal prison.

Connolly was at best indifferent to the peril facing Naimovich an innocent state trooper. Naimovich had done great work in going after gaming organizations. He worked undercover in one operation that ended with John Martorano going to jail. He lived a modest life and loved his work. A robust man turned into a shell of himself within a year or so after his acquittal. He refused to take a pension. He would die in his early fifties around two years after being put through this ordeal.

 

16 Comments

  1. Wa-llahi! Why celebrate washed-up old gangsters? Let them fade into the boneyard of forgetfulness. There’s much bigger fish to fry.

    Manafort hasn’t rolled on Glorious Leader. I wonder why? A presidential pardon won’t help him. Is Moscow holding his feet to the fire?

  2. John King McDonald

    Thankyou !

  3. Thanks JKM. I mean how else can one explain Connolly behavior? Everyone knows Bulger and Flemmi were some of the toughest and most dangerous psychopaths in history of New England organized crime. Yet who really knows how they behaved and treated folks they weren’t trying to kill or shake down or exploit.

    Its certainly conceivable that both Bulger and Flemmi psychologically and emotionally manipulated Connolly. They probably found weak spots in Connolly and exploited them. My 2 cents

  4. John King McDonald

    ” Just a thought.”

  5. John King McDonald

    ” We can only speculate but Bulger and Flemmi might be charismatic and engaging if they aren’t trying to shake you down or kill you. ”

    You Think ?!?

    One of the best lines ever written on this blog !!!

  6. Matt
    Interesting series. I was not aware of Connolly behavior after he retired. Could he be that he liked and enjoyed the company of Flemmi and Bulger. Despite who they are and what they did (and again we dont know what Connolly knew regarding murders) perhaps Connolly had an emotional investment in helping Bulger and Flemmi. We can only speculate but Bulger and Flemmi might be charismatic and engaging if they arent trying to shake you down or want to kill you. Just a thought.

    Again these are so many pieces to the puzzle and we dont know who did and said what 100% across the board. As you say Flemmi, Bulger, Weeks, Martorano etc are all liars so how can we know exactly what Connolly was up to when it comes to protecting them

  7. John King McDonald

    Ok … Just realized we’re winging it, here. That’s cool. Nice lady. Whatever.

    Lotta good stuff and some great insights.

    You are a Co-Intel asset.

    There is not anything wrong with that.

  8. Good for you, Matt, for presenting this as you see it, regardless of the anticipated push-back from your readers. Lord knows, that you and the Norfolk County DA were in the midst of it. Your first-hand knowledge is key.

    • They weren’t actually in the midst of anything Janet..that’s the problem. They were kept on the sidelines, like the kids on the bench, watching as the game went on without them. This has resulted in them having just enough knowledge to GUESS what might have happened, and the animus to present these guesses in a light most unfavorable to John. Yes, he might have more knowledge than you, but it’s still very incomplete, which necessitates these posts, which amount to little more than an educated guess.

  9. Great post, NC.

    Matt, don’t you see that as a private citizen writing his private opinions what your are doing to John Connolly is what the Staties and FEDs did to John Naimovich? Using flimsy associations and the words of co-erced criminals, composing fabrications, painting John Naimovich in the worst possible light, as the FED Prosecutors have used the compromised words of composing Serial Killers often obscenely lenient deals to frame another innocent cop, John Connolly, and to impugn the integrity of good men such as James Ring.

    You hurl mud as a private citizen, knowing better. The FEDs prosecuted and persecuted knowing better. You have a free speech right to write as you will, freely, and I too can freely criticize and state what I see are glaring errors. All citizens can write and speak freely… But when the FEDs use the most unsavory of characters, perjurious killers, to compose, that is when the Abuse of Power comes into play.

    The FEDs have in the past over the last few decades in Boston and DC that we know about egregiously abused their power in framing innocents (actions endorsed, greenlighted and likely initiated in DC) .

    The FEDs continue to abuse their power and We the People should not tolerate it for a second . . .

    The FED Prosecutors Javert-like wrongful Persecutorial Prosecutions of the Past must be righted. Justice demands it. The Perpetrators of Prosecutorial Persecutions must be duly prosecuted and punished.

    Sunlight is the best disinfectant. A free people speaking and writing freely, exposing the rot, is the best way to end this tyrannical reign of terrible prosecutorial and investigative abuses of power which has beset America these past several decades.

    • Bill C., you’re right, certain Fed (Javert-like) Prosecutors have and do abuse their power — just as some FBI agents, judges, DA’s, cops, et al do. Power (and money) corrupts some, but not all.
      Bulger stated that, “money is more addictive than narcotics.” Connolly, Morris, and a handful of others were hooked. It’s as simple as that.
      I’m all for seeing Connolly get out of prison. False charges. Orchestrated trial perhaps conducted by none other than Boston’s own Javert Wyshak.
      Bulger had nothing to do with the Wheeler/Callahan murders. Neither did Connolly. Their blood is on Martorano. And, where is Martorano? Oh, yeah — in a normal neighborhood living among hard working people who have no idea that a serial killer lives next door. Do you know who your neighbors are???

  10. Naimovich was clearly framed based on false testimony of an OC career criminal. Yet you seem to credit Weeks and Flemmi. two OC career criminals. Are they any more believable than the bookie against Naimovich? They are less credible. They have zero credibility. The State Police aided in the frame up. Only Lowell backed up Naimovich. Foley ran for cover. If O’Sullivan did as you said he was a dishonest prosecutor of the stripe that Wyshak, Comey and Mueller are. The most flagrant crime that Mueller encountered was the leaking of signals intelligence to the press. An Obama official released the phone conversation of the Russian envoy and Gen Flynn. Yet crooked Mueller indicts the victim and excuses the perpetrator. This is the same Mueller that framed Rico and Connolly. That created the lie about the Boston Marathon bombing as FBI Director and framed Sen. Stevens. Power corrupts. 2. Most quality defense attorneys don’t permit their client to testify at trial. In the fifty jury trials I had about 90% of the time the defendant did not testify. So suggesting there was something sinister about Connolly not talking is a specious argument. It is standard procedure.

  11. Matt, the Barrister of Barnstable

    I would not hesitate having you cover
    my back going into battle Matt

    It is obvious you loved Naimovich
    and your blog is partly a memorial
    to him.

    Getting punked by FBI agents is
    never a pleasant experience.
    Remember, you are still in the early
    rounds and have taken every round
    on the judge’s scorecards.

    You don’t need a knockout to win this
    fight.
    Go the distance.
    Your corner man Naimovich is talking to you.
    Listen to him.

  12. Your innuendos and smearing of Ring and Connolly in this case . . . .because of their “inaction” . . .is, let me write not harshly, is unworthy of your background and education . . . . .
    You do not know who decided to continue the investigation on Naimovich or why

    You seem to know exactly what Sullivan said to an informant

    If Sullivan squeezed and informant, terrified him into not just signing but composing . . . .terrified him by threats of long imprisonment, bankruptcy, into composing falsehood, that is PAR FOR THE COURSE for FEDs these days . . .it was what we are both railing against

    But on such nebulous clouds, such flimsy fibrils, do you connect John Connolly to this .. . .or even James Ring . . . .they were not in charge of who would be prosecuted . . .John Connolly was on the lowest rung of the FBI ladder up to and including the day he retired in 1990 .. . .Jim Ring did not call the shots of who would be investigated, or how, or who would be prosecuted or who . . .

    So, I’ll say this a person who generally admires your character and your life’s work, these smears of Connolly and Ring are beneath contempt . . .

    2. Again, please thoroughly read my and DB’s posts of yesterday . . . .No one, including no state official, knew of the murders Flemmi and Whitey were committing in the 1980s nor of the bodies they buried . . .it any DA in Massachusetts knew, they were under an affirmative duty to prosecute . . if anyone at the Globe knew, they were under an affirmative duty to report . . .none did, neither did the FBI back then . . . .it was not until after Weeks, Martorano, Salemme began to talk in late 1990s . . .about 1998 . . .that anyone KNEW . . .John Connolly retired in 1990 believing as everyone in the FBI and everyone in the DOJ and everyone in every DAs office in Massachusetts that Steve Flemmi and Whitey Bulger had not violated their TEI agreement: “No Murders, No Violence.”

    You say your wire taps may have gotten Whitey and Flemmi. For what? For violating Gambling Laws?

    If you put them away in State Prisons for a number of years or for the rest of their lives, would the entire New England Mafia still be in operation? Was the FBI, mainly through the work of John Connolly as Donny Brasco, Joe Pistone repeatedly said, on the verge of taking down the entire New England Mafia. And would your work, your good work, have impeded or prevented that effort all together?

    We can speculate until the cows come home.

    We should not needlessly assassinate men’s characters, especially on flimsy evidence and twisted logic.

    The fact that your friend Naimovich was wrongfully prosecuted does not give you license to impugn the integrity of others connected, even remotely connected to that prosecution. The fact that John Connolly and you, and John Connolly and your boss, Bill Delahunt, have clashed a few times over the years, explains in part your biases.

    I’m afraid you personal animus has clouded your vision.

    Otherwise, you are a good man, an intelligent man. Semper Fi, and have a good day.

  13. John King McDonald

    Jesus, you’ve got a strange way of playing Devil’s Advocate !!!