Florida prison officials are bracing for a bid for freedom by Boston’s most-infamous G-man.
John “Zip” Connolly — as first reported by the Herald — is said to be dying and is up for a medical release Wednesday at 10 a.m. before the Florida Commission on Offender Review. A simple majority vote by three commissioners is all that’s needed to make the ex-FBI agent a free man.
The vote is expected to be made on Wednesday.
A commission spokeswoman told the Herald Monday the hearing will be open to the public, but only via a telephone conference line. A dial-in number and passcode are posted on the commission’s website fcor.state.fl.us.
Emails supporting or opposing Connolly’s appeal are also being accepted.
Mary Callahan, whose husband John Callahan was murdered by James “Whitey” Bulger’s Winter Hill Gang in 1982 in Miami, said she’s crafting an email now. Connolly was implicated in that killing and was found guilty and sentenced to 40 years in a Florida jail for his part.
“I called two priests, one old and one young, to ask them what they’d do,” Mary Callahan told the Herald Monday. “They both said about the same thing. Ask your two children and decide together.”
Both Mary Callahan and Connolly are 80 years old. They will forever be linked to Bulger’s ruthless killing spree that included John Callahan, who was found dead in the trunk of a car parked in the Miami airport in 1982.
“If he’s going to die, come on. OK, I’m leaning in that direction. To let him come home,” said Mary Callahan of the disgraced agent. “But if it’s not true … there’s a lot more I need to think about.”
John Callahan, the former president of World Jai Alai, was shot dead by John Martorano, one of Bulger’s hitmen. Martorano testified he was working for Bulger when he killed Callahan, who was also a friend of his. Bulger wanted Callahan dead because the Boston businessman could implicate them in a 1981 slaying of another World Jai Alai executive.
Connolly was convicted of second-degree murder in 2008 for wearing his FBI-issued sidearm when he met with Bulger in Boston to warn him of what businessman John Callahan knew.
Connolly is now “terminally ill or medically incapacitated” and has been approved for a hearing on a “conditional medical release,” Florida officials said. His Cambridge lawyer Peter Mullane confirmed his client is close to death.
“He has multiple melanomas and pretty bad diabetes. Two serious illnesses,” Mullane said Friday.
The public can send letters of support to inmatesupporters@fcor.state.fl.us. Objections on behalf of a victim can be sent to victimsquestions@fcor.state.fl.us. Other correspondence regarding this case can be emailed to publicaffairs@fcor.state.fl.us.
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Florida braces for John ‘Zip’ Connolly’s bid for freedom - Boston Herald
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