John “Zip” Connolly is coming home, a widow tells the Herald.
Mary Callahan, whose husband was killed by mobster James “Whitey” Bulger’s gang in a case linked to Connolly, said her daughter and son have been told by Florida prison officials that Connolly is headed back to Massachusetts. She missed that first call, she added.
The Florida Commission on Offender Review — that voted 2-1 in February to grant the disgraced FBI agent a medical release from jail — said Monday “the location of the offender in question is protected.” They did confirm a victim’s advocate has been in contact with the widow throughout this case.
Bulger was Connolly’s informant until the G-man was indicted in 1999 for tipping off Bulger that the feds were on his tail.
“It must be great to get back to where you started,” Callahan told the Herald Monday night. “I wish my husband could come back to where he once was.”
Connolly’s local lawyer Peter Mullane could not be reached for comment Monday night.
An official with the Florida commission said Connolly, 81, must adhere to the same conditions of his release issued this past winter that force him to be confined to his home unless he is seeking medical assistance.
“He’s not free. He’s house-bound,” Callahan, 80, added. “I think we have a right to know, though, that he can’t get in touch with us.”
Florida prison officials say Connolly has multiple melanomas and diabetes. A commission member read into the record in February that he has about a year to live. Updates on his condition were not divulged.
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. Bulger was murdered in a West Virginia prison in 2018.
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.
Martorano is also a free man and in Florida. He cut a deal to testify against Connolly, Bulger and Stevie Flemmi, another member of the Winter Hill Gang who remains in an undisclosed federal prison.
Callahan said she marked another solemn wedding anniversary in late January, alone, and now must live with the knowledge Connolly is coming back to the Bay State.
