James "Whitey" Bulger, pulled out the victim's tongue and teeth and then tried to strangle the gun-runner, John McIntyre, with a ship's rope.The FBI man's complicity in this particular murder has never been proved but his betrayal of his badge – proved in two other cases – is one of the most shameful episodes in the agency's history. The macabre incident, worthy of a scene fromThe Sopranos, has nonetheless drawn attention to an extraordinary double standard in which the FBI allowed a notorious Irish-American gang to commit murder and mayhem in Boston for more than a decade, in return for information that would eventually break the back of the Mafia.Connolly's career would eventually inspire Martin Scorsese's 2006 movie, The Departed, in which the loyalties of an undercover agent become hopelessly compromised. The movie, like his career, is set in south Boston where the federal law enforcement agency is waging war on Irish-American organised crime. Connolly's character is played by Matt Damon.The long arm of the law has finally caught up with Connolly, now aged 68. He was convicted last month of a 1982 murder and has been called to court for sentencing. A decision is likely within weeks. In dramatic courtroom scenes this week, he angrily shouted out his innocence. His many supporters maintain that the FBI is at fault for encouraging him to turn a blind eye to crimes throughout the 1980s.

Connolly could get up to life in prison when he is sentenced later Thursday. Prosecutors want the maximum while defense attorneys are asking for a term as short as 12 years. Former FBI agent John Connolly is looking at hard time in a Florida prison for the mob-related 1982 slaying of a Miami gambling executive.The 68-year-old Connolly was convicted last month of second-degree murder in the 1982 shooting death of jai-alai executive John Callahan.Prosecutors said Callahan was slain after Connolly told Boston mobsters that Callahan might implicate them in another murder.
Connolly was convicted by a federal jury in 2002 of racketeering and sentenced to 10 years for his corrupt relationships with chieftains of Boston's notorious Winter Hill Gang.