F.B.I. AGENT LINKED TO MOB IS GUILTY OF CORRUPTION

BOSTON, May 28 - John J. Connolly Jr., a decorated Federal Bureau of
Investigation agent famed for bringing the bureau underworld informers, was
convicted by a federal jury today of racketeering and obstruction of
justice for secretly aiding organized crime leaders.

But the jury found Mr. Connolly, 61, not guilty of the most serious charges
against him, including providing information that led to the murders of
three men and helping to cover up the acquisition by extortion at gunpoint
of a liquor business from a young South Boston couple.

After the verdict was read, Michael Sullivan, the United States attorney,
said that Mr. Connolly's conduct was "appalling" and that "unfortunately,
as the evidence showed, John Connolly was not alone" in being corrupted.
His former F.B.I. supervisor, John Morris, admitted on the witness stand
that he himself had taken $7,000 from two leaders of the Winter Hill Gang,
James (Whitey) Bulger and Stephen (the Rifleman) Flemmi, and in exchange
had provided them with confidential information in the 1980's.

"John Connolly became a Winter Hill gang operative masquerading as an
F.B.I. agent," Mr. Sullivan said.

Under Mr. Bulger's leadership, and with help from the F.B.I., which knocked
out the main Mafia organization in Boston, the Angiulo family, the Winter
Hill Gang became the city's dominant underworld group in the 1980's. The
gang gained control of much of Boston's loan-sharking, gambling and drug
business.

Mr. Connolly, who retired from the F.B.I. in 1990, faces 10 to 15 years in
prison. Judge Joseph L. Tauro set sentencing for Aug. 7. Until then, Mr.
Connolly remains free on bail.

Mr. Connolly, who once carefully cultivated contacts with the news media,
left the courtroom expressionless, saying only, "No comment." His lawyer,
Tracy Miner, said, "We are obviously happy that the most serious charges
were not proven."

As for why the jury found Mr. Connolly guilty of some charges but not
guilty of others that were nearly identical with similar testimony against
him, Ms. Miner said, "It feels as if they are inconsistent verdicts."

But the jury did find Mr. Connolly guilty of the central charge against
him, of racketeering.

A parade of convicted criminals testified that Mr. Connolly's association
with Mr. Bulger began as early as 1975, when Mr. Bulger's younger brother,
William Bulger, the president of the Massachusetts Senate, asked Mr.
Connolly to "keep my brother out of trouble."

Mr. Bulger, who is on the F.B.I.'s 10 most-wanted list, fled in 1994 after
a tip from Mr. Connolly, witnesses testified. Mr. Flemmi is serving a
prison term on charges growing out of the same evidence used against Mr.
Connolly.

The jury found Mr. Connolly not guilty of receiving a series of bribes from
Mr. Bulger and Mr. Flemmi, though he was found guilty of taking $1,000 and
a case of fine wine from Mr. Bulger and giving it to his F.B.I. supervisor,
Mr. Morris, in 1984.

The jury also found that the government had failed to prove that in three
cases Mr. Connolly tipped off Mr. Bulger about what other informers were
telling the F.B.I. about his criminal activities, information that the
government said led Mr. Bulger to have them killed.

But the jury did find Mr. Connolly guilty of alerting Mr. Bulger and Mr.
Flemmi about a secret grand jury indictment against them in 1994 before it
became public, enabling Mr. Bulger to flee. There is a $1 million reward
for Mr. Bulger's capture.

The jury also found Mr. Connolly guilty of obstruction of justice in
sending an anonymous false letter to Judge Mark Wolf during the 1998 trial
of Mr. Flemmi in an effort to have the charges against Mr. Flemmi thrown out.

Testimony at the two-week trial showed that Mr. Bulger had benefited from
his close ties to Mr. Connolly, sometimes providing the F.B.I. information
about rival gangsters that enabled the authorities to knock out their
operations, and at other times being tipped off by Mr. Connolly to Boston
and Massachusetts police investigations against his gang.

These law enforcement agencies began to suspect that Mr. Bulger had an ally
in the F.B.I. when wiretap operations against him always failed, and bad
relations developed between the F.B.I.'s Boston office and virtually all
other law enforcement agencies here.