Mobster's ex-girlfriend testifies in murder trial

updated 2:46 p.m. ET Oct. 16, 2008

MIAMI - A longtime girlfriend of fugitive mobster James "Whitey" Bulger testified Thursday in the murder trial of a former Boston FBI agent, describing a cross-country trip she and Bulger took days before he went on the lam in 1995.

Teresa Stanley, 67, said the couple was driving back to New England on Jan. 5, 1995, when they heard a radio news report about the arrest of Bulger's Winter Hill Gang partner, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, on federal racketeering charges.

Stanley said Bulger immediately turned their Mercury Grand Marquis around and drove to New York. A few weeks later, Stanley returned to the Boston area and Bulger went into hiding, eventually becoming an FBI "Ten Most Wanted" fugitive.

"Did you ever see Whitey Bulger again?" asked defense attorney Bruce Fleisher.

"Never," Stanley replied.

Ex-FBI agent John Connolly, 68, allegedly tipped off Bulger and Flemmi — his prized FBI informants for years — in late 1994 to the imminent racketeering indictment. Connolly is charged with conspiracy and murder for allegedly providing the two gangsters with information that led to the 1982 slaying in Miami of former World Jai-Alai president John Callahan.

The point of Stanley's testimony about the driving trip was to cast doubt about whether Connolly provided the tip about the Bulger/Flemmi indictment as other mob witnesses have claimed. And that might cast doubt on whether he had a role in Callahan's killing by a Winter Hill Gang hit man.

Living a double life
Stanley, who shared a home with Bulger for years, said she didn't find out until he fled that he had another longtime girlfriend who went with him.

"He lived a double life with me," Stanley said "He was never truthful. This was the whole relationship."

The December 1994 trip, she said, included stops in New York; Clearwater, Fla.; a week in New Orleans; Memphis, Tenn.; the Grand Canyon in Arizona; and finally San Francisco. A hotel bill signed by Bulger shows they left New Orleans on Jan. 2.

Prosecutor Fred Wyshak questioned how it was possible for Bulger and Stanley to make it to Arizona and California, then drive all the way back to Boston in time to hear the Jan. 5 radio report about Flemmi's arrest. He suggested that the driving trip actually occurred months before, in August.

"Are you sure as you sit here today where you went and when you went to these destinations?" Wyshak asked.

"I might have the sequence wrong, but I went to these places," Stanley replied. "They were quick stops. We didn't stay a long time."

Connolly faces life in prison if convicted of Callahan's killing. He is already serving a 10-year federal prison sentence for racketeering convictions stemming from his relationship with Bulger and Flemmi.

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