John Callahan's widow reacts to Connolly appeal

Mike Beaudet
Producer Kevin Rothstein

Mary Callahan believes her husband would be alive today if not for corrupt FBI agent John Connolly.

“Absolutely,” she told FOX Undercover.

Callahan, now 74, hadn’t been told of Connolly’s successful appeal, released today, until told by FOX Undercover reporter Mike Beaudet.

“I am surprised,” she said. “I am happy for (the Connolly) family because they have a chance to have their dad back, but we don’t have a chance to have ours back.”

Mary thought her husband was going to Washington DC on business in 1982. Two days later, police showed up at her door telling her that her husband was dead.

Mary Callahan was the mother of two teenagers when her husband was gunned down in Florida in 1982. Winter Hill gangster John Martorano admitted to pulling the trigger, but Connolly was convicted in 2008 in Florida of helping set up the murder.

”I think that they’re going to find a way to keep him in prison because they know he’s guilty. He’s been convicted twice. Both state and federal,” she said.

Patrick Callahan, the son of Mary and John, is hopeful the former top FBI agent will stay in jail.

“Connolly getting out here is a technicality. I just hope that what is actually true and what is just will come out and the conviction will stand and he’ll stay in jail,” he said.

Connolly’s conviction was appealed 2-1 by a Florida appeals court based on an interpretation of how the statute of limitation applied in his case.

It’s not the first time the statute of limitations has interfered with the Callahan family’s pursuit of justice. Their civil suit against the government was thrown out because it was filed after the civil statute of limitations had expired.

Cox Media Group