$3.1 Million Verdict Against the U.S. Government for FBI-Caused Murder of Informant John McIntyre

In the fall of 1984, John McIntyre, a 32-year-old fisherman from Quincy, Massachusetts, agreed to cooperate with federal authorities after the Customs Service seized a vessel he was connected to that was carrying illegal weapons to the IRA. He began providing information about drug smuggling operations tied to the Winter Hill Gang, the Boston organized crime outfit run by James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi.

The FBI had cultivated Bulger and Flemmi as informants for years, a relationship that agent John Connolly managed from within the Boston field office. When Connolly learned that someone from the weapons-smuggling operation had turned cooperator, he passed the information to his gang contacts. He never used McIntyre's name, but the details he shared narrowed the field to one person. Bulger and Flemmi knew exactly who it was.

On November 30, 1984, McIntyre was lured to a South Boston house on the pretense of a business opportunity. Once inside, Bulger confronted him about cooperating with authorities. Bulger attempted to strangle him, then shot him. McIntyre's body was buried at the site and remained hidden for fifteen years, until it was recovered in 2000 during the broader investigation into the FBI's relationship with the Winter Hill Gang.

McIntyre's estate brought suit against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act, arguing that the government bore responsibility for Connolly's betrayal. William Christie and Steven M. Gordon of Shaheen and Gordon, P.A. represented the family at trial. The central legal question was whether Connolly's disclosure, though unauthorized and criminal, fell within the scope of his employment. The district court found that it did: the FBI had for years tolerated and even facilitated Connolly's improper relationship with Bulger and Flemmi, and leaking informant information was consistent with how he performed his duties.

In September 2006, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts entered judgment for the McIntyre estate. Damages totaled approximately $3.1 million: $3 million for McIntyre's conscious suffering before death, $100,000 for his mother's loss of consortium, and $1,876 in funeral and burial expenses. The government appealed, but on October 16, 2008, the First Circuit affirmed the verdict in full. The appeals court agreed that Connolly's conduct fell within the scope of his employment because the deferential treatment the FBI extended to Bulger and Flemmi made the disclosure a foreseeable outgrowth of how the agency ran its informant program. The interest rate on the judgment was adjusted on appeal from 5.05 percent to 5.10 percent, the only modification the First Circuit made to the lower court's ruling.