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My husband was like a wild black stallion on a hill enjoying himself and strong and then when somebody captures him it breaks him put the saddle on him it's not the same horse.

I like them better. That's a black stallion.

That is Mary Callahan, age 80 talking about her late husband John Callahan murdered in July 1982 in Florida by the Winter Hill Gang. He was a business man and he thought the gangsters from Suburville and South Boston were his friends.

And some of them were but by 1981 most of them were either in jail or fugitives. By then the two guys running the mob were named Whitey Bulger and Stevie Flemmey. They were both serial killers.

Callahan still had dealings with them but he was becoming wary. How he winter had been the boss of the gang, how he and Callahan were buddies.

How he was doing a state sentence on an extortion rap. Callahan visited how he at his prison for some advice and how to deal with the new bosses of the Boston Underworld. This is how he winter.

I was up at Shirley and he came up to visit me and leave some money for me for a commissary.

He said he was doing fine and I told him I was to be careful. Those are dangerous guys out there and don't get too involved with him.

Although he didn't listen to me but at the time he listened to me. He was doing business with those guys. They had a finger in there somewhere along the line.

But that was heartbreaking to me. He was just a great guy during Callahan. Great guy.

It was the summer of 1982. The cops were trying to find Callahan. All of them, the FBI, the state police and Massachusetts and Connecticut.

There had been three murders in a little over a year, one in Oklahoma and two in Boston.

The killings involved a company Callahan had once run, World Highly.

Highly, a sport from the Basque region of Spain, somewhat like Squash, but instead of a racket, the players use handheld baskets to control the ball.

The game's attraction? You can bet on it. It was popular mostly in Florida. But there were also arenas in a handful of other states.

Callahan had been attempting to buy his old company World Highly, but people kept getting shot.

Which was why the police were looking for him. His wife Mary was at their home in suburban Winchester with their two teenage children, Kathleen and Patrick, waiting for her husband's daily calls.

John would call me every single night. He called us a Saturday night and he said he was going to Washington, DC.

Now he said I'm going to Washington. I could hear that he was upset. His voice wasn't right. And I said, oh, just to kid him a little bit, I said, oh is it Washington State or Washington, DC?

You know, and he said DC. Well, okay, now I know he doesn't want to joke. And I said, oh, okay, so we always let me know where he was and what he was doing.

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