Henry Hill, an American mobster who was associated with the Lucchese crime family of New York City, was played by Ray Liotta in the film Goodfellas. In the film, he describes life inside the Witness Protection Program (WITSEC):
“Today, everything is different. There’s no action. I have to wait around like everyone else. Can’t even get decent food. Right after I got here, I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce, and I got egg noodles and ketchup. I’m an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.”
WITSEC was created in 1970 as part of the Organized Crime Control Act. It is a very secretive institution that’s designed that way to ensure maximum security for all witnesses.
Read on and learn how it works.
1. Some sex offenders get a free pass
The inspector general even said that the agency had not “taken sufficient steps to mitigate the threat posed by program participants, including sex offenders, who commit crimes after being terminated from the program.”
2. Mob informants made money
Jimmy “The Weasel” Fratianno was the head of an LA crime syndicate. After he was arrested in 1977 and in 1978, Fratianno turned informant.
“The Weasel” was paid nearly one million dollars over the next 10 years for expenses including food, housing, health care, and even his wife’s plastic surgery.
Today, the program limits expenses for informants.
3. The program is a family affair
Lives are in jeopardy if they don’t go along with the person being protected. And if they do, then they leave their whole world behind.
Secure mail-forwarding channels and phones allow family members to contact each other, but witnesses who receive mail are required to turn it over to US marshals after reading it.
In other words, life changes for the whole family in just about every way.
4. Witnesses usually keep their first names
Witnesses who join the program get to choose a new name, but they are advised to keep their first names or initials for an easier transition.
The courts will change their names legally before sealing the records, and family members involved go through the same process.
5. Witnesses can dodge their bad credit
If you enter WITSEC, you obviously don’t have to worry about old debts. But the feds won’t create a good fake credit history for you either.
That leaves some people in a bind if they want to secure a loan or other line of credit since they can’t use their good credit history anymore either.
6. Lack of paperwork is a major headache
It wasn’t always smooth sailing for the program, especially when it first started. US Marshals would often fail to provide important documents for family members.
For example, there was one woman who was never given a birth certificate when her family entered WITSEC. She couldn’t join her school softball team or even the girl scout troop as a result.
Then she had difficulty enrolling in college and even getting married.
7. Breaking the rules can get a witness kicked out
“Goodfellas” mobster Henry Hill broke some rules when he entered the program in 1980, and even revealed his true identity to his guests when he got high on drugs and liquor during a backyard barbecue.
He was relocated once again but Hill was eventually kicked out of the program in the early ’90s after committing several offenses.
8. Witnesses have a say in new locations, sort of
During the early years, WITSEC creator Gerald Shur would ask witnesses what their top 3 locations were. But he would then rule those places out knowing full well the witnesses probably had some ties to the place to begin with from their old life.
U.S. Marshals list possible places and families can give their insights and preferences. The chosen location is only revealed to a few people inside to maintain security.
9. A maximum of 4 people will know your location
WITSEC employs around 3,500 individuals, but details of assignments are only given to those directly involved. It’s all on a “need-to-know basis” for obvious security reasons.
Only around four out of the 3,500 will know the identities and whereabouts of informants and their families.
10. Costs differ for each witness
Gerald Shur explained the way finances work: “The program has nothing to do with reward money, nothing. They get money for a period of time, and then it stops. We used a formula. If you are a family of four in New York, you would get more money than a family of four from Corpus Christi. It’s based on cost of living, and it wasn’t based on the value of the testimony.”
It’s not exactly a program that can be milked by anyone.
11. Witnesses get cash for a limited time
Witnesses are immediately taken to their new locations after testifying, and until a suitable home is found, they stay in hotels.
Witnesses also receive money for all their basic needs, including a monthly stipend so long as they try to seek employment. Finding a job can be difficult since the program does not fabricate resumes.
The money stops when the witness lands a job.
12. Witnesses leave everything behind
Witnesses may get a surprise visit from the feds, during which they get time to decide whether or not they really want to join the program.
Then there are times that they need to leave immediately for their own safety.
One witness formerly known as Rae Devera could only take seven suitcases with her. Anything that could link her to her previous identity had to be left behind.
13. Leaving could mean death
Staying under the program’s protection virtually guarantees a witness and family’s safety (if they follow the rules completely), but the risks when leaving are all too real.
Take the example of Brenda Paz. She was found stabbed to death after 2 days when she returned home from the program. Her body washed up on a Virginia riverbank.
Others tempt fate and find themselves on the wrong side of the law. Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano helped convict John Gotti but when he left and started an ecstasy ring, he was arrested and given 20 years.
14. WITSEC has protected thousands
Since 1971, WITSEC has protected over 18,000 witnesses. Staying with the program and following their rules ensures maximum safety and their records are proof of that.
David Harlow, the acting director for the US Marshalls, says it’s because “[no] one knows what [they] do to protect witnesses.”
It’s a different story for those who choose to leave.
15. It started with the Mafia
The Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 was signed by President Richard Nixon, primarily for dealing with the Italian mafia.
It was designed so that informants could help take down the mob without fearing for their own or their family’s lives.
Everything from dealing with perjury, resistance, protection, and self-incrimination were included in the document.
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