Modern Crime: 12 Secrets of the Witness Protection Program

Developed by Justice Department employee Gerald Shur and beginning in 1971, the Federal Witness Protection Program—or Witness Security Program (WITSEC)—has provided safe harbor for over 18,000 federal witnesses and their families in exchange for damning testimony. It was WITSEC and the promise of a government-subsidized hiding place that convinced several “made” men of the mafia to turn their backs on organized crime and help prosecutors convict numerous leaders, from John Gotti to several members of the Lucchese family.

Protecting whistleblowers from the dangerous criminals they implicate doesn’t come cheap. By some estimates, the government spends upwards of $10 million annually [PDF] to keep the WITSEC program going. But witnesses with information so provocative their life is at risk make for strong cases: Trials involving WITSEC have an 89 percent conviction rate.

The U.S. Marshals assigned with forging new identities for these individuals are notoriously guarded and rarely speak on the record about program specifics. But that hasn’t stopped bits of information from leaking out. With author Pete Earley, Shur co-wrote a book, WITSEC: Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program, on his career; over the years, various WITSEC enlistees have spoken to media about the stress of assuming new identities. Here’s as much detail about the program you’re going to get without finding yourself in a considerable amount of trouble.

 1. THEY HAVE ORIENTATION.For years, WITSEC was plagued by a haphazard method of educating enrollees on what was required of them and what they might expect from being relocated and assigned a new name. In some cases, witnesses waited months for new birth certificates or social security numbers. To help streamline the process, the Marshals instituted a clearinghouse in 1988 for recent inductees in the Washington, D.C. area. The WITSEC Safesite and Orientation Center can house up to six families at a time; visitors are driven there in vehicles with blacked-out windows and locked in separate rooms to ensure they don’t see one another. If trouble happens to follow, the site can also withstand bomb blasts. Owing to the trauma of upending their lives, psychological counseling is available. Within two weeks, they’re shown video of their new location.

2. THEY’RE MOSTLY CRIMINALS.

The movie trope of an innocent man or woman caught up in criminal crossfire or as an unwilling party to illegal dealings is a rare event in the real world. Shur estimated that less than 5 percent of relocated witnesses are completely free of any wrongdoing; the vast majority are career hoods looking to be absolved of charges for their own activities and protected from retribution. Different sources put the recidivism rate for WITSEC members at anywherebetween 10 and 20 percent. In 1995, Portland police chief Michael Chitwood complained that Maine had become a “dumping ground” for criminals in the program: Local law enforcement is not informed when a criminal has been dropped off in their territory and often fear they can bring an entire network of illegal activity into an area.

3. THEY SOMETIMES KEEP THEIR FIRST NAME.

Shur—who ran the program for more than 25 years while employed by the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section in Washington and continued as a consultant after retirement—disclosed in WITSEC that relocated witnesses were not usually given totally unfamiliar new names. To help them acclimate to their new identity, Shur usually allowed them to keep the same first name and even their initials. In addition to reacting when someone addressed them, witnesses could also catch themselves signing their old name before it was too late. Children learning their new last names are sometimes told to practice writing it.

4. PARENTS ASK FOR BETTER GRADES FOR THEIR KIDS.

WITSEC is responsible for assigning new social security numbers, driver’s licenses, and birth certificates to qualifying witnesses and their families. If a witness has children, it means school records will need to be modified so educators can see grades from earlier enrollment. Initially, a Washington area school agreed to help by getting redacted records and transferring grades and teacher notes into a new file. While the program usually keeps the same marks, Shur recalled that some parents asked him to improve their children’s grades. He refused.

5. THEY USED TO GET GREAT PERKS—LIKE BREAST IMPLANTS.

In the 1970s and 1980s, WITSEC was having unprecedented success damaging the infrastructure of the mafia. Major players were testifying against bosses knowing they could start over somewhere else. Initially, the government was so keen on their continued participation—trials could go on for years—that they indulged some unnecessary expenses. Former mob hitman Aladena Fratianno requested (and got) the United States to pay for his wife’s breast implants, facelift, and dental work. Another had a psychologist backing his claim of poor self-esteem issues, and the government bought him a penile implant.

6. DIVORCED SPOUSES HAD KIDS HIDDEN FROM THEM.

In a landmark case that had far-reaching effects on WITSEC, Thomas Leonhard went public in the early 1970s with a story that was any parent’s worst nightmare. Because his ex-wife was married to a protected government witness, Leonhard (who had visitation rights) was not allowed to see their daughter on the grounds that her location and new identity would be compromised. When he filed for and was granted full custody, WITSEC officials still refused to disclose her location. The ensuing publicity led to an amendment in 1984 to WITSEC protocol that needs to take joint custody into account when relocating children—although ex-spouses still found it difficult to see their child via a circuitous airplane route under an alias. One father wondered whether he would ever be able to see his daughter’s graduation or wedding when she got older.

A non-program parent with visitation rights must now agree to have the child relocated. If they refuse and win full custody, the child will not be allowed to remain in their new identity.

Read the Remainder at Mental Floss

 

Weird History: 8 Times Historical Leaders Literally Threw their Opponents Out of the Window

In the histories of medieval governments, pre-20th century monarchies, and political assassinations, the tales with fancy weapons and torture instruments seem to get all of the attention. There were times, however, when a person’s two hands were all it took to bring down an opponent, and quite often spark an entire revolution. When rage or mob mentality took over, there was no time to wait for a guillotine or a noose: those who threatened someone’s chances at the throne or the religious tolerance of a nation got lobbed out of the nearest window. The Defenestrations of Prague (plural! These events happened twice!) weren’t the first occasions of public figures being killed or punished with a swift pitch, but they became the most notorious due to their drama factor and their ramifications (war in both cases). Their impact was so great that the word defenestration was coined to describe them. There are several other instances, though, that further shine a light on the practice of disposing of one’s enemy out a window.

1. AND 2. THE DEFENESTRATIONS OF PRAGUE // 1419 AND 1618

Revolution had been brewing in Prague among the Hussites leading up to 1419. The religious group had called for reform of the Catholic church and equality between church officials, nobility and peasants. On July 30, radical Hussites marched to the New Town Hall and demanded the release of Hussite prisoners, but when that demand was denied, a riot broke out. The group stormed the hall and threw seven city councilors out of a window to an armed crowd below. This act led to the Hussite Wars, which would last until 1436.

Religious turmoil led to the Second Defenestration of Prague as well. In 1618, Roman Catholic officials demanded Protestants (the ideological descendants of the Hussites) stop building churches on the land the Catholic church claimed to own. Protestants argued this violated theright of freedom of religion and met to try governors Vilém Slavata of Chlum and Košumberk and Jaroslav Bořita of Martinice on that charge. Both were found guilty and promptly tossed out of the window, but luckily both men landed on a pile of horse manure and survived. This helped spark the Thirty Years’ War, and also led to decades of debate—Catholics believed angels saved the lives of Slavata and Bořita. Protestants said it was probably the horse manure.

3. KING JAMES II OF SCOTLAND TOSSES THE 8TH EARL OF DOUGLAS // 1452

James II was just 6 when he ascended to the throne after his father, James I, was assassinated in 1437. Every noble family wanted to control young James in order to exert their power in Scotland, but none were more aggressive in their endeavors than the Douglas family. In 1440, James’s advisors organized a meeting with the Douglases, and murdered the 6th Earl of Douglas and his brother in what would become known as “The Black Dinner” (one of the real-life events that inspired Games of Thrones‘s Red Wedding). Twelve years later, suspicions still flew that the Douglas clan was conspiring to take the crown, and James heard rumblings of a pact between the 8th Earl of Douglas and other nobles that would threaten his rule. He invited the 8th Earl, William, to dinner, and—surprisingly, considering the track record of Stewart/Douglas dinners—William went. James brutally stabbed the Earl to death, and his guard helped him toss the lifeless body out of the window. As that didn’t do much to cover up the murder, a war between the Stewarts and Douglases—which James eventually won—ensued.

4. AN ANGRY PRO-MEDICI MOB THROWS PAZZI CONSPIRATORS OUT OF THE WINDOW // 1478

Leading up to 1478, the rich and powerful Pazzi family had decided they were not as rich and powerful as they wanted to be, and they never would be as long as the Medici family controlled Florence. Thus, the Pazzis plotted to kill the Medici princes, Lorenzo and Giuliano. On April 26, the group of assassins murdered Giuliano in front of a packed cathedral at mass. Lorenzo escaped with a non-fatal stab wound, and one of the Pazzi family’s elders, Jacopo, called for a revolt against the Medicis. A mob of Medici supporters grew in response to the murder and managed to capture several of the Pazzi conspirators in the Medici palace. Some were hanged and others were tossed out of the windows to the pro-Medici crowd below, who proceeded to rip their bodies to shreds. Violence against the Pazzis continued, and the family was forced to leave Florence until 1494, when the Medicis were finally overthrown.

Read about the Other 4 Incidents at Mental Floss

WW2 History: The Most Amazing Lie in History

How a chicken farmer, a pair of princesses, and 27 imaginary spies helped the Allies win World War II

This story originally appeared in the September 2014 issue of Mental Floss Magazine.

In the weeks leading up to D-day, Allied commanders had their best game faces on. “This operation is not being planned with any alternatives,” barked General Dwight D. Eisenhower. “This operation is planned as a victory, and that’s the way it’s going to be!” Indeed, more than 6,000 ships were ready to cruise across the English Channel to plant the first wave of two million troops on the white beaches of Normandy. Nearly 20,000 vehicles would crawl ashore as 13,000 planes dropped ­thousands of tons of explosives and thousands of paratroopers.

The sheer size of the invasion—it would be the largest in history—was staggering. But so were the stakes. With the first day’s casualty rate expected to reach 90 percent and the outcome of World War II hanging in the balance, the truth was that Eisenhower was riddled with doubt. He’d transformed into an anxious chimney, puffing four packs of cigarettes a day. Other Allied leaders felt equally unsure. “I see the tides running red with their blood,” Winston Churchill ­lamented. General George S. Patton privately complained of feeling “awfully restless.” Chief of the Imperial General Staff Alan Brooke was more blunt: “It won’t work,” he said. The day before the invasion, Eisenhower quietly penciled a note accepting blame in case he had to order retreat. When he watched the last of the 101st Airborne Division take off, the steely general started to cry.

They were worried for good reason. With so many troops and so much artillery swelling in England, it was impossible to keep the attack a secret. Hitler knew it was coming, and he’d been preparing a defense for months. Only one detail eluded him, and he was confident in a Nazi victory if he could figure it out—he needed to know where, exactly, the attack would happen. To make D-day a success, the Allies needed to keep him in the dark: They’d have to trick the Germans into thinking the real invasion was just a bluff, while making it seem like a major attack was imminent elsewhere. The task seemed impossible, but luckily, the British had a secret weapon: a short, young balding Spaniard. He was the king of con men, an amateur spy gone pro, the world’s sneakiest liar. He was also, of all things, a chicken farmer.

Read the Remainder at Mental Floss