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NOBODY has ever been killed in the US Witness Protection Programme – but some paid the ultimate price for breaking its golden rule.
Gerald Shur, who founded the scheme which has given new lives to murderers, mobsters, and terrorists in exchange for testimony, said: “The biggest rule is don’t go home.”
One mobster who ignored that advice was Daniel LaPolla – a witness who literally blew his cover by going home for a funeral.
His front door was boobytrapped with explosives.
“It blew up,” said Shur, who died last month aged 86. “In his face.”
The idea for the scheme, dubbed Witsec, came after Joe “The Animal” Barboza, a member of the New England mafia, ratted out boss Raymond “Il Patrone” Patriarca.
Barboza had a $300,000 bounty put on his head and agents hid him on an island off Massachusetts.
But the Mob found him and tried, unsuccessfully, to silence him with a boat full of dynamite.
They tried again when Barboza was due to give evidence, with several hitmen sent to the court.
One stole a police uniform to use as a disguise, but was caught.
Barboza’s evidence convicted Patriarca and other mob bosses.
But the threat to his life was so great, agents hid him in the only place they could guarantee his safety – Fort Knox.
Shur also dealt with Joe Valachi, who gave up dozens of associates.
“He showed no sign of remorse. He could discuss spaghetti sauce and the killing of a friend with the same lack of emotion,” Shur said.
Both cases taught Shur the value of keeping key insiders safe and he set up Witsec in 1971.
It has since protected more than 19,000 people, 95% of them crooks.
Shur said: “People involved with crime make the best witnesses, because they were there.”
It costs some £8million a year to run. But trials involving Witsec have an 89% success rate.
Once someone is accepted on to the programme, they are taken to a bomb-proof safe house in Washington DC, where their cover story is sorted out. But many criminals moaned they would be quicker sourcing their own false ID paperwork.
“They’d tell us they could buy a drive r ’ s licence or fake birth certificate in 24 hours,” Shur said. The safe house offers tips on staying safe as well as counselling on how to cope.
“You basically give up the right to your mother’s funeral,” said Shur, “Your past life is gone.”
Shur allowed them to keep their initials and, in some cases, their first names. Families were given an income of around £47,000 a year, but were expected to find work.
Specially trained US marshals helped them with employment, getting kids into schools and opening bank accounts. Despite this level of generosity,
s om e criminals were quick to abuse the system. Aladena “Jimmy the Weasel” Fratianno, asked for – and got – around £800,000 in expenses which paid for his wife’s facelift, breast implants and dental work.
Another mobster who had self-esteem issues was given cash for a penis enlargement.
Many went back to their old ways and Shur noticed, at one stage, a pattern emerging.
After being given a new identity in a new city, the criminal would use it to run up massive debts.
They would then call a hotline to say they had been spotted by an enemy – forcing a move elsewhere.
At one stage, a handful of them had run up over £5.5m in debts.
Other criminals missed the point of the scheme entirely – like former Mafia hitman John Patrick Tully. He admitted taking part in a series of killings and was arrested in 1974 in South America, where he was running a cocaine racket.
Tully co- operated with the government and nine members of a crime family were later jailed.
He was paroled in 1981 and entered Witsec, which moved him to Houston, Texas.
But he became frustrated as local laws thwarted his plans to become a hot-dog seller and ended up in Austin, changed his name to John Johnson and opened a hot-dog stand.
Tully then decided to run for mayor and revealed his true identity and criminal past at a press conference.
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Perhaps Witsec’s most controversial moment came with the relocation of Marion “Mad Dog” Pruett. After giving evidence in a prison killing, that he later suggested he had done, Mad Dog was given his new identity.
But two years later he reverted to type and killed four people during a spree of robberies. He was caught and executed by lethal injection in 1999.
More controversy came in the mid1990s when it emerged prisoners on the programme were living the highhe life behind bars. One, George E Taylor had lobsters, beef, crab, and brandy brought to his protected unit – all on government money.
Taylor said: “You could do anything you want. I’ve seen people get caught with a quarter pound of cocaine, bundles of heroin, weed – nothing happened to them.”
Shur ran Witsec for 25 years, but it came too close to home in 1991.
It came to light a Mexican cartel hitman had been paid £190,000 to abduct one of his relatives to get details on a target’s location.
Shur had to move to a hotel under a false name and his wife was assigned armed bodyguards.
He said: “Being relocated I would not wish on anyone. The only reason to do it was if it was your only hope to stay alive.”
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