Witsec Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program - by Pete Earley (Paperback)

About the Book

Written by the founder of the Federal Witness Protection Program, this riveting book is an insider's view of the controversial crime-fighting program that provides new identities for federal witnesses.

Book Synopsis

The "fascinating" (The Washington Post) true story behind the foundation of the Federal Witness Protection Program and the mob informants, killers, white-collar con men, and ordinary people caught up in a life-and-death game of deception in the name of justice

"By turns hilarious and horrifying . . . a lively and unusual glimpse inside an operation obsessed with secrecy."--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

IN DEVELOPMENT AS AN HBO STREAMING SERIES

For decades no law enforcement program has been as cloaked in controversy and mystery as the Federal Witness Protection Program. Now, Gerald Shur, the man credited with the creation of WITSEC, teams with acclaimed investigative journalist Pete Earley to share the explosive inside story.

When the government was losing the war on organized crime in the early 1960s, Shur, then a young attorney in the Justice Department's Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, urged the department to entice mobsters into breaking their code of silence with promises of protection and relocation. But as high-ranking mob figures came into the program, Shur discovered that keeping his witnesses alive in the face of death threats involved far more than eradicating old identities and creating new ones. And he also discovered that all too often a protected witness would fall back into a life of crime.

A powerful true story of the inner workings of one of the most effective and controversial weapons in the war against organized crime--and the inner workings of organized crime itself--Witsec is a you-are-there account of infamous witnesses, from "Sammy the Bull" Gravano to Joseph Valachi to "Fat Vinnie" Teresa, that takes us into a tense, dangerous twilight world carefully hidden in plain sight: where the family living next door might not be who they say they are. . . .

Review Quotes

"The best book written so far on the fascinating and shadowy world of federal witnesses."--Nelson DeMille

"Fascinating . . . by turns hilarious and horrifying . . . a lively and unusual glimpse inside an operation obsessed with secrecy."--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Riveting . . . powerful . . . a movie in just about every chapter."--The Indianapolis Star

"Fascinating . . . a welcome addition to the literature on organized crime."--The Washington Post

"Eye-opening . . . a fast-paced, exciting text that rings with the authenticity to which other crime books aspire."--Kirkus Reviews

"A thoughtful, well-reasoned assessment of [the WITSEC program]."--The New York Post

"Plenty of drama and action to satisfy true-crime fans."--Publishers Weekly

"The story of a program that has changed the face of the modern American justice system, WITSEC is a compelling history of the program and of Shur's role in it."--BookPage

"A fascinating story of a controversial and mysterious part of our justice system."--Book Magazine

"For all true-crime collections."--Library Journal

About the Author

Formerly a reporter for The Washington Post, Pete Earley is the author of Family of Spies: Inside the John Walker Spy Ring and Circumstantial Evidence: Death, Life, and Justice in a Southern Town, winner of the Edgar Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award.

Gerald Shur was the founder and longtime head of WITSEC. He passed away in 2020.