The world of snitches is a murky one in the
US justice system. Law enforcement at both the federal and local
levels have wide discretion for dealing with informants. For providing information and participating
in stings, informants are granted reduced or lenient sentences, given payouts or sometimes
sent to witness protection. There are many that say using informants perverts
the criminal justice process, that criminals are incentivized to lie. Results have been wide ranging, tips from
informants have cracked notorious crime rings wide open. On the other hand, informants have lied helping
to wrongly convict or even cause death to innocent people. Here are some stories about criminals turned
informants that run the gauntlet from crazy to tragic. During the first half of the 20th century,
the American mafia thrived mainly due to their code of omerta and their ability to successfully
bribe various officials. Much of the secrecy came to an end when Joseph
Valachi, a small time New York gangster spilled the beans. Over several years Joe worked as a getaway
driver, enforcer and hitman for various criminal enterprises including the Lucchese and Luciano
crime families. In 1959, Joe went to prison for heroin trafficking. In 1962, suspecting Joe of being a rat, a
fellow prisoner who was a Genovese crime boss put out a hit on him, promising a $100,000
bounty. Scared, Joe beat his alleged assassin to death
with a length of pipe--but he had the wrong inmate. Still incarcerated and a sitting duck, as
well now looking at a life sentence for murder, a desperate Joe turned state’s evidence. Per an agreement with the government, Joe
pled guilty to a charge of second-degree manslaughter and began working with the US Department of
Justice. Eventually, in 1963 Joe testified before the
Senate Government Operations Permanent subcommittee and explained the structure, history and inner
workings of the Mafia. The hearings were broadcast live on TV. The mafia was an open secret in Italian American
communities, but now for the first time ever the federal government and the public had
irrefutable evidence that American Mafia existed. Joe’s testimony helped indict hundreds of
mobsters and helped to change the culture of the mafia, cracking the code of silence
wide open. Over time other mobsters also began flipping. For his pains, Joe was sent to a Federal Correctional
Institution, La Tuna, a low security prison near El Paso, Texas. There he served his sentence in air-conditioned
prison suite, until he died of a heart attack in 1971. Joe definitely wasn’t the only mobster to
become a snitch. Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano rose to
become an underboss in the Gambino crime family and then blabbed about it. Among other illegal deeds such as extortion
and fraud, Sammy was involved in 19 murders. On December 11, 1990, during a raid FBI agents
and NYPD detectives arrested Sammy, John Gotti and Frank Locascio, Gotti’s right hand man. Sammy was charged with racketeering while
Gotti and Frank among other things were charged with 5 murders, bribery and tax evasion. Ultimately, during Gotti’s trial, Sammy
ended up testifying for the prosecution, implicating Gotti and many other high ranking mafiosos. His testimony created a domino effect and
many other mobsters came forward to corroborate his words. Gotti and Locascio were sentenced to life
imprisonment without the possibility of parole and a $250,000 fine. In the end, over 35 mobsters were convicted
and imprisoned, including high ranking members of the Gambino, Colombo, DeCalvacante, and
Lucchese families. In light of his confessions and testimony
on the witness stand, Sammy received a sweetheart 5 year sentence. Some claim that Sammy didn’t snitch in hopes
of leniency; he just really wanted to take Gotti down a few pegs. Apparently during a pretrial hearing wiretaps
from the FBI were played including a section where Gotti badmouthed Sammy and he got offended. As Sammy had already served 4 years in prison
during the trials, he ended up serving less than a year after being sentenced. After Sammy got out, he went into the U.S.
federal Witness Protection Program. He assumed the name Jimmy Moran and was sent
to Tempe, Arizona where he started a swimming pool installation company. Chafing under the restrictions of Witness
Protection, less than a year later Sammy left the program. Sammy started using his real name and began
living openly. He gave interviews to the media--even consulting
on a biography being writing about him. But soon Sammy fell into his old ways and
started an ecstasy trafficking organization. In 2000, the drug ring was busted-Sammy and
47 other ring members were arrested on federal and state drug charges. On September 7, 2002, Sammy was sentenced
in New York to 20 years in federal prison, to run concurrently with a 19-year Arizona
sentence. After 17.5 years behind bars, much of it spent
in solitary confinement, Sammy was released on September 18, 2017. He remains on federal parole. The actions of this next informant set off
a chain of events which had long term repercussions for the Atlanta police department. In November of 2006, a small time drug dealer
Fabian Sheats was busted by a narcotics teams from the Atlanta PD. Fabian had been arrested twice before in the
last 4 months for selling drugs in the same spot in a crime ridden neighborhood in northwest
Atlanta, Depending on whom you ask, his 3rd arrest
was a sham, the drugs were allegedly planted by the police. Either way, Fabian was pressured by the police
to provide information. Fabian pointed out a nearby modest house on
Neal Street as a place where he had purchased cocaine. Fabian wasn’t officially a confidential
informant and his tip was sketchy so the police fabricated details on the affidavit to get
a judge to sign off on a “no-knock” warrant. On the dark evening of November 21, 2006,
8 plainclothes officers from the narcotics team broke down the front door to raid the
house. The lone resident 92 year old Kathryn Johnston
was terrified and fired an old pistol her family had given her for protection. The cops fired back 39 shots, fatally wounding
her. No cop was injured by Kathryn, although officers
sustained injuries from friendly fire. The cops handcuffed Kathryn as she lay dying
on the floor. They planted marijuana in the house when they
could find no evidence of a drug operation. The police also got an informant Alex White
to lie and say he had purchased cocaine at Kathryn’s house. Alex, who had been a confidential informant
for several different law enforcement agencies on and off for years, had federal contacts. When he realized that Atlanta PD were dirtying
Kathryn to justify the raid, he alerted the ATF and shortly therefore appeared on WAGA
Channel 5, Atlanta’s Fox affiliate to tell his story. With Alex’s help, the tireless urging of
the Johnston family and a public concerned about unnecessary police violence during raids,
investigators slowly unraveled the scheme. Ultimately, a federal probe of the Atlanta
police department revealed a culture of corruption. Atlanta PD often lied to obtain search warrants,
including falsifying affidavits. In 2009, three former police officers from
the narcotics team went to prison for manslaughter and other charges surrounding falsification
for their roles in the raid. Among other changes, new regulations were
instituted at the Atlanta PD, a civilian review board was created and Georgia state senate
voted to tighten warrant requirements. The family of Kathryn Johnston successfully
sued the city of Atlanta with wrongful death lawsuit and won $4.9 million. Sadly, this is not the only informant operation
where authorities abused their power. During a traffic stop on February 22, 2007,
Florida police busted 23 year old college student Rachel Hoffman for .9 oz of cannabis
(25 g). Rachel was ordered to a court supervised drug
program. A year later she failed a mandatory drug test
and on April 17, 2008 an anonymous tip complaining about pot smoking neighbors led to police
finding 5.328 oz (151.7 grams) of cannabis, and 4 ecstasy pills in her apartment. About a week later Rachel graduated from Florida
State University with a degree in Criminal Justice and Psychology. Facing several years in prison, Rachel agreed
to be a confidential informant and buy 1,500 ecstasy pills, 2 ounces of cocaine, and a
handgun in a buy–bust operation. By all accounts, though Rachel struggled with
drugs, she was not involved in a criminal or dangerous lifestyle and was ill prepared
for the sting. The operation went badly, and Rachel was killed
by the suspects with the gun she was suppose to buy. Eventually the police who oversaw the operation
were found to be negligent, leading to Rachel’s death. They were suspended with pay. The 2 suspects in Rachel’s murder received
life sentences in prison. In 2009 the state of Florida passed Rachel’s
Law, which provides rules in how law enforcement in Florida use informants. Rachel’s family also successfully sued the
city of Tallahassee with a wrongful death lawsuit and won $2.6 million. On June 7, 2011, in his lower East Side apartment
Hector Monsegur was arrested by the FBI for trafficking stolen credit-card information. However, the arrest was simply the FBI’s
opening gambit, what they really wanted was to interrogate Hector about his illegal online
activities as the notorious hacker Sabu who co-founded the black hat computer hacking
group LulzSec. Worried about his younger cousins whom he
was the legal guardian of, Hector agreed to cooperate with the FBI as they investigated
various hacker groups. These groups included Lulzsec which was responsible
for several audacious attacks, including hacking Fox.com and compromising user accounts from
Sony Pictures. A few days after his arrest, Hector entered
a guilty plea to 12 criminal charges, including multiple counts of conspiracy to engage in
computer hacking. He faced up to 124 years in prison. For the next 10 months, Hector aka Sabu was
a double agent, continuing to maintain his online persona while providing the FBI with
information to aid in identifying hackers. Due to Hector’s help, the FBI was able to
arrest 5 hackers associated with the group Anonymous, LulzSec and Antisec. Tips from Hector also aided UK authorities
in arresting hackers. On March 6, 2012, the FBI announced the arrests
and unnamed law enforcement officials outed Hector as an informant. Hector was immediately reviled online and
in real life harassed by paparazzi. The FBI relocated him. However, in May of 2012, the FBI caught wind
of a blog Hector was writing about them. Hector’s bail was revoked, and he was sent
to the New York Metropolitan Correctional Center, where he remained for 7 months. When Hector was released, he was forbidden
to use a computer. Finally Hector was sentenced on May 27, 2014;
he was given "time served" for his cooperation with the FBI and received one year of probation
with his computer usage being monitored. Once the year was up, Hector tried getting
a job in cybersecurity, but initially his criminal record and notorious reputation made
companies reluctant to give him a chance. Finally he was able to find employment with
a company deploying white hat hackers to test client networks. Our final tale of a snitch is about a man
who unleashed a scandal that’s still reverberating through the American educational system. In 2018, police raided Morrie Tobins multi-million
dollar home looking for evidence that he was the ringleader of a pump and dump security
fraud scam that had defrauded investors of millions of dollars. Facing a maximum 65 year prison sentence and
a 7 figure fine, in hopes of leniency, Tobin gave investigators a tip alerting them to
a crazy fraud racket that hadn’t been on the authorities’ radar at all. Morrie told the feds that the head women’s
soccer coach at Yale had sought a bribe in return for getting his daughter into the Ivy
League school. To help corroborate his claim, Morrie ended
up wearing a wire and meeting with Yale soccer coach Rudy Meredith in a Boston hotel. During the meeting Rudy promised he could
designate Morrie’s daughter as a recruit for the team in exchange for $450,000. Caught on a recording, Rudy agreed to cooperate
with the feds and eventually led them to Rick Singer, a college consultant and ringleader
of the admission bribery scheme. Thus began Operation Varsity Blues. In the spring of 2019, 51 people were charged
in a conspiracy to illegally influence undergraduate admissions decisions at several top US universities
through cheating on admissions exams and faking athetic profiles. Among the 33 parents charged were Hollywood
actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughton. Felicity pled guilty and received a 14 day
sentence, a one year supervised release, a $30,000 fine and 250 hours of community service. The cases of Lori and several other conspirators
are still pending and the investigation continues. Morrie pled guilty to conspiracy and securities
fraud, but received no charges in the college admission scheme. Currently he’s subject to a $4 million dollar
forfeiture and his sentencing is still pending. Do you think criminal informants should be
paid for their tips? Tell us in the comments! Now go watch “What ACTUALLY Happens in Witness
Protection!” Thanks for watching, and don’t forget to
like, share, and subscribe. See you next time!
