The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Witness Protection Program" ...
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The Price of Protection
The first in-depth report about a troubled and secretive civil-commitment program for dangerous sex offenders in Washington state. It revealed waste of taxpayer money, unconstrained legal costs, profiteering by expert witnesses, and chronic problems with staff at the high-security facility for the offenders.
Tags: Sex offenders; taxes; taxpayers; facility staff
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Snitch
"Snitch" told the story of a terrified grandmother from a housing project who witnessed a murder and reporter it anonymously, only to be coerced into testifying in court and then forced into a witness relocation program. The story also revealed the strong-arm tactics of a crime-laden city's homicide unite and district attorney's office which failed to provide accommodations for the relocated witness's pet dog, who was eventually euthanized. The story also described the realities of living in San Francisco's worst housing project, where murder is common and named witnesses are almost unheard of.
Tags: murder; witness; coercion; witness protection program; legal system
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Dying to Testify
This investigation revealed that at least 16 witnesses and associates have been murdered since Colorado created a witness protection program. The state spends only about $40,000 a year to protect all of the witnesses statewide. Many prosecutors and witnesses did not even know about the program.
Tags: crime; witnesses; state government; justice system; death threat; courts
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A Royal Fall: When Eagan-based Royal Conservatories hit financial trouble, the owners pinned their hopes on a man they thought was a seasoned executive. But his resume - and even his name - turned out to be a lie.
Moore explains how ex-convict Charles Suntheimer, a.k.a. Charles Schuler, brought the small company he was hired to turn around to bankruptcy. Among other lies, Suntheimer told his employers at Royal Conservatories that he was a medical doctor with an additional PhD from Harvard, and a participant in the FBI's witness protection program. "The company had hired Schuler even though few of his references checked out." Royal Conservatories fired him in May 2000 after his background was revealed, but it was too late to revive the company. When the company filed for bankruptcy in October 2000, it had $42,503 in assets and $1.5 million in liabilities. The story of the company's demise illustrates how "hiring an unknown quantity can prove to be fatal -- especially for a struggling small business where internal controls are lax and the need to resuscitate the company immediate."
Tags: business fraud; Charles Suntheimer; Association of Certified Fraud Examiners; Royal Conservatories
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Tax-sale tactics get hard look
"This story revealed how a former drug accountant for the Medellin Cartel, who had gone into the witness-protection program, was using money-laundering tactics to swindle poor homeowners out of their properties."
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Tax-sale tactics get a hard look; Tax-sale buyer's tactics scrutinized; Witness protection inquiry possible; Records, interviews reflect Davis' posh past; Behind on their taxes, these homeowners crossed paths with Davis; Tale of four properties; Tax-sale law with bigger payoffs may be a 'monster;' State says D.M, businessman disguised loans as home sales; Man monitored client of Davis, was convicted
The Des Moines Register investigates slum lord Josh Davis, a former drug accountant for the Medellin Cartel who had gone into the witness-protection program. After Davis moved from California to Iowa, he began buying properties through tax sales. "He turned some properties into slum housing and found ways to take other properties he couldn't obtain through tax-delinquent liens... He,,, played cat and mouse games to keep city officials from closing properties with major code violations, intimidated or tricked people into signing over their homes and rented out dozens of improperly seized properties to make money."
Tags: Josh Davis; Medellin Cartel; drugs; witness-protection program; money; slum lords; housing; Iowa; California
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The Mob and the FBI
"This submission consists of 10 stories selected from the Herald's ongoing coverage and investigation into the corrupt relationship between fugitive gangster James J. 'Whitey' Bulger and law enforcement in Massachusetts, primarily the FBI. The selections begin with (the) exclusive report that it was Bulger's top associate, Kevin Weeks, who led investigators to a mob burial ground." Following reports show a connection between "an FBI agent's financial dealings with Bulger and his associates, and two agents' alleged involvement with Bulger in gangland murders."
Tags: MOB; murders; FBI; Nova Scotia state police; corruption; grand jury witnesses; real estate deals; undercover agents; Federal Witness Protection Program; informants; Winter Hill Gang; bookie
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"Mobster reveals life in Valley" and "Crime ring witnesses being killed"
The Arizona Republic reports "two stories on organized crime. The first involves Mafia enforcer Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, who had moved to Arizona and launched a secret life. The second story is about a Mexican Mafia syndicate headed by the Cisneros brothers, who escaped prosecution due to the murders of government witnesses."
Tags: FOIA; Department of Motor Vehicles; DMV; Registrar of Contractors; Office State Corporation Commission; unsolved homicide; FBI Federal Bureau of Investigations; Salvatore Gravano; New York Mob; John Gotti; hit man; La Cosa Nostra; Witness Protection Program
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Stepping From the Shadows
Norman tells the story of Max Caulfield, a private investigator with a history in the Chicago Mob which eventually leads him into the Witness Protection Program. Caulfield speaks candidly of his past throughout this article, describing how he got started in the private investigators business and what led him to where he is today.
Tags: private investigator; mob; Bob Norman
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Joe Dogs Jimmy the Weasel Sammy the Bull John Dean
The Washington Post Magazine reports that "protected witnesses sometimes to strange things with their new identities. The U.S. Marshalls Service tells no tales, but others do... There are lots of great stories in the witness protection program - tragic stories, comic stories, tragicomic stories. But the United States Marshalls Service, which runs the program, prefers that they remain untold stories. WITSEC is a secret program. Very secret. Sometimes ludicrously secret."