11 High-Profile Informants and What Happened Afterward

Becoming a government informant can come with serious consequences, particularly when organized crime is involved. Some witnesses have received new identities and relocated their families through federal protection programs. Others have faced threats, prison sentences, or complicated relationships with the very agencies they helped.

Not every informant is a gangster, either. Over the years, federal investigators have received information from scientists, entertainers, businesspeople, and individuals whose connections to the government weren't always publicly known. And not everyone who shared information with the FBI was a confidential informant in the traditional sense.

To examine some of these cases, 24/7 Tempo reviewed historical accounts, FBI records, court documents, and reporting from publications including History.com, TIME, and CNN. These 11 high-profile figures had very different experiences cooperating with federal authorities. For some, the consequences continued long after their cooperation ended.

Born in Brooklyn in 1943, Henry Hill grew up admiring the neighborhood gangsters and eventually began running errands for Paul Vario, a captain in the Lucchese crime family. What started as small jobs turned into a criminal career involving robbery, extortion, loan-sharking, and drug trafficking. Hill was involved in several major criminal operations, including the 1967 Air France robbery and the events surrounding the 1978 Lufthansa heist at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Despite his connections, his Irish and Italian ancestry prevented him from becoming a formally inducted Mafia member.

Hill's situation changed after his arrest on drug charges in 1980. Convinced that former associates might kill him, he agreed to cooperate with federal investigators. His information and testimony helped secure approximately 50 convictions, including those of Vario and fellow gangster Jimmy Burke. Hill and his family entered the federal Witness Protection Program, but his continued criminal activity eventually led to his removal. His story inspired Nicholas Pileggi's book "Wiseguy" and Martin Scorsese's 1990 film "Goodfellas." Hill died in 2012 at age 69, decades after the testimony that made him one of the country's best-known Mafia informants.

Max Mermelstein wasn't a typical drug trafficker. A trained engineer from New York, he eventually became one of the Medellín Cartel's most important cocaine smugglers in the United States. His involvement began through connections to Colombian traffickers, including Rafael Cardona Salazar. Mermelstein later told a Senate committee that after witnessing a murder, he found himself effectively under Cardona's control. His knowledge of transportation and logistics helped him organize large-scale cocaine shipments into the country, making him a valuable figure within the cartel's operations.

After being arrested in 1985, Mermelstein pleaded guilty in 1986 and began cooperating with federal authorities. His detailed knowledge of the cartel helped investigators pursue several major trafficking figures. In exchange, he received a reduced sentence and entered the Witness Protection Program. Reporting by the Miami New Times identified 16 family members who were also relocated through the program. Mermelstein spent much of his remaining life under an assumed identity and died in Kentucky in 2008. His case demonstrates just how valuable an insider with detailed knowledge of a criminal organization's operations can become to federal investigators.

Ken "Tokyo Joe" Eto built a profitable illegal gambling operation in Chicago, where his connections eventually brought him into the orbit of the Chicago Outfit. Born in California, Eto had been incarcerated in a Japanese American internment camp during World War II before becoming involved in underground gambling. By the early 1980s, he was an established figure in Chicago's numbers racket. But following his conviction on federal gambling charges, his associates became concerned that he might cooperate with investigators.

In February 1983, two men shot Eto three times in the head while he sat in a car. Remarkably, he survived, and the bullets reportedly failed to penetrate his skull. The failed assassination attempt gave Eto a compelling reason to cooperate with federal authorities. His testimony helped expose members of the Chicago Outfit and corrupt law enforcement connections. Eto subsequently entered the Witness Protection Program and lived under the name Joe Tanaka. He died in 2004 at age 84, having spent roughly two decades living under his new identity.

Jack Parsons had a considerably different background from the organized crime figures on this list. A pioneering rocket researcher, he helped develop early solid-fuel propulsion technology and was part of the Caltech research group that eventually became NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Outside his scientific work, Parsons was involved in occult organizations and associated with people whose political activities attracted federal attention. During the 1940s, the FBI began investigating suspected Communist connections within scientific and academic circles, including people associated with Caltech.

Historical research indicates that Parsons provided information to the FBI beginning in 1942. He later identified individuals associated with a Communist Party group known as Unit 122, including former scientific colleagues. His relationship with the government was complicated, however. Federal investigators also scrutinized Parsons himself, and concerns about his activities and handling of sensitive material affected his security clearance. Parsons died in June 1952 following an explosion in his home laboratory in Pasadena. Although the circumstances of the blast have generated speculation, there is no established evidence connecting his death to his cooperation with the FBI.

Joe Valachi became one of the most important Mafia informants in American history after spending decades involved in organized crime. A member of what became New York's Genovese crime family, Valachi was convicted on narcotics charges and sent to federal prison. While incarcerated, he became convinced that crime boss Vito Genovese wanted him killed. In 1962, Valachi murdered another prisoner whom he mistakenly believed had been sent to assassinate him. Facing serious additional consequences, he began cooperating with federal investigators.

In September 1963, Valachi appeared before a U.S. Senate subcommittee and publicly described the structure, membership, and traditions of La Cosa Nostra. His testimony gave Americans an unusually detailed account of how the Mafia operated, including its hierarchy and initiation practices. Although investigators already knew organized crime existed, Valachi helped connect information about the relationships between its members. His revelations also demonstrated the dangers faced by witnesses cooperating against criminal organizations. Valachi remained in federal custody and died in 1971. His testimony became an important part of the government's expanding efforts to prosecute organized crime.

Frank Lucas became one of Harlem's most notorious heroin traffickers during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Originally from North Carolina, Lucas established an extensive drug distribution operation in New York City and developed connections to suppliers in Southeast Asia. He later made extraordinary claims about his criminal empire, including stories about smuggling heroin in military coffins and earning enormous amounts of money each day. Some of those claims have been disputed by investigators and others familiar with the case, making it difficult to separate the documented history from Lucas' own storytelling.

Lucas was arrested in New Jersey in January 1975 and subsequently convicted on drug charges. After receiving a lengthy prison sentence, he agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors and the Drug Enforcement Administration. His assistance helped authorities investigate and prosecute other narcotics traffickers, substantially reducing the time he spent in prison. Lucas later returned to drug dealing and served additional time behind bars. His life inspired the 2007 Ridley Scott film "American Gangster," starring Denzel Washington, although the movie took considerable liberties with the facts. Lucas died in 2019 at age 88.

Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano rose through New York's organized crime world to become underboss of the Gambino crime family under John Gotti. His criminal activities included racketeering, extortion, and involvement in numerous murders. But in 1991, Gravano agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors after investigators gathered evidence against Gotti and other senior Mafia figures. His decision made him one of the highest-ranking American mobsters to testify against his former associates.

Gravano's testimony played a major role in Gotti's 1992 conviction and life sentence. Despite admitting involvement in 19 murders, Gravano received a five-year sentence in recognition of his cooperation and eventually entered the Witness Protection Program. His attempt at a different life didn't last. In 2000, he was arrested in connection with a large ecstasy distribution operation in Arizona and later received substantial prison sentences. Gravano's history remains controversial, particularly because of the unusually favorable treatment he initially received despite the seriousness of his crimes.

James "Whitey" Bulger led Boston's Winter Hill Gang while maintaining a relationship with the FBI that became one of the bureau's most damaging informant scandals. Beginning in the 1970s, Bulger supplied information about rival organized crime figures, particularly members of the New England Mafia. In return, FBI agents provided him with information and protection that helped him avoid prosecution while his own criminal organization continued operating. Former FBI agent John Connolly eventually faced criminal convictions connected to his improper handling of Bulger and fellow informant Stephen Flemmi.

After being warned about an impending indictment in late 1994, Bulger disappeared and spent more than 16 years as a fugitive. Federal authorities finally arrested him in Santa Monica, California, in June 2011. Two years later, he was convicted of multiple crimes, including participation in 11 murders, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Bulger was killed by fellow inmates in October 2018, shortly after being transferred to a federal prison in West Virginia. His case exposed serious failures in the FBI's management of informants and raised lasting questions about what happens when investigators become too closely involved with the criminals providing them information.

Richard Wershe Jr., better known as "White Boy Rick," became involved with federal investigators while he was still a teenager in Detroit. In 1984, when Wershe was 14, his father contacted the FBI about a neighborhood drug dealer. During a meeting with agents, the younger Wershe demonstrated that he knew several people investigators were interested in. Agents subsequently began using him as an informant in a joint FBI and Detroit police investigation. According to allegations later described in federal court documents, he was placed in dangerous situations involving drug trafficking while still a minor.

By 1987, Wershe was no longer working as an informant and was arrested on cocaine trafficking charges at age 17. He received a life sentence and spent roughly three decades in Michigan prisons before serving additional time in Florida on an unrelated conviction. He was released in 2020. In 2021 and 2022, Wershe filed lawsuits alleging that federal and local law enforcement officials had exploited him as a teenager and contributed to his imprisonment. The cases were dismissed in 2023 because they were filed outside the applicable legal deadlines, and a federal appeals court upheld those dismissals in August 2024. His experiences also inspired the 2018 film "White Boy Rick."

Joseph "Big Joey" Massino spent years running New York's Bonanno crime family, earning a reputation as one of the last old-school Mafia bosses. He took over the organization in the early 1990s and managed to maintain his position even as federal investigations brought down other major mob figures. But his luck eventually ran out. In 2004, Massino was convicted of racketeering charges involving seven murders, extortion, loansharking, and other crimes. Facing the possibility of a death sentence in a separate murder case, he made a decision that would have been unthinkable during much of his criminal career: He agreed to cooperate with the government.

Massino became the first boss of one of New York's five major Mafia families to turn government witness. In 2011, he testified against his former successor, Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano, providing details about the Bonanno family's operations and criminal activities. His cooperation helped prosecutors pursue additional organized crime cases and ultimately earned him a substantial sentencing reduction. In 2013, a federal judge reduced his life sentence to time served, allowing him to leave prison. After decades spent enforcing the Mafia's code of silence, Massino had broken it himself.

Frank Cullotta spent much of his criminal career working alongside Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, the Chicago Outfit enforcer who became one of Las Vegas' most notorious mob figures. After moving from Chicago to Las Vegas in 1979, Cullotta helped run a burglary crew known as the Hole in the Wall Gang. The group earned its name by breaking into businesses through walls and rooftops rather than using the front door. That operation came crashing down in July 1981, when police arrested Cullotta and several associates during an attempted burglary. Facing prison time and mounting legal trouble, Cullotta soon discovered he had an even bigger problem.

In 1982, FBI agents warned Cullotta that Spilotro reportedly wanted him dead. Rather than take his chances with his former associates, Cullotta agreed to cooperate with federal investigators. His testimony provided valuable information about Spilotro's criminal organization, and Cullotta eventually entered the Witness Protection Program. Years later, he worked as a consultant on Martin Scorsese's 1995 film "Casino," which drew heavily from the real-life activities of Spilotro and his associates. Cullotta even appeared briefly in the movie. He later wrote books about his criminal past and shared his experiences publicly before dying in 2020 at age 81.