Gerald Shur was a lawyer who founded the groundbreaking Federal Witness Protection Program.Shur joined the U.S.
Justice Department in 1961 as part of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s (1925 – 1968) new initiative against organized crime.
Then a young lawyer, Shur began by coordinating investigations against organized crime in New York City. By the mid-1960s, he had developed the Witness Protection Program, providing new identities and new lives for witnesses who offer information to help prosecute organized crime or other severe offenses, as well as the witnesses’ dependents.
This allowed witnesses the safety to confidently testify without fear of deadly retaliation, a development that was a game-changer in the fight against organized.
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