Witness Protection Program Beginnings

The idea behind being in this program is to protect those who have witnessed a crime and are willing to testify in court against the perpetrators. Seemingly, the person who committed the crime is usually the type of person who will take retribution against the party who is willing to tell what they seen. The witness protection program provides a new identity, a new place to live, monthly stipends, and of course protection for the witness and family members. The agents who work the program are very adept to the people who enter the program and try to make the transition go as easily as possible. The downside to the program requires the witness and the immediate family members to leave behind all other family members. The witness and family members may never contact anyone in the family or relate to any new friends who they really are and where they come from nor why they entered the program.

The story behind one of the first famous members of the program

The idea behind providing protection for a witness developed earlier in our history, however, the one of the first who used the idea behind the program was Mr. Howard and his family. Mr. Howard a very well known man in Missouri considered an outstanding citizen in his community. The public idolized him for his notorious deeds making it next to impossible for his arrest as a criminal. Mr. Howard single handedly formed his own gang and fought the railroad that at this time in history was expanding by taking away land from the local people. Mr. Howard was considered “the Robin Hood of the West.” Try as they may the railroad agents and the local authorities could not apprehend him and his brother. It had finally come to the point that the authorities were literally afraid if they killed him or his brother that the citizens might take revenge against the railroad. Wells Fargo at the time a well-known agency with many agents also feared the power that Mr. Howard had amongst the local people. The newspapers and even writers from back east had built his reputation into the point of a hero not a villain. The quest for the authorities was how to extinguish the actions of Mr. Howard and his gang without raising the anger of the citizens. Finally, the head agent over Wells Fargo comes up with a very clever idea. The idea had to be accepted by the authorities and Mr. Howard.