American Notes CRIME

Once the Mafia's top West Coast enforcer, Aladena ("Jimmy the Weasel") Fratianno became one of the Government's most valuable informers in 1977. Since then, he has testified at numerous trials and written two books on the Mob. The Justice Department placed him under the Witness Protection Program, and has spent $1 million protecting Fratianno and moving him to a secret location with a new identity.

Last week, however, the department decided that Fratianno had outlived his usefulness. The former mobster lost his government subsidy, and will have to live on book royalties and Social Security. For the Weasel, that is cold comfort. "I put 30 guys away -- six of them bosses," he told a reporter. "I'm a dead man."