WJohn Edward Alite, also known as Johnny Alletto, is an American former Gambino crime family associate, who later became a government witness, agreeing to testify against the crime family and John A. "Junior" Gotti in 2008. That year, Alite pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, including two murders and a variety of other crimes, and in 2011, was sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison. Due to his cooperation with prosecutors, he was released on a five-year supervised release in 2012. Alite has estimated that he had shot between 30 to 40 people, beat about 100 people with a baseball bat, and murdered six people. Later in life, Alite has publicly denounced the life of organized crime and became a motivational speaker and a writer.
WDavid Batstone is an ethics professor at the University of San Francisco and is the founder and president of Not for Sale.
WGeorge Robert Blakey is an American attorney and law professor. He is best known for his work in connection with drafting the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and for scholarship on that subject.
WJoseph Charles Bonanno, sometimes referred to as Joe Bananas, was an Italian-American crime boss of the Bonanno crime family, which he ran from 1931 to 1968.
WSalvatore Vincent "Bill" Bonanno was an American consigliere of the Bonanno crime family, and son of crime boss Joseph Bonanno. Later in life, he became a writer and produced films for television about his family.
WFrank John Cullotta was an American mobster for the Chicago Outfit and a member of the Hole in the Wall Gang burglary ring in Las Vegas with friend and mobster Tony Spilotro. After his arrest in 1982, he became a government witness and entered the witness protection program. Cullotta later became an author and a tour guide.
WMichael Franzese is an American former New York mobster and caporegime of the Colombo crime family, and son of former underboss John "Sonny" Franzese. Franzese was enrolled in a pre-med program at Hofstra University, but dropped out to make money for his family after his father was sentenced to 50 years in prison for bank robbery in 1967. He eventually helped implement a scheme to defraud the federal government out of gasoline taxes in the early 1980s.
WAladena James "Jimmy" Fratianno, also known as "Jimmy the Weasel", was an Italian-born American mobster who was acting boss of the Los Angeles crime family. After his arrest in 1977, Fratianno become an informant and entered the Witness Protection Program in 1980. He admitted to having killed five people. Later in life, he became a writer.
WJohn Angelo "Junior" Gotti is an American former mobster who was acting boss of the Gambino crime family from 1992 to 1999 after his father, John J. Gotti, was sent to prison. Junior himself was imprisoned for racketeering in 1999. Between 2004 and 2009, Gotti was a defendant in four racketeering trials which all ended in mistrials. In January 2010, federal prosecutors announced that they would no longer seek to prosecute Gotti for those charges. He has been referred to as "Teflon Jr." for evading conviction like his father.
WDavid M. Kennedy is a criminologist, professor, action researcher, and author specializing in crime prevention among inner city gangs, especially in the prevention of violent acts among street gangs. Kennedy developed the Operation Ceasefire group violence intervention in Boston in the 1990s and the High Point Model drug market intervention in High Point, North Carolina, in 2003, which have proven to reduce violence and eliminate overt drug markets in jurisdictions around the United States. He founded the National Network for Safe Communities in 2009 to support cities using these and related strategies.
WPeter Maas was an American journalist and author. He was born in New York City and attended Duke University. Maas had Dutch and Irish heritage.
WDan E. Moldea is an American best-selling author and investigative journalist who has reported on organized crime and political corruption since 1974. He is the author of books about the rise and fall of Jimmy Hoffa, the contract killing of an Ohio businessman, the Mafia's penetration of Hollywood, its links to Ronald Reagan, and its influence on professional football, as well as works about the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy, the O.J. Simpson murder case, the suicide of White House Deputy Counsel Vincent Foster, the Anthony Pellicano wiretapping scandal and prosecution, and corruption in higher education via the student-loan program and for-profit colleges.
WNicholas Pileggi is an American author, producer and screenwriter. He wrote the non-fiction book Wiseguy and co-wrote the screenplay for Goodfellas, its 1990 film adaptation, for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.