A BLOCKBUSTER BUTTON GUYS EXCLUSIVE!
From time to time, the identities of former Mafia informants finally come to light through a variety of sources such as court documents, previously “redacted” FBI files, #302 reports later released to the public, and other sources. We here at Button Guys try to keep tabs on such things.
For some time now, Button Guys has been gathering up intelligence about various “Top Echelon” federal informants who operated across the country during the 1940s thru 1970s period. The names and data listed below represent some of our findings thus far. But because of the sheer number of informants the Federal Bureau of Investigation developed over the years, this is a potentially never-ending project that requires constant deep research and a sifting and vetting of that research to finally uncover all the hoodlums, organized crime figures, and LCN members who have betrayed their underworld brethren to save their own skins through the years.
The “Key Chart” below explains some of the official jargon the Federal Bureau of Investigation has used and still uses to protect the true identities of their prized “informers,” or who the American underworld more commonly refers to as “rats” and “stool pigeons.”
Aside from the FBI and other federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Narcotics & Dangerous Drugs (FBNDD) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), there were many other law enforcement agencies such as the New York State Police (NYSP), the New York Police Department Organized Crime Control Bureau (NYPD-OCCB), New Jersey State Police (NJSP), Pennsylvania State Police, and similar agencies around the country who had their own underworld “sources” for information. Admittedly, Button Guys has only begun to skim the surface of all the potential informants that were collectively utilized over the years by federal, state, and local law enforcement.
