Committee on Government Reform

Everything Secret Degenerates: The FBI's Use of Murderers as Informants Committee on Government Reform

Federal law enforcement officials made a decision to use murderers as informants beginning in the 1960s. Known killers were protected from the consequences of their crimes and purposefully kept on the streets. This report discusses some of the disastrous consequences of the use of murderers as informants in New England. Beginning in the mid-1960s the Federal Bureau of Investigation began a course of conduct in New England that must be considered one of the greatest failures in the history of federal law enforcement. What happened in New England over a forty year period raises doubts that can only be dispelled by an obvious dedication to full disclosure of the truth.