Editing Federal Bureau of Investigation (section)

=== Organized crime ===
[[File:Donnie Brasco.jpg|thumb|An FBI surveillance photograph of [[Joseph D. Pistone]] (aka Donnie Brasco), [[Benjamin Ruggiero|Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero]] and [[Edgar Robb]] (aka Tony Rossi), 1980s]]
In response to organized crime, on August 25, 1953, the FBI created the Top Hoodlum Program. The national office directed field offices to gather information on [[Gangster|mobsters]] in their territories and to report it regularly to Washington for a centralized collection of intelligence on [[Racketeering|racketeers]].<ref>[https://www.fbi.gov/page2/august07/mobintel080907.htm "Using Intel to Stop the Mob, Part 2"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100616042610/https://www.fbi.gov/page2/august07/mobintel080907.htm |date=June 16, 2010 }}. Retrieved February 12, 2010.</ref> After the [[Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act]], for RICO Act, took effect, the FBI began investigating the former Prohibition-organized groups, which had become fronts for crime in major cities and small towns. All the FBI work was done undercover and from within these organizations, using the provisions provided in the RICO Act. Gradually the agency dismantled many of the groups. Although Hoover initially denied the existence of a [[National Crime Syndicate]] in the United States, the Bureau later conducted operations against known organized crime syndicates and families, including those headed by [[Sam Giancana]] and [[John Gotti]]. The RICO Act is still used today for all [[organized crime]] and any individuals who may fall under the Act's provisions.

In 2003, a congressional committee called the FBI's organized crime [[informant]] program "one of the greatest failures in the history of federal law enforcement".<ref name="Murphy" /> The FBI allowed four innocent men to be convicted of the [[Joseph Barboza#False testimony against rivals|March 1965 gangland murder of Edward "Teddy" Deegan]] in order to protect [[Stephen Flemmi|Vincent Flemmi]], an FBI informant. Three of the men were sentenced to death (which was later reduced to life in prison), and the fourth defendant was sentenced to life in prison.<ref name="Murphy">{{cite news |url=http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/07/27/death_deceit_then_decades_of_silence/ |title=Evidence Of Injustice |newspaper=The Boston Globe |author=Shelley Murphy |date=July 27, 2007 |access-date=November 22, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080726051938/http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/07/27/death_deceit_then_decades_of_silence |archive-date=July 26, 2008}}</ref> Two of the four men died in prison after serving almost 30 years, and two others were released after serving 32 and 36 years. In July 2007, U.S. District Judge [[Nancy Gertner]] in Boston found that the Bureau had helped convict the four men using false witness accounts given by mobster [[Joseph Barboza]]. The U.S. Government was ordered to pay $100&nbsp;million in damages to the four defendants.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fbi-murder-idUSN2643274020070726 |title=Judge awards $100 mln for unjust convictions |work=[[Reuters]] |date=July 26, 2007 |access-date=March 29, 2021 |archive-date=November 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108000530/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fbi-murder-idUSN2643274020070726 |url-status=live }}</ref>