Aug. 13, 1963 - The United States Army is guarding Mafia canary Joe Valachi behind barbed wire at Fort Monmouth, N.J. The mobster who squealed on the infamous “Cosa Nostra” crime organization was turned over to the Army by the FBI after it was discovered that the underworld had placed a $100,000 price on his head. Fort Monmouth is one of the most heavily guarded places on earth. Valachi is being held under a maximum-security guard. Nevertheless, additional barbed wire and two more machine guns have been added to the section of the fort where Valachi is being detained. Valachi, 60, is due to testify later this month before Senator John L. McClellan’s Senate investigations committee. He also is expected to be available for questioning in New York in the barbershop assassination of Albert (Lord High Executioner) Anastasia and the Brooklyn killing of Arnold Schuster. On February 18, 1952, Schuster, 24 years old, recognized wanted bank robber Willie (The Actor) Sutton on the subway. Following Sutton to a garage, Schuster quickly notified police of his whereabouts. This resulted in the robber’s later arrest. After receiving a modest amount of publicity in the press, Schuster was murdered outside his home on March 8, 1952, shot twice in the groin and once in each eye. It has been alleged — and Valachi is expected to confirm — that Anastasia ordered the hit. Valachi’s testimony, spilled to federal agents in a year of interrogation, has provided what has been termed “the biggest intelligence breakthrough yet in combating organized crime in the U.S.”
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