Gerald Shur is a career Justice Department prosecutor and the man credited with creating the federal Witness Protection Program.

In "WITSEC: Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program," Shur and journalist Pete Earley team up to tell the story of a controversial government program that had its roots in the 1960s push to prosecute the mob.

It is an important story about a little-known and little-understood area of U.S. law enforcement.

Federal prosecutors enticed high-ranking Mafia members to testify against others with promises of protection and relocation. In exchange for their testimony, witnesses were given new identities and cash support to start a new life. It was, and still is, a controversial program because many of the witnesses are criminals. Not all of them went straight.

Take Marion Albert "Mad Dog" Pruett, who killed his wife and at least four others on an interstate crime spree robbing six banks and several convenience stores before he was captured. Pruett's fingerprints did not show up in crime databases because he was being protected by the government.

But, that's only one facet of the program. For every witness that goes into the program, there's a family or girlfriend who must be protected. In "WITSEC," Shur says: "What few of us realized was there were usually innocent people behind each of these criminals. Their wives, children, parents and other relatives all suffered, no matter how hard I tried to make them whole. This was a program of last resort. No matter how much we tried to do to make the transition easy, being relocated was always a painful event - a move that you made only because you knew it was the only way to stay alive."

The book includes a moving first-person chapter about life inside the Witness Protection Program. "Maria," a mob wife, tells her story of identity loss, fear and paranoia.

"WITSEC" recounts the history of the program from the early days of racketeering prosecutions to the Justice Department's war on drugs, which included snatching criminals in Mexico, driving them across the border and arresting them in the United States. Star witnesses, like Joseph Valachi and Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, parade across the pages.

Although Shur is the co-author of the book, he appears in the third person as a character in his own memoir. It is an effective use of structure, drawing the reader into what is essentially an adventure story about U.S. marshals and the people they protect.

The writing style, a simple "Dragnet" "just-the-facts, ma'am" narrative written in chronological order, allows the facts to pile up until the sheer weight of the story drives home its importance.

Shur, who has retired from the Justice Department, spent his life creating the Witness Protection Program and allowing others to administer it. He is not a high-profile name, but his impact on the history of law enforcement is substantial. His story deserves to be heard.