NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — George Fresolone, an organized crime turncoat who wore a hidden microphone to his own Mafia initiation and helped prosecutors indict leaders of the Philadelphia-New Jersey mob, has died. He was 48.
Fresolone died of a heart attack Wednesday at an undisclosed location where he had been living under an assumed identity since leaving the federal witness protection program.
He co-wrote the 1994 book "Blood Oath," about the workings of the mob.
"As far as I know, he was never sick and never complained about chest pains," his co-author, Robert J. Wagman, told the Star-Ledger of Newark.
Two of Fresolone's children found his body in the hallway of his home in an unspecified state, said Bill Newsome, who worked with Fresolone.
No foul play was suspected, Newsome said.