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—_ “And, in Brook” )j : , hs Bennett, a relired busi rear death by two hit men a federal court to testify a couple of mobsters. "Last December, Lee Laster, sista director of the FBI in New York, wecigtant : - ing toa Teporter about how tough it is to ’ persuade citizens to testify in organized crime john inessman, was shot to as he was on his way to, r in the drug case against By JOHN McLAUGHLIN what happened to Jennie would happen to “They (the mobsters) couldn't exist wi out fear. If people woul ard, we'd make PrOgress,he sald” om forward wee her,” Coley said on Friday. Progress, anyone? * . { When Coley went to the U.S. Attorney's Anyone for suicide? — office in Manhattan and asked that Barbera be pt in protective custody, he was turned down, said. “They woul ven assign an FB) to look out for her. They told us this was a non- “violent, white-collar type of crime and that . Candor Diamond had nothing to do with what happened to Jennie,” Coley said. . ‘Thus, Margaret Barbera, who had entered a guilty plea in the case and who had agreed to testify against Margolies, spent the last three months of her life in a state of terror. It ended when the hit man surgically shot her behind the leftear. . Stephen Schlessinger, the assistant U.S. Attorney in charge of the case, denies that . Barbera asked to be placed in protective - custody. He points out there is no written record that she did. So you believe Schlessing- er, who speaks with the authority of the gov- ernment of the United States, or you believe Coley, who is representing an admitted felon. believe Coley. . If you were walking around with informa- tion which could convict somebody of an $8 million swindle and your friend knew about it, too, and she was involved and was kidnaped - and murdered, would you feel threatened? | Would you look to the government for protection? - “All they would agree to was to close the hearing in March when Margaret pleaded uilty and agreed to be a government witness. ‘hat kept it off the record. But she could have been followed. She told me and I told Schless- inger that she was being followed,” Coley said. So, Barbera and Chin are dead and so are the three technicians and maybe the case against Margolies and Candor Diamond is dead, too. a: Even in the unlikely event Schlessinger is telling the truth, why did it not occur to him that there might be a connection between Chin's abduction and the Candor case, given . the fact that the Chin kidnaping took place near Barbera's home? oe Steve Schlessinger and the ILS. Attorney’s office in Manhattan and the EBLou ight to aaa jat this ki jing doesn’t happen only in ‘movies. In San Antonio, Tex., five people were indicted on Thursday for trying tofixa drug | case by murdering the federal judge who was tohearit. | . In Newark, federal prosecutors +. charged on Tuesday that the mayor of Union | City, who was recently convicted for racke- | ( a tering, had been shopping around for some- _ body to knock off the main witness against | him: -~ on -