[00:00] When I was seven years old, I was put into witness protection. This is everything I'm authorized to tell you. No, we definitely did not get a briefcase full of money.
[00:16] People's assumptions of what goes on in the witness protection program because nobody really knows what goes on besides people like me that are in it. The only aspect that Hollywood got right is how we were taken out of our beds
[00:31] by men in black in the middle of the night. I believe I actually came home from the hospital
[00:44] And still to this day, I feel a love that culture. There were kids and moms, and we had backyard barbecues all the time.
[00:56] I thought it was normal for every man I thought it was normal for them to all have pistols in their boots. He was one of the founding members of the Bandidos in Houston.
[01:13] he took his coat off his Bandidos coat, and he was recruited by Sonny Barger to start some clubs up in the northeast states.
[01:25] President of one of the Cleveland Hells Angels chapters up there. My father was no saint. His rap sheet in Louisiana and Texas alone was insane. I found it.
[01:40] Right around 1974 or 1975, the club started to fracture. especially if, if a life was supposed to be taken.
[01:57] In 1975, a member of the Cleveland Hells Angels went rogue, I guess you could say, and decided that he was going to bomb a house
[02:10] He wanted to get patched in. He did bomb that house with a couple other people, and he killed three people. and an 18 month old baby was killed along with his mother.
[02:26] At the time, I was the same age as the baby and running around the clubhouse. I think that's when my father started to kind of branch off mentally My mother actually left.
[02:41] My father took all of us children down to Florida to get away from him. And that's when my father really decided, okay, now my wife and children This isn't the life that I wanted.
[02:55] So my father left the club in early or about mid 1981. I believe a person like my father could not walk away and be So he knew he'd be out bad, which is not good for him or his family.
[03:09] So what my father decided to do was to call the ATF and to see if he offered them a lot of information on different crimes that had occurred, if they would place him and his family in witness protection.
[03:21] So he told the marshals that for him to further cooperate, The Marshals reached out to my mother and told my mother, government witness and you have to come back to him.
[03:39] because now he's testifying against all these people, And go under witness protection. When my father decided to turn up on the club, he did rat everybody out.
[03:54] But he decided, well, if I'm going to do this right, I'm going to do it. I killed Donald Desario. He had taken the life of an 18 year old kid in a Drive-By shooting
[04:09] that was intended for somebody else, and he didn't receive a reduced sentence. I believe he was given 10 to 40 in a federal prison.
[04:22] I was seven, my sister was five, and my brother was two. We were all absolutely terrified. My mother knew my mother had been making plans secretly.
[04:38] she'd put a couple shirts away or a couple pairs of shorts. I think she packed a suitcase for each kid. Switched vans, I remember that.
[04:52] And then we went to a safe house. There's a handful of safe houses across the US and we were put in one. They made meals for us.
[05:07] The marshals, I remember them cooking with I actually have a picture of us eating Thanksgiving dinner with the Marshals. But you know, we couldn't leave without them.
[05:23] We all had to pile in the van. I think we were in the safe house for about three months. It usually takes about 2 or 3 months for all the proper paperwork to be done
[05:41] to, you know, create a new identity. The Marshals asked my mother and asked my father. So my mother, I believe, said California, Hawaii and Florida.
[05:58] And my father probably said Texas, Louisiana, Florida, whatever. All of my mother's best friends knew she loved going to California. Nobody would ever suspect that we were in Montana.
[06:14] We came from Florida, so we were wearing Florida clothes. We were a lot at about 1261 a month back in 1981. We were put in a motel, the Esquire Motor
[06:28] It was disgusting. They bring us to Montana It's cold. We have no winter clothes.
[06:43] So that 1261 that we were allotted a month had to be immediately spent on, you know, some winter gear, and we had to pay our hotel. I found out later in life that my mother was really scrimping and scraping.
[07:03] There was absolutely no extra. You're going to have to figure out how to feed your family on five bucks this week. being in witness protection is that there's a tier level.
[07:18] you get, the better life that you're going to have afterwards. My father didn't get any convictions at first. And I think that they were angry that my father didn't get any convictions.
[07:36] You know, let's just, you know, we just got up there, Mine's from Wisconsin. I have his Social security number.
[07:48] We all have different prefixes, so it looks like we were all born in My mother had to start from scratch with her social security. with Social Security gone, she had to start all over again.
[08:04] She has to cut off all of her family ties. We were never permitted to talk to our grandparents were, She wasn't even allowed to go talk to a counselor
[08:20] So my mother did break protocol. The biggest reason was, mental support, but also financial support, because my father went back
[08:35] He was only in the House with us in Montana for right around a year. And then he went to prison for life.
[08:50] Rightfully so. I guess no kid wants to find out that her dad's a killer. Yeah, that makes sense.
[09:02] We could write him letters, but, you know, there was no, because he was going to be out at sea, working very hard, and
[09:14] he would come into port, you know, maybe once a month he'd be able to call us. My mother became angry that I wanted to go, you know, live with my father. And she's working her tail off as a nurse.
[09:28] And my father's in prison, not paying child support. Kids are talking about how hard daddy's working. And my mother eventually sat us down with the school counselor
[09:41] It shattered. Shattered me as a kid, I believe I was about ten years old. I originally had a lot of anger how my mother told us children
[09:55] He killed a kid, and now he's got to. Now, I'll never forget the look of face that it was told to us like that.
[10:09] She was traumatized by everything she went to. And not having the ability or the resources to talk to anybody.
[10:25] Her, mothering skills were starting to dissipate and take on a life of their own and gets borderline abusive. She needed mom time.
[10:39] So she was secretly shipping the US children off So we spent all summer, every summer secretly back in Ohio with my grandparents
[10:54] the president of the Cleveland chapter went to my grandparents house and talked to my grandfather and he told my grandfather, Mary and the children are not in danger.
[11:10] My grandfather was a very good judge of character, and he knew that we were safe and that it was okay for us to come back and forth. had this great place with lakes and piers, and we were fishing every day.
[11:27] I was just so happy to be back there. and I don't know how they do it now or if this is typical of every case,
[11:45] Our new last name. She had always liked Elizabeth Taylor, so she decided and she had picked Taylor after Elizabeth Taylor.
[11:59] I had one of the notebooks where the kids can practice writing their letters, and I remember I had to fill up that whole book with my new name, Jacquelyn Ann Taylor, over and over and over.
[12:13] I got in trouble for lying as a child, and now I have. I'm told that I have to lie to every person I know, Or if you see a motorcycle that motorcycles are not good anymore, and
[12:29] then being told that hearing that sound we have to hide, those are bad guys. Of course, I felt like I was different. I was always a happy kid. And.
[12:44] I was nervous to start school. and you start experimenting with drugs or alcohol.
[12:56] My thing was when I started drinking, I started talking and, and I started talking too much and I started telling people. My best friends, you know, to this day, they're.
[13:10] That I still can't believe that that's real, that you were full of it You know, and I just kind of felt like an idiot. And that ended up being a huge escape for me.
[13:27] I was shoplifting, I went to rehab when I was 14, and then I was put in a psychiatric hospital when I was 15,
[13:40] and then I was put into a group home when I was after that. I'm in a psychiatric hospital, and I'm telling my psych, my psychiatrist, that where all of this is stemming from
[13:55] So now, you know, I'm getting I'm being misdiagnosed. I remember laying in bed one night in this psychiatric institution, how to deal with this by myself.
[14:09] It's just a fundamental We all need to know who we are, where we came from. I didn't have those answers and they were show shrouded in secrecy
[14:24] finding articles about my dad, hours and hours and hours of research, and not having this information and not knowing why I was even
[14:38] on the witness protection program, really propelled me to just kind of launch my own investigative journey and storm I believe it was when I got into who I needed to talk to that day.
[14:55] I got scolded and eventually escorted out of the federal building. I wasn't allowed to go into the federal building and even tell a Marshal that I was on witness protection.
[15:07] I didn't know that as an adult, I have never signed anything. I have never had an agent sit me down So right now they're calling me a breached member of security, but am I?
[15:22] How can I breach a contract that I have no idea what that contract even entails? I am still a member.
[15:38] what I've come across, in my work is a lot of people were not given birth Now, you have to remember back in 1971,
[15:53] and the first family was put into protective custody? We didn't have everything all tied together. that I tried to get an SBA loan, small business loan.
[16:11] They can't really give me a new Social Security number at this point. I believe back in about 1985, my mom wanted to sign us up Back then, you needed birth certificates.
[16:26] All I know is that the judge back then refused to give us birth certificate, so I've never had a birth certificate under my name. and they had given us passports back, but back then.
[16:42] So remember I was put into witness protection in 1981, 1997, 16 years later, I'm trying to get a marriage license and I'm trying to also go to college.
[16:54] The lady in the Yellowstone County Courthouse absolutely refused. Well, they're not going to acknowledge that I'm in WITSEC. say to that lady was, I can attest that she does not have a birth certificate.
[17:09] Jackie Taylor, please issue her a marriage license. Go to the next county and try them. Now I'm trying to go to college back then,
[17:23] I had to sit down with the admissions board and plead my case. My next door neighbor, who I'd babysat for, that I sat down the college admissions board.
[17:39] looking at me going when I was telling my story. pretty much because of somebody that I knew that knew me
[17:51] So I did actually reach out, and I did obtain my old birth certificate, but I can't use it. I have to go through the courts, blah, blah, blah.
[18:07] So 45 years later, I have been paying taxes. I have been a working member of society since 1990.
[18:22] 2017 was the last time that they accepted my tax file when I file my taxes. father originally got out of prison, he served about eight years of a sentence.
[18:37] He met a lady. And they bought a little chunk of property out in East Texas. And he settled there for, I think, about 11 years, right about 2006,
[18:52] I had visited my aunt down in Louisiana, And I went because I still had so much hatred for him. and at least kneecap him or something.
[19:07] I didn't tell her that, but she took me that week to go see him. and there's this crippled old man standing in front of me.
[19:23] And all that anger, all my plans of retaliation It was actually very healing and cathartic.
[19:36] having a father daughter relationship again. He was just seemed, more docile, I guess. That's not how it ended in 2013.
[19:54] I had taken my kids down to Disney World and Sea World, and then we went. We were in the keys, and my aunt called me laying in my hotel bed the last night of my wonderful trip down to Disney World with my kids,
[20:08] I find out that my father had done these terrible things. My father took the life of his wife, took the life of his stepson, sat in the Texas heat for three days pondering what he just did,
[20:22] He ended up burning the house down, and while the house was on fire, he was sitting in his car. And when the fire department pulled up, is when he ended his life,
[20:35] my father wasn't a good man, and now he's an old crippled man out in the middle of nowhere, Texas. admitted to taking many, many lives.
[20:50] actually bury my stepmother and my stepbrother. I told them to put my father in a box and throw them in the Red River.
[21:02] But then I started digging into what the sheriff's saved for me. He left me a big black steamer trunk full of pictures,
[21:15] letters to the US marshals, letters to the Social Security Administration. He kept every letter that he ever wrote in prison, out of prison, everything.
[21:27] that he wrote and finding out, a month before he, wrote a
[21:40] begging the marshals to help him so that he could go get that when we're in physical pain, it can take a toll on our mental health.
[21:52] I had no idea that his stepson had terminal brain cancer. in such dire straits with his physical health as well. I thought that these killings were in cold blood.
[22:07] I'm not condoning anything that he did because he shouldn't have done it. But he wasn't thinking clearly because he was in so much physical pain. At the end of the day, it's still Butch Crouch.
[22:25] and my past through his death and what he left for me. it's 1100 pages depicting outlaw biker culture.
[22:40] His experiences from 1966 to 1981, everything that he did, everybody he saw, every run that he made. All club activities are depicted in this manuscript.
[22:55] And I found, like the goldmine of outlaw biker history. Also on the big steamer trunk that he left me were his patches. you do not possess the patches ever?
[23:12] I actually went back to, Cleveland and I did the cold knock on the clubhouse door
[23:25] and I said, hi, I'm Jackee Taylor, I'm Butch Crouch's daughter. It's just something that I had to do out of respect.
[23:39] I spoke to him on the phone that day. I know we went and had a sit down dinner together, and, This is a man that babysat me, you know, he told me, Jackee, you guys were never in danger.
[23:52] Are you kidding me? I would have never done that to you. And that, But the anger
[24:08] that started to build inside me towards the Marshalls I just it was all for nothing.
[24:20] Of course they wanted my father. My mother was so beloved throughout the club. She took care of all of them.
[24:34] that were telling me they were going to kill me. It was nice to hear that I wasn't in danger anymore or that I never was. I finally felt safe for once in my life.
[24:53] Third generation witness protection problems. My children's Medicaid was canceled because I don't have a birth certificate, calling the marshals, calling anybody that would listen,
[25:09] and eventually calling the governor's office, talking to his aide. It was just a baton passing for two days. My mom always said something that stuck with me.
[25:23] And that's what I've done, and I'm not going away. So the first article in 2010 came out in the Sunday Gazette.
[25:35] And I looked at my phone and I knew immediately that it was the Marshals. People have reached out to me over the years that have similar, issues
[25:50] like I do, wanting advice or help or what did you do? there's avenues that you can take to get this, this and that. And I've been an advocate to these people, for these people
[26:02] They they don't want to get in trouble, So who do they call? They call me. and a little group of us since I went public.
[26:16] My efforts have, kind of changed a little bit into helping number one, nobody believes them. Number two, I'm the only one who understands what they're going through.
[26:38] for the adults Because they made they made the choice. I'm advocating for the children that did not make that choice.
[26:53] My big thing also is, you know, advocating for mental health. You know, we definitely need to form a, some sort of a committee to oversee,
[27:05] their actions and their policies and how they are treating their members. I would love to come and work for them and to help them rectify this situation
[27:19] so I can finally shut up and go on with my life. to go on with their life, but I can't stop because I'm their voice that they're all struggling.
[27:33] I lost one of the gals that has been reaching out to me for years, you know? But she's no longer with us. You know, a lot of these people are in and out of prison.
[27:47] You know, if you're not spending the money on helping us become productive members of society, then you're going to spend money on either our burials
[27:59] Three big things that we absolutely need to restructure. We have to have mental health care, and we have to have medical
[28:14] until we can substantiate ourselves as adults. There was such a small society, 19,250 of us. So let's just say 4 to 5000 children.
[28:27] I committed no crimes to put me in the position that I'm in. Nobody. They're not answering our calls.
[28:43] We get we are given this generic number that we can call We've all written the letters. We've all had them sent registered mail, our return receipt.
[28:58] or we're just people pass the buck on. Nobody's taking responsibility for an individual member. My ultimate goal absolutely, would be to testify in front of Congress
[29:12] and tell them of the hardships that I've had personally, my family and those around me that have reached out, with the witness protection program Why are we throwing money at something that is broken and not working?
[29:27] Let's admit it organized crime isn't going away anytime soon. If we have organized crime, we're going to need witness protection, right? So I'm getting louder with my release of my podcast, Relative Unknown.
[29:44] It's about an hour long. Each episode. It covers mental health, it covers witness protection, it covers, So now I'm working on season two of Relative Unknown
[29:58] No, it's all fascinating. I'm excited to do this work, but do I want to be doing this work? No. I just want to live a happy life in Montana, out in my little mountain town
[30:13] that I have a bar and restaurant in, you know, 51 years old. I'm so happy and content there. I don't want to do this.
[30:25] And I can't go away until it's fixed.
[30:49] If you enjoyed this video, then please subscribe and comment with more topics that you'd like us to cover in this series.