Lips unsealed: A colorful tradition of whistleblowing

Early in boyhood or girlhood, we learned to regard snitches as among the lowest of the low — fair-weather friends whose loyalty became suspect because they couldn't go along with a caper, or worse, abide by that honorable code of secrecy for which we were to learn, much later in life, that the dreaded Mafia had an ominous-sounding word: omerta.