Whistleblowers are known as people who expose wrongdoing, corruption, fraud, or illegal activities within an organization or institution. They almost always face retaliation, harassment, or legal threats for speaking out. Despite these hardships, their courage and integrity can make a difference in the world.
Here are the top 10 of the most famous whistle-blowers in history, who risked their careers, reputations, and lives to reveal the truth.
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1. Samuel Shaw And Richard Marven
Samuel Shaw and Richard Marven are the two naval officers who blew the whistle on the torture of British prisoners of war by Commodore Esek Hopkins. Hopkins was the commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War.
The duo reported the instances of abuse to the Continental Congress, thus enacting the first whistle-blower protection law in the United States on July 30, 1778. The law stated that Congress would be protecting Shaw and Marven against a libel counter-suit filed by Hopkins.
2. Edmund Dene Morel
Among the popular whistleblowers, Edmund Dene Morel’s name stands tall. He was an English shipping clerk who later on became a journalist and an anti-slavery activist. He was key in exposing the atrocities committed by King Leopold II of Belgium in his African territory, the Congo Free State. He had millions of people enslaved, mutilated, and killed for rubber production.
Morel founded the Congo Reform Association, an organization that campaigned for human rights in Africa pressuring the British government to intervene. His uncovering of the truth sparked international outrage and led to the end of Leopold’s rule in Congo.
3. Daniel Ellsberg
The Pentagon Papers, a top-secret assessment of American participation in Vietnam, were released to The New York Times and other publications in 1971 by Daniel Ellsberg, a former military analyst. He is among the most well-known whistleblowers. The Pentagon Papers exposed how the American administration had misled the public and Congress about the nature and goals of the war and had extended it without permission.
By exposing the Nixon administration’s deceit and corruption, Ellsberg’s leak helped bring about its demise. Ellsberg was charged with espionage, but the charges were dropped because of improper government behavior.
4. Frank Serpico
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Frank Serpico, a New York City police officer, uncovered rampant corruption and bribery inside the NYPD. In his testimony before a panel looking into police corruption, he described how his fellow officers had shunned and tormented him because he had refused to take bribes or engage in criminal activity.
Additionally, he overcame being shot during a narcotics raid that he believed was set up by his dishonest coworkers. The testimony of Serpico resulted in convictions and improvements for the NYPD. Al Pacino starred in the movie adaptation of his life story.
5. Karen Silkwood
In Oklahoma, at a Kerr-McGee Corporation-run plutonium factory, Karen Silkwood was a nuclear technician and labor campaigner. She found that the facility was breaking safety regulations and putting the health of its employees at risk from radiation exposure.
In 1974, when she was traveling to meet a reporter from The New York Times with evidence of the infractions, a mystery vehicle accident claimed her life. Her paperwork was absent at the accident site. Her family successfully settled a negligence lawsuit against Kerr-McGee.
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6. Mark Felt
Senior FBI agent Mark Felt provided Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward with the material they needed to conduct their Watergate affair investigation between 1972 and 1974. To hide his identity from his superiors and the general public, he went by the alias “Deep Throat”. He was one of the most mysterious whistleblowers.
The Nixon administration’s involvement in unlawful actions including eavesdropping, burglary, sabotage, and cover-ups was exposed because of the vital information and leads he gave. After more than 30 years of rumors, it was finally made public in 2005 that he was a whistleblower.
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7. Jeffrey Wigand
The former vice president of research and development for one of the biggest tobacco corporations in America, Brown & Williamson, was Jeffrey Wigand. When he claimed that the firm had changed nicotine levels in cigarettes to make them more addictive and that it had hidden proof of the health dangers associated with smoking, he became known as a whistleblower in 1995.
Despite being sued by his previous employer and receiving threats of murder, he appeared before Congress and spoke with CBS’s 60 Minutes. His testimony paved the groundwork for more stringent cigarette product restrictions.
8. Sherron Watkins
Sherron Watkins served as a vice president for the energy firm Enron Corporation, which went bankrupt in 2001 after being shown to be one of the worst corporate frauds in history. Watkins warned Kenneth Lay, the CEO, in an unnamed letter that the business’ accounting practices were improper and immoral.
They would cause the company to go bankrupt and cause embarrassment. Later, she appeared before Congress to testify, and she helped the police look into Enron. She and two other whistleblowers received the 2002 Time Person of the Year award.
9. Chelsea Manning
A U.S. Army intelligence analyst named Chelsea Manning published hundreds of thousands of sensitive papers on the WikiLeaks website, which disseminates material from unidentified sources. The records included diplomatic cables, war journals, and video of an American helicopter strike in Iraq that claimed the lives of journalists and bystanders.
To reveal the truth about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to start a national conversation about human rights and foreign policy, according to Manning, she leaked the papers. She was detained in 2010 and given a 35-year jail term, but President Barack Obama commuted it in 2017.
10. Edward Snowden
Former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden exposed the scope of the United States and its allies’ global surveillance programs in 2013 by leaking millions of documents to journalists. He is one of the most famous whistleblowers.
The documents revealed how, frequently without warrants or supervision, the NSA and other intelligence agencies gathered and examined enormous amounts of data from phone conversations, emails, internet activity, and other sources. In order to educate the people and defend their civil liberties and privacy, according to Snowden, he disclosed the information. He escaped the United States and found refuge in Russia, where he is now.
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