{I delayed posting this in the hopes that the WSJ. would
release this very long article at some point for public {non-
WSJ-subscriber} availability, so I merely could type-in a
URL Web-link, but alas, it never came to pass!?}
 
In his journey from Enron Corp. whiz kid to convicted felon,
to star government witness, Ben Glisan Jr. says he faced ag-
gressive prosecutors, hostile prison officials.. and "Mikey."
 
In late 2004, Mr. Glisan was locked up in Houston's federal de-
tention center. He was nervous. Government snitches aren't well
treated by other inmates, and the next day Mr. Glisan, who'd
been given the prison nickname "Benron," was scheduled to tes-
tify against his former colleagues.
 
..Mikey, who described himself as a member of the Mafia, was
Mr. Glisan's cellmate.-- The heavy metal cell door clanged shut
for the night, and the interrogation began, Mr. Glisan recalls. Did
Enron dump him, Mikey asked? Essentially, Mr. Glisan replied.
Did Enron owe Mr. Glisan money? It did. Did Enron promise to
take care of him when the dust settled?..No. "So, they basically
threw you under the bus?" In that case, Mikey said, testifying was
okay.
.. Mr. Glisan breathed a silent sigh of relief. Until then, "I thought
I was going to have to fight this guy to get to the "panic button,"
and call the guards.
.. In September 2003, Mr. Glisan became the first in a long line of
Enron executives to enter prison. The energy giant's December 2001
collapse marked the beginning of an era of corporate criminal cases
that continued to play out {in mid-April of 2007} with the conviction
of the former Qwest Communication's Inter-national's CEO, Joseph
Nacchio, on 19 counts of insider {stock} trading.
 
During Mr. Glisan's projected three years in prison, he worried about
his physical safety, especially, as he became an important government
witness. To protect himself, he applied the same types of skills that
helped him climb the corporate ladder. He formed relationships with
prison gang leaders, and negotiated with federal officials over the
conditions of his incarceration.

.. Mr. Glisan even won over Mikey. After approving of the decision
to testify, Mikey.. Mr. Glisan doesn't recall the man's real name,
offered to find someone who would collect the onetime accountant's
money from Enron. Mr. Glisan demurred, but made sure to say thanks.
After that encounter, "going on the witness stand was easy," Glisan
says.
The son of a financial planner, Mr. Glisan, age-41 {whose pic you
can probably see.. under, Ben Glisan Jr., on Google/images} was
raised in an upper-middle-class home in the same suburban Houston
area where he now lives, south of downtown. In college, he gravitated
to studying business. He joined Enron in 1996 armed with an MBA {de-
gree} from the University of Texas, and experience working at account-
ing firms. {to be, continued.. in about, 5-6 hours}