While there's no way Joe Pistone could ever safely walk down Mulberry Street, I hardly believe that the mob was seriously, actively trying to kill a federal agent much less his family. Not the mafia of that era, certainly.
I never believed it, myself. I'm sure there's some kernel of truth somewhere - perhaps a wiretap where some Bonanno hothead or another said "we should kill that guy!" or some capo who flippantly said they'd pay half a million bucks to see him dead, or something to such effect that it could be alluded to as a "contract" on Pistone's life. But I doubt big Joey sat his captains down and said "get on this". And given the era I'd be almost equally certain that at the commission level, Chin, Big Paul and Ducks would have been unanimous in saying "no revenge, let this go and end it here."
No evidence of the supposed "contract" was ever really presented, to my knowledge. And in all the years that have followed Joe has taken advantage of every bit of publicity he can get which tells me he's not above going out there and saying whatever he has to say to get attention.
So I call BS.
He actually was on Mulberry Street a few times many years ago. I red the story, it was while he was the consultant on a tv show. He was without any disguise, right in the open. No one touched him, what is funny is that most people if not all residents did not know who he was. It was written about 10 years after he infiltrated the mob.
