Donnie Brasco book

Seen this in my local book shop. Should I buy it?

Sure why not, its a decent book..

If you are as much of a Mob buff as most of the people on this board(and I suspect you must be),definitely buy it.

Pistone's story is amazing and we get to hear about so much stuff that wasn't in the Brasco movie. If you liked the film, you will absolutely love the book.

The sections involving Tony Mirra and Frank Balistrieri alone are worth the price of the book.

To me it's kind of like the comparison between the Godfather movie and the film.Many will say that the movie didn't include enough from the novel.

I will definitely be acquiring this book. Thanks for the heads up.

I'll be curious to see what you think of the book. After you finish it,if it's not too much trouble,how about a quick post letting us know your impressions?

It's well worth the read if you are into the Bonanno's at all.

I also found another book Pistone wrote on eBay that claims he talks about the crimes they done that he couldn't mention in the Donnie Brasco book. Anyone ever read that one?

I think you mean "Unfinished Business."

It was half rehash of the first book, half boring stuff that happened later. And he came across as VERY egotistical in the latter book. I don't recommend it.

I think he wrote those other books ("Way of the Wiseguy" and "Unfinished Business") to try to capitalize on the popularity of "The Sopranos." Even cops have their greedy side .

Ya his other books weren't worth it. The original is a great book

Thanks PB and yes it was Unfinished Business you were right. Glad I post on here before buying ;-) Thanks!

I just picked this up today. Can't wait to read the chapter on Tony Mirra. Kind of tempted to read that chapter straight away lol.

Enjoy, which i'm sure you will.

Hundred pages in. Started pretty badly as the stuff about his pre-mob undercover work was very convoluted and could have been explained a little better but just as I expected, once he got into the mob stuff it gets very good. It's a page turner now!

Yea these agents like to talk about "how great they were" before telling the good shit. Never fails.

Just like I think it is funny how the Angiulo book I just read made John Connolly sound like he was a great agent who did no wrong.....

Yes. And a big weakness of the movie is that both were left out.

Frank Balistrieri, dead. Daughter, dead. And son Joey, dead. The son died I think before he turned 70. Anyone know how he died???

I've always said that, TB. Furthermore, the year Pistone spent with the Colombos would have made the film that much more fleshed out.

ya with jilly and those guys....whats interesting and i cant remember their names now but 2 of Jillys guys thought he was a rat or a cop right off the bat and wouldnt pull any scores with him

then i think jilly got killed for being a rat and he wasnt, if i remember correctly....been a while since ive read it

always thought the movie was cheesey, came off to hollywood for me

i hated johnny depp as donnie

A good companion piece to Pistone's book is Friend of the Family by D Lea Jacobs about Egdar Robb, the UC FBI who worked with Pistone on the Florida side of the operation, what he has to tell is interesting as well. He worked in Buffalo/Pittsbourgh before going to florida and tried getting a garbage racket going with some Gambino associates in Florida.

The two guys were Frankie and Patsy.

ill take a look, thanks

I wonder how Robb felt about his portrayal in the movie. They really made him out to be a naive jackass. You're gonna plotz .

One thing in the book that I never bought into was Pistone's claim that the Commission put a half-million-dollar price on his head. The Commission doesn't have a standing army to wage war on foes of the Mafia, nor a treasury to finance wars. And, the only thing Mafia Dons have in common is greed, and distrust of each other. I can't imagine why any Don would contribute a dime toward avenging a mistake the Bonnannos made through their own stupidity.

I read a book that some FBI agents wrote that bugged Big Paul and they claim they visited him about the 500k contract on Pistone and he told them they had nothing to worry about and I believe it. There is no way they had that much for him if there was any contract on his head to begin with.

Finished it. Very good stuff. Jeez that Lefty guy was annoying as fuck. Sonny Black sounded like a guy you could play pool with though.

Didn't have enough dirt on Galante or the three murdered capos for my liking but I understand that Donnie wasn't in the loop with all that...

Like Galante's death just comes up out of nowhere and the three murdered capos at that.

Also.. Bruno Indelicato is described as bald in the book but any pictures I have seen of him, he has hair.

And I'm pretty sure the people supposedly involved in the three capos murder are not the same people listed in other sources. With Sciascia and Massino (I think), he didn't mention any involvement.

Well, you have to remember that that book was originally published in 1988. And except for the paperback revision in 1989, they never bothered to update it again. And Massino didn't flip until 2004.

Yea Pistone never was privy to that info until Massino flipped and told who all was there. I'm not even sure the "real" story came out until he flipped and testified against Vito Rizzuto.

And Moe you could tell in the book that Pistone really thought a lot of Sonny Black and that Lefty really annoyed him. To me that just shows how good of a job he did while undercover to get their trust like that. I honestly think all Lefty seen was the money aspect of it and Sonny actually considered Donnie a friend.

One of favourite books on the mob, love to see a TV show version of this with all the new info over years after it was released 😃