The "price" on a rat's head?

So there was never an actual price or fee on a whack, Franzese said. If you were called on by the boss to whack someone, you just did it - there was no extra financial sweetener to get you out of bed.

The story about the half-million fee for the Donny Brasco (Joe Pistone) contract hit was allegedly pure bullshit. Sure, they want him whacked, but there's no half-million pay check.

Donny Brasco was not a Rat. He was an agent doing his job. Also the contract was indeed bullshit and as to wanting him dead, maybe just in thought by some but, to actualy do it or attempt to would be total suicide on their part. No Boss would have authorized that.

Well put. The other undercover in that operation (the guy who they made a goofball of in Florida in the movie, which is total bullshit), lives under his own name and actually went on to become a Town Marshall or something to that effect. He stayed in law enforcement after testifying under his own name. Pistone milks that 500k rumor for everything it's worth, with those stupid fucking sunglasses. If they ever hit a Fed it would make the Commission Trial look like a jaywalking ticket. Believe that.

Yeah tony Rossi , I've got the book friend of the family . It's quite a decent read

Pistone could relocate to Bensonhurst and not get hit. Look at Toto Riina. He had those two prosecutors hit and look how the authorities retaliated. It makes zero sense to hit a figure like that.

If they knew about Pistone being an agent during his time with the Bonnano's then he'd have went. But after the fact? It's not worth the hassle.

I don't think he would have went. They would do what Massino did, stay away from him or start making all sort of innocent statements to screw up the Feds case. If they would have killed him the same thing that happened in the Hatcher case would happen.

No, he wouldn't have "gone." If they got tipped that he was a Fed they would have just steered clear of him. This isn't Sicily. It's not even Canada in that regard.

Not even if they knew, 100 percent he was a fed? Admittedly I bow to your superior judgement PB. I just would have thought that in the late 70's, an era more violent than now, that if people knew for definite that someone in their ranks was a fed/agent then they would get rid of them.

It's interesting to think about it though hypothetically. Say you had a guy who was close to him, and had discussed business with him for years. He then knows for sure that this guy is a rat. He surely would know that he's going to testify, and that the likelihood is that he'll go down as a result of that. So for me I would have thought that it would be case of nothing to lose.

You learn every day

IIRC even Pistone was saying the danger wasnt his discovery as a FED but rather suspicion he was a rat.

IE They wouldnt touch a Fed but they'd hit a rat.

Yep, makes sense.

Perfectly put. Lock it up.

I go after Feds. Malcolm Turnbull is Neville Wran's illegitimate son - just ask George 'Balls' Balos.

has the mafia ever clipped any one who went into witness protection?

A guy who Ratted on Jackie Cerone Got Blown up in his car in the early 1970s .

No

The Bonannos (or any other family for that matter) would NEVER knowingly hit a FED...the only way Pistone would have gotten clipped is if they merely thought he was an informant, and my guess is that if it came down to that, Pistone would have somehow ID'd himself as agent in a hurry!!

Even if it was true, that would've had to pull the trigger man out of Bellevue hospital since the average guy would've made excuses as to why he couldn't find Pistone. I knew ppl who met Pistone while he alledgely hung out with that degenerate gambler, schizophrenic drunk Lefty. The biggest mistake was too allow that drunkard to keep his button and I said it. Heard stories that nobody had ever seen him without being drunk including that lefty didn't bathe or sleep much. Lefty had pretty much lost all his friends before Pistone got to him. Guys told me that he was a real energy suck and walked around with piss stains in his pants. Hell Pistone even said he went for the weakest link in the chain.

Barboza from new England big in San Fran put alot of guys in jail and got what he had coming. Got was a stone killer more serial like.

Yeah, but you really can't count guys who left the program and didn't follow the rules. Today things are different. You have high-profile rats walking the streets.

It's a moot point, anyway. Because years ago, when they'd search far and wide to hit a rat (Frattiano, Hill, Cafaro, Featherstone, the Philly and Lucchese rats from the '80s, et al.), we never would have found out anyway. The Government would cover up those murders as tight as Homeland Security. Because it would kill their business.

If it ever got out that a protected witness was hit, the WITSEC Program would look MUCH less attractive to the wiseguys, to say the very least. If it got out, there would be far less guys willing to flip. No way the Goverment allows such a murder to become public.

some informers still have to hide though like scars, massimo vitale etc

its the guys like cicale who dont need to hide because they are low level

i dont think they will go looking for rats but if they knew where they are then maybe esp the big time guys i know there was guys on the way to kill sammy gravano before he got arrested fat sal and that kid nwho used to be sammy who took over his shy when sammy flipped

Tommy Huck Carbonaro

Hitting Massino would be absoluute suicide. They've known where Al D'Arco lives in Florida for years, and he put away Amuso and Casso. He's even had a few guys visit him down there who don't hold a grudge because he did nothing to hurt them.

As far as Huck looking for Sammy, that was almost twenty years ago. And last I heard, Sammy's still breathing and Huck's parole officer hasn't been born yet. Besides, had they succeeded, the damage would have made the Gotti trial look like a DUI.

Times change. Hitting a rat after the fact doesn't help anyone, anyway. And the Feds would look at it like it was one of their own because their security was breached. The smarter Bosses (and the big three each have one) realize this.

I mean, the scenario you described was kind of similar to the Gus Farace situation...and you can see how the families responded to a situation similar to one you describe...

the feds put major heat on them and they killed him themselves

true

i always wonder what would have happened if sammy did get whacked i mean peter gotti got life for the plotting of the murder he said he paid 70k for weapons and transport. If sammy got whacked the press would have gone nuts it would prob be international news

still i do wonder maybe guys would be less likely to rat who knows


amuso and casso are brooklyn guys they are both in the can for life and casso is a rat i mean al hardly has to worry i mean its bronx guys running the family i know he was going to testify against steve (he plead out) about that meeting in the early 90s where they talked about killing barratta after casso took al and steve down from acting boss and consgliere and made that panel. But steve is hardly going to hold a grudge he knew little about his business.

And the brooklyn guys who are here today most are shelved the ones who were not shelved who were around in als day are either old or dead (frank lagno) no one cares about him



would hitting a rat like massimo do the mob good long term though guys would fear ratting