Do you respect Joe Pistone, then and now

Pistone, as Donnie Brasco, was tenacious and amazing as an undercover. He deserves an Oscar for his performance, but I'm curious to know what others think about him, especially now, with the sunglasses and all.

What pistone did took major balls. I remember him tellin a story that he had to talk his way outta gettin whacked during a meeting. And after that he still continued his undercover operation. Pistone def got my respect. Sad to see the fbi reward him with $500 for all the shit he went through. Law enforcement can be scum at times, but joe pistone is the real deal.

I enjoyed the story. But I find it ironic how the fbi set out to infiltrate the mob because of its illegal activities and as a result Sonny Black and Mirra get whacked. Pistone shrugs it off as it's all part of the game. Yet he wears his ridiculous sunglasses and makes the $500k contract claim. To me that's all part of the game. I grew up and live close by to wear they had the Florida night club. It was a little town north of Tampa on the gulf coast. I wish that place was still open. Instead, well, just watch live pd when they're in Pasco. Because that's where the club was. After they got busted, one of the local sheriff's who was on the pay role ended up killing himself. They busted a back room casino. Way to go guys. Now the Seminole Indians run a casino in talks with video roulette, tons of slots, black Jack, poker, and no other table games. Drinks are through the roof and a couple of years ago they tried making you pay for parking. The fbi needs to get their priorities straight.

Yes I respect him. He did an excellent job first and foremost. It took balls the size of grapefruits to go that deep undercover in that world. And he didn't just convince in any one aspect of it. He convinced these guys he was the real deal in almost every conceivable regard. I've watched a lot of mob documentaries, and there is one or two in particular, where agents who went undercover are interviewed - and even to me as a television viewer I cringe at how unconvincing and transparent they are in portraying wiseguys. Maybe some people have the impression this stuff is easier than it looks. I mean it's not like he was going undercover as a social justice warrior or something. That's easy. Try going undercover as a soccer hooligan or a gay person in order to solve a crime in those circles. It would be like trying to learn Dutch in two weeks.

So what if he exaggerates? He's an old man now and it's probably the most action, and most excitement, he got in his professional life, the highlight of his career. He did a good job, let him enjoy his moment in the sun.

He did a difficult job, and obviously he did it well. However, I heard that he did do things that undercover agents shouldn't do, although I can't personally confirm those claims. Though it does stand to reason that for the length of time he was undercover, he had to do some things that were probably against FBI rules. But in the end, results are what the FBI wants and even if he did break some protocol he sent a lot of bad guys to prison.

I agree with Moe. Pistone went undercover in the 1970s when the mob was still powerful and don't full of rats like today,he spent 6 y of his life and risked everyday to be killed.The 500k contract on his head may be exaggerated but for sure he watched his back if a fucked wannabe would whack him for made a reputation in the mob corner. If the gambinos send a hit squadin arizona for Sammy the bull who can't say that the bonannos thinked to do the same.

Co-signed 100%

We also have to remember that Pistone went undercover for 5 years, during a time when the Mob was totally different than it is today. The late 70's and early 80's were probably the most violent time period in the history of crime in NYC. The man dealt as an undercover agent with a total psycho killer like Tony Mirra on a daily fuckin' basis for chrissake!! That took balls, PERIOD..

And yes, Pistone loves the image he portrays in all those documentaries and interviews, with the sunglasses and shit, but like Moe said: ''So fucking what??''
Franzese even said in that interview he did with that guy from Valuetainement, that when they did interviews or lectures together, most people thought Pistone was the former wiseguy and Franzese the former FBI agent LOL

Agreed Moe. Besides the fact that he went undercover at a time when the Mob was very powerful he also missed out on family functions,his kids growing up,and even when his wife had a horrific car accident. He did his job and was mentally tough. Did he exaggerate some things? Possibly but doesnt change the fact that he was a big reason why the mob started to crack

LOL, but well said I agree 100%.

Johnny Depp played him in a movie. He must lay in bed sometimes and think about that, to this day. 'Johnny Depp played me in a movie. Johnny Depp played me in a movie'. He should walk around every day in a t-shirt that says that.... probably not around Brooklyn, though.

For the people who haven't seen it yet, here is a great interview with Pistone by Patrick Bet-David:

PIstone started his lies of a hit out on him when he was still young, and capitalized on it with not only 2 books when one would have done, but tv shows and his doing interview after interview where he repeats his big lie about the hit on him.

It was actually Kefauver and Bobby Kennedy who were the catalysts. They laid the framework for ending the control of unions and politicians, limiting the rackets to the streets.

If the Mafia do the hit, the work must be done for free. That's just a part of being a made man. (That's what Michael Franzese said, anyway.) But if a non-Mafia guy gets the chance to whack Pistone, maybe that's when the hit-money is paid. (Not sure, just sayin')

Was Tony Mirra dating the actress Goldie Hawn when she was strung out on heroin? I know she was linked to a wiseguy who was bisexual and liked group sex.

Mirra doesn't seem like that type of guy to me.

These Tony Mirra stories have gotten out of hand. He was a bad guy, but the new rumors and stories about him keep popping up years after he is dead. In a few more years someone will post that he was involved in AntiFa, Russian Collusion, and fixing upcoming World Series.

What he did was incredible, and the only really great infiltration by any agent. Jack Gariai/Falcone exaggerates, but Pistone was for real. However his going over the top ruins his rep to me. He was never going to be made, nor was Garcia.Pistone got very deep with that crew, but he never got involved to any serious degree with he Genovese, Gambino, and others. Sonny Black taking him to meet Traficante is an all time screw up by the mob, and great for by an agent. Psitone should have just stuck to the truth, his lies since have tarnished his image, except to fanboys.

I heard he just banged her when she was a nobody..didn't know she was on H..

DePalma is actually on tape saying that he got the OK for Falcone/Garcia to be made.. It could be of course that DePalma was merely stringing Garcia along, maybe to get some bigger envelopes or something like that..

I highly respect Pistone for is accomplishment..alas, until when my wife & I went 2 see him @The Free Library of Phila. 4 a book signing & lecture & he mentioned that he totally supports & respects Lin DeVecchio…...my opinion of him lowered greatly.

The irony!

DeVecchio was the one who said "We're gonna win this thing" to another agent, while openly rooting for one side in the Colombo war. This is where the Sopranos got the line.

HEY DONNIE! HEY DONNIE! YOU FUCKIN RAT!


But seriously, I too think Moe summed it up pretty well. The sunglasses and 500k contract thing is getting old, but the guy did an amazing job. However, hoodlum makes a good point that I had forgotten about. The support of DeVecchio.

He also supported Dirty Agent Connolly in Boston.

Spoken like a true deluded fanboy. No irony, just truth.

Fanboy of an FBI agent?

I suppose you think kids should look up to people like the Gotti's instead of athletes or firemen or police.

Such delusion.

Reminds me of Gotti rooting for Iraq to win the Gulf War and for American soldiers to die when himself and Gravano were watching the news in the MCC.

Yu belive Gravano's made up story? Every topic on Gotti or Merlino is interrupted by you preaching to us, you had no ned here to start stuff with me, so back off. I did not say anything about you.

Yes. Everything Gravano says is a lie and everything the Gotti's say is the gospel truth. Because the Gotti's are so honest and forthright.

Enough with the persecution complex BTW. You reply to threads I create and comments I make and I don't say anything. Stop moaning whenever I post something you don't like.

The "Pistone fanboys" comment was clearly shade directed at me, too. How stupid do you think we are?

He had balls, no doubt. He didn't need to hurt his credibility with the sunglasses and $500K "bounty" he claims he still has on his head, that's preposterous. I remember when that "Falcone" show was out, which I guess was sort of a more fictionalized version of Donnie Brasco, he was doing promos for it on Letterman, getting interviewed with the glasses. They had some gag as if some mob guys were attempting to whack him while he was being interviewed, which I thought was pretty funny. In the show he plays a bartender and the episode I saw he helps garrote some guy from behind the bar and he wasn't even wearing his trademark sunglasses in the role, ha. So he plays that up and I don't blame him. Why wouldn't you?

Was that "Falcone" show any good? I have some VHS tapes from when I recorded it while it was airing, but I think it ended up getting cancelled pretty quick. Titus Welliver played the "Sonny" Black type role and he was good, he's a good actor. Jason Gedrick was the Pistone or "Falcone" role.

I think you are stupid, not others on site, so don't say "We". I never ever said I believe everything Gotti says, and I directed no comment to you. This is the third time you have started arguing with me. I asked you to knock it off, yet you keep it going and blame me. Last time, leave me alone.

That is correct.

That also is fact.

I think there was a reference to it in the Sopranos, in one scene the agent investigating Tony says the same thing in front of his fellow agents after getting word about a killing of a Soprano rival.

Here it is


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK68ziSJABk

I don't care what anyone says, after reading the credible book "Deal w/ the Devil",Lin Devecchio is worse than Scarpa..a real scumbag..especially after reading about that poor detective Simone that they framed.

This is probably the first time we have diametrically opposed opinions H, in my eyes Lance is a propagandist for hire. He did the same kind of work for the Gottis..

And while I absolutely do believe DeVecchio 'crossed the line' more than once in his relationship (he even calls it a friendship) with Scarpa. I do not believe he gave Scarpa info on who, when and where he could kill his enemies in the Colombo war and even before that time with victims like Mari Bari and Joe Brewster..

Btw, in response to other posts: DeVecchio's book was even called WE'RE GOING TO WIN THIS THING.

EDIT:
If I'm completely honest, I have to admit that I'm probably a little biased because I just read DeVecchio's book and I haven't read Lance his book. I only read his book with Junior Gotti and some stuff on his website that I didn't find objective. But Nicky from Tampa also spoke highly of Lance's book about Scarpa, so I'm going to read it because now I'm very curious if it will change my opinion..

Here is a shocking interview with Pistone. The part that he would kill someone is IMHO when Pistone crossed the line. He was not an Agent then he was a gangster. The fact that he would kill someone in furtherance of an investigation is mind boggling. Now it makes sense why he vouches for DelVecchio and Connolly. Surprised he doesnt vouch for the Mob Cops too.

http://www.thechicagosyndicate.com/2007/01/joe-pistone-confesses-to-crimes-as-mob.html

Monday, January 29, 2007
Joe Pistone Confesses to Crimes as Mob Mole
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Friends of ours: Bonanno Crime Family, Gambino Crime Family, Benjamin "Lefty Guns" Ruggiero, Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano, Anthony "Bruno" Indelicato, Carmine Galante
Friends of mine: "Donnie Brasco"

Legendary FBI agent Joe Pistone is confessing for the first time that he broke the law during the years he spent undercover as mob wanna-be Donnie Brasco.

Warehouse burglaries. Beatings. Truck hijackings. And even a conspiracy to murder a Bonanno crime family capo.

In his new memoir, Pistone details the crimes he committed to prove his loyalty to the gang he eventually took down. "Sometimes you have to do stuff you don't normally do, you wouldn't do," Pistone told the Daily News, which got an exclusive peek at "Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business."

For instance, there was the phone call that came in 1981 when Pistone and his mob buddies were playing cards in Brooklyn's Motion Lounge.

It was a tip that Bonanno big Anthony (Bruno) Indelicato, who took part in the infamous 1979 rubout of Gambino boss Carmine Galante, was camped out on Staten Island.

On the orders of his own capo, Dominick (Sonny Black) Napolitano, Pistone headed out to find Indelicato - with a .25-caliber automatic.

It turned out the caller had bum information, but the former lawman admits he would have pulled the trigger on Indelicato before jeopardizing his life or the operation. "If Bruno's there, he's gone," Pistone writes.

"If I have to put a bullet in his head, I will, and I'll deal with the federal government and the Staten Island DA later. ... There's no doubt they both would charge me for murder. The Bureau would brand me a rogue agent and hang me out."

During his six years infiltrating Sonny Black's vicious crew, Pistone dug up enough evidence to put away nearly 200 mobsters, all while making life-or-death decisions on how far to take his role-playing.

Now 65, the New Jersey native lives with his wife in an unidentified location, but will come out of hiding for a book tour in the coming weeks.

Over the years, Pistone - portrayed by Johnny Depp in the 1997 movie "Donnie Brasco" - has been cagey when discussing how he gained the trust of an insular gang of suspicious men because revealing more could have damaged prosecutions. But his most revealing book to date details the incredible lengths he went to.

Take the beating he delivered on two druggies dumb enough to stick up Pistone and his mob pal Benjamin (Lefty Guns) Ruggiero in the stairwell of a Little Italy walkup. "You just saw two dead punks run down the stairs," Ruggiero told him.

At Ruggiero's urging, Pistone caught up with them a few days later near Little Italy and meted out the punishment. "He hit the pavement as if I'd had a roll of dimes in my right fist," Pistone writes.

"I looked down at the kid on the ground and realized he was out cold and so I sprung suddenly and hauled off an overhand right on the other one and he went down ... "From the kidney blows they bled piss for weeks. And until the breaks healed they had no use of their fingers for such things as shooting a gun."

It was savage, but Pistone says the beating saved their lives. "Otherwise they would have got killed," Pistone said. "Either I go take care of it or they [the mob] will. You don't stick up a wiseguy and live to tell about it." He's quick to point out that the assaults he carried out always involved thieves or other wiseguys. "No citizens got hurt," he said.

Pistone also admits getting cuts of between $2,500 and $5,000 from warehouse burglaries he took part in but says he turned over the money to the FBI.

He doesn't offer details on the hijackings he carried out. But he admits that "my participation in Mafia hijacking has always been an open sore for me, something that I have hesitated to talk about."

Even after 30 years, Pistone is still angry that the FBI didn't let him stay undercover longer so that he could become a made man. "Imagine if I had been made," Pistone writes. "It would have been the biggest humiliation the Mafia had ever suffered. And it was the one chance the FBI would ever have to pull it off.

"Imagine the embarrassment for the Mafia from coast to coast and all the way to Sicily whenthe news got out that the exalted Bonanno crime family had made an agent."

Thanks to Thomas Zambito

In his defense he never said he would follow through with orders to kill Indelicato or that it was his intent to kill Indelicato. What he was saying is that he would've prioritised his life over Indelicato's if it turned into a life and death situation; he would've used self-defense.

@BillyBrizzi

I hear what you're saying re: mob books with a biased narrative and propaganda etc.

It's why I don't plan on reading Junior Gotti's book, or John Alite's book, or the book by Joe Colombo's son.

If I read a book about Gotti written by Jerry Capeci at least I know it will have the cold hard facts, and I won't be putting money in the pockets of a killer or someone who profited in some way from murder.

Sorry Moe, but I don't see it that way. I get the "jeopardizing his life" part but NOT for the "operation" part.

In the latest AHC episode about Pistone, he says that he was called to a meeting where two Bonanno soldiers accused him of not being a jewel thief and that he might be FBI. His mentor Jilly was there and defended him and Pistone punched one of his accusers.

There's no way to know if these accounts are true. I doubt this one.

He's been telling that story for yrs....I believe it..he says that if he didn't sucker punch the non-made guy, he would have lost face & became (more) un-believable,,never had any identity problems after that ,except ,now Tony Mirra took notice.

Another claim by Pistone is that he was and is that he is still the target of a $500K mob contract. Have any other sources verified that? Years ago, in another mob related episode, that claim was disputed.

Yeah I'm not a big fan of this DeVecchio either.

Agreed. Look i dont like that Pistone was "going to bat" for Devecchio BUT i still consider them different. Pistone never fell in love with those guys like Devecchio admitted he did. Pistone was there to put those guys in jail and didnt feel any obligation to help them or feel sorry for them. Devecchio admits he had a genuine friendship with the grim reaper and got close to crossing the line(although we know he went past it).

I think that's water under the bridge, I saw a video of him outside the Motion lounge..& somebody screamed out their car window "f------- rat!...why didn't they stop? like w/ a lot of old stoolies...nobody gives enough a shit ..was 2 long ago..besides , who's gonna fork over that kind of $$ nowadays 4 that old man who was a cop just doin; his job..like Sonny Black said...(..if it was anybody , I'm glad it was him...).

The glasses are a joke, like we wouldn't recognize him without them..But he had big balls...He went after the mob when they had dozens and dozens of killers, not like Garcia going after the weakest crew he could find !!

It's a lie by Pistone. He did a good job getting into that crew, but in trying to capitalize on it he lost his self respect in search of the Almighty dollar and his ego.

Well, who would you tend to believe? An FBI agent or criminals who lie, cheat, thieve and murder for a living? I know who I'd believe. Even if he's exaggerating, let him, he served his country, and put his ass on the line to put bad people away.

FBI agnets have been caught lying, cheating, and stealing, plus sending innocent people to prison. Also kidnappings. So they are not believable at all. Pistone lied about a bounty on his head, he's a proven liar.

Jace,

Firstly I want to apologise publicly for losing my temper and being terse with you before my suspension.

Secondly could you provide instances for what you speak of because I am sincerely interested in learning more about it? Who are these FBI agents you speak of and what kidnappings do you refer to?

Personally I wouldn't label FBI agents like that but that's your prerogative and you are definitely entitled to it. There are outliers in every profession, whether it's the clergy, or the FBI, or charity organisations.

But over 99% of FBI agents do their jobs conscientiously.

The mafia, by definition, are criminals who contribute the sum total of zero to society, and even when they go "legitimate" it's with proceeds from crime and/or a front for criminal endeavours.

Thank you, and again, I reiterate my apologies for the way I spoke to you in the past. I hope we can move forward.

I have the utmost respect for what Pistone did when he was infiltrating the mob. I do think he kind of exaggerates the danger he is currently in though. The mob does not usually harm cops, most of those guys are dead or on jail and it's been several decades. That being said, the man had balls to go undercover around people who were more than capable of killing.

Why wouldn't he exaggerate it, though? It's his gimmick. He makes dough from it and he's entitled to. Look at it as a wink and nod. As you say, he had brass balls to do what he did. He did a commendable job at washing a little scum off the streets and he didn't do it behind a desk, he was on the frontline, putting his ass on the line for people like you and me.

Fine with me.