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[25][26], Pistone lives in an undisclosed location with his wife Maggie and their three daughters, under assumed names. February 27, 2023 equitable estoppel california No Comments . [15][16] About Napolitano's fate, Pistone had stated, "My intention in all of this was to put people in jail, not get them killed". The death of Hoover in 1972 ushered in a new era, and when the FBI needed an agent to go undercover in the Mob, a shortage of Italian agents made Pistone ideal for the role. [5][6] He is of Calabrian and Sicilian heritage, and grew up in Paterson, New Jersey,[3][5] where he attended Eastside High School. [1] By dodging this bullet, the family kept its leadership intact and was able to consolidate its power once again. 17 days later, they killed Sonny black, Pistone said during a 2007 interview. Pistone went to school to learn about precious gems, and the FBI set him up with an apartment in New York and one in Florida, while . He met and married Sue; they were married for 27 years, and no children were born during this marriage. For instance, where I reside, my neighbors don't know who I am," he says. The idea, Pistone says, was to go after the crime family's fences rather than the "made men" themselves, who were considered to be virtually untouchable. After days of negotiating between Pistone and lawyers over having Pistone testify in disguise, Connollys lawyer decided to not call Pistone as a witness after all. Ruggiero soon became successful in bookmaking, extortion and loansharking rackets. The FBI organized a six-month undercover operation, known as "Sun-Apple" to infiltrate the fences. The decision to put Pistone into this undercover role was made by the FBI's office in New York City, home of the five main Mafia familiesBonanno, Gambino, Colombo, Genovese, and Lucchese. They were never seen alive again. When Pistone's operation was ended on July 26, 1981, the FBI intercepted and arrested Ruggiero on August 29, 1981. Personal Donnie Brasco? Grisham, John 1955 Advertisement. July 27 (UPI) -- Forty years ago, one of the FBI's greatest success stories against organized crime in the United States came to an official end after six years -- Operation Donnie Brasco, a saga led by a brazen undercover agent who later would be portrayed by Johnny Depp in a hit motion picture. So, the man . Joe Pistone (I) Actor Writer Director IMDbPro Starmeter See rank Play demo reel 2:56 JOE PISTONE THEATRICAL REEL 3 Videos 23 Photos Joe Pistone was born and raised in Northern New Jersey and attended the University of North Carolina at Wilmington where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Theatre. [11][2] However, Pistone's superiors decided that the operation was becoming too dangerous and set an end date of July 26, 1981. Video related to what happened to the fbi agent who took down the bonanno crime family? In fact, Pistone was so good at earning the trust of higher-ups in the feared Bonanno family -- namely Anthony Mirra, Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero and Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano -- that he eventually earned consideration for promotion as a "made man" himself. [24], While Pistone's infiltration decimated the Bonanno family, the family was consequently not a main target in the Mafia Commission Trial that saw the top leadership of the Five Families sent to prison, as the Bonannos had already been kicked off the Commission. 1982)", "Tight-hit Family Close Cuz Chosen to Kill 'Brasco' Wiseguy", "Family Ties Made It Easy to Whack Cuz: Mob Thug", "After 20 years, ex-agent applauds mob bust", "6 Get Jail Terms in Rackets Case Tied to Mobsters", "Fact file: Who is Joe Pistone a.k.a. Written by undercover FBI agent Joseph Pistone. We showed how families across the country were all involved in this criminal enterprise known as the American Mafia.". Likewise, there is the syntactical distinction between the way a mobster refers to someone outside the Mafia"He's a friend of mine"and the way he identifies a "made man": "He's a friend of ours. Photo courtesy FBI, Pennsylvania woman missing for more than 30 years found in Puerto Rico. Due to his gambling problem, Ruggiero was always trying to hide his few assets from his creditors Marangello and Sabella. Joe Pistone, undercover as Donnie Brasco (sitting), on the Abscam boat off the coast of Miami with another undercover agent, John Ligato (episode 21), and two Cleveland wise guys. While working as an undercover agent, he provided FBI with crucial information regarding the mafia and its criminal ways. Joseph Pistone in New York We found 11 records for Joseph Pistone in Salisbury Mills, Wantagh and 9 other cities in New York. ", "You can't lead your life thinking every day that somebody is going to whack you," he said then. Pistone spent six years posing as a mobster named Donnie Brasco inside the Bonanno crime family. "Pistone, Joseph D. In this book, Pistone "details the habits, language, individual quirks and common connections that separate Wise Guys from normal society," noted an interviewer on the Bada-Bing Blog Web site. Select the best result to find their address, phone number, relatives, and public records. 15 + 3 equals? [2], Pistone was responsible for a lucrative business venture in Holiday, Florida, when he opened and operated the King's Court Bottle Club. of 2 NEXT Pistone resigned from the FBI in 1986, but returned in 1992 and spent four more years as an agent. The star of hit VH1 reality show "Mob Wives" ordered armed thugs to abduct a man off a Chelsea street so she could shake him down for cash and jewelry, the alleged victim told cops. Joseph D. Pistone. To settle the debt this time, the family arranged to transfer the revenues from part of Ruggiero's criminal operations directly to Marangello. New York Times, February 9, 1986, Arnold H. Lubasch, "Agent Tells about Tension in Bonnano Group," p. A47; January 26, 1988, Arnold H. Lubasch, "Inside the Mob: An Agent Recalls 'Game of Wits,'" interview with Joseph D. Pistone, p. B1; March 3, 1997, Bernard Weintraub, "A Tale of Gangsters and Schemers Rings True because It Is," motion picture review of Donnie Brasco, p. C11. [2] After the 1979 murder of Carmine Galante, Pistone reported to captain Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano. "All these hijackings were controlled by the Mafia. Napolitano later contacted Pistone, whom he hoped to make a made man,[8] to murder Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato's son, Anthony "Bruno" Indelicato,[9] who had previously evaded death after missing a May 1981 meeting which left Indelicato, Phillip Giaccone, and Dominick Trinchera dead. "I don't have an axe to grind," he later told Michael Arena of in Newsday. [3] He died on November 24, 1994. Mirra and Napolitano were murdered shortly afterwards. 1939(? Ruggiero reportedly owned a cigarette boat that he kept docked on the East River in New York. Brasco was able to convince Ruggiero that he did not know the boat's owner was related to the FBI.[6]. He also continued to testify against the mob when called upon. It ultimately led to more than 100 federal convictions through the commission and "Pizza Connection" cases. Here in this NJ Blue Now exclusive, he . View a full description of this video . And then, DiGiaimo recalled: "After a few months he disappeared. Organized crime was rampant in New York City during the 1970s, and despite decades of efforts, law enforcement never got close to touching the city's top crime families. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. Best Match Powered by Whitepages Premium AGE 50s Joseph Pistone Jackson, NJ View Full Report Addresses Laurelton Ave, Jackson, NJ NW 11th St, Pembroke Pines, FL [36], "Donnie Brasco" redirects here. Five, including 2 children, killed in early morning New York house fire. The Commission have now created new rules that determine who can join the mafia. March 4 (UPI) -- Three children are dead and two others remain hospitalized Saturday after a domestic incident in a North Texas town, authorities said. November 24, 1994 is the most commonly cited death date, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia, "Long mob war over jewelry collection likely to leave 'Mob Wives' star less than bedazzled", "TIGHT-HIT FAMILY CLOSE CUZ CHOSEN TO KILL 'BRASCO' WISEGUY", "FAMILY TIES MADE IT EASY TO WHACK CUZ: MOB THUG", "United States v. Napolitano, 552 F. Supp. FBI agent Joseph Pistone (alias "Donnie Brasco") infiltrated the Bonanno family in 1976 and went undetected for years, rising through the ranks. Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series. "The mob you see in this movie," Pistone told Span, "that's the true Mafia." - World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal Narratives - United States. Nowadays, Pistone says he's still busy writing and producing. Photo courtesy FBI, An FBI surveillance photograph shows Joseph D. Pistone (L), as "Donnie Brasco," with mobster Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero and FBI agent Edgar Robb (R) as "Tony Rossi." July 27 (UPI) -- Forty years ago, one of the FBI's greatest success stories against organized crime in the United States came to an official end after six years -- Operation Donnie Brasco, a saga led by a brazen undercover agent who later would be portrayed by Johnny Depp in a hit motion picture. Worked as a teacher, c. 1960s; employed by federal government in Navy intelligence section for three years, late 1960s; Federal Bureau of Investigation, agent, c. 197086; security consultant, 198696. Ruggiero recognized the boat, the Left Hand, as the same boat Brasco provided several months before for a party. Nevada landed in UFO spotlight 75 years ago, Skinwalker Ranch and the hitchhiker effect. Trump legal team requests six-month delay in New York civil lawsuit. Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series. Joseph Dominick Pistone (born September 17, 1939), is an American former FBI agent who worked undercover as Donnie Brasco, between September 1976 and July 1981, as part of an infiltration primarily into the Bonanno crime family, and to a lesser extent the Colombo crime family, two of the Five Families of the Mafia in New York City.Pistone was an FBI agent for 17 years, from 1969 until he . There is, for instance, his explanation of the word "Fugeddaboudit" (Forget about it), which can mean any number of things, ranging from "Yes, absolutely" to "You must be kidding" to "Don't mention it" to "Forget about it." This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. By 1977, Ruggiero owed Marangello $160,000. "I'm a spoke on a wheel . Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. When DiGiaimo heard in 1982 about an unnamed agent due to testify regarding his infiltration of the Mob, he said, "I'm wondering, could it be Joe? Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series. The Real Donnie Brasco -Joe Pistone. In this episode, Gary interviews the famous retired FBI Agent Joe Pistone aka Donnie Brasko, and his podcasting partner Leo Rossi. Born on January 10, 1943, in New York, Joseph Massino became boss of the Bonanno crime family when other crime bosses were being sent to jail for life. However, by 1978, Ruggiero was back in debt again to Marangello. According to Biography, during his time undercover he was allowed to see his wife, Maggie, and three daughters once every three or four months. Powered by. Joe Pistone is now 81-years-old and is staying out of the spotlight due to a $500,000 contract on his life. Now 78, Pistone is arguably the most influential law enforcement officer in American history, exceeding the likes of Wyatt Earp and Eliot Ness. He was more fortunate than Sonny, who disappeared soon after Pistone's identity was revealed. In actuality, he was much closer to Sonny, Madsen's character, but that is one of the movie's few departures from the actual story. "The initial focus was hijacking, which was very prevalent," Pistone recalls. For five years, from 1976 to 1981, Pistone, then an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent, penetrated the Colombo and Bonanno crime families by posing as "Donnie Brasco" (he chose the name at random), a jewel thief and small-time hoodlum. Thus in 1977, as David Brand reported in Time, "two mobsters became suspicious that Pistone was a stoolie and demanded that he provide a criminal reference. A pair of mysterious widows, a group of Cuban refugees, and a collection of undercover FBI agents complicates Brasco's life. Ruggiero was born on April 19, 1926, in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, and grew up in the Knickerbocker Village private housing development in Little Italy, Manhattan. New York Times Book Review, February 14, 1988, Ralph Blumenthal, review of Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia, p. 22. He is well known for his friendship and mentorship of FBI undercover agent Joseph D. Pistone. He was a key figure in the undercover assignment of FBI agent Joe Pistone who adopted the name of Donnie Brasco when he infiltrated the Bonanno crew under Capo Sonny Black Napolitano. Self-awareness is a core component of emotional intelligence. Pistone, who was 32 at the start of the operation in 1975, with a wife and two young daughters, already had carried out a major undercover sting with success before he was tapped for what turned into a six-year assignment. During the 1970s, he purchased a social club in Little Italy. [2] Pistone also had vending machine dealings with Frank Balistrieri of the Milwaukee crime family. Following his retirement in 1986, he and his family began living in an undisclosed location in New Jersey under secret identities because the Mafia eventually put a $450,000. Ruggiero admitted to Pistone that he felt threatened while in the presence of Balistrieri. ", Both the book and the film adaptation offer insights into the Mafia mind as only someone like Pistonesomeone, that is, who is very like a mobster except for being on the right side of the lawcan offer. Former U.S. serviceman sentenced to 45 years for planning attack on fellow soldiers. Starkman always loved that number because his idol, NBA forward Dave DeBusschere, wore #22 on his New York Knicks jersey. More than the criminal evidence that I gathered, there was all the intelligence against the Mafia, showing the leadership in the families, family members, how they interacted with each other. You have to have a lot of patience. Nonetheless, Pistone has done security consulting, some of it with Britain's Scotland Yard, and has lectured at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Publishers Weekly, March 1, 1999, review of Donnie Brasco: Deep Cover, p. 66. "It's all about mental toughness, that's what it comes down to," he says. [A pseudonym] You don't see the leg-breaking and the extortion. Agent, Dropping Disguise, Tells Court of Life Inside the Mob", "F.B.I. Truly a one-man operation, he was to pose as a Miami-based thief who specialized in jewelry and watches and was looking to fence his merchandise through the New York mob. Pistone had the credentials to fit in: not only his heritage (non-Italians cannot be "made" in the Mafia), but his background and his way of speech, which qualified him as a Mafia type. You hang around the clubs, the neighborhood, they're just guys. Heres what you need to know about Brasco, including where he is today. March 3 (UPI) -- A former U.S. soldier was sentenced to 45 years in prison Friday for planning a deadly ambush on members of his military unit. But it was also the source material -- Pistone's autobiography Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia, which quickly became a bestseller in 1988 -- that helped make the film so memorable. "If you don't have that, you're not going to make it. He is well known for his friendship and mentorship of FBI undercover agent Joseph D. Pistone. With feet so firmly planted in both the law enforcement and entertainment worlds, there may be no better authority on the subject of mob films than Pistone. WASHINGTON -- 'Hello, this is Joe Pistone,' the man on the other end of the phone says in a husky voice with a New Jersey accent that the Mafia wants silenced. The FBI gave Pistone a new identity as a small, but successful, jewel thief and burglar called Donnie Brasco. Pistone was a star on his high school team in Paterson, New Jersey. [11], In November 1982, Ruggiero, along with Santora, Antonio Tomasulo, and Anthony "Fat Tony" Rabito, was convicted in a six-week jury trial for racketeering conspiracy, and received a 15-year prison sentence. On July 26, 1981, the Donnie Brasco operation came to an end. [1] While Pistone was undercover, he informed on the activities of the Mafia during some of the most volatile power struggles in organized crime. "The first Godfather was like an opera -- every scene was like an opera," he says. [1] In Florida, Pistone worked with another FBI agent working undercover as Tony Rossi. Russia's Lavrov laughed at after saying West started war in Ukraine, Governor of Philippine province, 5 others killed in gun attack. Self-Awareness. Pistones operation led to over 200 indictments and over 100 convictions. "Look, nobody ever envisioned anyone ever being able to infiltrate a Mafia family other than as an informant, turning somebody within their own confines," he said. According to Span in the Washington Post, "Sonny Black's body washed up on Staten Island 10 days after Pistone began testifying in his first major racketeering trial in New York; the corpse was missing its hands"special evidence of disgrace in Mafia terms. Pistone was a pioneer in long-term undercover work. 465 (S.D.N.Y. Now an unhappy Lefty was looking at a page in Time with a picture of the very same yacht: it had been used by the FBI in the Abscam scandal to help catch several crooked congressmen accepting bribes from agents posing as rich Arabs." He is a . Connolly is also a former FBI agent but was convicted ofracketeering,obstruction of justice, andmurdercharges stemming from his relationship withJames Whitey Bulger,Steve Flemmi, and theWinter Hill Gang. Joseph Dominick Pistone (born September 17, 1939), is an American former FBI agent who worked undercover as Donnie Brasco between September 1976 and July 1981,[nb 1] as part of an infiltration primarily into the Bonanno crime family, and to a lesser extent the Colombo crime family, two of the Five Families of the Mafia in New York City. Joe Pistone is the most highly decorated FBI undercover agent in history. ." 'Yeah.' The son of a bar manager, Pistone came from a working-class background in Paterson, New Jersey. They're basically accurate.". Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Thats exactly what happened to some of his mafia colleagues once his true identity was revealed. March 3 (UPI) -- The legal team representing former President Donald Trump has formally requested a six-month delay in the fraud civil case filed against him by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Joseph A. Pistone Collection Names Stone, Barbara Pistone, Joseph A. Tanner, Robin Regional Technical Institute/Daughters of the American Revolution, Reno State of Birth NY Home State NV Headings - Pistone, Joseph A. In 1981, Pistone ordered to kill Anthony Bruno Indelicato and the FBI decided to pull him from his undercover operation because the situation was becoming so dangerous. There is a reason for this authenticity: the hero of the tale, and the events in which he participated, are all real. This assignment would eventually inspire the Johnny Depp movie called Donnie Brasco.. He is responsible for coordinating and unifying teams from across business segments and enhancing alignment between the business, internal, and external tax teams. And the entire time, he had to live completely away from his wife and girls. [1] The original focus of the operation was to infiltrate big-time fences and truck hijackings that would in turn lead to the Mafia. View Joe Pistone's profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. The FBI's former director, J. Edgar Hoover, who died in 1972, did not want FBI agents to work undercover because of the danger of agents becoming corrupted;[1] Nonetheless, Pistone's work later helped convince the FBI that using undercover agents in lieu of relying exclusively on informants was a crucial tool in law enforcement. 10 and at the Office of Naval Intelligence for three years before being sworn into the FBI on July 7, 1969, and assigned to Jacksonville, Florida. Months before, Pistone had asked another FBI agent to instruct a Mob informant in Florida always to be ready to vouch for Donnie Brasco. The evidence that he collected led to more than 100 convictions, and the Bonanno family lost their seat on the Commission as punishment for allowing Read More Select the best result to find their address, phone number, relatives, and public records. Nation, March 31, 1997, Stuart Klawans, motion picture review of Donnie Brasco, p. 35. Italian mafia fugitive arrested in Caribbean after posting YouTube cooking videos, Italy begins largest mob trial in decades against Ndrangheta syndicate, Feds announce indictment of 15 alleged Philadelphia mafia members, continued to testify against the mob when called upon. The motion picture, which also features Al Pacino and Michael Madsen, as Pistone's Mob associates Benjamin "Lefty Guns" Ruggiero and Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano, has been lauded by critics for its realism. (With Bill Bonnano and David Fisher) The Good Guys, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2005. So when I went on the job, that's all it was. The Bonanno family told Ruggiero that he would have to repay Marangello before he could become a made man. Now considered one of the classic American Mob movies of the last 50 years, the film frequently is listed among the ranks of cinematic crime classics such as Goodfellas and The Godfather, thanks in part to one of Depp's career-defining performances. During his undercover operation, Pistone was ordered to commit four murders. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. Born September 30, 1924, in New Orleans, LA; name legally changed; died of liver disease complicated by phlebitis and multipl, Snicket, Lemony 1970 "Think of the blow it would have been, that they inducted a FBI undercover agent [into the Mafia]," he says. By the late '80s, his assignment complete, Pistone wrote a bestselling book about it. [7] He attended Paterson State College (now William Paterson University),[5] obtaining a degree in anthropology in 1965. ", Then there was the incident, as Brand also reported, when Time magazine itself very nearly got Brasco killed. Then, about midway through the decade, enter FBI special agent Joseph D. Pistone. Pistone has been active as an author and consultant to worldwide law enforcement agencies, including Scotland Yard,[27] and has been called to testify before the United States Senate as an expert on organized crime. [20] Pistone publicly testified for the first time on August 2, 1982. Another guy jumps in, Mirra smacks him. [2] In 2008, Italian artist Rossella Biscotti interviewed Pistone in her video The Undercover Man. Literary Group International Web site, http://www.theliterarygroup.com/ (December 6, 2005), biography of Joseph D. Pistone. After six years spent collecting a mountain of evidence for the feds, Pistone finally "came in" after a years-long, high-stakes undercover operation posing as a criminal associate of the New York Mafia. But he fooled the highest-ranking members of one of the most notorious crime families in New York City. [4] Pistone detailed his undercover experience in his 1988 book Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia, the basis of the 1997 film about his life. And Pistone's theory on why he succeeded in making Operation Donnie Brasco one of the FBI's most enduring masterpieces? The subjects' lives are characterized by severe boredom, punctuated with moments of sheer terror. Brasco started working for Ruggiero, placing bets and helping him make collections for the bookmaking operation in Ruggiero's social club. Lesion removed from Biden's chest was common form of skin cancer, doctor says. He wanted to stay undercover. He has an Irish-American wife named Maggie who was his high school girlfriend and married to him in 1961. Lefty Ruggiero (born Benjamin Ruggiero; April 19, 1926 November 24, 1994[nb 1]) was an American mobster in the Bonanno crime family. In November 1982, Ruggiero was sentenced to 15 years in prison for racketeering conspiracy; he was released in April 1993 before his death from cancer. In 2019, Pistone told the Queens Gazette he now works as a consultant and travels to different cities around the world to assist in the training of local police forces on how to perform modern-day police work. Personal His father, Fiori Ruggiero worked as a truck driver and his mother, Frances, was a household . "Johnny [Depp] called me maybe four times," DiGiaimo told Jason Cochran in Entertainment Weekly, to ask, "Are you sure Joe likes what I did?" "The Biggest Mutt In The History Of The Mafia". Joseph D Pistone is a former FBI special agent who went undercover for six years as jewel thief, Donnie Brasco, and infiltrated the Bonanno crime family and to some extent Colombo crime family. Encyclopedia.com. Unlike The Godfather and the many movies it spawned that portray financially successful, articulate, and even principled Mafiosi, Donnie Brascoboth the film and Pistone's book, on which the film is basedshow mobsters as "small-time hustlers," in the words of Paula Span in the Washington Post, "perennially short of cash, flubbing as many scores as they pulled off." ", Other factors in Pistone's success, he says, were minding his own business, not getting involved in conversations that didn't concern him and choosing "jewel thief" and "burglar" as Donnie Brasco's "profession. (Daniel Handler) Pistone went undercover and managed to become quite high-ranking in the Bonanno crime family under the alias Donnie Brasco, a tough-talking jewel thief. ." His day-to-day upbringing in La Cosa Nostra's neighborhood enabled him to become the sole FBI agent who took down the mob, ensuring 234 convictions. [6][1] For the undercover operation, the false identity of Donald "Donnie" Brasco was created, with a backstory that involved work as a low-level jewel thief. Pistones undercover work ultimately led to more than 100 federal convictions. "In the commission case, we convicted all the leaders, so that was a big blow. Prosecutions began in 1982. Executive Producer Jared Lipworth, former FBI undercover agent Joseph Pistone and Larry Engel, producer and director speak during the panel discussion for "Gangland Graveyard" during the PBS 2005 Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour. "I grew up in Paterson, N.J., which is just a blue-collar, working town, and I grew up in an all-Italian neighborhood," he said. His wife and three daughters, who by then were adults, also took on new identities. [4] Ruggiero joined the Bonanno family organization as a young man, serving as a street soldier under caporegime Michael Sabella. Pistone was an FBI agent who went undercover in the New York mafias Five Families starting in 1974 until he was pulled out of the operation in 1981. In 1979, Bonanno boss Carmine Galante was murdered, creating a power vacuum in the family. ) Ruggiero had two younger siblings named Dominick and Angelina. In an undisclosed location, Joe Pistone and Patrick Bet-David talk about the Mafia and how Joe Pistone went undercover for 6 years as an FBI agent infiltrati. Pistone was a consultant on Donnie Brasco to add authenticity to the fictionalized portrayals and settings. You couldn't do anything in New York City back in those days without getting the approval of the mob.". [35], In May 2020, Pistone started a podcast called Deep Cover: The Real Donnie Brasco. (Under name Donnie Brasco) The Way of the Wiseguy: True Stories from the FBI's Most Famous Undercover Agent, Running Press (Philadelphia, PA), 2004. CAREER: Writer. . Pistone detailed his undercover experience in his 1988 book Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia. I just don't waltz around but I don't constantly worry about it.". He lived in an apartment on Monroe Street in Manhattan in the same building as his friend and Bonanno soldier Anthony Mirra. [1] Because of his ability to drive 18-wheeler trucks and bulldozers, he was eventually given undercover work infiltrating a vehicle theft ring, an assignment that resulted in over 30 arrests and a greater profile for Pistone within law enforcement. In 1979, Ruggiero converted his social club into a candy store and gave it to one of his daughters to manage. Pistone was a consultant on the film to help Depp and Pacino develop their characters. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. [3] Pistone was an FBI agent for 17 years, from 1969 until he resigned in 1986. - Prisoner of War -- United States Form MiniDV Extent 1 item Al Pachino played Lefty in the well-known movie titled Donnie Brosco. You have to have faith and confidence in yourself, that you are better than the bad guys you're dealing with. They are persistent in going after their illegal conquests.". In fact, the Bureau had destroyed any evidence that he had ever worked for them, a precaution against background checks by corrupt law-enforcement officers. 1982)", "6 GET JAIL TERMS IN RACKETS CASE TIED TO MOBSTERS", UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. BENJAMIN RUGGIERO, List of Italian-American mobsters by organization, Collaborations between the United States government and Italian Mafia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lefty_Ruggiero&oldid=1139759107, Deaths from lung cancer in New York (state), Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from January 2020, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, "Lefty", "Lefty Guns", "Mister Violence", "Hefty Lefty", "Horse Cock" and "Lefty Two Guns", Pistone, Joseph D.; & Woodley, Richard (1999).