Orchard Press Online
Mystery Magazine
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CRIME BEAT
by Paul Davis |
Copyright © 200
7 Paul Davis. All rights reserved.
Joe Pistone’s Unfinished Mob Business
I recently caught the film 10th & Wolf on cable TV. The crime drama, which did not fare well in movie theaters last year, was especially disappointing to me as I lived at 10th and Wolf in South Philadelphia when I was a kid. The movie was loosely based on the internecine mob war between the Philadelphia-South Jersey Sicilian-born La Cosa Nostra boss, John Stanfa, and a group of South Philly Young Turks, lead by Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino.
Unfortunately, the movie was filmed on location in Pittsburgh. The change in location had to do with the film’s money person hailing from Pittsburgh. The movie never actually states where the action takes place and I suspect that this was a fatal flaw, as it made the story lose its sense of place and character.
Although many films and TV programs are said to take place in specific cities or areas, many of the productions are actually filmed in Canadian cities, where production costs are much lower, or on sound stages in the Hollywood studios. But in most cases, even those productions breeze in and take footage of the city and intersperse those street shots with the other scenes. NYPD Blue is a good example of that.
Mean Streets, one of my favorite films, is another example. Scorsese’s early crime classic is a quintessential New York story and his street scenes clearly capture the authenticity of Little Italy, yet most of the interior scenes were filmed in California.
10th & Wolf, directed by Bobby Moresco and written by Moresco and Allen Steele, offered some good performances from Giovanni Ribisi, James Marsden and Brad Renfo – and a very good cameo from Val Kilmer - but I had a little trouble accepting Dennis Hopper as an Italian mob boss. I also thought the Gulf War analogy rang false, and I especially didn’t like the negative way the FBI agents, played by Brain Dennehy and Leo Rossi, were portrayed.
Their negative portrayal was surprising as one of the film’s producers was Joseph Pistone, the retired FBI special agent who spent six years uncover with the Bonanno crime family in New York in the mid-1970s and early 1980s.
Pistone chronicled his extraordinary undercover exploits in the book Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia, written with Richard Woodley. Pistone successfully infiltrated the mob using the cover of "Donnie the Jeweler" Brasco, a jewel thief. He went on to become an associate member of the Bonanno Crime Family and in the end he was offered the opportunity to commit murder and become a full "made" member. He was subsequently pulled out and his evidence and testimony was responsible for more than 100 organized crime members going to prison.
Donnie Brasco was later made into a good film with Al Pacino in a fine performance as Benjamin "Lefty Two Guns" Ruggiero, a not particularly bright, low level mob killer, a role diametrically opposed to Pacino’s other fine portrayal as the brilliant and evil mob boss Michael Corleone in The Godfather and The Godfather, Part II. Johnny Depp also gave a fine performance as Pistone. Who can forget Depp’s explanation of the New York term "fugettaboutit" to his fellow FBI agent? The film is considered to be, along with Goodfellas, one of the two most realistic films about organized crime.
Pistone is an interesting man. I reviewed his book, Wiseguys: True Stories From the FBI’s Most Famous Undercover Agent, and interviewed him for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
"When you’re a wiseguy, you can steal, you can cheat, you can lie, you can kill people – and it’s all legitimate," Lefty Ruggiero told Pistone, explaining the tangible benefits of being a wiseguy.
As I wrote in The Inquirer, The Way of the Wiseguy is an insider’s guide to the world – or, perhaps one should say, the underworld – of organized crime. With stories and anecdotes that revel how wiseguys get their nicknames, how and why they are murdered and such minutiae as how they treat women and what they eat, the book is everything you ever wanted to know about wiseguys, Goodfellas, mob guys and gangsters. Pistone’s blunt and colorful language adds to the book’s gritty realism.
Pistone debunks the popular myths of organized crime. Unlike TV and movie gangsters, the real-life wiseguys are interesting but hardly glamorous. His chapter-by-chapter explanation of the mob lifestyle (and death style) are illuminating, disturbing and darkly humorous. He does a good job of explaining the mob guys’ psychology as well as their routine day-to-day life. His observations and insights into the criminal subculture are unique and authentic.
Pistone’s latest book is Unfinished Business: Shocking Declassified Details From the FBI’s Greatest Undercover Operation and a Bloody Timeline of the Mafia, written with Charles Brant. The book is a sequel of sorts to Donnie Brasco, reveling details that could not be told at the time of the first book’s publication when Rudy Giuliani was a U.S. Attorney preparing his case against the New York crime families.
Unfinished Business also revels what happened to Pistone after he resurfaced from his undercover role as Donnie Brasco. For many years after his emergence from mob life, Pistone was a star witness for prosecutors as they put on the Pizza Connection Case (in which heroin was smuggled in the U.S and sold via pizza joints) and the Mafia Commission Case (in which the total leadership of La Cosa Nostra was targeted).
Pistone also writes in the book about the racketeering and murder trial of the retired New York City detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, called the "Mafia Cops" by the press. He also writes about the case against retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Lin DeVecchio.
Pistone defends DeVecchio against charges that he accepted bribes from a mob boss and provided information that led to the mob whacking four people. Pistone offers a view of DeVecchio, a former colleague, as a law enforcement officer devoted to fighting organized crime. DeVecchio has since had the charges dropped when it came to light that a key witness, the girlfriend of a mob guy, told a different version of events to two reporters she was trying to get to write her story.
Unfinished Business also has a chapter on the Philadelphia mob wars, which began in 1980 with the murder of long-time Philly boss Angelo Bruno and continued up to the conflict depicted in 10th & Wolf. Pistone recounts the struggle and tells how Stanfa was hit with a RICO indictment and went to prison. With the La Cosa Nostra National Commission out of commission due to the New York case, Merlino was able to take it upon himself to induct into the mob an older man he met in prison, Ralph Natale, and then appoint him boss. With Natale installed as a figurehead, Merlino then appoints himself underboss and the true boss. This idea was later used in the first season of The Sopranos, with Tony Soprano using his Uncle Junior - or Uncle Ju - as the figurehead boss. Later Natale would become an informant and we would see a backward case of a crime boss testifying against his underboss.
I initially interviewed Pistone over the phone and I met him when he later came to Philadelphia to give a speech. He told me he has Philadelphia connections, as his friend and fellow producer of 10th & Wolf, Leo Rossi, hails from Philly. He also knows guys here from the bureau and from his days in naval intelligence prior to joining the FBI.
Pistone, who comes across as a regular neighborhood sort of guy and looks like he can physically take care of himself in a fight, explained that he grew up in a tough neighborhood but he was never a gang member. Sports were his big thing.
"I knew a couple of cops and detectives and their lives intrigued me." He said he became an FBI agent because of them and that he was not influenced by TV or films.
Pistone told me that we see more mob informants today due primarily to the wiseguys being prosecuted under the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization) Act and the strict federal sentencing guidelines.
"At one time, you’d get 3-5 years in prison," Pistone said. "The standard line among the wiseguys was ‘I need to go on a vacation – three squares a day, I’ll work out and get back in shape.’ Now today, with the guidelines, the judges don’t have that much wiggle room in their sentences and you’ll get 15 to 20. And you’re going to do it in the federal system.
Pistone noted that in the Commission case they convicted all of the mob bosses and they received from 75 to 100 year sentences. Now, he said, when Wiseguys are convicted they know they will never see the light of day, so they are making deals.
I mentioned to Pistone that being part-Italian and having grown up in South Philly, the hub of the Philadelphia-South Jersey La Cosa Nostra Crime Family, I can recall when racket guys looked at their time in prison proudly, in much the same way that I view my time in the U.S. Navy. Their time incarcerated was considered a right of passage and they were proud that they didn’t rat and did their time "like a man."
Many people look at mob guys and see a sense of glamour in the criminal lifestyle with their money, girls, clothes and cars. I asked Pistone if during his six years undercover he saw this as a glamorous life.
No, he replied. Pistone, who grew up in that environment in Paterson, New Jersey, said he knew wiseguys growing up.
"You see the cars, the nice clothes and the guys don’t work, but what you don’t see is the inter-workings of mob life, the killings and stuff," Pistone said in his gruff, street-wise voice. "Every day is spent scamming, scheming and wondering how are they are going to make money."
Pistone said it is a stressful life, worrying about who is trying to get power and whether there be a war over the power struggle.
"Let’s face it; the two things these guys worry about are going to jail and getting killed," Pistone explained. "There is a lot tension, especially when there is a war going on within the family. You worried about getting killed or who you’re going to kill or if your power structure is in or out."
"What kind of life is that? Every day is a struggle; you’re worried about money coming in, money going out, who’s cheating you, who are you going to cheat."
Working stiffs, Pistone said, might say, oh, look at these guys! They got cars, they go to the best restaurants, they always got money, and they come and go as they please.
I told Pistone that I especially liked two things about the film Donnie Brasco, the book and the movie. The first thing was that they accurately portrayed that scrambling, scheming and tension Pistone spoke of. The second thing I liked was that the protagonist – thinking that Pistone might be uncomfortable with the term hero – was a law enforcement officer rather than a criminal like Henry Hill, Tony Soprano or Michael Corelone. I also liked that the protagonist was an Italian-American law enforcement officer.
I recall that back in 2004 Time magazine reviewed Pistone’s earlier book and Henry Hill’s book (a slap-dash effort to cash in on the success of the film Goodfellas) together. I asked Pistone if that bothered him, as it bothered me that the two were compared.
The reviewer also stated that Pistone "ratted out" the Bonanno Family. For the record, Pistone was not a rat; he was an FBI special agent doing his duty. On the other hand, Hill was a creepy informant; a rat in criminal parlance. This is a distinction that Time did not appear to get.
"They didn’t see the difference between an uncover agent doing his job and an informant, a criminal," Pistone agreed. "I get that all the time in interviews, they say you ratted these guys out, and then I have to correct them."
I asked Pistone what he believed was his primary accomplishment as an undercover agent and he replied that they were able to show that the mob could be penetrated by law enforcement.
"We broke the myth about the mob being honorable and these other fantasies. These guys are hard-core."
I asked him what it takes to be successful undercover agent.
"Let’s face it, not everybody can work undercover," Pistone replied. "You have to be very self-confident, you must have somewhat of an ego and think you can go one-on-one with these guys, or even one-on-two or three. You have to put feelings and morals aside, as these guys are living in their own society.
Pistone explained that in our society, you just go the cops and let them handle the situation, but in their underworld society, they have set rules and if you’re caught breaking them they melt out what the punishment will be.
"You have to assimilate yourself into their world," Pistone added.
I suggested that my biggest problem going undercover would be hiding my somewhat strong personality, and I have a big mouth.
"That’s where you’re wrong," Pistone said. "Never change your personality. That’s where guys have problems. That’s where the early stress comes in because they try to be two people. You must maintain your own personality, that’s the main thing. Some guys think they have to act and they have preconceived notions of how wiseguys and gangsters act – loudmouthed and so on – but everyone has their own personality, even gangsters. There are loudmouths and there are quiet guys too."
I spoke to Pistone about the TV show Wiseguy (1987-1990) and said that I truly liked the actor Ray Sharkey, who looked and acted like many of the guys I grew up with. The undercover FBI agent in the show, Vinnie Terranova, portrayed by Ken Wahl, came to be fond of Sharkey’s character Sonny. He knew he was a wild and violent criminal and murderer, yet Terranova saw that he had human qualities as well.
I asked Pistone if he, like his TV undercover FBI agent counterpart, had those conflicting feelings for any of the mob guys.
"Yeah, it’s funny," He replied. "I felt that way with Sonny Black Napolitano and even with Lefty Ruggiero, who was a hardcore mobster. You see these guys every day for 10-12 hours, and you will see a side of them with their kids and grandkids. Here is a guy who loves his grandkid, but a half hour later he goes out and whacks a guy that he has known for 15 or 20 years."
Pistone said that this was the subculture and mindset of mob guys. He said one of the questions you’re asked when you "get made" is would you kill your brother or cousin if you had the contract? The answer has to be yes or you’re out.
Unfinished Business takes us to last year’s trial of Big Joey Massino, then the head of the Bonanno Crime Family. Massino was convicted of murdering Pistone’s mob patron Napolitano. Napolitano was shot and killed and had his hands cut off as a sign of violating security by letting Pistone get inside the mob. Pistone’s other mob patron, Lefty Ruggiero, was also marked for murder, but the FBI saved his life by arresting him. He later died in prison.
In the film Donnie Brasco it is Al Pacino’s character Lefty, rather than Sonny, who is told to report to a meeting where he knows he will be killed. In a poignant scene, Pacino removes his watch and ring and leaves them for his wife before he goes off to accept his fate.
I told Pistone that I was interested in the overseas work he performed with Scotland Yard in the United Kingdom and his undercover work against the Chinese Triads that he briefly touched on in Unfinished Business. I’d like to learn more and I suggested that this would be a great topic for a future book. Pistone said he would consider the idea.
A Naval Criminal Investigate Service Special Agent, who worked undercover after attending Pistone’s course at the FBI Academy, told me that Pistone was the finest instructor in law enforcement that he had ever met. He said that Pistone’s course may very well have kept him out of harm during his time undercover. Pistone, a modest man who need not be, was pleased to hear this.
Merlino is now in a federal prison, but Pistone took note in Unfinished Business that some FBI friends of his in Philly told him that they spotted Merlino and his crew standing in line to see the film Donnie Brasco when it came out in 1997.
"I’ll say this for Skinny Joey," Pistone says in the book. "He’s got good taste in movies."
If you would like to learn more about the Philly mob war that inspired 10th & Wolf, I suggest that in addition to Pistone’s book, you also check out George Anastasia’s The Goodfella Tapes: The True Story of How the FBI Recorded a Mob War and Brought Down a Mafia War.
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