Post by Wonka123 on Mar 22, 2005 10:07:34 GMT -5
Interview with Joseph D. Pistone a.k.a Donnie Brasco
written by Christo on 24 Jun 2004
*****************************
Amongst (mostly) law-abiding citizens, there seem to be a natural curiosity to see how the other side lives. Crime stories not only rule our newspapers but also dominate the fictional stories presented on our television sets and movie screens. One element of criminality that has featured heavily in modern film and television history is depictions of the Italian Mafia and their various dodgy activities within modern American society. While it is The Godfather films and The Sopranos television series that are the most well known names in this genre, Donnie Brasco, starring Johnny Depp and Al Pacino, remains one of the most critically acclaimed of all the ‘mob’ flicks. Donnie Brasco is based on the undercover life of Joe Pistone, an F.B.I agent who infiltrated one of New York City's five families in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Pistone has just released his latest book, ’The Way of The Wise Guy’. I had the opportunity to speak to Joe via his home somewhere in the US earlier this week…
Varsity: The film ‘Donnie Brasco’ and the new book, ‘The Way of the Wiseguy’, document particular parts of your life. Tell us a little bit about your life for someone who hasn’t read the books or seen the movie?
Joe Pistone: Well, I was an F.B.I Agent for twenty-seven years and basically involved in the F.B.I’s undercover program for twenty of the twenty-seven years, as an undercover agent or running undercover cases. In my last years, I was in charge of the F.B.I program at the academy in Quantico, Virginia. One of the undercover cases I was involved in was a case against the New York Mafia. I infiltrated the Bonanno family from New York City. During this six-year period I became so trusted by these individuals that I was proposed for membership in the family. As a result of the investigation we put one hundred and fifty individuals in jail, and the information from that case probably generated twenty-five other cases that resulted in individuals other than Mafia going to jail.
Varsity: What was it when you were growing up that made you think that Law Enforcement was the career for you?
Pistone: I basically always had in the back of my mind that I wanted to get into Law Enforcement. I knew guys on both sides of the fence, guys that were mobsters and guys that were in the police department…
Varsity: All in the neighbourhood you were growing up in?
Pistone: In the neighbourhood I was growing up in. The fact was Law Enforcement intrigued me. After College (University) I went into Naval Intelligence, then I applied for the F.B.I, passed the test and became an agent.
Varsity: When they first said that you were going undercover, and you spent six-years undercover on one single case, did your superiors give you parameters of the case and how long you might be undercover?
Pistone: No, basically. All undercover cases are slated in six-month periods, and you keep going in these six month spells if the case is progressing well and you have achieved one of your objectives, which is to infiltrate whatever organisation you have targeted. (Its based on) how much evidence you have gathered or how much intelligence you are gathering. It (the undercover operation) is reviewed every six-months and if it is going well, you keep continuing. When I first went in (as Donnie Brasco), I had no idea that it was going to last for six years.
Varsity: Did you have times (when you were undercover) when you were weighing up the time and energy spent against the results?
Pistone: It’s worth it, but when you’ve been undercover for three or four years, you start to wonder, ‘When is this going to end?’ (Laughs) But as long as it is going well, and you are gathering evidence and good intelligence, there is no reason to discontinue it, so you just keep going.
Varsity: Your new book (‘The Way of the Wiseguy’) is a fascinating read. One of the things that really struck me after finishing it is the parts where you describe how fist fights were very common place, whereas fictional depictions and the media lead the public to believe that mob members are always pulling guns on each other. You described an incident where you felt compelled to jump in and give a guy a beating to save him from the worse beating he would receive if the “real” mob guys got their hands on him…
Pistone: You see it on television and the movies but (in reality) most mob guys are not walking around every day carrying guns, and this is for several reasons. Firstly, if they get stopped or pulled over by a cop, they don’t want to get caught with a weapon on them. Basically they will carry guns when they are going to do a piece of work, which means they are going to whack (kill) somebody. A lot of the beefs are settled either verbally or through physical confrontations. I mean, there are rules about what you can and can’t do… but there were certain occasions when I knew a guy was going to catch a bad beating from a mob guy, I would jump in and give him a working over, mainly because the beating I’d give wasn’t going to be as bad as what he would get from the mob guy.
Varsity: In the book you talk about another time when you were attacked by one of your crew for interfering in a beating…
Pistone: It was over a car accident. I mean, this guy getting beaten up was innocent, he tapped this guy (one of the guys in our crew) new Mercedes. They (the Mafia) wanted to work the guy over who accidentally tapped the car, so I stuck up for the guy, but that’s one of the rules, you never side against a Mafia guy. So I took a couple of smacks in order to keep this guy alive. One of the rules is you never lay your hands on a made guy (a full member of the Mafia- someone who has participated in a killing for the Mafia).
CONT.-
written by Christo on 24 Jun 2004
*****************************
Amongst (mostly) law-abiding citizens, there seem to be a natural curiosity to see how the other side lives. Crime stories not only rule our newspapers but also dominate the fictional stories presented on our television sets and movie screens. One element of criminality that has featured heavily in modern film and television history is depictions of the Italian Mafia and their various dodgy activities within modern American society. While it is The Godfather films and The Sopranos television series that are the most well known names in this genre, Donnie Brasco, starring Johnny Depp and Al Pacino, remains one of the most critically acclaimed of all the ‘mob’ flicks. Donnie Brasco is based on the undercover life of Joe Pistone, an F.B.I agent who infiltrated one of New York City's five families in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Pistone has just released his latest book, ’The Way of The Wise Guy’. I had the opportunity to speak to Joe via his home somewhere in the US earlier this week…
Varsity: The film ‘Donnie Brasco’ and the new book, ‘The Way of the Wiseguy’, document particular parts of your life. Tell us a little bit about your life for someone who hasn’t read the books or seen the movie?
Joe Pistone: Well, I was an F.B.I Agent for twenty-seven years and basically involved in the F.B.I’s undercover program for twenty of the twenty-seven years, as an undercover agent or running undercover cases. In my last years, I was in charge of the F.B.I program at the academy in Quantico, Virginia. One of the undercover cases I was involved in was a case against the New York Mafia. I infiltrated the Bonanno family from New York City. During this six-year period I became so trusted by these individuals that I was proposed for membership in the family. As a result of the investigation we put one hundred and fifty individuals in jail, and the information from that case probably generated twenty-five other cases that resulted in individuals other than Mafia going to jail.
Varsity: What was it when you were growing up that made you think that Law Enforcement was the career for you?
Pistone: I basically always had in the back of my mind that I wanted to get into Law Enforcement. I knew guys on both sides of the fence, guys that were mobsters and guys that were in the police department…
Varsity: All in the neighbourhood you were growing up in?
Pistone: In the neighbourhood I was growing up in. The fact was Law Enforcement intrigued me. After College (University) I went into Naval Intelligence, then I applied for the F.B.I, passed the test and became an agent.
Varsity: When they first said that you were going undercover, and you spent six-years undercover on one single case, did your superiors give you parameters of the case and how long you might be undercover?
Pistone: No, basically. All undercover cases are slated in six-month periods, and you keep going in these six month spells if the case is progressing well and you have achieved one of your objectives, which is to infiltrate whatever organisation you have targeted. (Its based on) how much evidence you have gathered or how much intelligence you are gathering. It (the undercover operation) is reviewed every six-months and if it is going well, you keep continuing. When I first went in (as Donnie Brasco), I had no idea that it was going to last for six years.
Varsity: Did you have times (when you were undercover) when you were weighing up the time and energy spent against the results?
Pistone: It’s worth it, but when you’ve been undercover for three or four years, you start to wonder, ‘When is this going to end?’ (Laughs) But as long as it is going well, and you are gathering evidence and good intelligence, there is no reason to discontinue it, so you just keep going.
Varsity: Your new book (‘The Way of the Wiseguy’) is a fascinating read. One of the things that really struck me after finishing it is the parts where you describe how fist fights were very common place, whereas fictional depictions and the media lead the public to believe that mob members are always pulling guns on each other. You described an incident where you felt compelled to jump in and give a guy a beating to save him from the worse beating he would receive if the “real” mob guys got their hands on him…
Pistone: You see it on television and the movies but (in reality) most mob guys are not walking around every day carrying guns, and this is for several reasons. Firstly, if they get stopped or pulled over by a cop, they don’t want to get caught with a weapon on them. Basically they will carry guns when they are going to do a piece of work, which means they are going to whack (kill) somebody. A lot of the beefs are settled either verbally or through physical confrontations. I mean, there are rules about what you can and can’t do… but there were certain occasions when I knew a guy was going to catch a bad beating from a mob guy, I would jump in and give him a working over, mainly because the beating I’d give wasn’t going to be as bad as what he would get from the mob guy.
Varsity: In the book you talk about another time when you were attacked by one of your crew for interfering in a beating…
Pistone: It was over a car accident. I mean, this guy getting beaten up was innocent, he tapped this guy (one of the guys in our crew) new Mercedes. They (the Mafia) wanted to work the guy over who accidentally tapped the car, so I stuck up for the guy, but that’s one of the rules, you never side against a Mafia guy. So I took a couple of smacks in order to keep this guy alive. One of the rules is you never lay your hands on a made guy (a full member of the Mafia- someone who has participated in a killing for the Mafia).
CONT.-