Donnie Brasco did more damage to the New York mafia than anyone else had ever done before. Brasco’s actions led to dozens of indictments and over one hundred convictions of organized crime figures across New York. The very fabric of the New York mafia and its Five Family Commission was upended, and respected Mafiosos were killed due to their friendships and connections to Brasco. The thing was though, Donnie Brasco wasn’t real. Instead, Brasco was an alias created by FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone to infiltrate the New York Mob. Pistone’s undercover work succeeded more than the FBI could have ever hoped, and the Donnie Brasco operation remains one of the most successful FBI undercover operations of all time.
Becoming Donnie Brasco
Joseph D. Pistone was an Italian American who grew up in Paterson, New Jersey. After graduating college, he served briefly in the Office of Naval Intelligence, before joining the FBI in 1969. His stint in the Bureau coincided with an era in which infiltrating organized crime networks with undercover agents was becoming a more critical tool of law enforcement. Pistone proved to be a natural at undercover work, and in the early 1970s helped the FBI infiltrate and successfully take down an organized truck hijacking ring.
Having proven his mettle undercover, Pistone was soon selected to work another similar case; however, what started as a short-term operation to bust up a gang of thieves turned into something else altogether: a years-long effort to infiltrated and take down the New York mafia. Again, Pistone seemed a perfect fit for the undercover work. Having grown up in an Italian-American family, he spoke Italian well. Additionally, he was familiar with the mafia lingo and culture, which helped him establish bona fides with the criminals he would eventually associate with. Pistone adopted the persona of a jewel thief and fence. The FBI then erased all records of Joseph Pistone, and he walked out of the FBI as an entirely new man altogether: Donnie Brasco.
Infiltrating the Mafia
It didn’t take long for Pistone to establish his Donnie Brasco alias. He rented an apartment an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and quickly began fencing jewelry and other stolen goods. In doing so, he quickly made friends with mafiosos in the Bonanno Crime Family who were looking to offload stolen items from truck hijackings and other activities. He developed rapport with two of them in particular: Benjamin (Lefty) Ruggiero, and Dominick (Sonny Black) Napolitano, one of the Bonanno’s captains. As he established strong ties with the Bonanno men – a credit to his ability to operate undercover – he was able to get an unprecedented look at the mafia’s most sensitive internal workings. What was meant to be a short operation stretched into several long years.
Pistone’s Donnie Brasco quickly became an insider in the Bonanno Family. Over time, Napolitano and Ruggiero involved him in their criminal activities, and discussed crimes the Bonanno’s had committed. They didn’t just consider him an associate; he was one of them. Pistone would later recount how Napolitano and he developed a close friendship over the years working together. However, it was all a façade; Pistone was there for one reason only, and that was to take down the mob. Moreover, Pistone knew that if the Donnie Brasco ruse was ever discovered, Napolitano and the others wouldn’t hesitate to kill him on the spot.
By 1981, the Bonanno’s were in the midst of a power struggle, and “Donnie Brasco” was considered one of Napolitano’s top men. It had been five years since an FBI Agent named Joseph Pistone had walked out of FBI headquarters and disappeared into the Brasco alias. The FBI, fearful for his safety, finally decided to pull him out of the operation for good. There was concern that rival gangsters might attempt to kill the undercover agent in a retaliation attempt against Napolitano. So, in July 1981, Joseph Pistone left Donnie Brasco behind, and came out of the field.
The impact of his undercover work would be felt for years to come.
The Donnie Brasco Aftermath
As soon as the mob found out that they’d been infiltrated, the fallout was swift. Sonny Black Napolitano and another Bonanno associate were killed for their association with “Donnie Brasco.” Lefty Ruggiero would have been killed as well but the FBI interceded to prevent him from being executed. The other New York Families, appalled at the apparent carelessness of the Bonanno’s, kicked them out of The Commission altogether.
Pistone would later testify against Ruggiero and many of “Donnie Brasco’s former associates. Altogether Pistone’s undercover work would net over one-hundred convictions and decimate the Bonanno crime family. Much of the work that Pistone did to discover the mafia’s inner workings would later be used to take down other mafia leaders as well.
However, Pistone’s outstanding work came at considerable personal cost. He’d been absent from his family’s life for years. He would eventually have to testify in open court, and soon after his identity was revealed there was an open mafia contract on him. He would end up changing his appearance and maintaining high levels of security for his family and him wherever they went. Even today – when the Donnie Brasco story has been the subject of books, films, and television series – Joseph Pistone has to take his personal security very seriously.
Parting Thoughts – A Quiet Professional Takes Down the Mob
Joseph Pistone, the streetwise FBI agent from Patterson New Jersey, led one of the most successful undercover operations against the Mafia in American history. Pistone’s hard work and personal dedication enabled the FBI to put dozens of hardened criminals behind bars, and practically shut down the Bonanno crime family. Pistone sacrificed years of his life doing so, and even today has to look twice over his shoulder wherever he goes. However, thanks to his tremendous sacrifice and accomplishments, the streets of New York are safer for everyone else.