The Debrief With MyronGainesX - May 08, 2023


How FBI Agent Donnie Brasco INFILTRATED The Mafia & Bonanno Crime Family!


Episode Stats

Length

1 hour and 3 minutes

Words per Minute

155.8107

Word Count

9,857

Sentence Count

700

Misogynist Sentences

16

Hate Speech Sentences

34


Summary

The Bonanno Crime Family is an Italian-American mafia crime family and one of the five families that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and the United States as part of the criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia.


Transcript

00:00:00.960 All right, we are live. What's up, guys? Welcome to FEDA. Today, we're going to be going over
00:00:04.640 the Bonanno Crime Family, as you guys know, is the ongoing mafia series. Let's get right
00:00:08.580 into it. No intro needed. Bonanno Crime Family. The Bonanno Crime Family, pronounced Bonanno,
00:00:13.080 is an Italian-American mafia crime family and one of the five families that dominate
00:00:16.540 organized crime activities in New York City and the United States as part of the criminal
00:00:20.440 phenomenon known as the American Mafia. And as you guys know, we're covering, the first
00:00:24.220 episode we covered was the organization, hierarchy, terms, et cetera, of the mafia and the history.
00:00:30.340 Then we went into the Gambino Family. Then we covered the Lucchese. Now we're doing
00:00:34.560 the Bonanno. Next will be Genovese. And after that, we're going to go ahead and do Columbo.
00:00:38.320 And I'm trying to do that right around the same time that we have Michael Francis in studio.
00:00:43.140 The family was known as the Maranzano Crime Family until its founder, Salvatore Maranzano,
00:00:46.400 was murdered in 1931. And when I go over the detail of this, guys, with the war that they
00:00:52.340 had between the two different crime mafia families back then and the first episode that we do.
00:00:57.520 So make sure to go back to the channel and watch that first episode. Joseph Bonanno was
00:01:01.900 awarded most of Maranzano's operations when Charles Lucky Luciano oversaw the creation of
00:01:05.840 the commission to divide up criminal enterprises in New York and among the five families, which
00:01:10.080 was very smart by Lucky because that took the target off his back. Under leadership of Bonanno
00:01:14.240 between the 1930s and 1960s, the family is one of the most powerful in the country. So we're
00:01:18.880 going to go ahead, guys, and cover this documentary right here. Mafia in New York, the Bonanno family.
00:01:26.320 And yeah. And once again, I really matter of fact, let me because this is so important. I want you
00:01:31.300 guys to really make sure that you watch this because I'm not going to go over certain terminology
00:01:35.240 with this broadcast because listen, and this is right after filming the deadliest duo. Go make
00:01:41.740 sure to check out this DC sniper one. You guys have been requesting this one for a while. But as you
00:01:45.800 guys can see here, I created a mafia playlist here. If you go down here. So in this episode right here,
00:01:53.100 I go over everything, guys. I'm talking about, well, I go over the hierarchy, the history from
00:02:00.300 Sicily. I go over everything that y'all want to know when it comes to organized crime in the United
00:02:07.860 States. Lucky Luciano how you formated the commission and the crime families. Consolidated
00:02:13.160 control over all that stuff is here. Magadino. All right. The commission, right? Like we go in
00:02:19.380 detail on this one, man. So make sure to watch this episode right here, guys, because it's going to give
00:02:24.580 you the history, the breakdown, et cetera. So when I use certain terminology, you'll know exactly what I'm
00:02:29.460 talking about. All right. And then we went on and did the Gambinos and the Lucchese's, as I said
00:02:34.700 before. And yeah, now we are on the. Go ahead and get into this documentary or mafia in New York
00:02:40.700 drugs, the Bonanno family. Drug addiction in the American cities was on the increase and crime was
00:02:48.080 rising. In the late 1960s, drug addiction in the American cities was on the increase and crime was
00:02:59.460 rising. The government was forced to take action. In 1971, president Nixon declared war on drugs.
00:03:10.700 Just a year later, law enforcement won a major battle by breaking up the Marseille based heroin
00:03:18.700 racket known as the French connection. These French laboratories were supplying America with so much of
00:03:26.460 the drug that the bus led to a heroin famine on the streets. What nobody knew was that this success
00:03:36.340 would lead to disaster. Shutting down the French connection was indirectly opening the door to
00:03:42.160 something every bit as dangerous. The Sicilian mafia. In the coming years, they would fill the gap in the
00:03:50.860 market and forge a relationship with the most feared mafioso in America, Carmine Galante.
00:03:58.720 In 1974, two years after the French connection was busted, Carmine Galante walked out of prison,
00:04:06.260 ready to flood America with a new source of heroin and turn the mafia.
00:04:10.260 And just so you guys know, dealing drugs back then was forbidden between the five families. And the
00:04:17.560 reason why is because the mafia looked at drugs as a dirty business and a lot of snitches, and it would
00:04:22.200 lead to, you know, increased heat and attention from law enforcement, which is what they did not want.
00:04:27.600 That's why they were more involved with the labor racketeering, the labor unions, construction,
00:04:32.020 gambling, scamming, as far as like fraud with gas stations, extortion, all these different types
00:04:42.160 of crimes that, you know, kind of went under the radar of federal law enforcement agencies, but they
00:04:48.000 stayed away from drugs. So the fact that the Bananos, right, were known for kind of being drug
00:04:52.720 traffickers is something that sets them apart. But this was frowned upon and you can get killed
00:04:56.840 for doing this back then. Nowadays, right, if you do find someone that's involved with La Cosa Nostra,
00:05:04.020 you know, drug trafficking is kind of something that happens now. But back then they had to keep
00:05:07.680 it on the hush hush. Even in the Gambino family documentary, if you guys watch, when John Gotti
00:05:11.400 and his guys were involved in drug trafficking, they did everything in their power to kind of keep it
00:05:14.840 from the other families or keep it on the hush hush, because it was an offense that could lead to death.
00:05:19.080 Galanti was a member of the mafia family known as the Bananos. He had a long history of drug trafficking
00:05:30.720 and an even longer history as a tough guy. His personality could be summed up by an incident
00:05:37.780 at Lewisburg Prison, where he was serving a sentence for drugs trafficking.
00:05:41.780 During telephone days, when inmates line up to use the telephone, he was in a section which had some
00:05:51.160 of the toughest black inmates you've ever seen. Murderers, strong-arm artists, you name it.
00:05:56.720 And he would simply walk to the head of the line, grab the phone out of some black
00:06:02.080 inmate's hand and said, get off the phone. This surrounded by 200 black guys.
00:06:08.940 No one dead touched the hair on his head.
00:06:14.780 If that isn't power, I don't know what is, man. Holy.
00:06:17.900 Forget about it.
00:06:22.320 When he got out of prison, the rumblings that, you know, that you heard on the street,
00:06:27.880 there was a lot of people scared of him. And he was a real tough guy.
00:06:33.680 A little office rocker. And always known as a, you know, as a, as a heroine man.
00:06:42.380 That's what he did.
00:06:45.200 When Galanti got out of prison, the Bananos were in crisis.
00:06:49.420 Their leadership, either exiled or in prison.
00:06:54.360 Joe Banano's son, Bill, is a convicted mobster.
00:06:57.020 He remembers Galanti only too well.
00:07:01.900 He had a short fuse. He was abrasive.
00:07:05.740 He had a manner about him that he would never win any popularity contest.
00:07:10.860 And constantly, constantly had a cigar in his mouth.
00:07:14.580 And that's where he got his nickname, the cigar.
00:07:17.100 With no challengers prepared to take on this dangerous man, the Bananos had their new boss.
00:07:27.880 Galanti's top priority was to kickstart the heroin trade.
00:07:32.780 In five short years, he transformed the fortunes of the U.S. Mafia
00:07:37.300 by leading it into an era of multi-billion dollar profits and unparalleled violence.
00:07:43.820 In the 70s, the Banano family was known in this, in, in, in the mafia circles,
00:07:52.220 basically as being the heroin family.
00:07:55.280 I mean, you know, everybody knew they would deal in heroin.
00:08:03.120 Galanti was now in the perfect position to build a heroin business,
00:08:06.660 even bigger than the French Connection.
00:08:08.580 He was head of the Banano family, and now the heroin trade was moving to Sicily,
00:08:14.960 where Galanti had his roots.
00:08:22.180 And again, we talk about Sicily in detail, guys, on the first episode of this Mafia series.
00:08:27.380 You know, the origin story there, how organized crime rose up in Sicily.
00:08:31.180 This is something that's been going on for a while, guys,
00:08:33.400 and how they had all the civil unrest going on.
00:08:35.300 So make sure to check out that first episode before you watch this one.
00:08:38.100 And if you're already starting to get confused,
00:08:39.700 that's a sign that you need to go ahead to the original.
00:08:43.100 So all of this makes more sense.
00:08:45.760 Galanti was born in New York,
00:08:47.020 but his family came from the town of Castellamari del Golfo
00:08:51.080 in the northwest of Sicily.
00:08:54.660 Sicilians have been emigrating to America for a hundred years,
00:08:57.680 but many of their descendants kept strong links with their homeland.
00:09:02.380 Galanti was no exception.
00:09:03.480 His plan was to exploit his close ties with the Sicilian Mafia
00:09:08.460 to dominate the American heroin trade.
00:09:13.480 This was the beginning of a whole new era in the history of the Mafia.
00:09:22.880 Until now, the Sicilian and American Mafia
00:09:26.080 had mainly operated as separate organizations.
00:09:28.940 With the French connection broken,
00:09:33.240 the Sicilian Mafia decided to fill the gap in the market,
00:09:36.680 and there was no bigger market than America.
00:09:40.720 The Sicilians set up a sophisticated smuggling system.
00:09:45.420 Pakistani suppliers shipped partially refined opium from Asia via Turkey
00:09:50.000 to a rendezvous point off the coast of Sicily.
00:09:53.980 A transmitter on the seabed alerted the Sicilians when the drug ships had arrived.
00:09:59.580 Then a powerboat would speed out to meet it,
00:10:02.500 returning with the drugs under cover of darkness.
00:10:05.140 The opium base was processed into heroin in laboratories in the west of the island.
00:10:15.620 Three Sicilian bosses ran this growing trade,
00:10:19.120 but one of them was far more ambitious,
00:10:21.860 far more greedy,
00:10:23.120 and far more dangerous than the others.
00:10:26.600 Totò Riina.
00:10:29.460 Riina planned to shake up the Sicilian Mafia,
00:10:31.820 just as Galante.
00:10:33.320 And just so you guys know,
00:10:34.620 drug trafficking in the old land was permitted,
00:10:37.920 but in the United States it was not.
00:10:39.780 And as a matter of fact,
00:10:40.780 Mafia guys nowadays that are still based in Italy and Sicily,
00:10:44.340 drug trafficking is a big thing that they do.
00:10:47.080 ...was making waves in America.
00:10:51.040 The Sicilian Mafia always claimed
00:10:53.260 they adhered to a code of honor,
00:10:55.700 murdering only when necessary,
00:10:57.900 and avoiding the killing of innocents,
00:10:59.640 women, and children.
00:11:02.080 But Riina shunned these old guards.
00:11:04.240 Stop the cow!
00:11:10.320 Riina was as ambitious as he was ruthless.
00:11:13.620 He was determined to become the boss of bosses,
00:11:16.860 head of the Sicilian Mafia.
00:11:19.640 To achieve this,
00:11:20.880 he would commit so many atrocities
00:11:23.100 that he became known simply as the Beast.
00:11:26.940 To toriina, known as the Beast,
00:11:43.220 was putting Sicily on the heroin lamp.
00:11:46.260 In the early 70s,
00:11:47.340 his factories were producing ton after ton
00:11:49.740 of pure heroin.
00:11:52.220 All of it needed to be sold.
00:11:54.140 On the other side of the Atlantic,
00:12:01.520 Carmine Galante and the American Mafia
00:12:03.740 could see that there were huge sums
00:12:05.620 to be made selling Sicilian heroin.
00:12:08.460 But there was also a problem.
00:12:10.880 Throughout its history,
00:12:12.280 the U.S. Mafia had vowed
00:12:13.860 never to be associated with drugs.
00:12:17.220 The Chicago mob,
00:12:19.020 known as the Outfit,
00:12:20.380 was one of the most vocal opponents
00:12:22.080 of the drugs trade.
00:12:23.400 We always knew that.
00:12:24.460 If you dealt with drugs,
00:12:25.480 it was a dirty business.
00:12:28.960 FYI, just so you guys know,
00:12:30.340 this is the first time
00:12:31.360 I've watched this documentary.
00:12:33.340 Hey, man.
00:12:34.000 Like I said,
00:12:34.500 this is the importance
00:12:35.180 of watching that first episode
00:12:36.280 I told y'all.
00:12:36.840 How do I know all this?
00:12:37.980 Because I did extensive research,
00:12:39.380 watched that first episode,
00:12:40.640 took notes, etc.
00:12:41.400 So all this stuff makes more sense
00:12:43.120 once you understand
00:12:43.860 the history of the Mafia
00:12:45.060 and the origin
00:12:45.560 versus going straight to the families.
00:12:47.720 So he's basically repeating
00:12:49.940 what I told y'all before.
00:12:50.720 Drugs were a dirty business
00:12:52.340 and brought a lot of
00:12:53.120 unwanted attention
00:12:54.060 to organized crime,
00:12:55.320 which is why the Mafia,
00:12:57.760 at least, you know,
00:12:59.280 back then,
00:13:00.280 were one of the few
00:13:01.060 criminal organizations
00:13:01.880 that stayed away from drugs
00:13:03.100 most of the time.
00:13:04.520 Of course,
00:13:04.960 you're going to have people
00:13:05.500 that wheel and deal
00:13:06.880 with drugs here and there.
00:13:07.940 But in general,
00:13:09.100 most of the guys,
00:13:10.120 most of the organization
00:13:10.960 were not involved in drugs.
00:13:12.100 Maybe one or two guys
00:13:13.020 would be doing it on the side.
00:13:14.440 But if they got caught,
00:13:15.400 they would get killed.
00:13:15.880 So it was a very strong
00:13:17.060 detractor
00:13:19.080 from getting in the drug business.
00:13:22.340 And it'd be like
00:13:23.040 you're feeding your own kid
00:13:24.120 narcotics.
00:13:25.780 So it was like taboo.
00:13:27.720 And if you got involved with it,
00:13:30.240 you're definitely
00:13:31.280 going to get whacked.
00:13:35.220 As far as the outfit
00:13:36.320 was concerned,
00:13:37.540 there was no need
00:13:38.340 to deal drugs
00:13:39.140 when money could be made
00:13:40.620 in more acceptable ways.
00:13:42.000 And we will be covering
00:13:43.320 the outfit guys as well
00:13:44.760 after we cover
00:13:45.320 the five crime families
00:13:46.480 of New York.
00:13:47.180 We're going to go over
00:13:48.100 to the other side
00:13:49.340 and cover the outfit,
00:13:52.700 which is the Chicago-based portion.
00:13:54.080 And we're going to cover
00:13:54.620 Al Capone extensively.
00:13:56.360 Okay.
00:13:59.320 In the 1970s,
00:14:01.160 Frank Carlotta
00:14:01.960 was sent to Las Vegas
00:14:03.460 to make sure nobody messed
00:14:05.000 with the outfit's
00:14:05.880 highly profitable casinos.
00:14:12.000 My main job
00:14:15.500 was the casinos
00:14:16.440 to make sure
00:14:17.200 that everything
00:14:17.860 ran smooth in there
00:14:18.960 and there was no stealing
00:14:19.860 going on,
00:14:21.040 that they knew
00:14:22.040 our presence was there,
00:14:23.800 that if they did mess around
00:14:24.980 that they would get hit in the head.
00:14:28.600 But Carlotta and his crew,
00:14:30.780 running casinos
00:14:31.660 earned them respect
00:14:32.620 in a way drugs never would.
00:14:37.040 Actually, it was great.
00:14:38.220 It was beautiful.
00:14:39.680 I mean, you had everything
00:14:40.540 you needed out there.
00:14:41.440 You had anything
00:14:42.480 you wanted to do,
00:14:43.560 you had movie stars.
00:14:44.880 They wanted to be involved
00:14:46.760 with you.
00:14:47.360 You wanted to be involved
00:14:48.260 with them.
00:14:49.300 Anywhere you went,
00:14:50.440 you got the red carpet treatment.
00:14:53.520 It was like
00:14:54.620 you were respected.
00:14:56.260 I think you were respected.
00:14:57.600 I'm hoping that I wasn't feared,
00:14:59.060 but in some cases
00:15:00.000 you were feared.
00:15:02.000 And if that brought respect,
00:15:03.620 well, then it brought respect.
00:15:05.620 But for others,
00:15:06.980 the huge profits
00:15:08.000 of heroin dealing
00:15:08.900 were hard to resist.
00:15:11.440 From his beginnings
00:15:12.160 in suburban Brooklyn,
00:15:14.060 Dominic Montilio
00:15:15.100 grew up to be a member
00:15:16.080 of the notorious
00:15:16.840 New York crime family,
00:15:18.760 the Gambinos.
00:15:20.640 He dealt drugs
00:15:21.420 for the mafia
00:15:22.000 for many years.
00:15:23.240 the word that filtered down
00:15:25.700 just saying,
00:15:26.700 you know,
00:15:27.100 if you got caught.
00:15:28.520 And that was one of
00:15:29.360 John Gotti's guys
00:15:30.240 that were doing this
00:15:31.440 and they caught them
00:15:32.040 on wiretaps
00:15:32.660 talking about selling drugs.
00:15:33.960 That's how they actually
00:15:34.580 were able to go ahead
00:15:36.140 and catch John Gotti
00:15:38.080 and a bunch of his other people
00:15:39.400 because this dude
00:15:40.460 was out here
00:15:41.120 or this guy
00:15:42.560 that they're talking about
00:15:43.180 was dealing dope
00:15:44.420 in the Gambino family.
00:15:45.640 And we talked about that
00:15:46.320 in the last Gambino podcast.
00:15:47.900 Feel free to go check
00:15:48.920 that one out, guys.
00:15:50.480 You know,
00:15:51.080 dealing drugs,
00:15:52.320 you know,
00:15:52.740 it was an immediate
00:15:53.320 death sentence.
00:15:54.920 But the real message
00:15:56.280 that came down
00:15:57.240 was just don't get caught.
00:16:00.400 At that time,
00:16:01.460 I couldn't think of one crew
00:16:02.840 that I knew
00:16:03.320 that wasn't involved in it
00:16:04.440 because the money
00:16:05.520 was too lucrative
00:16:07.680 to pass up.
00:16:09.900 The street crews
00:16:10.920 that were involved in it
00:16:12.140 weren't going to give it up
00:16:13.880 either which way.
00:16:14.880 You know,
00:16:15.760 there was guys
00:16:16.380 that weren't making
00:16:17.940 a real good living
00:16:18.740 that all of a sudden
00:16:19.660 were taking,
00:16:21.100 you know,
00:16:21.380 150 large a week down.
00:16:25.660 The mob didn't want
00:16:26.700 to be seen
00:16:27.280 to be peddling drugs,
00:16:28.620 but they were happy
00:16:30.000 to take the money.
00:16:31.480 I mean,
00:16:31.700 the reason,
00:16:32.680 there was no great
00:16:33.640 moral reasons
00:16:34.720 why they didn't want
00:16:35.860 you dealing in heroin.
00:16:37.400 It was just that
00:16:37.920 it would bring out
00:16:39.260 much more heat
00:16:40.040 on the family.
00:16:42.300 But the bottom line
00:16:43.860 is the cash.
00:16:45.600 You know,
00:16:46.020 and that's a cash business.
00:16:48.360 And the amounts
00:16:49.120 are staggering,
00:16:50.900 the amounts of money
00:16:51.620 that can be made.
00:16:52.860 The New York families
00:16:54.220 knew that dealing drugs
00:16:55.520 would attract attention
00:16:56.460 from the authorities,
00:16:58.220 but it was a risk
00:16:59.220 they were prepared
00:16:59.840 to take.
00:17:01.480 The U.S. Mafia
00:17:02.700 secretly embraced
00:17:03.860 the heroin trade
00:17:04.800 and were soon
00:17:05.860 making more money
00:17:06.760 than they knew
00:17:07.300 what to do with.
00:17:09.660 The unpleasant fact
00:17:11.040 is that there
00:17:11.760 is a new epidemic
00:17:12.940 of heroin use
00:17:13.960 in the United States.
00:17:16.120 As Sicilian heroin
00:17:17.520 began to flow,
00:17:19.220 addiction rates
00:17:19.960 in America soared.
00:17:22.080 At the end
00:17:22.520 of World War II,
00:17:24.000 America had an estimated
00:17:25.100 20,000 heroin users.
00:17:27.800 By the mid-70s,
00:17:29.620 there were more
00:17:30.240 than half a million.
00:17:31.160 The FBI had little idea
00:17:34.640 how such large quantities
00:17:36.240 of drugs
00:17:36.780 were getting into the country
00:17:37.860 or who was bringing it in.
00:17:40.580 But that was about to change.
00:17:42.300 In the 50s and 60s,
00:17:46.320 FBI agents
00:17:47.160 were mostly white males.
00:17:50.660 Now the FBI
00:17:51.700 was recruiting
00:17:52.300 from a much wider pool.
00:17:54.540 Finally,
00:17:54.980 they had young,
00:17:55.940 ambitious agents
00:17:56.700 who came from
00:17:57.920 the communities
00:17:58.580 that were home
00:17:59.180 to the mafia
00:17:59.740 and could speak
00:18:01.220 the Sicilian dialect.
00:18:02.300 That's very important,
00:18:04.040 guys.
00:18:04.400 To this day,
00:18:05.000 the FBI is still
00:18:05.780 heavily involved
00:18:06.600 in doing recruitment
00:18:08.680 of people
00:18:09.440 from different walks
00:18:10.180 of life
00:18:10.660 because they want
00:18:12.400 language capabilities,
00:18:13.600 they want people
00:18:13.960 that can blend in,
00:18:14.740 et cetera.
00:18:15.160 Even to this day,
00:18:15.920 the FBI is still
00:18:16.420 a mostly Caucasian agency,
00:18:18.400 so they do a lot
00:18:19.080 of outreach
00:18:19.580 to different demographics
00:18:21.960 of people
00:18:22.500 to make the workplace
00:18:24.260 more diverse,
00:18:24.980 especially to gather
00:18:26.400 people that speak
00:18:27.020 certain languages
00:18:27.620 that they're looking for,
00:18:28.520 Arabic, Russian,
00:18:29.940 Mandarin, Chinese,
00:18:30.780 et cetera.
00:18:36.500 Joe Pistone
00:18:37.540 was a young FBI agent
00:18:39.120 from a Sicilian background.
00:18:41.480 His mission
00:18:42.060 was to infiltrate
00:18:43.460 the mafia,
00:18:45.200 something that had
00:18:45.860 never been done before.
00:18:47.240 Hey, here we go, guys.
00:18:49.920 We might,
00:18:50.780 if you guys want,
00:18:51.700 I might go ahead
00:18:52.400 and do an entire podcast
00:18:53.500 just on Pistone,
00:18:55.440 but, you know,
00:18:56.940 let me know in the comments
00:18:57.680 what you guys want.
00:19:00.780 I grew up in New Jersey
00:19:01.940 and I grew up
00:19:02.900 in an Italian neighborhood.
00:19:05.140 Joseph D. Pistone,
00:19:07.140 a.k.a. Donnie Brasco,
00:19:08.380 man, former FBI agent.
00:19:09.420 Let's go, baby.
00:19:12.600 FBI in the house now.
00:19:14.500 And there actually
00:19:14.840 was a really good movie
00:19:15.520 that came out on this,
00:19:16.320 did really well.
00:19:17.660 Even Mike Francie
00:19:19.680 said that it was
00:19:20.280 a very good,
00:19:20.940 I guess,
00:19:22.780 reincarnation
00:19:23.440 of the original story.
00:19:25.480 FBI, open up!
00:19:26.540 And in this neighborhood,
00:19:28.140 there were mafia guys,
00:19:29.940 mob guys,
00:19:30.720 and I went to high school
00:19:32.480 with sons of mob guys.
00:19:34.420 So I knew about the mafia
00:19:36.140 growing up.
00:19:37.380 It wasn't foreign to me
00:19:38.660 when I became an FBI agent.
00:19:40.440 So I was pretty well versed
00:19:41.780 in the ways
00:19:42.500 and traditions of the mafia.
00:19:46.940 Joe Pistone's dream
00:19:48.300 was always to be a cop.
00:19:49.880 Growing up,
00:19:54.200 it was easy,
00:19:56.100 it would have been easy
00:19:56.920 to go, you know,
00:19:58.860 to go crooked
00:19:59.780 or become bent
00:20:00.740 because you're in the neighborhood,
00:20:03.240 you see what's going on.
00:20:04.960 There are guys
00:20:05.720 doing illegal activities.
00:20:08.280 But I never had
00:20:09.840 an inkling to go toward that
00:20:11.480 because of my parents.
00:20:12.760 I mean,
00:20:13.980 I know if I ever
00:20:16.240 did anything wrong
00:20:16.900 that I'd get a good
00:20:18.120 swift boot
00:20:18.720 and I ran from my father.
00:20:20.940 Same exact thing
00:20:21.840 with me, guys.
00:20:22.580 My dad,
00:20:23.440 I tried to go ahead
00:20:24.160 and do son dumb,
00:20:25.160 and I'm going to get slapped.
00:20:27.260 So definitely
00:20:28.840 W Parenting.
00:20:31.680 On July the 7th, 1969,
00:20:34.640 Pistone was sworn in
00:20:35.680 as a special agent
00:20:36.560 of the FBI.
00:20:38.900 Seven years later,
00:20:40.260 he disappeared
00:20:41.000 from everyday life
00:20:42.240 and developed
00:20:43.520 a new identity.
00:20:45.380 Everybody needs a legend,
00:20:47.100 and that's a history,
00:20:48.180 a legend,
00:20:48.480 a history.
00:20:49.380 And so, you know,
00:20:50.140 you pick a name,
00:20:50.880 and I picked Donnie Brasco,
00:20:52.320 and I picked a jewel thief,
00:20:55.280 burglar or jewel thief
00:20:56.360 because it's a profession
00:20:58.660 that is not involved
00:21:00.300 in violence.
00:21:02.980 You know,
00:21:03.420 not many jewel thieves
00:21:04.780 are in jail for murder.
00:21:06.300 So you want a legend
00:21:08.440 that is a nonviolent legend,
00:21:10.380 and you want one
00:21:11.460 where you can provide
00:21:12.700 somebody with something.
00:21:13.820 so I could come around
00:21:16.000 with precious gems,
00:21:17.560 jewels,
00:21:18.220 and tell them
00:21:19.220 that I had just
00:21:19.740 pulled a score.
00:21:22.860 Pistone's job
00:21:23.660 was to work his way
00:21:24.640 into a mafia family.
00:21:26.540 The risks were great,
00:21:28.440 but if he pulled it off,
00:21:30.100 he had the chance
00:21:30.880 to expose
00:21:31.600 a secret world of crime.
00:21:33.040 one wrong move,
00:21:36.860 and he faced
00:21:37.600 almost certain death.
00:21:38.980 In order to do this job...
00:21:45.680 Another thing, guys,
00:21:46.540 I didn't talk about this
00:21:47.260 in the first episode,
00:21:48.120 but as you guys know,
00:21:49.440 taking the code of silence
00:21:50.840 to Omerta
00:21:51.340 and becoming a made man,
00:21:52.920 one of the parts
00:21:53.700 of becoming a made man,
00:21:54.720 you could not have ever
00:21:56.240 have attended
00:21:56.900 any type of
00:21:57.820 law enforcement academy
00:21:58.980 or be a police officer
00:22:00.420 in any kind of fashion.
00:22:02.840 Even if you were crooked,
00:22:04.440 you know,
00:22:04.640 you might be an associate,
00:22:05.580 et cetera,
00:22:05.800 but you can never be
00:22:06.560 a made man in the mob
00:22:07.480 if you've ever attended
00:22:08.760 a police academy
00:22:11.140 or worked in law enforcement.
00:22:12.520 So this was death sentence
00:22:13.580 if they caught him.
00:22:14.860 The cover work,
00:22:15.660 you have to have two things.
00:22:16.820 You got to have
00:22:17.260 a lot of nerve
00:22:17.900 and you got to have
00:22:19.560 a lot of mental toughness.
00:22:21.680 I'm not a person
00:22:22.420 that sweats, you know.
00:22:23.380 When I get into a jam,
00:22:24.440 I don't sweat,
00:22:25.120 so you don't know
00:22:25.720 if you're scaring me or not,
00:22:27.580 you know.
00:22:28.580 And, you know,
00:22:29.680 there's not much
00:22:30.240 that can be done to you.
00:22:31.140 The worst thing that can happen
00:22:32.120 is they can kill you.
00:22:33.000 That's about it.
00:22:35.600 The FBI wanted
00:22:36.680 the inside story
00:22:37.700 on the mafia.
00:22:38.760 The Bonanno boss,
00:22:40.600 Carmine Galante,
00:22:41.560 was their first target.
00:22:44.440 Pistone used the FBI's diamonds
00:22:46.100 and his Sicilian roots
00:22:47.520 to gradually infiltrate
00:22:49.440 Galante's mafia family.
00:22:50.780 being of Italian ancestry
00:22:57.320 and knowing the streets
00:22:58.840 and knowing how the mafia operates,
00:23:02.960 you know,
00:23:03.440 you speak when you're spoken to.
00:23:05.980 You mind your own business.
00:23:07.400 You don't get involved
00:23:08.040 in conversations
00:23:08.780 that don't concern you.
00:23:11.400 They don't just, you know,
00:23:12.520 embrace you and take you in.
00:23:13.760 And you have to just lay back,
00:23:16.340 be patient,
00:23:17.180 and work your way.
00:23:23.260 You know,
00:23:23.800 and it's the first impression
00:23:24.980 that's going to carry you through.
00:23:28.560 And if you do things,
00:23:30.100 certain things,
00:23:30.860 that they pick you out,
00:23:32.080 that you have street smarts
00:23:33.940 and you aren't street guy,
00:23:34.860 that that's what's going to make you.
00:23:41.320 In March 1977,
00:23:46.240 Pistone began to hang around
00:23:47.640 in Nome-Banano territory.
00:23:50.500 He soon got noticed
00:23:51.480 by mafia foot soldiers.
00:23:57.640 One of the wise guys
00:23:59.120 Pistone met
00:23:59.960 was Lefty Ruggiero.
00:24:02.840 Pistone would later discover
00:24:04.040 that Lefty
00:24:04.780 was a known hitman
00:24:06.020 for the mob.
00:24:09.920 Lefty approached Pistone,
00:24:11.620 asking him to sell
00:24:12.620 some stolen jewelry.
00:24:15.900 I was introduced
00:24:16.600 to a fellow by the name
00:24:17.860 of Lefty Ruggiero,
00:24:19.160 and Lefty was,
00:24:21.480 he was a 24-hour gangster.
00:24:24.320 I mean,
00:24:24.780 he knew the mob.
00:24:26.980 He knew everything
00:24:28.540 about the mafia.
00:24:29.380 If you need a teacher
00:24:30.120 in the mafia,
00:24:30.840 Lefty was the guy
00:24:31.660 that you wanted.
00:24:34.420 I used my street smarts
00:24:35.600 and my knowledge
00:24:36.120 of the mafia,
00:24:37.280 and I didn't push with him
00:24:39.000 as far as questions
00:24:41.360 and, you know,
00:24:42.800 trying to get information.
00:24:45.420 And he liked that.
00:24:47.200 He saw that I was a street guy,
00:24:48.820 that I knew the streets.
00:24:50.200 And also, you know,
00:24:51.480 being a jewel thief
00:24:52.480 and bringing around
00:24:54.060 some precious stones,
00:24:55.340 he liked that too
00:24:56.260 because...
00:24:57.540 And that's really smart,
00:24:58.540 guys,
00:24:58.760 that he came in
00:24:59.260 as a jewel thief.
00:24:59.980 And the reason why
00:25:00.640 he probably had that cover story
00:25:01.940 versus having something else
00:25:03.040 is that when you're
00:25:04.060 in the mafia,
00:25:05.060 right,
00:25:05.440 you don't want to come in
00:25:06.640 and say,
00:25:06.980 oh yeah,
00:25:07.340 I'm this tough guy
00:25:08.380 and all this other stuff
00:25:09.040 because they're going to put you
00:25:09.920 to the test a lot of times
00:25:10.760 and want you to kill somebody
00:25:11.740 if they know that you're
00:25:12.780 a violent criminal.
00:25:13.540 But as a jewel thief,
00:25:14.780 what he's able to do
00:25:15.520 is he's able to say,
00:25:16.040 hey, listen,
00:25:16.740 I'm able to come in,
00:25:17.440 I have a skill set,
00:25:18.100 I can make y'all money
00:25:19.260 because that's what
00:25:19.820 they prioritize
00:25:20.340 and I'm not necessarily
00:25:22.420 one of these,
00:25:22.960 you know,
00:25:23.180 tough guys that needs
00:25:23.900 to go out and kill people
00:25:24.700 but I got my connections
00:25:26.380 in the underworld
00:25:27.040 of being a jewel thief
00:25:27.820 so that allows
00:25:28.540 the undercover agent
00:25:29.440 to assume a criminal identity
00:25:31.000 without necessarily
00:25:31.540 having to be a violent one
00:25:32.420 because if they do try
00:25:33.200 to put him to the test
00:25:33.920 and tell him,
00:25:34.900 we need you to rough this guy up
00:25:35.880 or beat this guy up,
00:25:36.460 he can't do that as an agent.
00:25:38.000 So that's why he went
00:25:39.900 with the backstory
00:25:40.480 of being a jewel thief
00:25:41.380 because it lets him
00:25:43.680 inflate his own status
00:25:44.920 within a mafia.
00:25:45.800 He can go ahead
00:25:46.880 and make introductions
00:25:47.800 and it allows him
00:25:49.020 to be a criminal
00:25:49.680 while simultaneously
00:25:51.060 still be able
00:25:52.140 to have the guys
00:25:54.100 in the cover
00:25:54.680 of being a veteran crook
00:25:57.620 that can steal
00:25:58.240 and earn for the mafia
00:25:59.640 which is their number
00:26:00.340 one priority.
00:26:00.920 Violence always comes
00:26:02.580 just to,
00:26:04.840 violence is a secondary
00:26:05.920 to the primary
00:26:06.640 and that primary
00:26:07.240 is earning money first
00:26:08.540 which is why the mafia
00:26:09.320 was so big
00:26:10.320 on extortion rackets,
00:26:12.180 gambling,
00:26:13.120 having extorting garment,
00:26:15.540 the garment district,
00:26:16.760 meat, kosher meat,
00:26:17.720 all these different ways
00:26:19.360 to make money.
00:26:21.600 They prioritized that.
00:26:22.940 Obviously the violence
00:26:23.600 came if the money
00:26:24.180 didn't come
00:26:24.660 but rarely did the violence
00:26:25.640 have to come
00:26:26.200 versus how many people
00:26:27.440 they were extorting
00:26:28.040 at the same time.
00:26:28.920 But it was always
00:26:29.500 about making money
00:26:30.420 not necessarily
00:26:31.280 just committing
00:26:31.760 senseless acts of violence.
00:26:33.260 And Lucky Luciano
00:26:33.940 is one of the big ones
00:26:35.280 that imported that idea
00:26:36.840 into the mafia
00:26:37.740 aka the commission.
00:26:40.220 It was money,
00:26:41.200 you know.
00:26:41.580 As his undercover
00:26:46.240 operations stretched
00:26:47.460 into months and years,
00:26:49.640 Pistone gradually
00:26:50.420 became an accepted face
00:26:51.820 within the mob.
00:26:53.560 But the risks
00:26:54.580 remained high.
00:26:57.640 Former gangster
00:26:58.580 Henry Hill
00:26:59.400 knows all about
00:27:00.820 the dangers
00:27:01.480 that Pistone faced.
00:27:02.800 I mean,
00:27:05.860 he was susceptible
00:27:06.460 to get figured out
00:27:08.300 at any time,
00:27:09.240 you know.
00:27:09.520 I mean,
00:27:09.740 it took balls.
00:27:10.400 Believe me,
00:27:10.940 it took balls.
00:27:11.680 But he also enjoyed it.
00:27:13.100 You know,
00:27:13.260 he became a member.
00:27:15.800 Or as close
00:27:16.300 as you can come
00:27:16.820 as a member.
00:27:19.160 Pistone was so convincing.
00:27:21.660 An almost father
00:27:22.420 and son relationship
00:27:23.540 developed
00:27:24.140 between him
00:27:24.880 and Lefty.
00:27:27.460 He did have
00:27:28.280 an affection for me,
00:27:29.320 I think,
00:27:29.820 because he saw me,
00:27:33.060 you know,
00:27:33.440 something that he
00:27:34.180 might have wanted
00:27:34.920 to have been
00:27:35.920 or his son,
00:27:37.440 you know,
00:27:37.860 to have been.
00:27:38.920 And he introduced me
00:27:40.520 to his family
00:27:41.760 and his wife.
00:27:43.540 And, you know,
00:27:44.680 I spent...
00:27:45.000 And just so you guys know,
00:27:45.960 this movie right here,
00:27:47.100 okay,
00:27:47.900 Donnie Brasco
00:27:49.060 released back in 1997,
00:27:50.860 Johnny Depp.
00:27:51.840 Good film, man.
00:27:52.900 It covers this
00:27:54.000 extensively
00:27:55.360 with Donnie Brasco
00:27:57.500 and Lefty,
00:27:58.300 et cetera.
00:27:58.660 So go ahead
00:27:59.040 and check that movie out
00:27:59.880 when you guys
00:28:00.700 get the chance.
00:28:02.180 But, yeah,
00:28:02.940 pretty damn good film here.
00:28:04.200 You guys can see here,
00:28:05.160 it got, what,
00:28:06.120 7.7 on IMDb
00:28:07.620 and 88% on Rotten Tomatoes,
00:28:09.140 a 1997 film.
00:28:12.780 A lot of times
00:28:14.620 at his house
00:28:15.200 having dinner.
00:28:17.240 So,
00:28:17.780 it became more
00:28:19.660 than just a,
00:28:20.560 you know,
00:28:21.240 gangster on gangster
00:28:22.260 relationship.
00:28:23.100 by the summer
00:28:28.420 of 1977,
00:28:30.440 the Stone had won
00:28:31.280 Lefty's trust.
00:28:33.320 But would he ever get
00:28:34.180 any closer
00:28:34.800 to heroin boss
00:28:35.960 Carmine Galante?
00:28:37.080 I was with,
00:28:40.240 I was a Lefty
00:28:40.920 one night
00:28:41.400 and he said,
00:28:42.240 we gotta go,
00:28:43.320 we gotta go somewhere
00:28:45.660 and I said,
00:28:46.140 well,
00:28:46.240 where we're going?
00:28:46.900 He said,
00:28:47.260 well,
00:28:47.400 I'll tell you
00:28:47.720 when we get there.
00:28:50.860 Galante was having
00:28:52.140 a meeting in there
00:28:52.940 and it was our job
00:28:54.700 to stand outside
00:28:55.760 and make sure
00:28:56.520 that the meeting
00:28:58.620 went smooth
00:28:59.200 and nothing happened.
00:29:00.240 Basically,
00:29:00.740 we were outside
00:29:01.260 guarding them.
00:29:01.860 this was a big
00:29:04.280 opportunity
00:29:04.840 for the Stone.
00:29:07.400 And I asked him,
00:29:08.340 I said,
00:29:08.540 you know,
00:29:08.720 Left,
00:29:09.060 can't we go inside?
00:29:10.120 And he says,
00:29:10.720 what are you,
00:29:12.240 crazy?
00:29:12.900 You can't go in there
00:29:13.960 and sit down
00:29:14.600 when the boss is meeting.
00:29:16.400 You can't even
00:29:16.920 meet the boss.
00:29:18.360 You know,
00:29:18.840 he doesn't meet
00:29:19.420 anybody on your level.
00:29:23.080 Translation,
00:29:23.700 you're not a made guy yet.
00:29:25.300 So that's a big,
00:29:26.300 Nope.
00:29:26.960 And if you guys
00:29:27.820 want more details
00:29:28.500 on becoming a made guy
00:29:29.620 and the ritual
00:29:30.300 and everything else
00:29:31.140 like that,
00:29:31.460 I cover this extensively
00:29:32.560 in episode one,
00:29:33.320 guys,
00:29:33.580 so you can get
00:29:33.940 the difference
00:29:34.460 between a made guy
00:29:35.600 aka a soldier
00:29:36.240 versus a capo
00:29:37.020 versus a consigliere,
00:29:38.660 under boss,
00:29:39.380 boss,
00:29:39.740 et cetera.
00:29:40.140 We go over
00:29:40.480 the entire hierarchy
00:29:41.280 in that first episode.
00:29:42.540 Go back and watch it
00:29:43.300 so I don't have
00:29:43.640 to rehash it.
00:29:44.780 He says,
00:29:45.080 we got to stand out
00:29:45.860 here until we're told
00:29:46.740 to lay release
00:29:48.180 until we're told
00:29:48.760 we can go.
00:29:50.780 You know,
00:29:51.260 it was kind of
00:29:51.720 an adrenaline rush.
00:29:53.300 A lot of things
00:29:53.980 go through your mind,
00:29:54.720 but the main thing
00:29:55.300 was is that
00:29:55.820 if I get killed,
00:29:57.180 I'm going to get killed
00:29:57.740 as a wise guy,
00:29:58.560 not as an FBI agent here.
00:30:01.460 You know,
00:30:03.140 here I'm an FBI agent
00:30:04.580 working undercover
00:30:05.360 and, you know,
00:30:07.180 nobody ever got to
00:30:08.260 be close to a boss,
00:30:09.840 let alone guard him.
00:30:13.180 Pistone did not get
00:30:14.060 as close to Galanti
00:30:14.920 as he wanted,
00:30:16.320 but he learned
00:30:17.000 important facts
00:30:18.020 about his operation.
00:30:18.920 before Pistone went undercover,
00:30:22.780 the FBI had some idea
00:30:24.320 about the inner workings
00:30:25.540 of the mob.
00:30:27.060 Now,
00:30:27.700 for the first time,
00:30:29.220 an agent was able
00:30:30.080 to confirm the way
00:30:31.300 the mafia was organized
00:30:32.640 from the inside.
00:30:36.820 Pistone told the FBI
00:30:38.160 how each family
00:30:39.520 was structured
00:30:40.160 into a military formation.
00:30:41.640 At the top
00:30:43.380 was the head
00:30:43.980 of the family.
00:30:45.800 Working directly
00:30:46.600 for him
00:30:47.100 was an underboss
00:30:47.880 and an advisor
00:30:48.700 known as a consigliere.
00:30:51.640 Beneath them
00:30:52.300 were the capos,
00:30:54.640 each of whom
00:30:55.300 ran a crew
00:30:55.920 of five to ten
00:30:57.060 foot soldiers.
00:30:59.340 This structure
00:31:00.420 meant the boss
00:31:01.240 was always
00:31:01.840 several layers away
00:31:03.060 from the foot soldiers
00:31:04.000 and the crimes
00:31:04.760 they committed,
00:31:06.160 making it almost
00:31:07.040 impossible
00:31:07.600 to convict
00:31:08.920 the head
00:31:09.620 of the family.
00:31:12.160 This was vital
00:31:13.040 intelligence
00:31:13.560 in the war
00:31:14.180 against the mob.
00:31:15.180 And just clarification
00:31:16.140 real fast, guys,
00:31:17.100 because he said
00:31:17.640 a wise guy
00:31:18.300 and a wise guy
00:31:19.080 is commonly used
00:31:20.040 to refer to a guy
00:31:21.260 that's a made man.
00:31:22.860 Let me be very clear
00:31:23.740 about this.
00:31:24.160 Joey Pistone
00:31:24.720 never became
00:31:25.960 a made guy.
00:31:27.220 The FBI actually
00:31:27.660 ended up pulling him out
00:31:28.740 before he could be made
00:31:29.880 because it was too dangerous
00:31:30.760 because they were
00:31:31.160 almost certain
00:31:31.620 that he was going
00:31:32.060 to have to commit
00:31:32.520 some type of violent act
00:31:33.360 to become a made guy.
00:31:34.380 So he came very close
00:31:35.440 and he probably
00:31:36.780 infiltrated the mafia
00:31:37.660 to the greatest extent
00:31:38.520 of any law enforcement
00:31:39.480 officer in American history,
00:31:40.780 but he was never
00:31:42.020 a made guy, okay?
00:31:43.580 And I want to make
00:31:44.240 that very clear
00:31:44.860 because becoming
00:31:45.480 a made man
00:31:46.180 is a big deal
00:31:47.400 in the mafia.
00:31:48.580 It takes years of work.
00:31:49.560 You need to,
00:31:50.820 for most,
00:31:51.200 not all,
00:31:51.740 unless you have
00:31:52.200 someone that's verifying
00:31:53.460 you to tie up
00:31:53.940 in your organization,
00:31:54.660 et cetera.
00:31:55.140 But it isn't easy
00:31:56.000 to become a made guy.
00:31:56.980 And once again,
00:31:58.840 to understand
00:31:59.820 what being a made guy
00:32:01.140 is,
00:32:01.340 go back and watch
00:32:01.920 that first episode.
00:32:02.560 I don't want to sound
00:32:02.980 like a broken record,
00:32:03.780 guys, here,
00:32:04.600 but it's really important
00:32:06.160 that you understand
00:32:06.920 these terms
00:32:08.620 and phrases
00:32:09.620 and hierarchies,
00:32:10.980 et cetera,
00:32:11.200 so everything makes sense.
00:32:14.240 But it was just
00:32:15.120 the beginning.
00:32:16.900 Pistone also managed
00:32:17.980 to find out
00:32:18.520 the secret
00:32:19.040 of Galante's
00:32:19.800 meteoric rise
00:32:20.740 within the New York mafia.
00:32:23.620 Joe came back
00:32:24.560 to us telling us
00:32:27.260 about the Sicilians
00:32:29.140 whom the American
00:32:31.640 mafia figures
00:32:32.960 were referring
00:32:33.560 to as ZIPS.
00:32:36.000 And to him,
00:32:36.600 this meant
00:32:37.020 that these Sicilian
00:32:38.140 mafia figures
00:32:38.940 within the Bonanno family
00:32:40.520 were actually being used
00:32:42.380 to commit murder,
00:32:44.140 dealing in drugs,
00:32:45.580 heroin.
00:32:46.340 That was just
00:32:47.260 unbelievable revelation.
00:32:48.880 I met some Sicilian
00:32:52.960 that were members
00:32:54.980 of the mafia.
00:32:57.400 And these guys
00:32:59.060 were made guys
00:33:00.840 over in Sicily
00:33:03.360 and then brought
00:33:04.020 over here.
00:33:04.920 But the Sicilians
00:33:05.760 had their own
00:33:06.760 clique over here
00:33:09.620 in the U.S.
00:33:12.600 Galante had imported
00:33:13.780 his own private army
00:33:15.080 of ruthless Sicilian
00:33:16.380 mafiosi.
00:33:17.160 And Galante's
00:33:18.460 two key guys
00:33:19.600 that he brought over
00:33:21.200 were Cesar Bonaventuri
00:33:23.880 and Baldo Amato.
00:33:27.140 And he brought them
00:33:29.260 over from Sicily
00:33:30.160 and they were
00:33:31.880 with him constantly.
00:33:33.620 And I think
00:33:34.140 one of the reasons
00:33:34.740 why he did bring him
00:33:35.620 over is that he felt
00:33:36.620 a better sense
00:33:38.700 of security
00:33:39.400 with the Sicilians
00:33:40.580 because I guess
00:33:43.580 he felt they were
00:33:44.120 still loyal
00:33:44.720 to the tradition
00:33:46.260 they weren't
00:33:49.100 Americanized yet.
00:33:51.660 Galante's new bodyguards
00:33:53.020 made waves
00:33:54.040 in the Bonaventuri family.
00:33:55.640 There was a lot
00:33:56.380 of friction
00:33:56.820 I found
00:33:57.460 between the American
00:33:58.780 mafia and the Sicilians
00:34:00.240 even though they were
00:34:01.700 married up
00:34:02.980 into one family.
00:34:04.780 I mean,
00:34:05.120 anyway,
00:34:06.120 Lefty and Sonny
00:34:06.980 and the other Americans
00:34:08.180 thought that they were
00:34:09.200 looking to take over
00:34:10.560 the family
00:34:11.140 and that the other
00:34:13.380 American mafia guys
00:34:15.360 didn't trust them
00:34:17.060 and didn't like them.
00:34:20.540 The Sicilian
00:34:21.600 and American mafia
00:34:22.640 were cut from
00:34:23.420 very different cloth.
00:34:25.980 In the past,
00:34:27.740 the Sicilians
00:34:28.280 had embraced
00:34:29.040 rules and traditions.
00:34:30.880 But that was changing.
00:34:32.140 They'd kill anyone.
00:34:36.680 You know,
00:34:36.940 we had certain rules.
00:34:39.160 You know,
00:34:39.380 it sounds strange,
00:34:40.280 but there were rules
00:34:41.400 as to, you know,
00:34:42.820 who you had to get
00:34:44.960 permission from
00:34:45.740 to go do a piece of work
00:34:48.000 or
00:34:48.360 you couldn't kill a guy
00:34:51.520 in front of his family
00:34:52.580 and
00:34:53.100 they didn't have those rules.
00:34:54.980 These new,
00:34:57.980 ruthless Sicilians
00:34:58.900 were from a mafia clan
00:35:00.660 based in Corleone,
00:35:02.440 a remote,
00:35:03.260 rural town
00:35:03.960 deep in the mountains
00:35:04.940 of Sicily.
00:35:10.020 Corleone mafiosi
00:35:11.060 are made of
00:35:11.620 different stuff.
00:35:12.820 They're tough,
00:35:13.580 very hard.
00:35:15.040 Probably their peasant
00:35:15.820 lifestyle trained them
00:35:16.820 to withstand
00:35:17.320 anything thrown at them.
00:35:22.060 Jail doesn't scare
00:35:22.860 the Corleone.
00:35:24.000 They aren't
00:35:24.760 frightened of death.
00:35:25.860 They're always
00:35:26.360 faithful to their boss.
00:35:29.980 The Corleone
00:35:30.980 had reached the top
00:35:32.400 of the Sicilian mafia
00:35:33.480 by breaking rules
00:35:35.280 and killing
00:35:36.120 without permission
00:35:36.960 from anyone.
00:35:45.280 In the American mafia,
00:35:47.660 obedience to your superiors
00:35:49.000 was deeply ingrained.
00:35:51.060 The godfather
00:35:52.220 of the American mafia,
00:35:53.300 Charlie Lucky Luciano,
00:35:55.960 had formed an organization
00:35:57.200 known as the Commission
00:35:58.320 back in 1931.
00:36:00.940 This was like the board
00:36:02.040 of directors
00:36:02.600 of the mafia.
00:36:04.220 All the heads
00:36:04.840 of the families
00:36:05.420 would meet
00:36:05.980 to settle disputes
00:36:07.220 and decide on strategy.
00:36:09.480 The Commission
00:36:10.280 imposed discipline
00:36:11.220 on the warring families.
00:36:13.660 Rules were agreed,
00:36:14.940 which changed little
00:36:15.940 over decades.
00:36:16.820 One of the rules
00:36:27.080 was that you didn't
00:36:28.360 kill someone
00:36:29.060 without permission
00:36:29.920 from the head
00:36:30.620 of your family.
00:36:37.300 Las Vegas mobster
00:36:38.520 Frank Carlotta
00:36:39.420 nearly paid the ultimate
00:36:41.160 price when this rule
00:36:42.340 was broken,
00:36:43.420 thanks to his ruthless boss,
00:36:45.360 Tony Spinaltra.
00:36:47.760 I grew up
00:36:48.460 with this Tony guy.
00:36:49.700 He was a very good friend
00:36:50.980 and as I said,
00:36:52.000 you know,
00:36:52.600 very good friends
00:36:53.520 that are the ones
00:36:53.880 that are going to get you killed.
00:36:56.060 And when he had ordered
00:36:57.920 me to whack some guy
00:37:00.480 out here,
00:37:01.100 I asked him,
00:37:03.060 did you get the okay
00:37:03.880 from back home?
00:37:04.580 And he said,
00:37:05.000 yeah.
00:37:05.660 And he promised me
00:37:06.560 he did.
00:37:07.780 Well,
00:37:08.600 he never did get the okay.
00:37:11.340 And he got a call
00:37:12.920 from one of the bosses
00:37:14.920 back there
00:37:15.540 and they said,
00:37:15.980 what are you guys
00:37:17.000 doing out there?
00:37:18.800 Oh, Lord,
00:37:19.560 you already know
00:37:20.060 that this is going
00:37:20.640 to cause a huge problem.
00:37:21.860 Mama Mia!
00:37:23.840 Killing someone
00:37:24.540 without authorization
00:37:25.400 from Chicago
00:37:26.280 was breaking the rules.
00:37:28.700 The punishment
00:37:29.420 was death.
00:37:31.300 And just so you guys know,
00:37:31.980 the commission was
00:37:32.840 all the crime families
00:37:34.080 basically sat on the board
00:37:35.060 and made these decisions.
00:37:36.040 It wasn't just
00:37:36.500 the five families of New York.
00:37:37.840 It was the guys out of Chicago,
00:37:38.960 the guys out of Florida,
00:37:40.000 et cetera.
00:37:40.240 And there was actually
00:37:40.660 a meeting done
00:37:41.360 in New York
00:37:42.920 and a state trooper,
00:37:44.600 right,
00:37:44.840 that was very go-getter
00:37:47.480 was able to catch
00:37:48.480 these guys all meeting.
00:37:49.820 And that's kind of
00:37:50.280 the first time
00:37:51.020 that the United States
00:37:51.800 figured out
00:37:52.240 that there was a
00:37:52.840 national criminal organization
00:37:55.820 of La Cosa Nostra.
00:37:57.580 It would have kind of
00:37:58.260 had been speculated against,
00:37:59.520 but no one knew for sure.
00:38:00.540 And when they call
00:38:00.980 all these guys meeting,
00:38:01.880 in one location in New York
00:38:02.940 from different parts
00:38:03.840 of the country,
00:38:04.460 that's when they were
00:38:05.280 pretty much like,
00:38:06.180 gotcha, bitch.
00:38:09.600 Tony Spilotto
00:38:10.440 decided to blame
00:38:11.600 his best friend,
00:38:13.060 Frank Colotta.
00:38:14.300 He was lying.
00:38:15.540 He was taking the weight
00:38:16.380 off himself
00:38:17.240 because he knew
00:38:18.980 that if he didn't
00:38:22.220 and said he readily
00:38:23.240 ordered me
00:38:24.340 to do these things,
00:38:25.500 that they would
00:38:26.260 whack him in the head.
00:38:27.160 so he shifted
00:38:28.320 everything over to me.
00:38:30.640 That was my best friend.
00:38:33.120 We shined shoes together
00:38:34.180 when we were
00:38:34.640 12, 13 years old.
00:38:36.760 So all my life.
00:38:38.560 He's the guy
00:38:39.480 that actually
00:38:40.140 was the guy
00:38:41.580 that told me
00:38:42.220 when I get to be
00:38:42.980 a big man,
00:38:43.640 you're my right-hand man.
00:38:45.840 And I was.
00:38:47.420 But that's the same guy
00:38:48.640 that was going to
00:38:49.260 sell me out
00:38:49.960 to save his ass
00:38:51.080 and get me whacked.
00:38:55.180 It wasn't long
00:38:56.180 before Tony Spilotto
00:38:57.260 and his mobster brother
00:38:58.540 received deadly punishment
00:39:00.760 at the hands of the mob.
00:39:03.600 Believe it or not,
00:39:04.400 I felt a little bad for him
00:39:05.780 because that's,
00:39:08.000 I mean,
00:39:08.620 they were both
00:39:10.160 beaten to death.
00:39:11.560 They weren't shot,
00:39:12.680 they weren't strangled,
00:39:13.640 they weren't knifed,
00:39:15.180 they were physically
00:39:16.080 punched to death
00:39:17.980 or beaten with bats to death,
00:39:19.820 however, you know,
00:39:21.080 and each one
00:39:22.380 was to watch one die,
00:39:24.020 you know.
00:39:24.500 So, you know,
00:39:25.280 I felt bad.
00:39:25.940 There were two brothers
00:39:26.600 at the same time.
00:39:28.300 I grew up with the guy.
00:39:29.420 Even though the guy
00:39:30.080 tried to kill me,
00:39:31.120 I still felt bad.
00:39:34.060 For all American mafiosi,
00:39:36.280 the rules of the commission
00:39:37.500 were a fact of life
00:39:39.420 and death.
00:39:40.980 And that goes to show
00:39:41.740 how brutal these guys were, man.
00:39:43.100 Forget about it.
00:39:44.480 Yeah, forget about your life.
00:39:47.160 You really never know
00:39:48.460 who to trust.
00:39:49.320 I don't care how close
00:39:50.260 you are with them,
00:39:50.780 if you grew up with them
00:39:51.620 or what.
00:39:53.200 If, uh,
00:39:54.280 that's gonna be the one
00:39:55.540 that's gonna kill you,
00:39:56.340 usually.
00:39:56.860 It's your best.
00:39:57.340 Yeah, so,
00:39:58.180 and the reason for that,
00:39:59.400 guys, is that, yeah,
00:40:00.100 if they want you dead,
00:40:01.340 what they'll do is
00:40:02.140 they'll, you know,
00:40:02.680 tell you that there's a meeting
00:40:03.620 or anything like that
00:40:04.400 and they'll walk you
00:40:05.000 into a room, right?
00:40:06.120 And if they walk you
00:40:06.680 in the room
00:40:07.080 and there's nobody in there,
00:40:08.120 then you already know
00:40:08.700 what time it is in.
00:40:09.420 By then,
00:40:09.740 you're probably getting
00:40:10.260 shot in the back of the head.
00:40:11.440 Just like the movie,
00:40:12.540 I think it was Goodfellas,
00:40:13.460 where they had that scene
00:40:14.320 where, uh,
00:40:16.640 was it Donny DeVito?
00:40:17.760 What's it?
00:40:18.040 I forget the doctor's name.
00:40:19.500 Uh, no, Joe Pesci,
00:40:20.380 I think it was.
00:40:21.120 He gets shot
00:40:21.520 in the back of the head
00:40:22.220 because they walk him
00:40:22.840 into an empty room,
00:40:24.020 people that he knows
00:40:24.720 and trusts,
00:40:25.480 and he's like,
00:40:25.820 ah, shit,
00:40:26.360 and they shoot him
00:40:26.800 in the back
00:40:27.200 and he dies.
00:40:27.760 So, um, yeah,
00:40:29.100 a lot of times
00:40:29.600 it's your best friend
00:40:30.280 that lines you up, guys,
00:40:31.520 uh, when it came
00:40:32.280 to the mafia.
00:40:33.200 Really crazy stuff here.
00:40:40.600 Carmine Galante
00:40:41.400 didn't care about
00:40:42.380 the commission
00:40:42.920 or its rules.
00:40:44.880 He believed
00:40:45.560 the American mafia
00:40:46.520 was soft,
00:40:47.600 and that his connections
00:40:48.780 with the ruthless Sicilians
00:40:50.160 made him invincible.
00:40:53.500 But there was
00:40:53.960 more than one advantage
00:40:55.180 of having an alliance
00:40:56.440 with the old country.
00:40:59.760 At first,
00:41:00.640 nobody thought
00:41:01.360 much about it,
00:41:02.460 uh,
00:41:02.860 but then
00:41:03.740 the rest of the mafia
00:41:04.880 began to get
00:41:05.700 really nervous
00:41:06.800 because they began
00:41:08.420 to ask themselves,
00:41:09.240 now,
00:41:09.360 why is he bringing
00:41:10.080 in so many
00:41:10.740 of these zips?
00:41:11.940 And everybody
00:41:12.480 put two and two together.
00:41:14.160 These guys
00:41:14.820 are running heroin.
00:41:15.600 This is a Sicilian
00:41:16.880 connection at work here.
00:41:18.660 Uh,
00:41:18.960 we don't need this.
00:41:20.560 For one thing,
00:41:21.420 the organization felt
00:41:22.480 we can't control
00:41:23.320 the zips.
00:41:28.500 Sicilians made
00:41:29.500 and smuggled in
00:41:30.500 the heroin.
00:41:31.920 By hiring them
00:41:32.820 into his own crew,
00:41:34.540 Galante was making sure
00:41:35.920 he would stay
00:41:36.600 at the heart
00:41:37.320 of the heroin business.
00:41:38.820 For what he was
00:41:40.900 trying to do
00:41:41.940 in the heroin business,
00:41:44.560 it would have been,
00:41:46.040 you know,
00:41:47.080 good for him
00:41:47.880 to be aligned,
00:41:48.740 but the more Sicilians
00:41:49.500 the better
00:41:50.060 because that's where,
00:41:51.620 you know,
00:41:51.860 the pipeline went,
00:41:53.000 came from.
00:41:54.480 In the late 70s,
00:41:56.040 the Sicilian mafia
00:41:57.040 dominated the heroin trade.
00:41:59.460 On the streets
00:42:00.080 of America,
00:42:00.760 the profits being made
00:42:01.880 were reaching
00:42:02.440 20 billion dollars
00:42:03.880 a year.
00:42:05.600 Galante was trying
00:42:06.380 to keep the profits
00:42:07.320 to himself.
00:42:09.820 Something had
00:42:10.820 to be done.
00:42:12.360 He was greedy.
00:42:13.600 He wasn't,
00:42:14.160 you know,
00:42:14.840 the Bananos may
00:42:16.000 have been involved
00:42:16.600 in this,
00:42:17.920 the profits
00:42:19.520 from this drug trade,
00:42:20.560 but Galante wasn't
00:42:21.520 sharing it even
00:42:22.180 with his own people
00:42:23.020 and their family
00:42:23.620 because he was
00:42:24.980 and nobody
00:42:30.580 was going to tell him
00:42:31.340 what to do
00:42:32.020 and he was going
00:42:33.960 to run his family
00:42:34.880 and he wanted to run
00:42:35.940 the other families too.
00:42:37.560 Sorry about that,
00:42:38.180 guys.
00:42:38.660 And during this time,
00:42:39.820 Galante was making
00:42:40.640 deadly enemies.
00:42:41.440 The other bosses
00:42:42.000 didn't like him
00:42:42.660 because of this attitude
00:42:44.080 that he had
00:42:44.860 that he was
00:42:46.080 the top boss
00:42:47.840 in the city.
00:42:50.140 Everyone knew,
00:42:51.760 everyone knew
00:42:52.720 on the street
00:42:53.300 that the clouds
00:42:54.780 are walled
00:42:55.360 right there.
00:42:56.600 I mean,
00:42:57.240 if this guy
00:42:58.080 stayed loose,
00:42:58.880 what he was plotting
00:43:02.200 would have
00:43:02.980 definitely caused
00:43:03.960 major,
00:43:05.240 major,
00:43:06.100 you know,
00:43:07.040 war to happen
00:43:07.680 between the families.
00:43:11.380 For mob bosses,
00:43:12.980 the Galante problem
00:43:13.820 was growing.
00:43:15.940 Only the commission
00:43:17.000 had the authority
00:43:17.900 to act.
00:43:19.520 Their solution
00:43:20.140 would be violent.
00:43:22.060 Galante had to go.
00:43:23.160 On July the 12th,
00:43:28.380 1979,
00:43:30.240 Carmine Galante
00:43:30.920 paid a visit
00:43:31.500 to Joe and Mary's
00:43:32.540 restaurant
00:43:32.960 on Knickerbocker Avenue
00:43:34.420 in Brooklyn.
00:43:35.960 It was one
00:43:36.880 of his favorite
00:43:37.480 haunts.
00:43:38.800 Run by his cousin,
00:43:39.840 he felt safe there.
00:43:41.800 He was joined
00:43:42.740 by his two loyal
00:43:43.840 Sicilian bodyguards.
00:43:45.140 There's a courtyard
00:43:50.820 that you go into
00:43:51.740 and is an open
00:43:53.660 air courtyard
00:43:55.340 and they were
00:43:57.140 sitting down
00:43:57.700 getting ready
00:43:58.980 to have lunch
00:43:59.680 and Galante
00:44:02.000 was sitting there
00:44:02.780 and he had
00:44:03.180 his cigar
00:44:04.300 in his mouth.
00:44:10.860 Three guys
00:44:11.700 pull up outside,
00:44:12.820 jump out of a car.
00:44:13.740 Here we go.
00:44:15.920 You want to deal
00:44:16.480 them drugs?
00:44:17.760 They run
00:44:18.620 in the restaurant
00:44:19.260 and start
00:44:20.440 blasting away.
00:44:33.140 Galante ends up
00:44:34.220 getting shot,
00:44:35.640 falls off his chair,
00:44:37.820 sprawls out
00:44:38.660 on the ground,
00:44:40.100 face up,
00:44:41.100 and he still
00:44:41.700 has his cigar
00:44:42.400 clenched in his mouth.
00:44:44.220 And that's
00:44:45.320 how they got Galante.
00:44:48.240 This is the famous
00:44:49.200 front page
00:44:50.060 that greeted America
00:44:51.420 the next morning.
00:44:53.860 Galante's meteoric...
00:44:54.940 That's what you get
00:44:55.600 for selling drugs.
00:44:57.900 Yeah, we're not
00:44:58.620 messing around
00:44:59.080 with that, man.
00:44:59.760 Brought too much
00:45:00.320 attention to them.
00:45:01.560 Rise of the top
00:45:02.480 had ended
00:45:03.820 in a pool of blood.
00:45:07.120 Still had the cigar
00:45:07.820 in his mouth
00:45:08.260 and everything, man.
00:45:09.140 Crazy.
00:45:09.540 Carmine Galante
00:45:13.580 was rubbed out
00:45:14.720 today as he sat
00:45:15.640 in a Brooklyn
00:45:16.180 luncheonette,
00:45:17.120 a gangland execution
00:45:18.400 of a man believed
00:45:19.380 to be the most
00:45:20.080 important organized
00:45:21.340 crime figure
00:45:22.160 in the country.
00:45:24.080 After the murder,
00:45:25.560 the killers
00:45:26.000 fled the scene.
00:45:28.040 But in an amazing
00:45:28.940 coincidence...
00:45:30.000 And the fact
00:45:31.380 that he got killed
00:45:32.240 as a boss, guys,
00:45:33.440 tells you that
00:45:34.020 the commission
00:45:34.560 agreed upon that
00:45:35.800 and it was universal
00:45:36.600 that they wanted him
00:45:37.400 gone.
00:45:38.480 One of them
00:45:38.840 walked into a club...
00:45:39.640 And the next thing
00:45:40.140 you know...
00:45:40.920 FATALITY!
00:45:42.480 ...that was under
00:45:42.900 police surveillance.
00:45:45.260 This incredible footage
00:45:46.540 shows him
00:45:47.880 reporting back
00:45:48.860 to the commission
00:45:49.460 bosses
00:45:49.880 after the successful
00:45:51.700 hit.
00:45:52.060 But the feds
00:45:55.100 were about to get
00:45:55.860 an even bigger
00:45:56.620 surprise.
00:45:58.240 When the police
00:45:58.840 came on the scene,
00:45:59.800 they immediately
00:46:00.400 identified
00:46:01.140 Carmine Galante's
00:46:02.460 body.
00:46:03.160 An old man
00:46:03.780 had a cigar
00:46:06.140 stuck in his mouth.
00:46:07.720 Totally lifeless.
00:46:09.120 As the police
00:46:09.680 pieced everything
00:46:10.640 together,
00:46:11.740 they were told
00:46:12.200 that two other
00:46:12.900 individuals
00:46:13.420 who were
00:46:14.560 in the backyard
00:46:15.620 with Galante
00:46:16.280 later identified
00:46:18.120 as the so-called
00:46:19.520 bodyguards,
00:46:20.660 they were the ones
00:46:21.340 who miraculously
00:46:22.100 got out of there
00:46:23.700 without any
00:46:24.580 wounds whatsoever.
00:46:30.260 Forensics found
00:46:31.200 five different
00:46:33.720 caliber slugs
00:46:34.580 in Galante
00:46:35.160 and there were
00:46:36.980 only three gunmen.
00:46:38.280 So that leads
00:46:38.820 you to believe
00:46:39.320 that there were
00:46:39.760 two guns
00:46:40.220 someplace else.
00:46:41.440 And the only
00:46:41.860 other two guys
00:46:42.600 there were
00:46:43.120 Bonaventri and
00:46:44.060 Amato.
00:46:45.440 Bonaventri and
00:46:46.100 Amato were the
00:46:46.800 two key Sicilians
00:46:47.940 Galante had brought
00:46:48.900 over for his own
00:46:49.800 protection.
00:46:51.340 the police
00:46:52.720 deduced from
00:46:54.420 what they saw
00:46:55.420 at the scene
00:46:55.940 that Bonaventri
00:46:57.720 and Amato
00:46:58.140 were not there.
00:46:59.540 And just so you
00:47:00.040 guys know,
00:47:00.540 this is the area
00:47:01.020 that he got killed
00:47:01.680 right here,
00:47:02.140 205 Knickerbocker
00:47:03.520 Avenue, right?
00:47:04.820 This is in Brooklyn.
00:47:06.940 This is where he
00:47:07.740 was killed
00:47:08.120 back in the day.
00:47:10.820 And obviously
00:47:11.500 it's changed a lot.
00:47:12.780 You see it's
00:47:13.800 basically
00:47:14.380 gentrified now
00:47:15.340 on a whole
00:47:16.780 other level.
00:47:17.920 But if I'm not
00:47:18.420 mistaken,
00:47:18.780 it's this building
00:47:19.740 right here,
00:47:20.280 one of these
00:47:20.580 two buildings.
00:47:21.960 So,
00:47:22.680 let's see here.
00:47:23.780 Yeah,
00:47:23.960 it's all crappy
00:47:24.620 now.
00:47:28.540 They have the
00:47:29.620 bongs,
00:47:30.880 hookah,
00:47:31.200 cigars,
00:47:31.760 and vapes.
00:47:32.380 Okay.
00:47:33.020 Fantastic.
00:47:34.200 Gotta love
00:47:34.660 Scum City,
00:47:35.180 New York,
00:47:35.480 huh?
00:47:35.580 protect Galante.
00:47:38.680 They were there
00:47:39.600 to ensure
00:47:40.300 that his
00:47:40.900 assassination
00:47:41.340 was carried
00:47:41.900 out without
00:47:42.360 a hitch.
00:47:44.800 The ultimate
00:47:45.520 treachery
00:47:46.060 was performed
00:47:46.980 by his own
00:47:48.160 men.
00:47:49.140 The men who...
00:47:49.640 Bam.
00:47:50.040 The two guys
00:47:50.580 that were supposed
00:47:50.920 to protect him
00:47:51.480 from Sicily.
00:47:52.240 Who was supposed
00:47:52.600 to protect him
00:47:53.280 from any harm,
00:47:55.300 they were the ones
00:47:55.880 who actually
00:47:56.320 helped carry out
00:47:57.420 the assassination.
00:47:57.960 The Sicilians
00:48:01.740 had turned on Galante.
00:48:04.060 It seemed his greed
00:48:05.280 had upset others
00:48:06.360 besides the commission.
00:48:07.700 The Sicilians
00:48:09.980 who had arrived
00:48:10.800 in America
00:48:11.760 in the 60s
00:48:12.660 and 70s
00:48:13.340 who were helping
00:48:14.340 bring in
00:48:14.980 the heroin
00:48:15.480 from Sicily
00:48:16.180 wanted full control
00:48:17.480 in their hands.
00:48:18.640 The message was
00:48:19.380 we are bringing it in,
00:48:21.640 we are going to be involved
00:48:22.840 in the distribution network.
00:48:24.440 Therefore,
00:48:24.760 we want a bigger share
00:48:26.080 in the proceeds.
00:48:27.800 And that was the message
00:48:28.700 of the new Sicilians.
00:48:29.820 We are the ones
00:48:30.800 doing it,
00:48:31.480 we want a bigger share.
00:48:32.820 Not what Galante
00:48:33.800 was doing,
00:48:34.600 keeping most of the share
00:48:35.400 for himself.
00:48:37.700 Galante's murder
00:48:38.540 made the FBI...
00:48:39.640 And he felt that way
00:48:40.420 probably because
00:48:41.140 he took on all the risk.
00:48:42.260 He was one of the few guys
00:48:43.180 that was actually
00:48:43.740 dealing drugs
00:48:44.320 on a high level.
00:48:45.040 So he looked at it like,
00:48:45.600 yo, I could get killed
00:48:46.180 for this,
00:48:46.460 I'm taking all the risk.
00:48:47.400 I'm going to take
00:48:47.920 the biggest share
00:48:48.440 because without me,
00:48:49.000 y'all aren't going
00:48:49.420 to make money anyway.
00:48:50.760 Y'all are sitting on
00:48:51.420 kilos of this crap
00:48:52.500 over there in Sicily.
00:48:53.420 I'm the one that actually
00:48:54.060 has the market here.
00:48:54.780 So he had a leverage
00:48:55.580 position where they need
00:48:56.980 him to flood into the markets
00:48:58.040 because the other families
00:48:58.800 didn't want to touch it
00:48:59.600 because obviously
00:49:00.440 it was a death sentence.
00:49:01.280 But him as a boss,
00:49:03.080 he had the leverage
00:49:03.920 to be able to do it
00:49:04.800 without necessarily
00:49:05.740 facing consequences
00:49:07.260 to the same extent
00:49:07.920 or as easily.
00:49:08.900 Eventually,
00:49:09.720 time ran out
00:49:10.460 and he had to face
00:49:11.120 those consequences.
00:49:12.280 And on top of this,
00:49:12.980 Sicilians getting mad
00:49:13.660 that he was taking
00:49:14.080 such a big cut.
00:49:15.140 But that's what happens
00:49:15.860 with greed, guys.
00:49:17.360 ...more suspicious
00:49:18.260 about the Banano family.
00:49:20.320 For the commission
00:49:21.080 to whack a boss
00:49:22.040 meant there were
00:49:22.740 big things going on.
00:49:24.900 Two young agents,
00:49:26.280 Charlie Rooney
00:49:26.840 and Carmine Russo,
00:49:28.180 were given the job
00:49:28.840 of watching
00:49:29.340 the Banano Sicilians.
00:49:30.500 This is the area
00:49:33.920 where myself
00:49:34.640 and my partner
00:49:35.400 Charlie Rooney
00:49:35.940 spent a lot of time
00:49:37.020 conducting surveillance.
00:49:39.300 And we needed to
00:49:40.400 find intelligence
00:49:42.440 that could only
00:49:43.440 be found on the street.
00:49:44.740 And that meant
00:49:45.340 being out here,
00:49:46.660 being the eyes and ears
00:49:47.500 basically of the FBI
00:49:49.120 trying to determine
00:49:50.260 who these Sicilians were
00:49:51.520 and what they were doing.
00:49:53.340 One Banano member
00:49:54.320 who soon came
00:49:55.220 to their attention
00:49:55.940 was Sal Catalano,
00:49:58.000 who ran an Italian bakery
00:49:59.720 in Queens.
00:50:00.500 The FBI realized
00:50:04.680 that Catalano
00:50:05.420 was a key figure
00:50:06.400 in the heroin trade.
00:50:08.500 Suspicious packages
00:50:09.340 were constantly
00:50:10.040 being exchanged,
00:50:11.620 probably containing
00:50:12.620 either heroin
00:50:13.420 or money.
00:50:15.220 The FBI decided
00:50:16.480 to play a waiting game
00:50:17.700 in the hope
00:50:18.580 they could break open
00:50:19.560 the whole operation.
00:50:24.620 One of the things
00:50:25.680 that we in the FBI
00:50:27.060 and of course
00:50:27.460 all of our enforcement
00:50:28.260 wanted to know
00:50:29.160 was how were they
00:50:29.980 bringing the heroin
00:50:30.900 into the United States
00:50:31.980 at that time.
00:50:35.980 Over the next five years,
00:50:38.260 Russo and Rooney's
00:50:39.060 surveillance operation
00:50:40.100 evolved into
00:50:41.320 the largest investigation
00:50:42.600 the FBI had ever
00:50:43.900 undertaken.
00:50:44.500 finally, after recording
00:50:48.920 and translating
00:50:49.560 more than 55,000 wiretaps,
00:50:52.200 the team of 400 agents
00:50:53.960 worked out
00:50:54.620 how the mafia
00:50:55.420 smuggled heroin
00:50:56.300 into America.
00:50:57.100 they used their businesses,
00:51:04.480 furniture businesses,
00:51:07.520 construction businesses,
00:51:09.220 construction businesses,
00:51:10.260 marble,
00:51:11.300 things of that nature.
00:51:12.480 In particular,
00:51:13.300 the pizzeria business.
00:51:14.520 They needed the tomatoes
00:51:16.280 for the sauce.
00:51:19.060 The mafia had taken
00:51:22.880 over pizzerias
00:51:23.760 across the country
00:51:24.640 and given them
00:51:25.620 to immigrant Sicilians
00:51:26.760 to manage.
00:51:28.340 The operation
00:51:29.080 was controlled
00:51:29.760 by Sal Catalano
00:51:31.040 from his bakery
00:51:32.140 in Queens.
00:51:36.980 This footage
00:51:38.080 shows some
00:51:38.600 of the actual restaurants
00:51:39.760 implicated
00:51:40.400 in the pizza connection
00:51:41.380 trial.
00:51:43.180 Restaurants
00:51:43.520 just like these
00:51:44.440 were used
00:51:45.220 to distribute
00:51:45.780 heroin
00:51:46.260 around the country.
00:51:49.500 The heroin
00:51:50.340 arrived in the US
00:51:51.420 through all kinds
00:51:52.460 of routes.
00:51:53.860 Their methods
00:51:54.420 were often ingenious.
00:51:56.680 Cases of canned
00:51:57.420 tomatoes
00:51:57.920 or boxes of cheese
00:51:59.180 arrived from Sicily
00:52:00.200 stuffed with heroin
00:52:01.720 worth hundreds
00:52:02.760 of thousands
00:52:03.360 of dollars.
00:52:04.600 But the pizza network
00:52:05.480 was not a retail operation.
00:52:08.640 Mafia dealers
00:52:09.240 never sold the heroin
00:52:10.360 directly on the streets.
00:52:12.660 Instead,
00:52:13.500 the imported narcotics
00:52:14.840 were divided up
00:52:15.700 and sold
00:52:16.220 to smaller
00:52:16.860 street dealers.
00:52:18.780 That way,
00:52:19.260 the bosses
00:52:19.620 stayed well away
00:52:20.720 from the dirty
00:52:21.440 end of the business.
00:52:24.000 The pizza restaurants
00:52:24.840 had another use
00:52:25.680 as well.
00:52:27.320 Catalano
00:52:27.780 and his crew
00:52:28.440 could hide
00:52:29.380 their profits
00:52:29.920 by passing them off
00:52:31.080 as restaurant takings.
00:52:33.260 Pretty ingenious cover.
00:52:34.620 I mean,
00:52:34.780 you know.
00:52:35.380 Really smart, man.
00:52:36.500 Really, really smart
00:52:37.300 that these guys
00:52:37.880 were doing this
00:52:38.580 and getting away
00:52:39.060 with it for so long.
00:52:40.020 Making that big money.
00:52:41.500 Who figures
00:52:42.220 a pizza place?
00:52:43.880 You know,
00:52:44.440 you figure
00:52:44.820 she's some guy
00:52:45.520 slinging a dough
00:52:46.960 around making a pizza.
00:52:48.460 What's he going
00:52:49.080 to be involved in?
00:52:51.900 Mafia dealer
00:52:52.720 Henry Hill
00:52:53.520 regularly used
00:52:55.060 pizza restaurants
00:52:56.020 for his drug drop-offs.
00:52:57.860 It wasn't difficult
00:52:58.700 for me.
00:52:59.280 I used to go to
00:52:59.920 a pizza joint
00:53:00.760 in a shopping center,
00:53:02.840 leave my car there
00:53:03.660 and take a different
00:53:05.860 car home.
00:53:07.280 You know?
00:53:07.740 And I'd go back
00:53:08.400 four days later
00:53:09.320 and, you know,
00:53:10.180 sit there
00:53:10.580 and put the money
00:53:11.080 in the truck.
00:53:11.540 The evidence
00:53:13.600 the FBI found
00:53:14.700 led to the very top
00:53:16.240 of the...
00:53:16.500 Common tactic
00:53:17.120 in the drug game.
00:53:17.960 You don't really know
00:53:18.500 what you're transporting,
00:53:19.380 whether it's money
00:53:19.840 or drugs sometimes.
00:53:20.800 Then you go ahead,
00:53:21.480 bring the cars loaded,
00:53:22.380 you drop the car off,
00:53:23.340 you know,
00:53:23.560 you get a set of keys,
00:53:25.000 take another car,
00:53:26.080 and that's kind of
00:53:27.080 how you compartmentalize
00:53:28.720 the criminal activity
00:53:29.680 so that you can isolate
00:53:30.660 people from knowing
00:53:31.460 too much.
00:53:32.820 Mafia
00:53:33.240 and all the way
00:53:34.480 back to Sicily.
00:53:35.480 Salvatore Catalano
00:53:37.140 was aligned
00:53:39.740 with the Colionese
00:53:40.560 in Sicily.
00:53:41.960 That's where
00:53:42.360 the power came from.
00:53:44.160 It was
00:53:45.080 Salvatore Ina,
00:53:47.400 the boss
00:53:47.800 of the Colionese.
00:53:50.840 Salvatore Catalano
00:53:51.860 came here
00:53:52.360 with a purpose.
00:53:53.420 Purpose was
00:53:54.280 the Sicilian mafia
00:53:55.420 had a commodity
00:53:56.060 that was being sent
00:53:57.120 to the United States.
00:53:58.020 They needed people
00:53:58.700 here whom they could trust
00:53:59.680 and carry on
00:54:01.280 that activity.
00:54:03.200 The power
00:54:04.100 of the Colionese mafia
00:54:05.320 and their ruthless boss,
00:54:07.040 Totori Ina,
00:54:08.340 stretched all the way
00:54:09.400 to America.
00:54:11.020 Who knows how long
00:54:12.060 they had been doing this
00:54:12.880 before we stumbled
00:54:13.720 onto them.
00:54:14.760 And we basically
00:54:15.280 stumbled onto them
00:54:16.140 and I believe
00:54:17.280 what did it for them
00:54:18.600 and for us
00:54:19.720 was the Galante murder.
00:54:21.880 Without that murder,
00:54:23.000 I don't think
00:54:23.600 we would have
00:54:24.240 set our eyes on them
00:54:26.760 at the time
00:54:27.420 that we did.
00:54:30.720 Meanwhile,
00:54:31.520 keep in mind, guys,
00:54:32.340 you know,
00:54:32.540 Donnie Brasco
00:54:33.080 is undercover,
00:54:33.560 but it takes
00:54:34.100 a lot of time
00:54:34.960 and a lot of effort
00:54:35.900 to be able
00:54:36.220 to gather the evidence
00:54:36.880 and keep in mind
00:54:37.680 he wasn't a made guy
00:54:38.540 so he wasn't privy
00:54:39.440 in seeing all
00:54:40.200 the criminal activities
00:54:41.040 that these guys
00:54:42.360 were involved in
00:54:43.020 because until you're
00:54:44.080 a made guy,
00:54:44.580 you don't really see
00:54:45.060 the inner workings
00:54:45.740 of the mafia.
00:54:46.300 And even at that level
00:54:47.000 when you're made,
00:54:47.980 you're seeing
00:54:48.520 barely scratching
00:54:50.040 the surface.
00:54:51.180 So they were limited
00:54:52.080 in what they could see
00:54:53.360 through Donnie Brasco,
00:54:55.440 though he did provide
00:54:56.260 amazing insight
00:54:57.620 as to the hierarchy
00:54:58.520 and what the guys
00:54:59.080 were doing behind the scenes.
00:55:00.140 He couldn't verify
00:55:00.780 all of it,
00:55:01.220 which is why he was
00:55:01.720 undercover for so long.
00:55:03.560 FBI agent Joe Pistone
00:55:05.420 still had a problem.
00:55:08.160 How to escape alive
00:55:09.620 from his undercover role
00:55:11.360 inside the mafia.
00:55:12.920 Despite Galanti's murder,
00:55:19.160 Joe Pistone's dangerous
00:55:20.360 undercover operation
00:55:21.460 continued for two more years.
00:55:24.160 But in 1981,
00:55:25.860 his mission came
00:55:26.780 to a dramatic climax.
00:55:29.780 The head of Pistone's
00:55:31.060 mafia crew
00:55:31.700 was a hard man
00:55:32.540 called Sonny Black.
00:55:34.520 Over the years,
00:55:35.880 Black had been impressed
00:55:36.860 with Pistone.
00:55:38.500 Now Sonny decided
00:55:39.620 to honor Pistone
00:55:40.560 by making him
00:55:41.320 a made man,
00:55:42.540 a full member
00:55:43.800 of the mafia.
00:55:45.380 But there was
00:55:45.980 one big catch.
00:55:48.000 Pistone
00:55:48.520 would have to kill someone.
00:55:52.660 Again, guys,
00:55:53.380 I didn't watch this documentary
00:55:54.180 before pulling it up
00:55:55.280 for you guys,
00:55:55.700 but I know this stuff.
00:55:56.480 Why?
00:55:56.780 Because like I said before,
00:55:58.040 episode one,
00:55:58.840 go back and watch it.
00:55:59.800 On the mafia series,
00:56:04.360 I break this all down
00:56:05.380 as to what it takes
00:56:06.080 to become a made guy.
00:56:10.000 When Sonny Black
00:56:11.020 gave me the contract
00:56:12.360 to do the hit,
00:56:13.280 I mean,
00:56:13.620 you can't refuse it.
00:56:14.600 You have to take
00:56:15.180 the contract,
00:56:16.000 otherwise you're
00:56:17.120 the next guy
00:56:17.600 that's going to get killed
00:56:18.300 because that's just part
00:56:19.800 of being a mob guy,
00:56:21.600 a mafia guy,
00:56:22.400 is that,
00:56:23.640 because you don't
00:56:24.700 do hits
00:56:25.600 on a fee basis.
00:56:28.900 You just do it
00:56:29.640 because you're part
00:56:30.340 of that crew.
00:56:32.740 I accepted the hit.
00:56:34.760 Luckily,
00:56:35.880 the guy that I had
00:56:36.960 the contract on
00:56:37.740 was on the lam
00:56:38.420 because he knew
00:56:38.900 he was going to get killed.
00:56:43.900 But I went looking for him.
00:56:45.160 I went to Florida,
00:56:46.100 back to New York,
00:56:47.320 and couldn't find him
00:56:48.860 because he was in hiding.
00:56:53.440 In a twist of fate.
00:56:55.200 That would never get approved
00:56:56.160 by the FBI nowadays, man.
00:56:57.400 They are so bureaucratic
00:56:58.420 and so much red tape.
00:56:59.660 They were running
00:57:00.420 and gunning back then.
00:57:01.600 But nowadays,
00:57:02.240 that would never fly, bro.
00:57:03.200 They would have pulled
00:57:03.600 them off this case
00:57:04.260 way sooner.
00:57:07.760 Pistone was asked to...
00:57:08.820 They would have given him
00:57:09.420 the fucking...
00:57:10.260 You're coming back.
00:57:11.860 ...one of the men
00:57:12.720 who had assassinated
00:57:13.680 Carmine Galante.
00:57:18.440 But it was not to be.
00:57:20.380 The FBI could not allow
00:57:21.820 an agent to commit murder.
00:57:23.160 On July the 26th, 1981,
00:57:27.400 Pistone was pulled out.
00:57:28.700 Did the kids ask about him?
00:57:29.800 The FBI decided to tell
00:57:31.440 Pistone's mafia contacts
00:57:33.000 that he was an undercover agent.
00:57:34.500 Despite Galante's murder,
00:57:39.000 Joe Pistone's dangerous
00:57:40.180 undercover operation
00:57:41.300 continued for two more years.
00:57:44.180 But in 1981,
00:57:45.720 his mission came
00:57:46.620 to a dramatic climax.
00:57:49.620 The head of Pistone's mafia crew
00:57:51.540 was a hard man
00:57:52.380 called Sonny Black.
00:57:54.380 Over the years,
00:57:55.740 Black had been impressed
00:57:56.700 with Pistone.
00:57:58.360 Now, Sonny decided
00:57:59.480 to honor Pistone
00:58:00.380 by making him
00:58:01.160 a made man,
00:58:02.720 a full member
00:58:03.620 of the mafia.
00:58:05.220 But there was
00:58:05.820 one big catch.
00:58:07.840 Pistone would have to kill him.
00:58:09.760 He was in a body bag
00:58:10.780 and they had chopped
00:58:12.960 off his hands.
00:58:15.280 And that was an indication
00:58:16.280 that he had brought me around
00:58:18.860 to shake hands
00:58:19.680 with mob guys
00:58:21.420 that were of,
00:58:22.900 you know,
00:58:23.480 of status.
00:58:26.320 These photos of Lefty
00:58:27.880 were taken just after
00:58:29.440 he found out
00:58:30.180 Pistone was an FBI agent.
00:58:33.120 He knew he was
00:58:34.160 in big trouble.
00:58:36.020 The mafia would never
00:58:36.920 forgive such a mistake.
00:58:39.480 The Bananos put out
00:58:40.620 a contract
00:58:41.220 on Lefty Ruggiero.
00:58:43.220 But the FBI found out
00:58:44.880 and snatched him
00:58:46.000 into custody
00:58:46.620 before the killers
00:58:47.880 got to him.
00:58:50.060 Pistone gave evidence
00:58:51.060 against Lefty
00:58:51.800 and he was sentenced
00:58:53.120 to 20 years.
00:58:55.240 He died of cancer
00:58:56.180 on Thanksgiving Day,
00:58:58.000 1995.
00:58:59.440 At least Lefty
00:59:03.860 didn't get clipped,
00:59:04.620 you know.
00:59:05.120 He lived his life
00:59:05.960 in jail.
00:59:07.420 You know,
00:59:07.960 he got what he deserved.
00:59:09.140 I mean, you know,
00:59:10.100 I didn't make Lefty
00:59:11.280 a gangster.
00:59:11.960 I didn't make Sonny
00:59:12.620 a gangster.
00:59:12.980 I didn't make any
00:59:13.400 of these guys gangsters.
00:59:14.400 They were gangsters
00:59:15.080 before I got there.
00:59:16.900 They were gangsters
00:59:17.740 while I was there
00:59:18.700 and they were gangsters
00:59:19.620 after I left.
00:59:20.440 Joe Pistone had survived
00:59:27.260 undercover for six years.
00:59:30.660 But I mean,
00:59:31.060 you know,
00:59:31.220 that's a long time
00:59:32.200 to spend undercover
00:59:33.220 with that,
00:59:35.120 you know,
00:59:35.340 with a crew that's,
00:59:36.200 you know,
00:59:36.420 more than capable
00:59:37.660 of killing you
00:59:38.180 and taking you apart.
00:59:39.860 You know,
00:59:40.380 dumping your body's parts
00:59:41.720 somewhere
00:59:42.120 and to have those guys
00:59:43.460 trust you to a point.
00:59:45.400 I mean,
00:59:45.640 I never heard
00:59:46.360 an FBI guy
00:59:47.880 coming close
00:59:48.620 to getting made.
00:59:49.900 You know,
00:59:50.140 I mean,
00:59:50.520 they were looking
00:59:51.140 to make them.
00:59:54.780 Bullshit is his way
00:59:55.660 through it
00:59:55.980 and then he got
00:59:56.640 addicted to it
00:59:57.460 and it took the government
00:59:59.220 a lot of years.
01:00:00.720 You know,
01:00:00.940 I mean,
01:00:01.100 they got a lot of cases
01:00:01.820 out of it,
01:00:02.500 but it almost destroyed
01:00:03.880 his life,
01:00:04.680 you know.
01:00:05.740 And he thought
01:00:06.440 he was a wise guy,
01:00:07.680 you know,
01:00:08.020 and he thought
01:00:08.440 he was an FBI agent.
01:00:10.640 After being pulled out,
01:00:12.520 Pistone spent
01:00:13.180 the next five years
01:00:14.340 testifying against
01:00:15.420 his mafia buddies.
01:00:17.720 Then in 1986,
01:00:19.140 he left the FBI
01:00:20.020 to write a book
01:00:21.300 about his experiences.
01:00:23.780 But his life
01:00:24.700 would never be
01:00:25.240 the same again.
01:00:27.320 Even now,
01:00:28.180 he lives under
01:00:28.840 an assumed name
01:00:29.780 under constant threat
01:00:31.700 of assassination.
01:00:34.160 The mafia put a contract
01:00:35.300 out on me.
01:00:36.420 Oh, yeah.
01:00:37.140 I'm not surprised, man.
01:00:38.320 They definitely
01:00:38.740 want him gone.
01:00:40.260 I mean,
01:00:40.500 for five years,
01:00:41.660 he testified
01:00:42.220 on all the different
01:00:43.620 crime families
01:00:44.280 because, guys,
01:00:45.340 keep in mind that
01:00:45.920 obviously he worked
01:00:46.580 for the Bonanno family
01:00:47.500 the most,
01:00:48.280 but he also was involved
01:00:49.140 with the Columbos.
01:00:50.780 Michael Franzese
01:00:51.520 had met him before
01:00:52.220 or knew of him,
01:00:54.220 which we'll ask him
01:00:55.000 questions about that
01:00:55.640 as well.
01:00:56.420 But, yeah, man,
01:00:57.100 I mean,
01:00:57.400 when you're in this life,
01:00:58.640 you end up dealing
01:00:59.140 with guys from other families.
01:01:00.060 So he had extensive
01:01:01.420 knowledge and experiences
01:01:02.340 and he was able
01:01:02.720 to testify
01:01:03.220 against all the
01:01:04.580 different crime families
01:01:05.400 and ensure that
01:01:06.100 they went to prison.
01:01:06.940 So, yeah,
01:01:08.180 I would imagine
01:01:08.820 that he would
01:01:09.500 absolutely have a big
01:01:10.700 contract on his life.
01:01:11.660 after this undercover stint.
01:01:13.940 When the operation
01:01:15.560 terminated
01:01:16.140 and I surfaced,
01:01:17.040 my identity
01:01:17.560 showed up.
01:01:20.340 Am I worried about it?
01:01:22.580 I don't think
01:01:23.520 about it every day.
01:01:25.420 Just take precautions
01:01:26.760 and go about
01:01:28.780 living the way
01:01:29.380 I live.
01:01:30.000 And if it happens,
01:01:33.840 it happens.
01:01:34.540 And the best man
01:01:35.480 will win.
01:01:35.860 Thanks to the efforts
01:01:39.220 of law enforcement agents
01:01:40.600 like Joe Pistone
01:01:41.580 and Carmine Russo,
01:01:43.500 the Pizza Connection
01:01:44.440 investigation
01:01:45.080 seriously weakened
01:01:46.560 the American Mafia.
01:01:49.020 After years of making
01:01:50.400 vast profits
01:01:51.260 from narcotics,
01:01:52.080 it would take
01:01:53.340 much more than that
01:01:54.440 to stop them.
01:01:55.420 No one could have
01:01:57.880 foreseen
01:01:58.420 that in the coming years
01:02:00.080 the actions
01:02:00.900 of one Mafia boss
01:02:02.340 would change
01:02:03.160 everything
01:02:03.720 and bring the
01:02:05.020 American and Sicilian
01:02:06.260 Mafia
01:02:06.840 to their knees.
01:02:08.340 Bam.
01:02:23.800 Let's see here.
01:02:24.660 I think that was
01:02:25.280 at the end of it.
01:02:25.920 Let's fast forward here.
01:02:27.440 Oh, yeah, that's it.
01:02:28.460 So I ended up being
01:02:29.160 shorter than I thought.
01:02:30.820 Guys, yeah,
01:02:31.460 that was a documentary
01:02:32.440 on the Bonanno crime family
01:02:34.140 and quite a bit
01:02:34.800 of an insight
01:02:35.300 into the undercover
01:02:36.600 work of Joe Pistone,
01:02:39.520 a.k.a. Donnie Brasco.
01:02:41.180 But I hope you guys
01:02:42.140 enjoyed that one, man.
01:02:43.000 I'm going to catch you guys
01:02:44.100 on the next episode
01:02:44.980 of Fed It.
01:02:45.780 Make sure to go ahead
01:02:46.480 and like the video.
01:02:47.100 Subscribe to the channel.
01:02:47.840 Make sure to check out
01:02:48.400 the Mafia series
01:02:49.000 that we're currently shooting.
01:02:49.800 We'll probably do
01:02:50.240 the Genovese crime family next.
01:02:52.140 Love you guys.
01:02:53.480 Catch you on the next one.
01:02:54.840 Peace.
01:02:58.320 I was a special agent
01:02:59.180 with Homeland Security Investigations.
01:03:00.240 Okay, guys?
01:03:01.040 HSI.
01:03:01.580 The cases that I did
01:03:02.400 mostly were
01:03:03.000 human smuggling
01:03:04.020 and drug trafficking.
01:03:06.600 No one else
01:03:07.500 has these documents,
01:03:08.640 by the way.
01:03:09.000 Here's what Fed it covers.
01:03:10.740 Dr. Lafredo confirmed
01:03:12.260 lacerations
01:03:13.520 due to stepping on.