Real-life FBI agent Joe Pistone spent five years undercover posing as a jewel thief named Donnie Brasco, befriending mobsters like "Lefty" Ruggiero to gather intel on the Bonanno crime family.
Public DomainJoseph D. Pistone, the real-life Donnie Brasco.
The 1997 film Donnie Brasco, starring Johnny Depp and Al Pacino, recounts the story of the real “Donnie Brasco,” an FBI undercover agent by the name of Joseph Pistone.
In the 1970s, Pistone infiltrated the Bonanno crime family under the alias Donnie Brasco. He claimed to be a low-level jewel thief, and his own Sicilian heritage and knowledge about the Mafia helped him avoid too much suspicion. The job was only supposed to last a few months, but Pistone ended up remaining undercover for five years.
It paid off in the end, though. Not only did his investigation result in more than 200 indictments and 100 convictions of Mafia members, but it also fundamentally changed how the FBI conducted long-term undercover work. Of course, when the Mob caught wind that a federal agent had infiltrated their ranks, they weren’t too thrilled.
A $500,000 contract was put out on Pistone, and the ordeal also led the Bonanno family to be kicked out of the Commission. Pistone would go on to testify several times against members of the Mob, and he later shared his story with the world in the form of a book, which then served as inspiration for the film.
However, the real story of the Donnie Brasco operation is perhaps even more compelling.
How Joe Pistone Infiltrated The Mafia
In 1976, the FBI launched Operation Donnie Brasco, a daring undercover mission targeting the notorious Bonanno crime family. Joe Pistone, a talented FBI agent, meticulously crafted the persona of Donnie Brasco, a small-time jewel thief with a yearning for the Mafia lifestyle.
According to Pistone’s memoir, his initial contact within the Bonanno family was Anthony Mirra, who then introduced him to Benjamin “Lefty” Ruggiero, a low-ranking soldier hungry for advancement. Ruggiero saw potential in Brasco. He believed his fabricated tales of past heists and connections, and more importantly, he saw a chance to impress his superiors by bringing a new earner into the fold.
Find a GraveWhile undercover as Donnie Brasco, Joe Pistone grew close with Benjamin “Lefty” Ruggiero, even though he knew he would ultimately have to betray him.
Their initial relationship was one of cautious sizing up. Ruggiero, street-smart and suspicious, peppered Brasco with questions, testing his knowledge of the Mafia’s code of conduct and gauging his loyalty. Pistone, ever the chameleon, seamlessly weaved a narrative that fit the bill. He even went so far as to wear flashy jewelry and adopt a swagger that screamed “wannabe wiseguy.”
“To do my job better and to stay alive, I was working at picking things up,” Pistone wrote in Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia. “I was adjusting my demeanor and the way I looked at things. So that I could ask the right questions and see the right things, I was learning not only how to act like a wiseguy, but also how to think like a wiseguy. When Lefty and I bounced around to different spots, I began to see the same things he did, pick up things the way he did.”
TriStar PicturesJohnny Depp and Al Pacino as Donnie Brasco and Lefty Ruggiero in the 1997 film Donnie Brasco.
As the weeks turned into months, however, their initial skepticism faded away — and a strange new bond took its place. Pistone, a talented storyteller, regaled Ruggiero with tales of his “criminal exploits,” which were, of course, carefully crafted fabrications seasoned with details gleaned from his FBI training. Ruggiero, in turn, shared stories of his life within the Mafia, offering Joe Pistone a firsthand glimpse into the secretive world.
Ruggiero, disillusioned with the brutality of the Mafia, found solace in Brasco’s seemingly carefree attitude. Brasco, on the other hand, saw an opportunity to build trust with a member of the Bonanno family. They bonded over shared meals and card games — and Brasco even served as Ruggiero’s best man at his wedding.
This blossoming friendship, however, was a double-edged sword. As their bond deepened, so did Pistone’s concern for Ruggiero’s safety. Ruggiero, by vouching for Brasco, had unknowingly placed himself on the hook. Pistone knew that if his cover was blown, Ruggiero would face severe consequences. It was a risk he had no choice but to take.
Tensions In The Bonanno Family Reach A Boiling Point
In the late 1970s, the Bonanno family was on the brink of a bloody power struggle. Carmine Galante, the de facto boss, was gunned down by three masked mobsters in July 1979, setting off a true fight for control.
Bettmann/Getty ImagesCarmine Galante was assassinated at the order of the Commission at a Brooklyn restaurant in 1979.
Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano and Joseph Massino started making moves to take over the family, but they faced pushback from another group seeking power: Alphonse “Sonny Red” Indelicato, Philip Giaccone, and Dominick “Big Trin” Trinchera. Massino eventually caught wind that Indelicato, Giaccone, and Trinchera were stocking up on automatic weapons.
Things were about to break out into full-on warfare between the factions.
A few months later, Massino made his play for power. He was going to eliminate Trinchera, Giaccone, and Indelicato before things had a chance to get worse.
The Three Capos Murder
On May 5, 1981, Massino led Trinchera, Giaccone, and Indelicato to the 20/20 Night Club in Brooklyn under the pretense of working out some form of peace. In reality, Massino planned to take the three men out there and then. As Trinchera, Giaccone, and Indelicato entered the building, four masked gunmen emerged from a closet and opened fire. Among them were Salvatore Vitale and Vito Rizzuto, who reportedly shouted, “It’s a hold up!”
The surprised men tried to flee, but they couldn’t escape. They were shot dead in the club’s storeroom, and the event came to be known as the “three capos murder.”
Wikimedia CommonsThe murder of Alphonse “Sonny Red” Indelicato and two other Bonanno family captains brought about the end of Operation Donnie Brasco.
Their bodies were then taken to “The Hole” in Lindenwood, Queens, a Gambino family graveyard. Gambino boss John Gotti made special arrangements there as a favor to Massino.
However, one other man — Indelicato’s son, Anthony “Bruno” Indelicato Jr. — was supposed to be at the club that night. Napolitano wanted Indelicato Jr. dead, too, and he asked Brasco to make it happen.
The End Of Operation Donnie Brasco
During Joe Pistone’s five years with the Bonanno family, he’d been asked to kill several other men. He was able to avoid the task each time, with the FBI reportedly helping him stage a murder at least once. Pistone assumed they would help him stage Indelicato’s death, too — but this time, the FBI deemed it too risky.
Instead, they decided to shut down Operation Donnie Brasco. At first, Pistone resisted because the Bonanno family was about to officially induct him. “Can you imagine the devastation when it came out — an FBI agent becoming a made guy?” Pistone told the Washington Post in 1997.
His higher-ups in the FBI insisted, however. By that point, Pistone had gathered more than enough information to topple the entire Bonanno family. In July 1981, he boarded a plane to Milwaukee and put the name Donnie Brasco behind him for good.
Public DomainThis photo from the FBI shows Pistone undercover as Donnie Brasco next to Lefty Ruggiero and “Tony Rossi,” who was actually another FBI agent named Edgar Robb.
Soon after, Napolitano was visited by FBI agents in New York. They told him the shocking truth: there was no real Donnie Brasco. He had been played. He fell for their trap hook, line, and sinker. Napolitano was initially in denial, but the truth slowly started to settle in — and he and Ruggiero felt the blowback almost immediately.
The Bonanno family leadership, meanwhile, placed the blame on Napolitano and Ruggiero. It was their fault, they claimed, that an undercover agent had infiltrated their ranks. Justice — well, Mob justice — needed to be served.
Napolitano was called to a sit-down with other members of the Bonanno family on Aug. 17, 1981. He knew he wasn’t likely to come out of that meeting alive, and before he left his apartment for the last time, he gave his jewelry away to his favorite bartender along with the keys to his apartment so that someone could look after his pet pigeons.
Indeed, Napolitano was pushed down the stairs, shot, and killed immediately upon arriving at the meeting.
In an interview with Michael Franzese in 2021, Joe Pistone revealed that he was once contacted by Napolitano’s girlfriend, Judy, who told him that in the days before Napolitano died, he said he felt no ill will toward Pistone. Napolitano apparently felt that if anyone was going to take him down, he was glad it was Pistone.
Public DomainJoseph Massino allegedly had Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano killed because he “had to give him a receipt for the Donnie Brasco situation.”
Lefty Ruggiero was also likely set to be killed, but the FBI arrested him before his fellow mobsters had a chance to take him out. He was sentenced to 15 years behind bars, but he wound up serving only 11 due to his deteriorating health. He swore one day he’d get revenge on Pistone, but he died in November 1994 before he got a chance to do so.
Pistone’s testimony also helped put 100 other Mafia members in prison and revealed the true extent of the Mob’s far-reaching Pizza Connection operation in which mobsters used pizza parlors as drug fronts.
Joe Pistone published his memoir about Operation Donnie Brasco in 1988, and it was made into the film starring Johnny Depp and Al Pacino in 1997. But how does the movie measure up to the true story of Donnie Brasco?
How The Real Donnie Brasco Story Compares To The Film
While the movie Donnie Brasco may seem unbelievable at times, much of the plot follows Joe Pistone’s story closely. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Pistone himself told a crowd at the Mob Museum in 2022 that the film is “85 percent” accurate, “which in Hollywood is pretty good.”
Even some of the more dramatic parts of the movie are true to life. In one scene, Pistone and Sonny Black Napolitano (portrayed by Michael Madsen) are walking through an airport when an acquaintance of Pistone approaches the pair and starts talking to him. Worried his cover will be blown, Pistone punches the man. “That one really happened,” Pistone admitted while speaking at the Mob Museum.
However, other plotlines were dramatized for the screen. The real Donnie Brasco made it clear that he never slapped his wife, as shown in the film. “When I saw [the scene], I went ballistic,” Pistone said. “But I don’t outrank the director in this case. He’s like the captain, so it stayed.”
Michael Franzese/YouTubeJoe Pistone in his 2021 interview with Michael Franzese.
Pistone also never witnessed Ruggiero dismember a body with a hacksaw, though he did see Mafia members (it’s unclear if Ruggiero was among them) cut up a man with a chainsaw “because he was so big.”
Perhaps the movie’s greatest deviation from the true story of Donnie Brasco is one of the final scenes in which Lefty Ruggiero is shown storing his valuables away before meeting with the Bonanno family, suggesting he’s going to be killed. In real life, it was Napolitano, not Ruggiero, who was murdered for the Donnie Brasco fiasco.
Today, Joe Pistone again lives under a false name, but not because he’s still an undercover agent. After the truth about Operation Donnie Brasco came to light, Mafia bosses put a $500,000 contract on his head, and Pistone and his wife and children had to essentially go into hiding for their safety. Even then, Pistone testified against Mafia members in court for years, and he continues to give interviews about his experience as part of the Bonanno family and his role in the first long-term undercover operation in FBI history.
After learning the real story of Donnie Brasco, read about Vincent Palermo and the real-life inspirations for The Sopranos. Then, learn about Bernie Tiede and the bizarre murder that inspired Bernie.
