You're assuming he would have gotten killed?

Please elaborate.

the bonannos were the littlest family, and I don't believe they were as strong as any other family.

when piston went under. Im assuming the FBI had a very good reason for infiltrating that family. I can't see him getting very far in the Gambino's, or any of the other families that had an acting boss, wasn't rastelli in prison when pistone first went undercover?

wasn't there a lot of confusion in that family at that time?

Good point about Rastelli. Often a boss is someone concerned about being implicated by association. With Rastelli in prison, there were less checks and balances over the people who recklessly let Pistone in.

Yes.

[quote=Alfa Romeo] Good point about Rastelli. Often a boss is someone concerned about being implicated by association. With Rastelli in prison, there were less checks and balances over the people who recklessly let Pistone in. [/quote/]

yes, alfa, I think the FBI would pick the family that they thought would be the easiest to penetrate, there may be a lot we don't know about the bonanno's that the FBI knew that anyone else didn't.

and im quite positive that rastelli in prison, influenced their decision to put pistone in that family. I seriously don't think he would have gone as far as he did with any other family.

I'm not quite sure about that Binnie. In Pistone's book, he starts out by trying to penetrate the Colombo's. I don't think that he was even "aiming" for them so much as that's who he had his first contact with so to speak...just my two cents.

This is correct. While Pistone hooking up with Bonannos was fortuitous, after he makes his initial connections on the UES, he's out in Bensonhurst with Jilly Greca first; had things gone differently, he might well have gone further with Jilly's crew-- and might well have ended up like Jilly too.

Can't front on Pistone's ability to hang with a psychopath like Anthony Mirra but, as his prison record shows, Mirra wasn't the world's most careful gangster either.

Now here's a question: how many people in the FBI knew about both "Donnie Brasco" and their informant Gregory Scarpa? Had Pistone stayed longer with the Columbos, was there enough intelligence and communication to get him the fuck out before something happened?

Rastelli was in prison, the acting boss on the street was Salvatore Farruggia. Why do you think was he never indicted if Pistone worked so hard on the Bonanno family?

good point, he made of played by ear , so to speak.

conopizza....I could be very wrong here, but, I don't think pistone knew about scarpa when he was under, but, if he was undercover in the columbo family with scarpa, and he knew about scarpa.

would he let scarpa get away with murder?

dwalin2011..... my guess he could never reach him. why do you think, seems an interesting question.

Pistone got evidence against Rastelli, they even severed him from the Commission trial so Pistone could testify. Theoretically Farruggia was Rastelli's eyes and hands out of prison, the link between him and the rest of the organization. So it's strange they could indict the imprisoned boss and low-level soldiers and made their case without indicting the middle-man as well.

Based on what we know I think that's right: Pistone wouldn't have known about Scarpa and I'm pretty sure he doesn't mention him in any of the books. Whereas Pistone does have that one glancing encounter with Carmine Persico, he's in car with Jilly (I think, might have been someone else) and that person was meeting Carmine on 3rd Avenue & Carroll St in Brooklyn (Gowanus neighborhood, edge of Persico stomping grounds, then very Italian and even with one Italian social club and one long 'associated' restaurant remaining today).

And of course it was safer for Pistone NOT to know & vice-versa, I just wonder how much oversight there was and, if he'd stayed, if he could have accidentally gotten caught up in the Columbo's homicidal madness.

Yea I don't think Pistone knew about Scarpa and no way Scarpa knew about him. I think at one point the Feds even had a file on Brasco because they thought he was a true player. They couldn't risk letting anyone in the FBI knowing he was undercover because if his name leaked he would have been dead for sure. I forget where, it might have been with Jimmy the Weasel and someone in Cleveland having a leak with FBI files to the gangsters that almost got him killed. The same could have happened with Pistone if it was well known with the Feds that someone was in with the Colombo's or Bonanno's.

Also I don't find it odd he wasn't around Massino much. I can't remember once again where I read this, but someone was complaining about they didn't know who the boss or their capo was and couldn't point them out if they were standing in front of them. Now that is some insulation. So if that was true at all then I don't find it surprising Donnie never was around Massino much.

Dwalin thats a good question wonder why Farrugia was basically unscathed by Pistones investigation?

Was wondering did Farrugia have any role in Galantes killing? Wasnt he the street boss for Rusty at the same time Galante was making his power play? I may have my timeline fucked up and he was named street boss after Lilo was wacked , can anyone shed some light on this?

Who was Jilly Grecos capo at that time? In hindsight id like to think Pistone wouldnt have been able to infiltrate the stronger more stAble fams at that time like the Genovese or Gambinos...but ya never know look at Falcone's infiltrating the Gambinos in 2002 he was just basically around for less than a yr and according to him he was DePAlmas go too associate..idk how accurate that is but just finished his book, im sure a more knowledgeable poster can set the record straight

The Colombos were the smallest family, followed by the Luccheses. Pistone did not have the option to choose a family. His mission simply was to infiltrate any of the Five Families, not a particular one. He first hang out with Colombo guys before affiliating himself with Mirra and Ruggiero, which was purely coincidental.

That could have saved his life too. When was it the Colombo's had their many wars? I know much of nothing on them so bare with me.

Why not? He wasn't part of the Milwaukee operation that brought down Sabella and Marangello, and the later stuff (Florida, the capo murders) only led to indictments in the Motion Lounge crew.




Greca was under Charlie Moose.

Pistone as part of the Bergin crew would be an interesting what-if.

This is a joke, right? WTF is with these threads.