Inside the American Mob (2013–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - Operation Donnie Brasco - full transcript
It is 1978, and American law enforcement is at war with the American mob. But the FBI has a secret weapon, agent Joe Pistone, AKA Donnie Brasco who has infiltrated the Bonanno family.
Salvatore Polsi: In the
70s we were all wannabes,
we did the grunt work
for the mob bosses or
the upper
echelon mob guys.
And those mobsters
had power in those days.
If they gave you an
assignment you couldn't
refuse and
you had to do it.
Francis Lewis Boulevard.
Walk into the
bank, real quiet.
Bank Robber:
Everybody down!
Bank Robber 2:
Everybody down!
Hit the floor!
[screams].
Salvatore Polsi:
I run into the bank and
vault right over
the top of the counter.
And yell, "Back up!"
And all the
tellers back up.
And I go into
each drawer and
start scooping
the money out.
My favorite trademark
was to carry a bag with me,
I'd have two bags in my
pockets and they would be
little plastic bags and
it said, "I Love New York."
I noticed every
head teller would have
a key chain with keys.
And I said to
the head teller,
"Into the vault!"
"Let's go,
into the vault.
Right now, go!"
And she hesitated
and she began to urinate
on the floor
right in front of me.
Now I kind of felt bad
that I made her do that,
but I, I don't have time
for this, "To the vault!"
She went to the vault,
she opened up the door,
she opened up a
couple of drawers,
grabbed a whole
bunch of stacks of money.
We got into the car, we
got back to the safe house
and we dumped all
the money on the bed.
That was like one
of the fun moments,
dumping the
money on the bed.
So I always robbed the
banks with the same bag,
"I Love New York," bag.
Eventually when I got
busted they had reports
and they said, "We know
how many banks you did,
you always carried
that little white bag,"
you know.
It was a
trademark of a criminal!
I just couldn't get
away from it, you know!
NARRATOR: IT'S 1978
AND THE UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT IS AT WAR
WITH A HIDDEN EMPIRE.
Newswoman: Mob warfare is
on the rise all across the
streets of
New York City.
In Brooklyn, a
low-level mobster is
shot dead in
broad daylight.
NARRATOR: A NETWORK
OF GANGSTERS WHO LiVE BY
A CODE OF CRIME,
VIOLENCE AND POWER.
IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS
STRUGGLE ARE TWO MEN,
MICHAEL FRANZESE,
A MADE MAN IN THE COLOMBO
CRIME FAMILY;
THE OTHER JOE PISTONE,
AN UNDERCOVER FBI AGENT,
BOTH TRYING TO CLIMB THE
LADDER AND SURVIVE
IN THE AMERICAN MOB.
THEY, ALONG WITH THEIR
COMPATRIOTS ON BOTH SIDES
OF THE LAW, ARE WITNESSES
TO THIS SECRET HISTORY,
STEPPING FORWARD
NOW TO TELL THEIR
STORIES FIRST HAND.
A FEW STAY IN THE SHADOWS
FOR REASONS OF PERSONAL
SAFETY, FEARING A CRIMINAL
ORGANIZATION THAT REIGNED
UNCHALLENGED IN THE UNITED
STATES UNTIL RECENT TIMES.
AND IN THE 1970S
THEY WERE UNTOUCHABLE.
John Marks: What was
the view on organized
crime when you
joined the Bureau?
Steve Salmieri:
Back then it was a
very closed society.
Organized crime
knew what police could
or couldn't do.
Jim Walden: There were
crews within families
that were
literally untouched, uh,
by law
enforcement for decades.
NARRATOR: IN 1978,
FIVE CRIME FAMILIES RULE
NEW YORK CITY
AND THROUGH IT,
MOST OF THE COUNTRY.
THE FAMILIES GO BY THE
NAMES OF THEIR BEST KNOWN
LEADERS: GAMBINO,
COLOMBO, BONANNO,
GENOVESE AND LUCCHESE.
RIGHT IN THEIR MIDST
HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT IS
AN UNDERCOVER
AGENT NAMED JOE PISTONE.
HE'S BEEN LIVING AMONG
THE COLOMBO FAMILY FOR THE
LAST YEAR UNDER
THE ALIAS DONNIE BRASCO.
Joe Pistone:
When I first started,
the FBI didn't think
there was a mafia.
[laughs].
NARRATOR: PISTONE LEAVES
THE COLOMBO FAMILY LOOKING
FOR A DEEPER WAY INTO THE
AMERICAN MOB AND NOW HE'S
GOT A SHOT AT
INFILTRATING ANOTHER OF
THE FIVE FAMILIES,
THE BONANNOS.
Edward McDonald: The
Bonanno family controlled
gambling and loansharking
back in the day but those
days were over and
they had to find other
ways of making money.
Jim Walden: The Bonanno
family can be fairly
characterized as
ground breakers when it came
to drug trafficking.
Fat Sal Colombo:
They would smoke drugs,
rob drug dealers
and they were wild guys.
Jim Walden: The
Bonanno's were really,
at this period
of time, the worst.
NARRATOR: NOW FOR THE
FIRST TIME IN HISTORY,
THANKS TO A SINGLE
UNDERCOVER AGENT,
THE FBI HAS A
SHOT AT TAKING DOWN
AN ENTIRE FAMILY.
Joseph Coffey:
Joe Pistone was an FBI agent
who was pretty
effective as an undercover.
And he was recruited
by the FBI to get into the
Bonanno family, which
he did by going to a going
to a guy named
Lefty Guns Ruggiero.
Joe Pistone: Lefty
was a, a 24/7 gangster.
He grew up in the life.
He had relatives
that were in the life.
He was a tough
guy to be around.
Selwyn Raab: If you were
in Joe Pistone's shoes,
you had to know that
every second that you were
dealing with these
mafia guys might be
your last
moment on earth.
One mistake,
the slightest error,
you're through.
They never
hesitate to kill.
Joe Pistone: When
you're with these guys
you have to blend in.
They have to, you
have to be believable.
James Kossler: He had
convinced them that he
was a very adequate
and very good jewel thief.
Joe Pistone: I would
bring around some diamonds,
I'd bring around
watches you know,
all stuff that
was confiscated
by the
federal government.
After a while,
Lefty really becomes
comfortable with me.
And he'd be telling
me about who's the boss
of this family,
the boss of that family.
I'm gathering great
intelligence information.
He's like an
encyclopedia of the mob.
Rudolph Giuliani:
Law enforcement work
requires infiltration.
You cannot do all of
it through wiretaps.
You can't do all
of it through, uh,
through
telephone intercepts.
You can't do all
of it through bugs.
Because you don't
know what to wiretap.
Lefty Ruggiero: What
happened last night?
Donnie Brasco: What?
I called, you
weren't out there.
I talked to Sonny.
I called the house,
nobody answered.
Lefty Ruggiero: Let
me tell you something,
Donnie, the man
never told me nothing.
He's playing
games with me.
He knows that I'm.
Selwyn Raab: It's a
real goldmine for the FBI.
Now they have an
agent who is really in
the middle of
a mafia family.
NARRATOR:
SOON PISTONE,
UNDER THE ALIAS
DONNIE BRASCO
AND RUGGIERO HATCH
A SCHEME TOGETHER.
Joe Pistone: Lefty always
said he was interested in
expanding out of New York.
NARRATOR:
FORTUNATELY, THE FBI'S
ALREADY GOT
A GREAT FRONT.
AN UNDERCOVER
OPERATION IN A FLORIDA
NIGHTCLUB CALLED
THE KING'S COURT.
Joe Pistone: So we had
a night club going in
Florida and because
he knew that I was
the kind of guy
that could be trusted,
he put me
in charge there.
NARRATOR: ANOTHER FBI
AGENT, STEVE SALMIERI,
IS ALREADY WORKING
UNDERCOVER IN THE CLUB.
Steve Salmieri:
The club was set up
because this was a
venue they could have and
they could see that
the money could be made.
So Joe came down
and, uh, you know,
it really solidified him
with the Bonanno family.
NARRATOR: THAT NIGHT
CLUB BECOMES THE BAIT THAT
LURES LEFTY AND
THE BONANNOS INTO A TRAP.
Joe Pistone: Our
operation was confined
to a very limited
number of individuals.
So agents would be
taking photographs,
they're taking
pictures you know,
on surveillance and I'm
on a lot of the surveillance
and the agents didn't
know Donnie Brasco
was really
an FBI agent.
NARRATOR: OPERATION
DONNIE BRASCO IS GARNERING
RESULTS IN FLORIDA.
BUT BACK IN NEW YORK A
MAFIA POWER STRUGGLE IS
ABOUT TO CHANGE
THE GAME DRAMATICALLY
FOR JOE PISTONE.
THE PROBLEM: AN
AMBITIOUS BONANNO BOSS
NAMED CARMINE GALANTE.
News Reporter:
Galante looked more like
a grandfather than a
godfather as he walked
his dog each morning
in Greenwich Village.
But his real
interests embrace gambling,
prostitution,
loansharking and most of all,
heroin and other drugs.
Edward McDonald:
Carmine Galante,
who got out of
prison after a long prison
sentence for narcotics
trafficking tried to
muscle in and
take control over the
Bonanno crime family.
Joe Pistone: He
controlled all the
importation of
drugs into the US.
And Galante wouldn't
share any of this with
any of the
other families.
NARRATOR: SHARING IS
A GOLDEN RULE AMONG THE
MAFIA'S FIVE FAMILIES
AND BOSSES WHO DON'T
SHARE GET IN TROUBLE
WITH THE COMMISSION,
THE GOVERNING BOARD OF
THE MAFIA WHICH HOLDS THE
POWER OF LIFE AND DEATH
OVER ALL OTHER MOBSTERS,
INCLUDING UPSTART BOSSES.
Joe Pistone: So the
other families got together
and they
decided he's got to go.
He's gotta go.
Michael Chertoff:
Carmine Galante,
he's a regular
patron at a restaurant in
Brooklyn called Joe
and Mary's Restaurant.
And he goes sit out
in the in the patio in
the back with
his bodyguards.
Joseph Coffey: It was
August, hot summer day.
Just sitting there,
he's having pasta with
his friends, they're
holding a conversation.
Michael Chertoff: Car
pulls up in front of the
restaurant and there
are four people in the car.
One is the driver
who stays with the car.
The other three go
through the restaurant,
they know exactly
where Galante's gonna be.
Joseph Coffey:
He sits there,
puts a cigar
in his mouth.
Michael Chertoff:
They walk into the patio.
[gunshots]
Joseph Coffey: They
blow him over the chair
into the tomato patch.
News Reporter: Galante
was having lunch in the
courtyard of an Italian
restaurant in Brooklyn
when 5 men entered with
automatic rifles and
shotguns
and opened fire.
Reporter: Did your
uncle say who he was
gonna eat
lunch with today?
Man: No, no, he stopped
every day for coffee.
Reporter: He stopped
in here every day?
Man: He don't
know nothing.
Joseph Coffey: When I get
there they body's still
there because I get there
pretty quick and there's
one laying in the
tomato patch with a cigar
in his mouth and a
Zippo lighter in his hand.
I look at it,
it's Carmine Galante.
It was an iconic
picture because
it went all
over the world.
My friends in Washington
said Joe Coffey put that
cigar in his mouth
'cause they, you know,
I had a sense of humor,
so did he and of course
I didn't do it but I
let everybody think I did.
NARRATOR: DOWN IN
FLORIDA JOE PISTONE GETS
A CALL FROM NEW YORK.
Joe Pistone: I was in
Florida looking out after
the club down there
and I called Lefty because
I had to call
him every day.
He says, "Have you
seen the New York papers?"
And I said I
haven't seen 'em yet.
He said, "Well go
buy the New York papers
then call me back."
I buy the New York paper
and there's the picture.
I knew from Lefty that
Galante didn't have a lot
of admirers, but I never
had any indication that
they were
gonna kill him.
So I call him back and
I said I got the paper,
he said,
"You read it?"
I said, "Yeah."
He said, "Well
things are gonna change."
"They killed Galante,
they want you to
come back to New York."
NARRATOR:
GALANTE'S EXECUTION
SHAKES UP THE
BONANNO FAMILY.
IN THE UNSTABLE NEW ORDER,
IMPRISONED MOBSTER NAMED
RUSTY RASTELLI BECOMES
THE BOSS AND A HARD
CASE NAMED SONNY
BLACK BECOMES A CAPTAIN.
LEFTY GETS REASSIGNED
TO WORK UNDER SONNY BLACK
AND ALONG FOR THE
RIDE IS DONNIE BRASCO.
Selwyn Raab:
Pistone is a godsend.
He's more
than just a wannabe.
He's got Lefty Ruggiero
on his side who's bringing
him in to meet Capos
like Sonny Black Napolitano.
Joe Pistone: Sonny
Black was a tough guy,
but you can
joke with him.
Plus he wanted to
keep earning money and
the undercover
operation we had in Florida,
he made
a lot of money.
NARRATOR: PISTONE NOW
GETS CLOSE TO SONNY BLACK,
WHO'S FORTUNES IN THE
BONANNO FAMILY ARE RISING,
THANKS IN PART
TO THE FLORIDA CLUB.
Selwyn Raab: He's
inside a capo's counsel!
A capo is talking to
him, dealing with him,
telling him secrets.
He's at third base.
Joe Pistone:
I like Sonny Black.
I mean, how could
you have comfortable
conversation with him, uh,
if you really don't like him?
You know, I used to
spend a lot of time with him
and I used to
sleep at his apartment.
I can remember telling
this story my FBI superiors
and they
couldn't believe it.
I mean, you know,
he slept in the bedroom,
I slept on his couch,
we'd get up in the morning
and we'd sit
around in our underwear.
And here's me,
an undercover FBI agent
and one of the most
powerful captains of the
Bonanno family sitting
there drinking coffee,
having a hard roll
with butter and watching
cartoons on television.
You never see
that in the movies.
NARRATOR: BUT
THAT FRIENDSHIP WITH
SONNY BLACK IS
ABOUT TO LEAD PISTONE
STRAIGHT TO
COLD BLOODED MURDER.
Both: [laughing].
NARRATOR: BY 1979,
FBI UNDERCOVER AGENT
JOE PISTONE HAS
ACHIEVED SOMETHING NO FED
HAD EVER DONE,
PENETRATING ONE OF THE
MOB'S MOST
NOTORIOUS FAMILIES,
THE BONANNO FAMILY.
THE KEY TO HIS SUCCESS,
A POWERFUL BONANNO CAPTAIN
NAMED SONNY BLACK.
Joe Pistone: The
relationship with Sonny
really
propelled the operation.
Because Sonny
really becomes
comfortable with me.
Sonny and Lefty would
have conversations and
not cut me out.
They'd tell me
about what's going on.
Edward McDonald:
After the execution
of Carmine Galante,
three capos of
the Bonanno crime family
tried to muscle
in and take control
over the family.
Selwyn Raab:
And it's open warfare.
They're looking
to kill each other.
Joe Pistone: Three
captains wanted to
take over the family.
Sonny "Red" Indelicato,
Phil "Lucky" Giaccone
and Dominick Trinchera.
Sonny Black and uh,
Joey Massino call a
sit down to iron out
their differences.
NARRATOR: BUT THERE
IS NO IRONING OUT
THESE DIFFERENCES.
IT'S ALL ABOUT POWER.
Edward McDonald: What was
supposed to be a sit down,
was a trap, an ambush.
Joe Massino was there.
He tackles, uh,
Sonny "Red" Indelicato.
Shoots him in the head.
The other two
capos are also killed.
NARRATOR: THE THREE
RENEGADE CAPOS ARE DEAD,
BUT THERE'S
A LOOSE END.
Steve Salmieri: Sonny's
crew killed Sonny Red
and that
pissed people.
So they were
looking to kill each other
and Joe's
in the middle.
NARRATOR: WHAT FOLLOWS
IS A CONVERSATION
THAT NO FBI AGENT
HAS EVER HAD BEFORE,
PROOF POSITIVE
THAT JOE PISTONE
HAS PULLED
OFF ONE OF THE GREATEST
DECEPTIONS IN
LAW ENFORCEMENT HISTORY,
SONNY BLACK INVITES
HIM TO JOIN THE CLUB.
Joe Pistone: Sonny
tells me, you know,
"I already proposed
you for membership
in the family."
"You're gonna
get made in December."
He tells me, you know,
"We took care of those guys."
He said,
"One got away."
And I said "Who?"
He says,
"Bruno Indelicato."
He said, "I'm giving
you the contract to
get Bruno Indelicato."
Now, as an FBI agent,
you can't get involved
in acts of violence,
unless you're protecting
yourself or
protecting a citizen.
And one of the rules in
mafia is that when you get
a contract, if you
turn it down you're
gonna get killed.
So, when I was told,
"You got the contract to
kill Bruno Indelicato,"
I said, "Okay, Sonny,
where do
you think he is?"
Sonny Black:
Come on, take a walk.
NARRATOR: THE HUNT IS
ON FOR BRUNO INDELICATO.
IF PISTONE
FINDS AND KILLS HIM,
HE'S GOING TO
BECOME A MADE MAN,
EARNING HIS PLACE IN THE
BONANNO FAMILY WITH BLOOD.
BUT OVER IN
THE COLOMBO FAMILY,
MICHAEL FRANZESE
IS EARNING HIS PLACE
WITH COLD HARD CASH.
John Marks: Did you
ever have a nickname?
Michael Franzese:
You know, not till
later on when the
media tagged me as being
the Yuppie Don,
which I hated.
But, uh, nobody would
call me that to my face.
I tell 'em,
"Don't ever say that to me,
I don't like
it," you know?
It reminded me of
California and all these
kind of weird
guys out there in suits.
Selwyn Raab:
Michael Franzese was an
immense earner for
the Colombo family.
And a guy who
knew how to really deal
with modern
day capitalism.
He was a new breed.
Michael Franzese: All
right, fellas, let's go.
Reporter: This handsome,
young mafia prince from
New York is
Michael Franzese,
son of legendary
mafia godfather.
Edward McDonald:
Michael Franzese's father
was Sonny Franzese.
He was a legendary
figure in the world of
organized crime,
very powerful figure
in the
Colombo crime family.
Michael Franzese:
You know, my dad he
just had that
presence about him
that people just
really treated him well.
And that's, you know,
for a young guy looking
up to your father
that's who I want to emulate.
That's how I
want to be in my life.
NARRATOR: AND ONE WAY
FRANZESE HOPES TO MAKE
MONEY IS CLASSIC MOB:
THROUGH THE LABOR UNIONS.
Michael Franzese:
I had some very
lucrative
situations with unions.
One of them, in a, a major
contracting construction
job with a major
developer in, um, in Queens.
And this is a major job,
it was the biggest co-op
conversion in the
country at that time.
And one of the
guys in there, uh,
happened to be the
brother of a girl that
I was dating
at one time.
And he got in touch
with me and he said,
"Mike, I've got this
job," and he said,
"The union is really
harping on us," he said,
"You think
you can help out?"
I said yeah.
So um, I go and
meet the labor union guy.
And I said, "You realized
what we got here, right?"
"Biggest job
in the country."
I said,
"Let's work this thing."
And he said, "Great."
So we made a deal to
keep the union out of there
and we charged
the developer so much
for every
apartment that he converted.
We hired all the trades,
we did everything and we
made a ton of
money both legitimately
and through the unions.
And we whacked
it up among everybody.
John Marks: Can
I ask you, the term
"whack it up," is that
the same as "kick it up?"
Michael Franzese:
Whack it up, divide it up,
cut it up, share it,
yeah, that's a street term.
You never
said share it.
It's whack.
Whack has different
forms of uh, different uses,
I would say.
NARRATOR: FRANZESE
IS PART OF A NEW GENERATION
OF GANGSTERS RISING UP
THROUGH THE RANKS OF THE
AMERICAN MOB
IN THE LATE 1970S.
ANOTHER ONE IS A
GUY NAMED JOHN GOTTI,
A SMALL TIME HOOD FROM
QUEENS LOOKING TO MAKE A
NAME FOR HIMSELF
AND LATCH ON TO ONE
OF THE FIVE FAMILIES.
Joseph Coffey: I
was involved in various
investigations of
John Gotti through the years,
from the time
when he was a nothing guy.
Salvatore Polsi:
In the '70s, we were
all wannabes,
even John Gotti was a
wannabe in the '70s.
NARRATOR:
BETWEEN SCORES GOTTI KILLS
TIME WITH
OTHER MOB WANNABES,
SMOKING,
DRINKING, PLAYING CARDS.
Salvatore Polsi: We
would be playing poker,
his cigar would be down,
he would just hold his
cards and he
wanted to play.
And every once in a while
when he got a good hand,
this long De Nobili
cigar would go up in the air
and I
would notice!
And no
one spotted it!
And the minute we
saw that cigar go up,
we were
out the door!
We threw
our hand in!
And he could never
figure out what he did.
He was,
he had a tell.
And he was
a wild gambler.
And he would
just lose every night!
NARRATOR: RUMORS
START TO SPREAD OF AN
OUTSIZED
PERSONALITY IN QUEENS.
Fat Sal Colombo: And
all of a sudden you started
hearing this
John Gotti, John Gotti.
John Gotti this,
John Gotti that.
We used to
say who the (bleep) is
this John Gotti?
I ain't
never heard of him.
Salvatore Polsi:
He was a wild and crazy
flamboyant personality,
high energy, charismatic.
Joseph Coffey: He
had a two-prong attack
to become a made guy.
In the mafia you're
made either one of two ways,
you're an earner or
you do hits for them.
If you do both,
you're a huge made guy.
He was.
NARRATOR: IT'S THE
BEGINNING OF A LEGENDARY
CAREER IN
THE AMERICAN MOB.
NARRATOR: IN
THE LATE 1970S,
A NEW GENERATION OF
GANGSTERS IS RISING UP
THROUGH THE RANKS
OF THE AMERICAN MOB.
AMONG THEM IS A
GUY NAMED JOHN GOTTI.
Joseph Coffey: John Gotti
was a low level gangster
who was like banned
from the racetracks because
he was a mafia figure.
He was involved in
hijacking trailer trucks
coming out
of the airport,
plus he wouldn't
hesitate to kill somebody.
Michael Franzese:
I had my first business
encounter with John Gotti.
It wasn't a very
pleasant experience.
Two brothers came
to me and they had a
guy that had a
flea market in Brooklyn.
This guy's partner
was dealing drugs and
it was
disruptive to the market.
So I intercede, I go
meet with him and we make a,
an arrangement and
I chase his partner out.
Two weeks later, uh John
calls me up, John Gotti.
Yeah, hello?
He says, "Mike,
I need to see you."
I said, "Okay."
I go meet
him and he says,
"That flea
market in Brooklyn."
"Yeah?"
He says, "The
guy you chased out."
"Yeah," I said.
"He's with me."
I say, "John, come on
you know he just ran to you."
"No, no, I know
the guy a long time."
John wasn't
pulling out and
I wasn't
gonna give up.
There's no way John
Gotti would walk away
from an
argument with anybody,
including himself
thinking that he lost.
So I said "John
there's no way I wanna;
this guy's a drug
addict, I don't want
to be around him."
I said "I'm
gonna buy you guys out,
name your price."
And it's
like I knew it.
He said, "You don't
buy me out, I buy you out."
And that's
what happened.
He bought me out,
gave me the money and
I gave my guy
money, we kept some and
he took the market and
within 3 months they closed.
It was over.
So that was
my first business
encounter with Gotti.
Joseph Coffey:
John Gotti was a thug.
IQ of maybe a
mothball, but a thug.
NARRATOR: BUT
COLOMBO FAMILY MEMBER
MICHAEL FRANZESE IS
ALSO MAKING A NAME FOR
HIMSELF AS AN
EARNER AMONG EARNERS.
HE BRINGS IN BIG SCORES
THAT ATTRACT ATTENTION
THROUGHOUT THE
FIVE FAMILIES OF
THE AMERICAN MOB.
BUT NOTHING SO
FAR COMPARES TO THE SCAM
HE'S ABOUT
TO PULL OFF.
Michael Franzese:
This guy came to me and
he tells me, he says,
"Look, we can make some money,
I've got
kind of a scheme."
"I have gas stations."
So I said, "Alright,
let's start a new company,"
I says and "Show me
how this thing works
and I'll see if
I want to pursue it."
I'll never forget,
a week or two later,
this guy came to me
and he's holding a box.
And he used to bring
me meat, he was a butcher.
He walks in, I says,
"What are we having a party?
What we're gonna
do with all this meat?"
And he says,
"Hey chief, it ain't meat."
And he goes in
and he puts it on the
kitchen table
and he opens it up.
He said, "First week's
take in the gas business."
$380,000 in cash.
Got my
attention, right?
Selwyn Raab: Michael
Franzese was an immense
earner for the
Colombo family and
his biggest coup was
something known as the
"Daisy Chain
Gasoline Scam."
What happened was,
New York State,
in the 1970s,
decided to use a
different way of collecting
gasoline excise
taxes every year.
Michael Franzese:
At that time,
whoever owned the gas
station was responsible
to pay the tax on every
gallon of gasoline that
they bought and pumped.
Selwyn Raab: And
somebody hit upon the
idea that this was stupid.
R. Lindley Devecchio: So
the legislature in New York
said, "Well let's make
distributors responsible
for paying the
taxes or whatever they
want to levy."
NARRATOR: BUT THE GAS
COMPANIES ARE REQUIRED TO
PAY THE TAX
ON THE HONOR SYSTEM.
SO FRANZESE FIGURES
OUT ALL HE HAS TO DO IS
SET UP DUMMY
COMPANIES THAT DON'T PAY.
IT TAKES MONTHS FOR THE
GOVERNMENT TO FIGURE OUT
THE SCAM AND COLLECT
AND BY THAT TIME THE
DUMMY COMPANIES
ARE LONG GONE.
R. Lindley Devecchio: It
was a fairly complicated
scheme that involved a
lot of dummy corporations,
which made it
difficult to trace back
the original source,
that being Franzese.
Edward McDonald: And
somewhere along the line,
a stamp would come out
and would say "Tax Paid."
And it was very
difficult to establish just,
you know, which
company was saying that
they paid the tax.
NARRATOR: THAT'S
BECAUSE NO COMPANY IS
PAYING THE TAX.
ALL OF THE
MONEY IS GOING INTO
MICHAEL FRANZESE'S POCKETS.
Michael Franzese: I
had 18 licensed companies.
All of them were
operating um out of Panama,
so there was no
trail back to any of us.
Selwyn Raab: The gasoline
tax scam has to go down in
history as one of the
most successful coups
ever pulled
by the mafia.
Michael Franzese:
I was making a lot of
money in
the gas business.
Millions of
dollars a week.
I had a jet plane,
I had a helicopter,
I had all the
money I wanted,
I did whatever
I wanted to do.
And word was
getting out on the street
that even though I
was handing in millions,
that I was
making billions.
News Reporter: The
so-called "Franzese Group,"
a new mafia
organization that federal
prosecutors say could
be behind the mob's theft.
Michael Franzese:
A story came out,
I believe in
News Day again,
that I was becoming
powerful enough to break
away from the Colombos
and start my own family.
News Reporter: Said to
be behind the mobs theft of
hundreds of
millions of dollars in
gasoline taxes in New York.
Michael Franzese: My
dad then got out on parole.
NARRATOR:
FRANZESE'S FATHER, SONNY,
IS RELEASED FROM
PRISON AFTER SERVING TIME
FOR MASTERMINDING A
SERIES OF BANK ROBBERIES.
BUT HE'S ALSO RUMORED TO
BE A COLD BLOODED KILLER,
AN ACCUSATION
FAMILIAR TO HIS SON.
Michael Franzese: Law
enforcement said he killed
at least 30 people, back
then, now I think it's 60,
but as far as a
dad, he was dad for me.
I loved him.
I idolized my dad.
He was everything
that I thought a man's
man should be.
Every child wants a
reason to love their parents.
You have to give them
strong reasons not to love
their parents and
I don't have any reason
not to love mine,
regardless of anything.
The word gets out on
the street I'm becoming a
target of law enforcement
and all of the sudden the
two Franzeses together,
the son is making tons
of money, guys
start to think about it.
You know,
a double-edged sword.
Even my own father.
I was told he
put a contract on me.
NARRATOR: BY
THE EARLY 1980S,
COLOMBO CAPTAIN
MICHAEL FRANZESE'S SUCCESS
IN GAS TAX SCAMS
HAS EARNED HIM AND THE
COLOMBO FAMILY MILLIONS.
BUT IN THE AMERICAN
MOB, SUCCESS CAN BE AS
DANGEROUS AS FAILURE,
ESPECIALLY IF THE MOB
THINKS YOU'RE
SKIMMING THE TAKE.
SO WHEN MICHAEL'S FATHER,
THE LEGENDARY GANGSTER
SONNY FRANZESE, CALLS
HIM, HE STARTS TO SWEAT.
Michael Franzese:
One night I get uh,
a call from my dad and
he said, "I gotta see ya."
I said, "Okay."
He was on parole
so I go to his house.
How ya doin, Pop?
We're in the driveway
of his house and he said,
"Uh Junior wants
to see us tonight."
I said, "Okay, what
time do you want me
to pick you up?"
He said, "Well, they
want to do this differently,
they want me to
come in first and they
want you to
come in second."
I said,
"Why would we do that?"
He says, "Well
this is what they want."
I said, "We're
not gonna do that, dad."
You're crazy
if you're gonna do it.
I'm not doing it.
Finally, I remember,
I threw my hands up,
we're in the drive way.
I said, "Alright Dad,
I've been listening to you
all my life," and I
said, "I don't like it but
if this is what
you want we'll do it."
So I leave and then Jimmy
Angelina calls me and he
tells me to meet
him on uh, on 18th Avenue.
Jimmy was a
captain too at the time,
I knew
Jimmy all my life.
I get in the car and
there's a guy sitting in
the back that
I didn't know and
uh he don't
introduce me.
And um, you know
at that point I was just
really thinking
something's really bad here.
It was a house in
Brooklyn that we were going to.
I get out of the
car and I start walking.
And Jimmy
gets behind me.
And the other
guy is behind him.
Now this
is bad set up.
And I'll be
honest with you,
I was getting
really nervous.
I wasn't a religious
guy anyway but I started
to pray because I
really thought that I'm dead.
Look, I been in
the life quite a while.
I know that you get
walked into a room by your
best friend, you
don't walk out again.
So um, door
opens, I get in there.
A couple of the
guys are there and um,
they start grilling me
about the gas business and
the money and
all of this and that
and everything else.
And they're trying
to make an impression
on me that you know
I'm still the boss,
don't think you can
get away with anything.
Without saying
it, they said it.
I got it.
NARRATOR:
THE MEETING ENDS AND
TO FRANZESE'S
SURPRISE, HE'S STILL ALIVE.
Michael Franzese:
So now Jimmy's gonna
drive me back.
I said
goodbye to everybody.
We get in the car.
I'm ready to
really open up on him.
I was really
upset with him.
He didn't
tell me anything.
So I get in
the car and I say,
"I know
you all my life.
You don't
prepare me?
You don't tell me
anything that's going on?"
And uh, he said,
"I'm gonna tell you
something Michael."
He says, "You're
father was in there
before you tonight.
He didn't
help you one bit.
You were on
your own in there."
And it really
affected me in a bad way.
And I said, "Man, I can't
trust my own father here."
I kind of felt
the walls closing in on
me at that point.
He threw me
under the bus in that
he didn't defend me.
And that's almost as bad
as indicting me, you know?
As saying,
"He did it."
And I said,
"This money that I'm making,
what do I do?"
"Do I stop?"
This is like a
double-edged sword for me.
And um, I, I
didn't have an answer.
I didn't
have a solution.
And I said, "I'm
just going to keep
doing what I'm doing."
NARRATOR: WHILE COLOMBO
CAPTAIN MICHAEL FRANZESE
STRUGGLES WITH
THE CONSEQUENCES OF HIS
GAS SCAM,
ACROSS TOWN IN BROOKLYN,
UNDERCOVER AGENT JOE
PISTONE IS ABOUT TO BECOME
AN OFFICIAL MEMBER
OF THE BONANNO FAMILY,
AN ORGANIZATION WHO
MAKE THEIR MONEY NOT
JUST FROM EXTORTION AND
LOANSHARKING, BUT DRUGS.
UNDER THE
ALIAS "DONNIE BRASCO,"
HE'S PENETRATED THE
ORGANIZATION DEEPER THAN
ANY LAW ENFORCEMENT
OFFICER IN HISTORY.
HE'S ABOUT TO BECOME
A MADE MAN, BUT FIRST,
TO PROVE HIMSELF,
HE MUST KILL.
Joe Pistone:
When I was told,
you got the contract
to kill Bruno Indelicato,
I accepted it
because what am I gonna say?
No, I don't
want to do it?
I can't do it?
But we had a plan
in place, you know.
Sonny sent me
looking for him.
Sonny Black:
Come on, take a walk.
Joe Pistone: If I
spotted him I called the FBI
and they come and snatch
him and we'd stage a hit.
Or if they found
him, they'd snatch him
and we'd
stage a hit.
Selwyn Raab:
The FBI is faced with
an incredible dilemma.
What are
they gonna do if
Joe Pistone,
AKA Donnie Brasco,
is asked to
go along on a hit?
That's a no-no.
They can't do it.
But will
it blow his cover?
And the slightest
suspicion could lead to
Donnie Brasco's death.
NARRATOR: SO THE
FBI MAKES A DECISION.
James Kossler: Joe was
not allowed to become a
member of
La Cosa Nostra.
The bureau decided
that would not be in
the best interest
of him or the bureau,
um and so we
pulled him out of there.
NARRATOR: AFTER SIX
LONG YEARS UNDER COVER,
THE FEDS PULL PISTONE
FROM THE STREETS
AND SHUTTER
OPERATION DONNIE BRASCO.
NOW IT'S TIME TO LET
THE MOB KNOW THE TRUTH.
Joe Pistone: When the
operation was gonna be
closed down we had a
meeting with three agents
and uh, one of
them knew Sonny Black.
So what I did was
I took a picture with
these guys with
my credentials and uh,
the agents went
to Sonny Black
[knocking sound]
and they showed him a
photograph of myself and
the guys, uh,
and they said,
"You know Sonny,
we just want you to
know that uh this guy
you know as
Donnie Brasco is really
Special Agent
Joseph D. Pistone
of the FBI.
He's been working
undercover for six years."
And what Sonny said was,
"Well, I don't know.
If I see
him I'll know."
And that was it.
Then they
told him that,
"Sonny, once this comes
out you're better off coming
with us 'cause you know
you're gonna get killed."
And he just told them,
"Look, I don't believe it,"
and he just
shrugged it off.
And that was it.
And they left.
And he calls Lefty,
calls the other guys in
the crew, they all
go to the Motion Lounge.
Sonny Black:
The Feds were just here.
They say Donnie's FBI.
Joe Pistone: And he
tells 'em what happened.
In the beginning Lefty
couldn't believe it either.
Lefty couldn't
believe that I was
an undercover agent.
When he found out
I can't say here on
camera what
his response was.
It wasn't good,
it wasn't good.
NARRATOR: WORD SPREADS
IN THE STREETS BONANNO
ASSOCIATE DONNIE BRASCO
IS ACTUALLY A FEDERAL AGENT,
AN INFILTRATION
THAT WILL SOON SHATTER
THE AMERICAN MOB.
INFILTRATING THE
BONANNO FAMILY TO ITS CORE.
BUT AFTER SIX
YEARS UNDERCOVER,
THE FEDS PULLS HIM
OUT BEFORE HE MUST KILL
SOMEONE OR
GET KILLED HIMSELF.
AND THE NEWS QUICKLY
SPREADS IN THE STREETS
THAT THE WISE GUY
KNOWN AS DONNIE BRASCO.
Sonny Black:
They say Donnie's FBI.
NARRATOR: ISN'T
WHAT HE APPEARS TO BE.
Michael Franzese: I
remember meeting Donnie Brasco,
Joe Pistone, with Lefty.
We didn't
have any business,
it was hello and
goodbye, he was there,
there was
nothing more discussed.
But when we found out what
happened and it was common
knowledge on the street
that he was an informant
FBI agent, it was
pretty shocking because they,
he was almost
straightened out.
He had
gotten that far.
Joe Pistone: And then
what happened once they found
out it was me, uh,
the Commission got together
and the
Commission put together a
$500,000
contract out on me.
NARRATOR: PISTONE
GETS OUT OF NEW YORK FAST,
HIDING OUT IN
FBI HEADQUARTERS IN
WASHINGTON, DC.
BUT WITHIN THE MOB THOSE
WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR
DONNIE BRASCO'S
RISE MUST PAY THE PRICE.
Joe Pistone: Sonny
had to fess up to all
the bosses
what had happened.
So he gets a
call to go to a sit down.
He walks into
the Motion Lounge.
Bartender:
Hey, Sonny.
Joe Pistone: And
tells the bartender,
I just got called
to a sit down and
he gives him his ring,
gives him his money,
gives him his keys except
his car keys and he calls
his girlfriend and says,
"They tell me Donnie
was an undercover agent,
I didn't believe it,
now I believe it."
If you ever see
Donnie tell him I'm
glad it was him.
So he goes
to the sit down.
And the next
thing they know is
Sonny Black is gone.
Lefty was on his
way to get killed and
surveillance team
snatched him up because
they heard that you
know when he gets here
we're gonna
kill him, whack him.
NARRATOR:
A YEAR LATER,
LAW ENFORCEMENT
MAKES A GRUESOME DISCOVERY.
Joe Pistone: They
found Sonny's body in '82
in a body bag with
his hands cut off.
And the reason that they
did that was he introduced
me to bosses
that I shook hands with.
Did I want
to see him die?
No, I mean look,
you know, that's not my job.
My job is to
gather evidence to
put you in jail.
Lefty, he spends
his 15, 18 years in the
can doesn't say a word.
'Cause they
took that oath and
they believed
in that oath.
They took
that oath and
they believed
in that oath.
NARRATOR: BUT
PISTONE'S NOT THE ONLY
ONE CHOOSING A NEW PATH.
ACROSS TOWN,
MICHAEL FRANZESE,
A CAPTAIN AND TOP EARNER
IN THE COLOMBO FAMILY,
IS BECOMING DISILLUSIONED
WITH HIS WAY OF LIFE.
BUT THAT'S THE
LEAST OF HIS TROUBLES,
LAW ENFORCEMENT'S
CLOSING IN.
Michael Franzese:
I started to feel the
pressure in the early
80s and the government uh
opened my eyes to
it and that they had
a major undercover
operation on me,
on this gasoline
case and everything else.
Rudolph Giuliani: It would
seem that Michael Franzese
is unfortunately
following in the footsteps
of his father.
Michael Franzese:
The FBI can allege and
say whatever they like.
They've been doing
it for many, many years.
Edward McDonald: Well,
the FBI identified him
as a
significant target.
Informants were
providing information to
the FBI about this
up and coming, um, you know,
sophisticated gangster.
So the FBI came to us
and said that they wanted
to bring a
case against him.
Michael Franzese:
I got a visit uh in my uh
offices out in Long
Island from two FBI agents.
And they came in
to see me and they said,
"We need
to talk to you."
I said,
"What do you want?"
They said, "Listen,
tell us what you're doing
and we'll
give you a pass."
Yeah, right.
And I said, "Well,
I don't know what
you're talking
about with gas."
You know?
So I knew, and said,
"This is not good."
I mean I really got
their attention now.
Edward McDonald:
We gathered evidence,
primarily from
cooperating witnesses and
when he was faced
with a lengthy trial and
the prospect of getting
a very lengthy sentence.
Michael Franzese:
People were being convicted,
100 years, 150 years,
I said, they're gonna
give me 1,000 years
if I go down on this.
Edward McDonald: He
decided to plead guilty
and to make restitution
payments of ten million
dollars, which he
pretty much defaulted on.
News Reporter:
Michael Franzese indicted on
28 counts of racketeering,
fraud and extortion.
Michael Franzese:
I had made two very bad
decisions in my life.
I trusted my father,
look where it got me.
I surrendered my
life to La Cosa Nostra
and look
where it got me.
I got death threats,
hits all over me,
the FBI hates me,
everybody on the street
hates me,
my father disowned me.
I don't have a
friend in the world.
I'm gonna spend the
rest of my life in a
6 x 8 cell.
And it was the first
and only time in my life
that I, I
really felt hopeless.
Edward McDonald: Then
he kind of shocked us,
because he came forward
and agreed to cooperate.
And based on the
cooperation he provided,
he did get his
sentenced reduced.
Michael Franzese:
I got 4 years on a parole
violation and I spent
35 months and 13 more
days in prison, 29 months
and 7 days in the hole.
And during that
time is when I, um,
strengthened
my faith and um,
started to
read the Bible.
NARRATOR: BUT
FRANZESE GETS OUT AND
LIVES TO TELL THE TALE.
Michael Franzese:
Do I find it surprising
that I'm alive?
I feel I'm the
most blessed guy
walking the streets.
What should
my fate have been?
I should either be
dead or in prison
for the
rest of my life.
NARRATOR: THE SON WHO
ONCE FOLLOWED HIS GANGSTER
FATHER BLINDLY INTO
THE LIFE NOW WALKS AWAY
FROM THE MOB
FOREVER, UNSCATHED.
Edward McDonald:
I cannot explain how
Michael Franzese was
able to do what he did.
The only
speculation we have
is that he
paid his way out.
Somehow he was able to
persuade people in the
Colombo crime family
not to do anything to him.
Michael Franzese: Really,
the only way that ends is
when you end and
you're in a coffin, it's over.
NARRATOR: HOW
MICHAEL FRANZESE
GOT OUT OF THE
AMERICAN MOB WITH
HIS LIFE REMAINS A
MYSTERY TO THIS DAY.
BUT THE WORST
DEEDS OF FRANZESE'S
PAST STILL HAUNT HIM.
ESPECIALLY THE
MURDER OF A CLOSE FRIEND,
"CHAMPAGNE"
LARRY CARROZZA.
Michael Franzese:
Larry Carrozza was someone
very close to me.
I mean the kid
loved me and I loved him.
I baptized his kids.
He baptized
my daughter.
Unbeknownst to
me, he was having
an affair
with my sister.
I was brought in
and it was told to me
that this is
what was going on.
Man: The word
is on the street.
NARRATOR: NO ONE
MESSES WITH MOB WOMEN.
THOSE WHO DO
PAY A HEAVY PENALTY.
Michael Franzese: I was
told he disrespect you
and he disrespected
your father and that's
something that uh,
we don't stand for in
this life and I said,
"But you know,
he's not a made guy."
Stupid.
And how do we know
what really happened and
let me talk to
my sister," and "Nope.
You want to take care of
it, you take care of it.
If not, we'll
take care of it."
And I said,
"I don't wanna do it."
I says, "The guy's
too close to me."
NARRATOR: LARRY
CARROZZA'S BODY IS
FOUND NEAR HIS CAR.
HE IS SHOT A SINGLE
TIME BEHIND THE EAR.
Michael Franzese:
His murder, that's probably
something that
uh has been the
heaviest on my heart.
NARRATOR: THESE DAYS
IT'S FAITH THAT HELPS
FRANZESE COPE WITH
THE DARKNESS OF HIS PAST.
Michael Franzese:
Guys, be honest.
You don't come to
church but you figure,
"Hey, Sopranos is
off the air, let me go
see what the real mob
guy is all about, right?"
[laughter].
Michael Franzese:
That's your only interest.
What I did, I
did and that's it.
As Christians, we happen
to believe that we can be
forgiven for what
we've done in the past.
So I believe with
all my heart that
I've been forgiven.
NARRATOR: A LINE
THAT'S HARD FOR A LOT
OF PEOPLE TO SWALLOW.
Michael Franzese:
People can say it's a
phoney thing and
it's a scam and you know
fortunately, in the end,
they're not gonna be
the ones that judge me.
But I can't fool
God, [laughs] you know?
God bless you all.
Host: Thank Michael
Franzese, thank you.
NARRATOR: MICHAEL FRANZESE
IS OUT OF THE LIFE TODAY,
BUT HIS FATHER
SONNY NEVER WALKED AWAY.
Michael Franzese: You
know, my dad's 96 years old.
He's the oldest
living mob guy in America.
I think he's part
of this life 66 or 67
years ago
he took the oath.
Edward McDonald: He
just recently was convicted
at the age of 96,
I think he was convicted
on racketeering
charges and was incarcerated
again, uh, was
active until the age of 96
and it's
absolutely amazing.
Michael Franzese: He is
a treasure trove of mob
stories, if you can get
him to talk about them.
NARRATOR: SONNY
FRANZESE IS A LAST HOLD-OVER
FROM THE GOLDEN AGE
OF THE AMERICAN MOB,
AN ERA THAT ENDS WITH
THE SUCCESS OF OPERATION
DONNIE BRASCO, THE
HISTORIC INFILTRATION OF
THE BONANNO FAMILY
BY UNDERCOVER AGENT
JOE PISTONE.
Michael Chertoff:
Up until 1970,
all you could do
with the mafia is,
like you know men with
their eyes closed trying
to feel an elephant.
You would get a
little piece of it,
but all you could prove
was someone who actually
committed a
particular crime.
Joe Pistone
did something unique,
which is he
infiltrated the Bonanno Family,
the organized
crime family,
with such success
that he was on the verge
of being
made as a member.
In doing that not
only did he collect direct
evidence of crimes
against the Bonanno Family,
but he was able
to talk knowledgeably
about the structure
of the whole mafia.
Joe Pistone: This
undercover case was
the beginning of the
unravelling of the mafia
in America as we
knew it, as it once was.
NARRATOR: ALL IN ALL,
THE INFORMATION PISTONE
PROVIDES LAW
ENFORCEMENT LEADS TO OVER 200
INDICTMENTS AND MORE
THAN 100 CONVICTIONS
OF MAJOR MOB FIGURES.
BUT IT IS ONLY
THE BEGINNING OF THE
GOVERNMENT'S
ALL OUT ASSAULT ON
THE AMERICAN MOB.
James Kossler:
Joe Pistone's role as
Donnie Brasco
was historic in the FBI.
Historic in
law enforcement.
Rudolph Giuliani:
Pistone broke the
confidence of the mafia.
He broke the
mystique that you
couldn't
infiltrate the mafia.
That mystique was very,
very important in getting
people to cooperate,
'cause now all of a sudden
it isn't this
impregnable organization
that nobody's
ever penetrated.
Steve Salmieri:
Joe Pistone and his case,
was the perfect
storm for organized crime.
Joe Pistone: We, we
kicked the (bleep) out of them.
We really did.
NARRATOR: BUT THE
AMERICAN MOB STILL HAS
ENORMOUS POWER
IN NEW YORK CITY AND
AROUND THE
COUNTRY IN THE 1980'S.
Leonetti: You always
have to use your brain
and you always
have to use the gun.
NARRATOR: IN CITIES
LIKE PHILADELPHIA,
HOME TO THE MOST
VIOLENT MOB FAMILIES IN
THE UNITED STATES.
Leonetti: We live by
our own set of rules.
NARRATOR: AND A
MAJOR BATTLEGROUND IN
LAW ENFORCEMENT'S WAR TO
END THE RULE OF COSA NOSTRA.
Pichini: His reign
becomes a reign of terror.
Nick Scarfo: I invoke
my right and decline to
answer the question.
Leonetti: We got
away with murder.
[gunshots].
70s we were all wannabes,
we did the grunt work
for the mob bosses or
the upper
echelon mob guys.
And those mobsters
had power in those days.
If they gave you an
assignment you couldn't
refuse and
you had to do it.
Francis Lewis Boulevard.
Walk into the
bank, real quiet.
Bank Robber:
Everybody down!
Bank Robber 2:
Everybody down!
Hit the floor!
[screams].
Salvatore Polsi:
I run into the bank and
vault right over
the top of the counter.
And yell, "Back up!"
And all the
tellers back up.
And I go into
each drawer and
start scooping
the money out.
My favorite trademark
was to carry a bag with me,
I'd have two bags in my
pockets and they would be
little plastic bags and
it said, "I Love New York."
I noticed every
head teller would have
a key chain with keys.
And I said to
the head teller,
"Into the vault!"
"Let's go,
into the vault.
Right now, go!"
And she hesitated
and she began to urinate
on the floor
right in front of me.
Now I kind of felt bad
that I made her do that,
but I, I don't have time
for this, "To the vault!"
She went to the vault,
she opened up the door,
she opened up a
couple of drawers,
grabbed a whole
bunch of stacks of money.
We got into the car, we
got back to the safe house
and we dumped all
the money on the bed.
That was like one
of the fun moments,
dumping the
money on the bed.
So I always robbed the
banks with the same bag,
"I Love New York," bag.
Eventually when I got
busted they had reports
and they said, "We know
how many banks you did,
you always carried
that little white bag,"
you know.
It was a
trademark of a criminal!
I just couldn't get
away from it, you know!
NARRATOR: IT'S 1978
AND THE UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT IS AT WAR
WITH A HIDDEN EMPIRE.
Newswoman: Mob warfare is
on the rise all across the
streets of
New York City.
In Brooklyn, a
low-level mobster is
shot dead in
broad daylight.
NARRATOR: A NETWORK
OF GANGSTERS WHO LiVE BY
A CODE OF CRIME,
VIOLENCE AND POWER.
IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS
STRUGGLE ARE TWO MEN,
MICHAEL FRANZESE,
A MADE MAN IN THE COLOMBO
CRIME FAMILY;
THE OTHER JOE PISTONE,
AN UNDERCOVER FBI AGENT,
BOTH TRYING TO CLIMB THE
LADDER AND SURVIVE
IN THE AMERICAN MOB.
THEY, ALONG WITH THEIR
COMPATRIOTS ON BOTH SIDES
OF THE LAW, ARE WITNESSES
TO THIS SECRET HISTORY,
STEPPING FORWARD
NOW TO TELL THEIR
STORIES FIRST HAND.
A FEW STAY IN THE SHADOWS
FOR REASONS OF PERSONAL
SAFETY, FEARING A CRIMINAL
ORGANIZATION THAT REIGNED
UNCHALLENGED IN THE UNITED
STATES UNTIL RECENT TIMES.
AND IN THE 1970S
THEY WERE UNTOUCHABLE.
John Marks: What was
the view on organized
crime when you
joined the Bureau?
Steve Salmieri:
Back then it was a
very closed society.
Organized crime
knew what police could
or couldn't do.
Jim Walden: There were
crews within families
that were
literally untouched, uh,
by law
enforcement for decades.
NARRATOR: IN 1978,
FIVE CRIME FAMILIES RULE
NEW YORK CITY
AND THROUGH IT,
MOST OF THE COUNTRY.
THE FAMILIES GO BY THE
NAMES OF THEIR BEST KNOWN
LEADERS: GAMBINO,
COLOMBO, BONANNO,
GENOVESE AND LUCCHESE.
RIGHT IN THEIR MIDST
HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT IS
AN UNDERCOVER
AGENT NAMED JOE PISTONE.
HE'S BEEN LIVING AMONG
THE COLOMBO FAMILY FOR THE
LAST YEAR UNDER
THE ALIAS DONNIE BRASCO.
Joe Pistone:
When I first started,
the FBI didn't think
there was a mafia.
[laughs].
NARRATOR: PISTONE LEAVES
THE COLOMBO FAMILY LOOKING
FOR A DEEPER WAY INTO THE
AMERICAN MOB AND NOW HE'S
GOT A SHOT AT
INFILTRATING ANOTHER OF
THE FIVE FAMILIES,
THE BONANNOS.
Edward McDonald: The
Bonanno family controlled
gambling and loansharking
back in the day but those
days were over and
they had to find other
ways of making money.
Jim Walden: The Bonanno
family can be fairly
characterized as
ground breakers when it came
to drug trafficking.
Fat Sal Colombo:
They would smoke drugs,
rob drug dealers
and they were wild guys.
Jim Walden: The
Bonanno's were really,
at this period
of time, the worst.
NARRATOR: NOW FOR THE
FIRST TIME IN HISTORY,
THANKS TO A SINGLE
UNDERCOVER AGENT,
THE FBI HAS A
SHOT AT TAKING DOWN
AN ENTIRE FAMILY.
Joseph Coffey:
Joe Pistone was an FBI agent
who was pretty
effective as an undercover.
And he was recruited
by the FBI to get into the
Bonanno family, which
he did by going to a going
to a guy named
Lefty Guns Ruggiero.
Joe Pistone: Lefty
was a, a 24/7 gangster.
He grew up in the life.
He had relatives
that were in the life.
He was a tough
guy to be around.
Selwyn Raab: If you were
in Joe Pistone's shoes,
you had to know that
every second that you were
dealing with these
mafia guys might be
your last
moment on earth.
One mistake,
the slightest error,
you're through.
They never
hesitate to kill.
Joe Pistone: When
you're with these guys
you have to blend in.
They have to, you
have to be believable.
James Kossler: He had
convinced them that he
was a very adequate
and very good jewel thief.
Joe Pistone: I would
bring around some diamonds,
I'd bring around
watches you know,
all stuff that
was confiscated
by the
federal government.
After a while,
Lefty really becomes
comfortable with me.
And he'd be telling
me about who's the boss
of this family,
the boss of that family.
I'm gathering great
intelligence information.
He's like an
encyclopedia of the mob.
Rudolph Giuliani:
Law enforcement work
requires infiltration.
You cannot do all of
it through wiretaps.
You can't do all
of it through, uh,
through
telephone intercepts.
You can't do all
of it through bugs.
Because you don't
know what to wiretap.
Lefty Ruggiero: What
happened last night?
Donnie Brasco: What?
I called, you
weren't out there.
I talked to Sonny.
I called the house,
nobody answered.
Lefty Ruggiero: Let
me tell you something,
Donnie, the man
never told me nothing.
He's playing
games with me.
He knows that I'm.
Selwyn Raab: It's a
real goldmine for the FBI.
Now they have an
agent who is really in
the middle of
a mafia family.
NARRATOR:
SOON PISTONE,
UNDER THE ALIAS
DONNIE BRASCO
AND RUGGIERO HATCH
A SCHEME TOGETHER.
Joe Pistone: Lefty always
said he was interested in
expanding out of New York.
NARRATOR:
FORTUNATELY, THE FBI'S
ALREADY GOT
A GREAT FRONT.
AN UNDERCOVER
OPERATION IN A FLORIDA
NIGHTCLUB CALLED
THE KING'S COURT.
Joe Pistone: So we had
a night club going in
Florida and because
he knew that I was
the kind of guy
that could be trusted,
he put me
in charge there.
NARRATOR: ANOTHER FBI
AGENT, STEVE SALMIERI,
IS ALREADY WORKING
UNDERCOVER IN THE CLUB.
Steve Salmieri:
The club was set up
because this was a
venue they could have and
they could see that
the money could be made.
So Joe came down
and, uh, you know,
it really solidified him
with the Bonanno family.
NARRATOR: THAT NIGHT
CLUB BECOMES THE BAIT THAT
LURES LEFTY AND
THE BONANNOS INTO A TRAP.
Joe Pistone: Our
operation was confined
to a very limited
number of individuals.
So agents would be
taking photographs,
they're taking
pictures you know,
on surveillance and I'm
on a lot of the surveillance
and the agents didn't
know Donnie Brasco
was really
an FBI agent.
NARRATOR: OPERATION
DONNIE BRASCO IS GARNERING
RESULTS IN FLORIDA.
BUT BACK IN NEW YORK A
MAFIA POWER STRUGGLE IS
ABOUT TO CHANGE
THE GAME DRAMATICALLY
FOR JOE PISTONE.
THE PROBLEM: AN
AMBITIOUS BONANNO BOSS
NAMED CARMINE GALANTE.
News Reporter:
Galante looked more like
a grandfather than a
godfather as he walked
his dog each morning
in Greenwich Village.
But his real
interests embrace gambling,
prostitution,
loansharking and most of all,
heroin and other drugs.
Edward McDonald:
Carmine Galante,
who got out of
prison after a long prison
sentence for narcotics
trafficking tried to
muscle in and
take control over the
Bonanno crime family.
Joe Pistone: He
controlled all the
importation of
drugs into the US.
And Galante wouldn't
share any of this with
any of the
other families.
NARRATOR: SHARING IS
A GOLDEN RULE AMONG THE
MAFIA'S FIVE FAMILIES
AND BOSSES WHO DON'T
SHARE GET IN TROUBLE
WITH THE COMMISSION,
THE GOVERNING BOARD OF
THE MAFIA WHICH HOLDS THE
POWER OF LIFE AND DEATH
OVER ALL OTHER MOBSTERS,
INCLUDING UPSTART BOSSES.
Joe Pistone: So the
other families got together
and they
decided he's got to go.
He's gotta go.
Michael Chertoff:
Carmine Galante,
he's a regular
patron at a restaurant in
Brooklyn called Joe
and Mary's Restaurant.
And he goes sit out
in the in the patio in
the back with
his bodyguards.
Joseph Coffey: It was
August, hot summer day.
Just sitting there,
he's having pasta with
his friends, they're
holding a conversation.
Michael Chertoff: Car
pulls up in front of the
restaurant and there
are four people in the car.
One is the driver
who stays with the car.
The other three go
through the restaurant,
they know exactly
where Galante's gonna be.
Joseph Coffey:
He sits there,
puts a cigar
in his mouth.
Michael Chertoff:
They walk into the patio.
[gunshots]
Joseph Coffey: They
blow him over the chair
into the tomato patch.
News Reporter: Galante
was having lunch in the
courtyard of an Italian
restaurant in Brooklyn
when 5 men entered with
automatic rifles and
shotguns
and opened fire.
Reporter: Did your
uncle say who he was
gonna eat
lunch with today?
Man: No, no, he stopped
every day for coffee.
Reporter: He stopped
in here every day?
Man: He don't
know nothing.
Joseph Coffey: When I get
there they body's still
there because I get there
pretty quick and there's
one laying in the
tomato patch with a cigar
in his mouth and a
Zippo lighter in his hand.
I look at it,
it's Carmine Galante.
It was an iconic
picture because
it went all
over the world.
My friends in Washington
said Joe Coffey put that
cigar in his mouth
'cause they, you know,
I had a sense of humor,
so did he and of course
I didn't do it but I
let everybody think I did.
NARRATOR: DOWN IN
FLORIDA JOE PISTONE GETS
A CALL FROM NEW YORK.
Joe Pistone: I was in
Florida looking out after
the club down there
and I called Lefty because
I had to call
him every day.
He says, "Have you
seen the New York papers?"
And I said I
haven't seen 'em yet.
He said, "Well go
buy the New York papers
then call me back."
I buy the New York paper
and there's the picture.
I knew from Lefty that
Galante didn't have a lot
of admirers, but I never
had any indication that
they were
gonna kill him.
So I call him back and
I said I got the paper,
he said,
"You read it?"
I said, "Yeah."
He said, "Well
things are gonna change."
"They killed Galante,
they want you to
come back to New York."
NARRATOR:
GALANTE'S EXECUTION
SHAKES UP THE
BONANNO FAMILY.
IN THE UNSTABLE NEW ORDER,
IMPRISONED MOBSTER NAMED
RUSTY RASTELLI BECOMES
THE BOSS AND A HARD
CASE NAMED SONNY
BLACK BECOMES A CAPTAIN.
LEFTY GETS REASSIGNED
TO WORK UNDER SONNY BLACK
AND ALONG FOR THE
RIDE IS DONNIE BRASCO.
Selwyn Raab:
Pistone is a godsend.
He's more
than just a wannabe.
He's got Lefty Ruggiero
on his side who's bringing
him in to meet Capos
like Sonny Black Napolitano.
Joe Pistone: Sonny
Black was a tough guy,
but you can
joke with him.
Plus he wanted to
keep earning money and
the undercover
operation we had in Florida,
he made
a lot of money.
NARRATOR: PISTONE NOW
GETS CLOSE TO SONNY BLACK,
WHO'S FORTUNES IN THE
BONANNO FAMILY ARE RISING,
THANKS IN PART
TO THE FLORIDA CLUB.
Selwyn Raab: He's
inside a capo's counsel!
A capo is talking to
him, dealing with him,
telling him secrets.
He's at third base.
Joe Pistone:
I like Sonny Black.
I mean, how could
you have comfortable
conversation with him, uh,
if you really don't like him?
You know, I used to
spend a lot of time with him
and I used to
sleep at his apartment.
I can remember telling
this story my FBI superiors
and they
couldn't believe it.
I mean, you know,
he slept in the bedroom,
I slept on his couch,
we'd get up in the morning
and we'd sit
around in our underwear.
And here's me,
an undercover FBI agent
and one of the most
powerful captains of the
Bonanno family sitting
there drinking coffee,
having a hard roll
with butter and watching
cartoons on television.
You never see
that in the movies.
NARRATOR: BUT
THAT FRIENDSHIP WITH
SONNY BLACK IS
ABOUT TO LEAD PISTONE
STRAIGHT TO
COLD BLOODED MURDER.
Both: [laughing].
NARRATOR: BY 1979,
FBI UNDERCOVER AGENT
JOE PISTONE HAS
ACHIEVED SOMETHING NO FED
HAD EVER DONE,
PENETRATING ONE OF THE
MOB'S MOST
NOTORIOUS FAMILIES,
THE BONANNO FAMILY.
THE KEY TO HIS SUCCESS,
A POWERFUL BONANNO CAPTAIN
NAMED SONNY BLACK.
Joe Pistone: The
relationship with Sonny
really
propelled the operation.
Because Sonny
really becomes
comfortable with me.
Sonny and Lefty would
have conversations and
not cut me out.
They'd tell me
about what's going on.
Edward McDonald:
After the execution
of Carmine Galante,
three capos of
the Bonanno crime family
tried to muscle
in and take control
over the family.
Selwyn Raab:
And it's open warfare.
They're looking
to kill each other.
Joe Pistone: Three
captains wanted to
take over the family.
Sonny "Red" Indelicato,
Phil "Lucky" Giaccone
and Dominick Trinchera.
Sonny Black and uh,
Joey Massino call a
sit down to iron out
their differences.
NARRATOR: BUT THERE
IS NO IRONING OUT
THESE DIFFERENCES.
IT'S ALL ABOUT POWER.
Edward McDonald: What was
supposed to be a sit down,
was a trap, an ambush.
Joe Massino was there.
He tackles, uh,
Sonny "Red" Indelicato.
Shoots him in the head.
The other two
capos are also killed.
NARRATOR: THE THREE
RENEGADE CAPOS ARE DEAD,
BUT THERE'S
A LOOSE END.
Steve Salmieri: Sonny's
crew killed Sonny Red
and that
pissed people.
So they were
looking to kill each other
and Joe's
in the middle.
NARRATOR: WHAT FOLLOWS
IS A CONVERSATION
THAT NO FBI AGENT
HAS EVER HAD BEFORE,
PROOF POSITIVE
THAT JOE PISTONE
HAS PULLED
OFF ONE OF THE GREATEST
DECEPTIONS IN
LAW ENFORCEMENT HISTORY,
SONNY BLACK INVITES
HIM TO JOIN THE CLUB.
Joe Pistone: Sonny
tells me, you know,
"I already proposed
you for membership
in the family."
"You're gonna
get made in December."
He tells me, you know,
"We took care of those guys."
He said,
"One got away."
And I said "Who?"
He says,
"Bruno Indelicato."
He said, "I'm giving
you the contract to
get Bruno Indelicato."
Now, as an FBI agent,
you can't get involved
in acts of violence,
unless you're protecting
yourself or
protecting a citizen.
And one of the rules in
mafia is that when you get
a contract, if you
turn it down you're
gonna get killed.
So, when I was told,
"You got the contract to
kill Bruno Indelicato,"
I said, "Okay, Sonny,
where do
you think he is?"
Sonny Black:
Come on, take a walk.
NARRATOR: THE HUNT IS
ON FOR BRUNO INDELICATO.
IF PISTONE
FINDS AND KILLS HIM,
HE'S GOING TO
BECOME A MADE MAN,
EARNING HIS PLACE IN THE
BONANNO FAMILY WITH BLOOD.
BUT OVER IN
THE COLOMBO FAMILY,
MICHAEL FRANZESE
IS EARNING HIS PLACE
WITH COLD HARD CASH.
John Marks: Did you
ever have a nickname?
Michael Franzese:
You know, not till
later on when the
media tagged me as being
the Yuppie Don,
which I hated.
But, uh, nobody would
call me that to my face.
I tell 'em,
"Don't ever say that to me,
I don't like
it," you know?
It reminded me of
California and all these
kind of weird
guys out there in suits.
Selwyn Raab:
Michael Franzese was an
immense earner for
the Colombo family.
And a guy who
knew how to really deal
with modern
day capitalism.
He was a new breed.
Michael Franzese: All
right, fellas, let's go.
Reporter: This handsome,
young mafia prince from
New York is
Michael Franzese,
son of legendary
mafia godfather.
Edward McDonald:
Michael Franzese's father
was Sonny Franzese.
He was a legendary
figure in the world of
organized crime,
very powerful figure
in the
Colombo crime family.
Michael Franzese:
You know, my dad he
just had that
presence about him
that people just
really treated him well.
And that's, you know,
for a young guy looking
up to your father
that's who I want to emulate.
That's how I
want to be in my life.
NARRATOR: AND ONE WAY
FRANZESE HOPES TO MAKE
MONEY IS CLASSIC MOB:
THROUGH THE LABOR UNIONS.
Michael Franzese:
I had some very
lucrative
situations with unions.
One of them, in a, a major
contracting construction
job with a major
developer in, um, in Queens.
And this is a major job,
it was the biggest co-op
conversion in the
country at that time.
And one of the
guys in there, uh,
happened to be the
brother of a girl that
I was dating
at one time.
And he got in touch
with me and he said,
"Mike, I've got this
job," and he said,
"The union is really
harping on us," he said,
"You think
you can help out?"
I said yeah.
So um, I go and
meet the labor union guy.
And I said, "You realized
what we got here, right?"
"Biggest job
in the country."
I said,
"Let's work this thing."
And he said, "Great."
So we made a deal to
keep the union out of there
and we charged
the developer so much
for every
apartment that he converted.
We hired all the trades,
we did everything and we
made a ton of
money both legitimately
and through the unions.
And we whacked
it up among everybody.
John Marks: Can
I ask you, the term
"whack it up," is that
the same as "kick it up?"
Michael Franzese:
Whack it up, divide it up,
cut it up, share it,
yeah, that's a street term.
You never
said share it.
It's whack.
Whack has different
forms of uh, different uses,
I would say.
NARRATOR: FRANZESE
IS PART OF A NEW GENERATION
OF GANGSTERS RISING UP
THROUGH THE RANKS OF THE
AMERICAN MOB
IN THE LATE 1970S.
ANOTHER ONE IS A
GUY NAMED JOHN GOTTI,
A SMALL TIME HOOD FROM
QUEENS LOOKING TO MAKE A
NAME FOR HIMSELF
AND LATCH ON TO ONE
OF THE FIVE FAMILIES.
Joseph Coffey: I
was involved in various
investigations of
John Gotti through the years,
from the time
when he was a nothing guy.
Salvatore Polsi:
In the '70s, we were
all wannabes,
even John Gotti was a
wannabe in the '70s.
NARRATOR:
BETWEEN SCORES GOTTI KILLS
TIME WITH
OTHER MOB WANNABES,
SMOKING,
DRINKING, PLAYING CARDS.
Salvatore Polsi: We
would be playing poker,
his cigar would be down,
he would just hold his
cards and he
wanted to play.
And every once in a while
when he got a good hand,
this long De Nobili
cigar would go up in the air
and I
would notice!
And no
one spotted it!
And the minute we
saw that cigar go up,
we were
out the door!
We threw
our hand in!
And he could never
figure out what he did.
He was,
he had a tell.
And he was
a wild gambler.
And he would
just lose every night!
NARRATOR: RUMORS
START TO SPREAD OF AN
OUTSIZED
PERSONALITY IN QUEENS.
Fat Sal Colombo: And
all of a sudden you started
hearing this
John Gotti, John Gotti.
John Gotti this,
John Gotti that.
We used to
say who the (bleep) is
this John Gotti?
I ain't
never heard of him.
Salvatore Polsi:
He was a wild and crazy
flamboyant personality,
high energy, charismatic.
Joseph Coffey: He
had a two-prong attack
to become a made guy.
In the mafia you're
made either one of two ways,
you're an earner or
you do hits for them.
If you do both,
you're a huge made guy.
He was.
NARRATOR: IT'S THE
BEGINNING OF A LEGENDARY
CAREER IN
THE AMERICAN MOB.
NARRATOR: IN
THE LATE 1970S,
A NEW GENERATION OF
GANGSTERS IS RISING UP
THROUGH THE RANKS
OF THE AMERICAN MOB.
AMONG THEM IS A
GUY NAMED JOHN GOTTI.
Joseph Coffey: John Gotti
was a low level gangster
who was like banned
from the racetracks because
he was a mafia figure.
He was involved in
hijacking trailer trucks
coming out
of the airport,
plus he wouldn't
hesitate to kill somebody.
Michael Franzese:
I had my first business
encounter with John Gotti.
It wasn't a very
pleasant experience.
Two brothers came
to me and they had a
guy that had a
flea market in Brooklyn.
This guy's partner
was dealing drugs and
it was
disruptive to the market.
So I intercede, I go
meet with him and we make a,
an arrangement and
I chase his partner out.
Two weeks later, uh John
calls me up, John Gotti.
Yeah, hello?
He says, "Mike,
I need to see you."
I said, "Okay."
I go meet
him and he says,
"That flea
market in Brooklyn."
"Yeah?"
He says, "The
guy you chased out."
"Yeah," I said.
"He's with me."
I say, "John, come on
you know he just ran to you."
"No, no, I know
the guy a long time."
John wasn't
pulling out and
I wasn't
gonna give up.
There's no way John
Gotti would walk away
from an
argument with anybody,
including himself
thinking that he lost.
So I said "John
there's no way I wanna;
this guy's a drug
addict, I don't want
to be around him."
I said "I'm
gonna buy you guys out,
name your price."
And it's
like I knew it.
He said, "You don't
buy me out, I buy you out."
And that's
what happened.
He bought me out,
gave me the money and
I gave my guy
money, we kept some and
he took the market and
within 3 months they closed.
It was over.
So that was
my first business
encounter with Gotti.
Joseph Coffey:
John Gotti was a thug.
IQ of maybe a
mothball, but a thug.
NARRATOR: BUT
COLOMBO FAMILY MEMBER
MICHAEL FRANZESE IS
ALSO MAKING A NAME FOR
HIMSELF AS AN
EARNER AMONG EARNERS.
HE BRINGS IN BIG SCORES
THAT ATTRACT ATTENTION
THROUGHOUT THE
FIVE FAMILIES OF
THE AMERICAN MOB.
BUT NOTHING SO
FAR COMPARES TO THE SCAM
HE'S ABOUT
TO PULL OFF.
Michael Franzese:
This guy came to me and
he tells me, he says,
"Look, we can make some money,
I've got
kind of a scheme."
"I have gas stations."
So I said, "Alright,
let's start a new company,"
I says and "Show me
how this thing works
and I'll see if
I want to pursue it."
I'll never forget,
a week or two later,
this guy came to me
and he's holding a box.
And he used to bring
me meat, he was a butcher.
He walks in, I says,
"What are we having a party?
What we're gonna
do with all this meat?"
And he says,
"Hey chief, it ain't meat."
And he goes in
and he puts it on the
kitchen table
and he opens it up.
He said, "First week's
take in the gas business."
$380,000 in cash.
Got my
attention, right?
Selwyn Raab: Michael
Franzese was an immense
earner for the
Colombo family and
his biggest coup was
something known as the
"Daisy Chain
Gasoline Scam."
What happened was,
New York State,
in the 1970s,
decided to use a
different way of collecting
gasoline excise
taxes every year.
Michael Franzese:
At that time,
whoever owned the gas
station was responsible
to pay the tax on every
gallon of gasoline that
they bought and pumped.
Selwyn Raab: And
somebody hit upon the
idea that this was stupid.
R. Lindley Devecchio: So
the legislature in New York
said, "Well let's make
distributors responsible
for paying the
taxes or whatever they
want to levy."
NARRATOR: BUT THE GAS
COMPANIES ARE REQUIRED TO
PAY THE TAX
ON THE HONOR SYSTEM.
SO FRANZESE FIGURES
OUT ALL HE HAS TO DO IS
SET UP DUMMY
COMPANIES THAT DON'T PAY.
IT TAKES MONTHS FOR THE
GOVERNMENT TO FIGURE OUT
THE SCAM AND COLLECT
AND BY THAT TIME THE
DUMMY COMPANIES
ARE LONG GONE.
R. Lindley Devecchio: It
was a fairly complicated
scheme that involved a
lot of dummy corporations,
which made it
difficult to trace back
the original source,
that being Franzese.
Edward McDonald: And
somewhere along the line,
a stamp would come out
and would say "Tax Paid."
And it was very
difficult to establish just,
you know, which
company was saying that
they paid the tax.
NARRATOR: THAT'S
BECAUSE NO COMPANY IS
PAYING THE TAX.
ALL OF THE
MONEY IS GOING INTO
MICHAEL FRANZESE'S POCKETS.
Michael Franzese: I
had 18 licensed companies.
All of them were
operating um out of Panama,
so there was no
trail back to any of us.
Selwyn Raab: The gasoline
tax scam has to go down in
history as one of the
most successful coups
ever pulled
by the mafia.
Michael Franzese:
I was making a lot of
money in
the gas business.
Millions of
dollars a week.
I had a jet plane,
I had a helicopter,
I had all the
money I wanted,
I did whatever
I wanted to do.
And word was
getting out on the street
that even though I
was handing in millions,
that I was
making billions.
News Reporter: The
so-called "Franzese Group,"
a new mafia
organization that federal
prosecutors say could
be behind the mob's theft.
Michael Franzese:
A story came out,
I believe in
News Day again,
that I was becoming
powerful enough to break
away from the Colombos
and start my own family.
News Reporter: Said to
be behind the mobs theft of
hundreds of
millions of dollars in
gasoline taxes in New York.
Michael Franzese: My
dad then got out on parole.
NARRATOR:
FRANZESE'S FATHER, SONNY,
IS RELEASED FROM
PRISON AFTER SERVING TIME
FOR MASTERMINDING A
SERIES OF BANK ROBBERIES.
BUT HE'S ALSO RUMORED TO
BE A COLD BLOODED KILLER,
AN ACCUSATION
FAMILIAR TO HIS SON.
Michael Franzese: Law
enforcement said he killed
at least 30 people, back
then, now I think it's 60,
but as far as a
dad, he was dad for me.
I loved him.
I idolized my dad.
He was everything
that I thought a man's
man should be.
Every child wants a
reason to love their parents.
You have to give them
strong reasons not to love
their parents and
I don't have any reason
not to love mine,
regardless of anything.
The word gets out on
the street I'm becoming a
target of law enforcement
and all of the sudden the
two Franzeses together,
the son is making tons
of money, guys
start to think about it.
You know,
a double-edged sword.
Even my own father.
I was told he
put a contract on me.
NARRATOR: BY
THE EARLY 1980S,
COLOMBO CAPTAIN
MICHAEL FRANZESE'S SUCCESS
IN GAS TAX SCAMS
HAS EARNED HIM AND THE
COLOMBO FAMILY MILLIONS.
BUT IN THE AMERICAN
MOB, SUCCESS CAN BE AS
DANGEROUS AS FAILURE,
ESPECIALLY IF THE MOB
THINKS YOU'RE
SKIMMING THE TAKE.
SO WHEN MICHAEL'S FATHER,
THE LEGENDARY GANGSTER
SONNY FRANZESE, CALLS
HIM, HE STARTS TO SWEAT.
Michael Franzese:
One night I get uh,
a call from my dad and
he said, "I gotta see ya."
I said, "Okay."
He was on parole
so I go to his house.
How ya doin, Pop?
We're in the driveway
of his house and he said,
"Uh Junior wants
to see us tonight."
I said, "Okay, what
time do you want me
to pick you up?"
He said, "Well, they
want to do this differently,
they want me to
come in first and they
want you to
come in second."
I said,
"Why would we do that?"
He says, "Well
this is what they want."
I said, "We're
not gonna do that, dad."
You're crazy
if you're gonna do it.
I'm not doing it.
Finally, I remember,
I threw my hands up,
we're in the drive way.
I said, "Alright Dad,
I've been listening to you
all my life," and I
said, "I don't like it but
if this is what
you want we'll do it."
So I leave and then Jimmy
Angelina calls me and he
tells me to meet
him on uh, on 18th Avenue.
Jimmy was a
captain too at the time,
I knew
Jimmy all my life.
I get in the car and
there's a guy sitting in
the back that
I didn't know and
uh he don't
introduce me.
And um, you know
at that point I was just
really thinking
something's really bad here.
It was a house in
Brooklyn that we were going to.
I get out of the
car and I start walking.
And Jimmy
gets behind me.
And the other
guy is behind him.
Now this
is bad set up.
And I'll be
honest with you,
I was getting
really nervous.
I wasn't a religious
guy anyway but I started
to pray because I
really thought that I'm dead.
Look, I been in
the life quite a while.
I know that you get
walked into a room by your
best friend, you
don't walk out again.
So um, door
opens, I get in there.
A couple of the
guys are there and um,
they start grilling me
about the gas business and
the money and
all of this and that
and everything else.
And they're trying
to make an impression
on me that you know
I'm still the boss,
don't think you can
get away with anything.
Without saying
it, they said it.
I got it.
NARRATOR:
THE MEETING ENDS AND
TO FRANZESE'S
SURPRISE, HE'S STILL ALIVE.
Michael Franzese:
So now Jimmy's gonna
drive me back.
I said
goodbye to everybody.
We get in the car.
I'm ready to
really open up on him.
I was really
upset with him.
He didn't
tell me anything.
So I get in
the car and I say,
"I know
you all my life.
You don't
prepare me?
You don't tell me
anything that's going on?"
And uh, he said,
"I'm gonna tell you
something Michael."
He says, "You're
father was in there
before you tonight.
He didn't
help you one bit.
You were on
your own in there."
And it really
affected me in a bad way.
And I said, "Man, I can't
trust my own father here."
I kind of felt
the walls closing in on
me at that point.
He threw me
under the bus in that
he didn't defend me.
And that's almost as bad
as indicting me, you know?
As saying,
"He did it."
And I said,
"This money that I'm making,
what do I do?"
"Do I stop?"
This is like a
double-edged sword for me.
And um, I, I
didn't have an answer.
I didn't
have a solution.
And I said, "I'm
just going to keep
doing what I'm doing."
NARRATOR: WHILE COLOMBO
CAPTAIN MICHAEL FRANZESE
STRUGGLES WITH
THE CONSEQUENCES OF HIS
GAS SCAM,
ACROSS TOWN IN BROOKLYN,
UNDERCOVER AGENT JOE
PISTONE IS ABOUT TO BECOME
AN OFFICIAL MEMBER
OF THE BONANNO FAMILY,
AN ORGANIZATION WHO
MAKE THEIR MONEY NOT
JUST FROM EXTORTION AND
LOANSHARKING, BUT DRUGS.
UNDER THE
ALIAS "DONNIE BRASCO,"
HE'S PENETRATED THE
ORGANIZATION DEEPER THAN
ANY LAW ENFORCEMENT
OFFICER IN HISTORY.
HE'S ABOUT TO BECOME
A MADE MAN, BUT FIRST,
TO PROVE HIMSELF,
HE MUST KILL.
Joe Pistone:
When I was told,
you got the contract
to kill Bruno Indelicato,
I accepted it
because what am I gonna say?
No, I don't
want to do it?
I can't do it?
But we had a plan
in place, you know.
Sonny sent me
looking for him.
Sonny Black:
Come on, take a walk.
Joe Pistone: If I
spotted him I called the FBI
and they come and snatch
him and we'd stage a hit.
Or if they found
him, they'd snatch him
and we'd
stage a hit.
Selwyn Raab:
The FBI is faced with
an incredible dilemma.
What are
they gonna do if
Joe Pistone,
AKA Donnie Brasco,
is asked to
go along on a hit?
That's a no-no.
They can't do it.
But will
it blow his cover?
And the slightest
suspicion could lead to
Donnie Brasco's death.
NARRATOR: SO THE
FBI MAKES A DECISION.
James Kossler: Joe was
not allowed to become a
member of
La Cosa Nostra.
The bureau decided
that would not be in
the best interest
of him or the bureau,
um and so we
pulled him out of there.
NARRATOR: AFTER SIX
LONG YEARS UNDER COVER,
THE FEDS PULL PISTONE
FROM THE STREETS
AND SHUTTER
OPERATION DONNIE BRASCO.
NOW IT'S TIME TO LET
THE MOB KNOW THE TRUTH.
Joe Pistone: When the
operation was gonna be
closed down we had a
meeting with three agents
and uh, one of
them knew Sonny Black.
So what I did was
I took a picture with
these guys with
my credentials and uh,
the agents went
to Sonny Black
[knocking sound]
and they showed him a
photograph of myself and
the guys, uh,
and they said,
"You know Sonny,
we just want you to
know that uh this guy
you know as
Donnie Brasco is really
Special Agent
Joseph D. Pistone
of the FBI.
He's been working
undercover for six years."
And what Sonny said was,
"Well, I don't know.
If I see
him I'll know."
And that was it.
Then they
told him that,
"Sonny, once this comes
out you're better off coming
with us 'cause you know
you're gonna get killed."
And he just told them,
"Look, I don't believe it,"
and he just
shrugged it off.
And that was it.
And they left.
And he calls Lefty,
calls the other guys in
the crew, they all
go to the Motion Lounge.
Sonny Black:
The Feds were just here.
They say Donnie's FBI.
Joe Pistone: And he
tells 'em what happened.
In the beginning Lefty
couldn't believe it either.
Lefty couldn't
believe that I was
an undercover agent.
When he found out
I can't say here on
camera what
his response was.
It wasn't good,
it wasn't good.
NARRATOR: WORD SPREADS
IN THE STREETS BONANNO
ASSOCIATE DONNIE BRASCO
IS ACTUALLY A FEDERAL AGENT,
AN INFILTRATION
THAT WILL SOON SHATTER
THE AMERICAN MOB.
INFILTRATING THE
BONANNO FAMILY TO ITS CORE.
BUT AFTER SIX
YEARS UNDERCOVER,
THE FEDS PULLS HIM
OUT BEFORE HE MUST KILL
SOMEONE OR
GET KILLED HIMSELF.
AND THE NEWS QUICKLY
SPREADS IN THE STREETS
THAT THE WISE GUY
KNOWN AS DONNIE BRASCO.
Sonny Black:
They say Donnie's FBI.
NARRATOR: ISN'T
WHAT HE APPEARS TO BE.
Michael Franzese: I
remember meeting Donnie Brasco,
Joe Pistone, with Lefty.
We didn't
have any business,
it was hello and
goodbye, he was there,
there was
nothing more discussed.
But when we found out what
happened and it was common
knowledge on the street
that he was an informant
FBI agent, it was
pretty shocking because they,
he was almost
straightened out.
He had
gotten that far.
Joe Pistone: And then
what happened once they found
out it was me, uh,
the Commission got together
and the
Commission put together a
$500,000
contract out on me.
NARRATOR: PISTONE
GETS OUT OF NEW YORK FAST,
HIDING OUT IN
FBI HEADQUARTERS IN
WASHINGTON, DC.
BUT WITHIN THE MOB THOSE
WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR
DONNIE BRASCO'S
RISE MUST PAY THE PRICE.
Joe Pistone: Sonny
had to fess up to all
the bosses
what had happened.
So he gets a
call to go to a sit down.
He walks into
the Motion Lounge.
Bartender:
Hey, Sonny.
Joe Pistone: And
tells the bartender,
I just got called
to a sit down and
he gives him his ring,
gives him his money,
gives him his keys except
his car keys and he calls
his girlfriend and says,
"They tell me Donnie
was an undercover agent,
I didn't believe it,
now I believe it."
If you ever see
Donnie tell him I'm
glad it was him.
So he goes
to the sit down.
And the next
thing they know is
Sonny Black is gone.
Lefty was on his
way to get killed and
surveillance team
snatched him up because
they heard that you
know when he gets here
we're gonna
kill him, whack him.
NARRATOR:
A YEAR LATER,
LAW ENFORCEMENT
MAKES A GRUESOME DISCOVERY.
Joe Pistone: They
found Sonny's body in '82
in a body bag with
his hands cut off.
And the reason that they
did that was he introduced
me to bosses
that I shook hands with.
Did I want
to see him die?
No, I mean look,
you know, that's not my job.
My job is to
gather evidence to
put you in jail.
Lefty, he spends
his 15, 18 years in the
can doesn't say a word.
'Cause they
took that oath and
they believed
in that oath.
They took
that oath and
they believed
in that oath.
NARRATOR: BUT
PISTONE'S NOT THE ONLY
ONE CHOOSING A NEW PATH.
ACROSS TOWN,
MICHAEL FRANZESE,
A CAPTAIN AND TOP EARNER
IN THE COLOMBO FAMILY,
IS BECOMING DISILLUSIONED
WITH HIS WAY OF LIFE.
BUT THAT'S THE
LEAST OF HIS TROUBLES,
LAW ENFORCEMENT'S
CLOSING IN.
Michael Franzese:
I started to feel the
pressure in the early
80s and the government uh
opened my eyes to
it and that they had
a major undercover
operation on me,
on this gasoline
case and everything else.
Rudolph Giuliani: It would
seem that Michael Franzese
is unfortunately
following in the footsteps
of his father.
Michael Franzese:
The FBI can allege and
say whatever they like.
They've been doing
it for many, many years.
Edward McDonald: Well,
the FBI identified him
as a
significant target.
Informants were
providing information to
the FBI about this
up and coming, um, you know,
sophisticated gangster.
So the FBI came to us
and said that they wanted
to bring a
case against him.
Michael Franzese:
I got a visit uh in my uh
offices out in Long
Island from two FBI agents.
And they came in
to see me and they said,
"We need
to talk to you."
I said,
"What do you want?"
They said, "Listen,
tell us what you're doing
and we'll
give you a pass."
Yeah, right.
And I said, "Well,
I don't know what
you're talking
about with gas."
You know?
So I knew, and said,
"This is not good."
I mean I really got
their attention now.
Edward McDonald:
We gathered evidence,
primarily from
cooperating witnesses and
when he was faced
with a lengthy trial and
the prospect of getting
a very lengthy sentence.
Michael Franzese:
People were being convicted,
100 years, 150 years,
I said, they're gonna
give me 1,000 years
if I go down on this.
Edward McDonald: He
decided to plead guilty
and to make restitution
payments of ten million
dollars, which he
pretty much defaulted on.
News Reporter:
Michael Franzese indicted on
28 counts of racketeering,
fraud and extortion.
Michael Franzese:
I had made two very bad
decisions in my life.
I trusted my father,
look where it got me.
I surrendered my
life to La Cosa Nostra
and look
where it got me.
I got death threats,
hits all over me,
the FBI hates me,
everybody on the street
hates me,
my father disowned me.
I don't have a
friend in the world.
I'm gonna spend the
rest of my life in a
6 x 8 cell.
And it was the first
and only time in my life
that I, I
really felt hopeless.
Edward McDonald: Then
he kind of shocked us,
because he came forward
and agreed to cooperate.
And based on the
cooperation he provided,
he did get his
sentenced reduced.
Michael Franzese:
I got 4 years on a parole
violation and I spent
35 months and 13 more
days in prison, 29 months
and 7 days in the hole.
And during that
time is when I, um,
strengthened
my faith and um,
started to
read the Bible.
NARRATOR: BUT
FRANZESE GETS OUT AND
LIVES TO TELL THE TALE.
Michael Franzese:
Do I find it surprising
that I'm alive?
I feel I'm the
most blessed guy
walking the streets.
What should
my fate have been?
I should either be
dead or in prison
for the
rest of my life.
NARRATOR: THE SON WHO
ONCE FOLLOWED HIS GANGSTER
FATHER BLINDLY INTO
THE LIFE NOW WALKS AWAY
FROM THE MOB
FOREVER, UNSCATHED.
Edward McDonald:
I cannot explain how
Michael Franzese was
able to do what he did.
The only
speculation we have
is that he
paid his way out.
Somehow he was able to
persuade people in the
Colombo crime family
not to do anything to him.
Michael Franzese: Really,
the only way that ends is
when you end and
you're in a coffin, it's over.
NARRATOR: HOW
MICHAEL FRANZESE
GOT OUT OF THE
AMERICAN MOB WITH
HIS LIFE REMAINS A
MYSTERY TO THIS DAY.
BUT THE WORST
DEEDS OF FRANZESE'S
PAST STILL HAUNT HIM.
ESPECIALLY THE
MURDER OF A CLOSE FRIEND,
"CHAMPAGNE"
LARRY CARROZZA.
Michael Franzese:
Larry Carrozza was someone
very close to me.
I mean the kid
loved me and I loved him.
I baptized his kids.
He baptized
my daughter.
Unbeknownst to
me, he was having
an affair
with my sister.
I was brought in
and it was told to me
that this is
what was going on.
Man: The word
is on the street.
NARRATOR: NO ONE
MESSES WITH MOB WOMEN.
THOSE WHO DO
PAY A HEAVY PENALTY.
Michael Franzese: I was
told he disrespect you
and he disrespected
your father and that's
something that uh,
we don't stand for in
this life and I said,
"But you know,
he's not a made guy."
Stupid.
And how do we know
what really happened and
let me talk to
my sister," and "Nope.
You want to take care of
it, you take care of it.
If not, we'll
take care of it."
And I said,
"I don't wanna do it."
I says, "The guy's
too close to me."
NARRATOR: LARRY
CARROZZA'S BODY IS
FOUND NEAR HIS CAR.
HE IS SHOT A SINGLE
TIME BEHIND THE EAR.
Michael Franzese:
His murder, that's probably
something that
uh has been the
heaviest on my heart.
NARRATOR: THESE DAYS
IT'S FAITH THAT HELPS
FRANZESE COPE WITH
THE DARKNESS OF HIS PAST.
Michael Franzese:
Guys, be honest.
You don't come to
church but you figure,
"Hey, Sopranos is
off the air, let me go
see what the real mob
guy is all about, right?"
[laughter].
Michael Franzese:
That's your only interest.
What I did, I
did and that's it.
As Christians, we happen
to believe that we can be
forgiven for what
we've done in the past.
So I believe with
all my heart that
I've been forgiven.
NARRATOR: A LINE
THAT'S HARD FOR A LOT
OF PEOPLE TO SWALLOW.
Michael Franzese:
People can say it's a
phoney thing and
it's a scam and you know
fortunately, in the end,
they're not gonna be
the ones that judge me.
But I can't fool
God, [laughs] you know?
God bless you all.
Host: Thank Michael
Franzese, thank you.
NARRATOR: MICHAEL FRANZESE
IS OUT OF THE LIFE TODAY,
BUT HIS FATHER
SONNY NEVER WALKED AWAY.
Michael Franzese: You
know, my dad's 96 years old.
He's the oldest
living mob guy in America.
I think he's part
of this life 66 or 67
years ago
he took the oath.
Edward McDonald: He
just recently was convicted
at the age of 96,
I think he was convicted
on racketeering
charges and was incarcerated
again, uh, was
active until the age of 96
and it's
absolutely amazing.
Michael Franzese: He is
a treasure trove of mob
stories, if you can get
him to talk about them.
NARRATOR: SONNY
FRANZESE IS A LAST HOLD-OVER
FROM THE GOLDEN AGE
OF THE AMERICAN MOB,
AN ERA THAT ENDS WITH
THE SUCCESS OF OPERATION
DONNIE BRASCO, THE
HISTORIC INFILTRATION OF
THE BONANNO FAMILY
BY UNDERCOVER AGENT
JOE PISTONE.
Michael Chertoff:
Up until 1970,
all you could do
with the mafia is,
like you know men with
their eyes closed trying
to feel an elephant.
You would get a
little piece of it,
but all you could prove
was someone who actually
committed a
particular crime.
Joe Pistone
did something unique,
which is he
infiltrated the Bonanno Family,
the organized
crime family,
with such success
that he was on the verge
of being
made as a member.
In doing that not
only did he collect direct
evidence of crimes
against the Bonanno Family,
but he was able
to talk knowledgeably
about the structure
of the whole mafia.
Joe Pistone: This
undercover case was
the beginning of the
unravelling of the mafia
in America as we
knew it, as it once was.
NARRATOR: ALL IN ALL,
THE INFORMATION PISTONE
PROVIDES LAW
ENFORCEMENT LEADS TO OVER 200
INDICTMENTS AND MORE
THAN 100 CONVICTIONS
OF MAJOR MOB FIGURES.
BUT IT IS ONLY
THE BEGINNING OF THE
GOVERNMENT'S
ALL OUT ASSAULT ON
THE AMERICAN MOB.
James Kossler:
Joe Pistone's role as
Donnie Brasco
was historic in the FBI.
Historic in
law enforcement.
Rudolph Giuliani:
Pistone broke the
confidence of the mafia.
He broke the
mystique that you
couldn't
infiltrate the mafia.
That mystique was very,
very important in getting
people to cooperate,
'cause now all of a sudden
it isn't this
impregnable organization
that nobody's
ever penetrated.
Steve Salmieri:
Joe Pistone and his case,
was the perfect
storm for organized crime.
Joe Pistone: We, we
kicked the (bleep) out of them.
We really did.
NARRATOR: BUT THE
AMERICAN MOB STILL HAS
ENORMOUS POWER
IN NEW YORK CITY AND
AROUND THE
COUNTRY IN THE 1980'S.
Leonetti: You always
have to use your brain
and you always
have to use the gun.
NARRATOR: IN CITIES
LIKE PHILADELPHIA,
HOME TO THE MOST
VIOLENT MOB FAMILIES IN
THE UNITED STATES.
Leonetti: We live by
our own set of rules.
NARRATOR: AND A
MAJOR BATTLEGROUND IN
LAW ENFORCEMENT'S WAR TO
END THE RULE OF COSA NOSTRA.
Pichini: His reign
becomes a reign of terror.
Nick Scarfo: I invoke
my right and decline to
answer the question.
Leonetti: We got
away with murder.
[gunshots].