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Gangland Wire

Lefty Ruggerio and Joe Pistone

Gangland Wire

Gary Jenkins: Mafia Detective

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6623 Ratings

🗓️ 3 August 2022

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Retired Kansas City Police Intelligence detective Gary Jenkins interviews Joe Pistone, Retired FBI agent Doug Fencl and a former cellmate of Lefty Ruggerio and friend of Gary’s Steve St. John. We learn that Lefty Ruggerio was difficult to be around and as Joe once stated, “I would hate to be locked up with Lefty.” Lefty Ruggerio was a lifetime made-guy in the Bonanno Crime Family of New York City. He was a key figure in the undercover assignment of FBI agent Joe Pistone who adopted the name of Donnie Brasco when he infiltrated the Bonanno crew under Capo Sonny Black Napolitano. Al Pachino played Lefty in the well-known movie titled Donnie Brosco. Johnnie Depp portrayed agent Pistone. Joe Pistone tells how Lefty hated air conditioning and fresh air. They were in Florida together and lefty refused to allow Joe to turn on the car air conditioning or lower the windows on a hot Florida day. During this time in the car, LEfty chained smoked his favorite cigarettes, English ovals. Joe remembers that Lefty always wanted more and more whenever he did anything for Lefty. Steve St. John, former cellie of Lefty, tells how he was incarcerated in the Federal hospital facility in the Springfield Missouri Federal Correctional Institution with Lefty Ruggerio. Steve remembered making a cake for Lefty’s birthday and upon presentation, Lefty replied, “Well what else ya got for me?” The FBI assigned now-retired agent Doug Fencl to the Bonanno squad and one of his jobs was to make contact with Ruggerio. Doug tells us that he went to see Lefty Ruggerio and tell him that Donnie Brosco was Agent Joe Pistone. He said he caught Lefty alone in his social club when he approached him with this explosive piece of information, Lefty lost his cool and started screaming incoherently. Lefty was so upset that he stormed out of the club into the street leaving agent Fencl alone inside the club. Doug also tells the story of how he broke this news to Sonny Black Napolitano. He hoped to turn Sonny Black because this situation would cause Sonny Black to become a pariah among his Bonanno Family peers. He said Sonny Black never blinked an eye and showed no visible emotion. Doug said that Sonny Black asked Doug to wait up a minute and he explained, “You know that I can’t do that (meaning turning witness).” Doug said he replied, “I understand.” Of course, someone murdered Sonny Black not long after. Support the Podcast Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwireClick here to “buy me a cup of coffee” To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup  click here To rent Brothers against Brothers, the documentary, click here.  To rent Gangland Wire, the documentary, click here To buy my Kindle book, Leaving Vegas: The True Story of How FBI Wiretaps Ended Mob Domination of Las Vegas Casinos. To subscribe on iTunes click here, please give me a review and help others find the podcast.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Well, welcome all you wiretappers out there. It's a special program that we've got for you here today.

0:06.1

You know, everybody's heard of Donnie Briscoe and the FBI agent who played him, Joe Pistone.

0:13.2

And I was able to get hold of Joe Pistone the other day and talk to him.

0:18.0

I wanted to talk about Lefty Regerio.

0:19.9

Now, Joe has his own podcast going down.

0:22.0

He's doing all kinds of other stuff, but he was gracious enough to give me a little bit of time.

0:27.0

And he was really hard to get hold up, by the way.

0:29.0

He had to use a connection, and then I get a cryptic phone call,

0:34.8

and then I have to make another phone call.

0:37.4

And so he's still laying low.

0:38.3

He is out there.

0:40.3

Joe had recently talked about Lefty Regerio.

0:44.3

Joe's got his own podcast going or he's a permanent or like a part-time guest for a one series

0:50.3

from Jam Street Media. It's called Deep Cover, the real Donnie Brasco. And I let's know a couple

0:55.7

episodes of it. It's pretty good. Joe's a good storyteller, and so I recommend you try that podcast.

1:01.1

Lefty Two Guns, Regerio, he was a character played by Al Pacino in the movie Donnie Brisco.

1:07.5

And so I was talking to Joe about it and Joe made this following comment.

1:12.6

So Joe said he'd hate to be Lefty's cellmate when he went to the joint.

1:17.6

Well, I have sitting here my friend Steve St. John, who's been on the show before.

1:22.6

And he was the cellmate or a cellmate of Lefty Rosario down at the medical facility at Springfield for two years, folks.

1:31.2

So welcome, Steve.

1:32.4

It's great to have you here.

...

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