S701: The Real Donnie Brasco

PRETEND

Javier Leiva

Society & Culture, True Crime, Technology

4.7 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 January 2021

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Johnny Depp played Donnie Brasco in the Academy Award-nominated film. But the real-life story of Donnie Brasco is even more fascinating. Joe Pistone, an FBI agent, went deep undercover as Brasco and spent six years inside the Bonanno and Columbo crime families. The movie, if you remember, starts with Joe Pistone immediately infiltrating with the mob. In today's episode, we will talk about everything that happened before the movie even begins. What was Donnie Brasco's backstory? Where did he come from, and how did he earn money? The FBI needed to figure out every single detail about this fictional character before Joe Pistone ever made the first contact with the mafia. They decided that Donnie Brasco was going to be a jewel thief. That required Pistone to learn how gemology, how to break into safes, and how to disable alarms. In this episode, you will hear from Joe Pistone himself. You'll even get to listen to a real wiretap recording between Donnie Brasco and his associate Lefty Ruggiero. If you want more, check out the new podcast "Deep Cover-The Real Donnie Brasco," Joe Pistone shares the true stories of his time with the mob to his friend and host actor Leo Rossi. PRETEND is on YouTube Make sure to subscribe to the PRETEND YouTube channel. I will pick 10 subscribers at random and mail them a screen printed PRETEND t-shirt. "Fuhggedaboutit" ------- Story idea? If you have a story to share, email Javier at info@pretendradio.org. For more episodes like this visit pretendradio.org. To get early releases and bonus episodes go to pretendradio.org/donate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Creative Battle.
0:04.0	What is the premise of the Donnie Brozco film?
0:14.7	And for my audience, like the people who haven't seen the film?
0:18.8	Well, the premise is not just a mob movie because there's a lot of them, a lot of good ones, a lot of not so good ones.
0:30.0	You can't turn on a television any week that Donnie Brascos not playing somewhere,
0:36.1	sometimes, somehow.
0:38.1	That's Leo Rossi, co-host of the podcast Deep Cover, The Real Donnie Brasco.
0:45.0	Today I'm going to talk to one of the greatest pretenders of all time.
0:49.0	His name is Joe Bissone.
0:51.0	And if you don't recognize the name, it's because most people remember him
0:55.1	for his alter ego, Donnie Brasco. You may or may not have seen the movie. Johnny Depp played the role of Donnie
1:02.1	Brasco, an FBI agent who went deep undercover with the New York mafia.
1:07.0	Not for a week or a month, not even a year.
1:10.0	Joe Pistone lived in character for six years, six whole years inside the mob.
1:17.0	He almost even became a made man.
1:20.0	Don't worry, if you haven't watched the film or haven't seen it in years, I've got you covered, because the true story about Donnie Brasko is way more interesting.
1:29.0	Today we're going to talk about the story you didn't see in the film.
1:32.0	The movie, if you remember, starts with Joe Pestone immediately
1:35.9	infiltrating the mob. Today, we're going to talk about everything that happened before the movie ever
1:41.5	begins.
1:43.0	How did an FBI agent infiltrate the mob without even having an informant?
1:48.0	The answer is, it takes a whole lot of planning.
	...

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