Mob FilesPublic-domain archive of American organized crime

Record

Hearing

1988-04-22

National Criminal Justice Reference Service, scan of the printed hearings (NCJ 125163)

Testimony of Joseph D. Pistone, former FBI Special Agent (22 April 1988)

The retired FBI agent who worked undercover as "Donnie Brasco" testified from behind a screen that his undercover work began in September 1976, that he infiltrated the Colombo and then the Bonanno families, and that his testimony in over 10 trials resulted in more than 200 indictments and over 100 convictions.

Date
1988-04-22
Kind
hearing
Source
National Criminal Justice Reference Service, scan of the printed hearings (NCJ 125163)
Retrieved
2026-10-12
Docket
Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi. Hearings before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, 100th Cong., 2d sess. (S. Hrg. 100-906)
Rights
A work of the United States Senate, printed by the Government Printing Office. Public domain in the United States. 17 U.S.C. § 105. The NCJRS cover sheet records reproduction permission as "Public Domain / United States Senate."

Pistone was the last witness on April 22, 1988. Senator Nunn introduced him at printed pages 200 and 201 (NCJRS PDF pages 208 and 209) as a retired FBI Special Agent who had been relocated and had changed his appearance, so the room was cleared of cameras. Nunn said Pistone’s undercover assignment ended “after he received orders from a high-ranking member of the Bonanno family to kill Anthony Indelicato.” Pistone was an agent of the Bureau, not an informant or a cooperating member, and testified as such.

He said: “On July 7, 1969, I was sworn in as a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation” (printed page 201). After a truck-theft undercover case that ended in arrests in February 1976, the FBI approved a six-month operation called “Sun-Apple” against fences, and “On the day in September 1976 that I left the New York FBI office to start my 6-month undercover role, our main goal was not with the intention of infiltrating the Mafia” (printed page 202). He said he succeeded “in infiltrating the Colombo and, later to an even greater extent, the Bonanno Mafia families of New York,” was introduced to the Balistrieri family of Milwaukee and the Trafficante organization in Florida, and had “actually been proposed as a soldier” (printed page 202).

On printed page 203: “The culmination of my years of living daily as an associate of these Mafia members was my testimony in over 10 trials and even more grand juries throughout the United States. This testimony resulted in more than 200 indictments and over 100 convictions of members of organized crime across the country.” He said the New York families afterwards required a new member to “make his bones” and two members to vouch for him. On printed pages 204 to 206 he described crews, daily check-ins with a captain, and gambling as “probably the most important source of income for the Mafia.” These are his observations under oath, not findings.

itemUnited States v. Ruggiero, 726 F.2d 913 (2d Cir. 1984)The Second Circuit reviewed Bonanno family RICO convictions arising from FBI agent Joseph Pistone's undercover work as "Donnie Brasco." It recounts statements made to Pistone, including Dominick Napolitano's after the May 1981 murders of three captains, and upholds their admission.itemUnited States v. Balistrieri, 779 F.2d 1191 (7th Cir. 1985)Seventh Circuit opinion of November 12, 1985 affirming Frank Balistrieri's Milwaukee sports-gambling convictions, with the court's account of his attempts to disqualify the trial judge. It records no Las Vegas events.itemUnited States v. Salerno, 868 F.2d 524 (2d Cir. 1989)Second Circuit opinion on the appeal from the Southern District of New York trial of Anthony Salerno and seven other defendants, decided January 31, 1989.itemFBI history: "Joe Pistone, Undercover Agent"FBI history page on Special Agent Joseph Pistone's undercover work as "Donnie Brasco" from 1976. It says the Bonanno crew learned on July 26, 1981 that Brasco was an FBI agent and that the operation "ultimately led to more than 100 federal convictions."itemJoe Pistone with Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano, 1970s (FBI)FBI photograph of Special Agent Joe Pistone seated with Dominick Napolitano during the 1970s undercover investigation. An unidentified woman is also in the frame. A copy is stored here.itemOrganized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi (S. Hrg. 100-906, 1988)Hearings of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, April 1988, in which FBI officials compared the 1963 Valachi charts with the Bureau's 1987 charts of the families. FBI testimony about its own intelligence, not court findings.