Listicle: 5 Reaons Why Donnie Brasco should have been 'whacked' before the 200th page

Donnie Brasco, A.K.A FBI Agent Joseph D. Pistone is tasked with doing the nearly impossible: infiltrating and becoming a trusted member of the Bonanno crime family. Posing as a jewel thief Agent Pistone spent 6 years of his life undercover, with hardly any family contact, in an operation so secretive that the New York Police Department had him listed as a connected member of the family. Eventually, Pistone is able to gather enough evidence to put hundreds of ‘connected guys’ away for a long time, and does so by spending another 6 years of his life testifying in court rooms.

             1.   He constantly brings in ‘friends’ who are obvious FBI agents trying to be undercover.

Throughout the book ‘Donnie Brasco’ is constantly bringing his ‘old friends’ around his newly found mafia friends. He pushes his mafia people to work with his old friend, a person who he swears “was alright when [he] knew him,” (pg 166) but is clearly an agent. Seriously, how many people do you know who are dying to get into the vending business in Milwaukee that is known to be mafia run? Not many. And anytime a situation comes up where a person needs money all of a sudden Donnie knows this guy that can lend a couple thousand at a moments notice in “good faith with no questions asked. If you’re a mob captain that wouldn’t seem a little bit suspicious?

             2.    Half the time they find out the his friend is an FBI agent

In one special case in the book Donnie brings around a friend is going undercover in Florida and is trying to get some connections. He had been trying in Florida for quite some time with no progress, so the FBI asks Donnie to help in out, which he happily agrees to do. On the first time Donnie brings this random new guy around, showing him off to all his mafia friends telling them what a great guy he is, a guy from Florida walk into the restaurant. As soon as this guy walks in Donnie and his new found friend duck out as quickly as possible. Seems like anybody, espically mafia people, would find that suspicious. The very next day Donnie’s captain Lefty asks him why he’s brining that guy around, that he’s a FBI agent. Somehow Donnie gets out of this extremely sticky situation with a few “hey I didn’t know”’s and some “he was good when I knew him.”
            3.   He acts like an FBI agent

Throughout the novel he constantly tries to act like he isn’t an FBI agent, though I feel he makes it much more obvious. He tries to blend in by not getting involved on his own, he has to get them to involve him, which I think is incredibly obvious. He doesn’t go around getting involved and when a plan is brought up to pull a ‘job’ he pokes holes in it finding ways for them to put off the job. He also refuses to have anything to do with drugs, stealing, really being on any job at all, and says he prefers to do jobs alone, (even though he constantly brings around people he had done previous jobs with).

           4.    The constant and unnecessary use of ‘mob’ language

It’s understandable that in order to  be able to fit in with the mafia people you have to talk like them. That doesn’t mean an F bomb should be dropped in every sentence, or whenever you’re talking to another connected guy it means you’re bullsh*****g. Or when something is too good to be true or sounds you say “Fugehabouit.” It an unnecessary word to say when talking about how good somebodies mother or wife made meatballs. Just say they’re good. That’s all that is needed.

            5.   I really don’t like him in general

I don’t see “Donnie Brasco” as being a hero. I see him as a person who would rather spend 6 years undercover and then another 6 in courtrooms testifying instead of staying home and helping to raise his children and be with his wife. It wasn’t like this was an operation he was assigned to go undercover for, he asked to do it. He dragged out the operation for a longer period of time than needed as well. I give a year, maybe two, at most three, but not six. In three years he should have been able to witness enough and gather enough evidence to put most of those guys away from a long time.

Joseph Pistone is no hero. He is a workaholic distant father he spent more time on the job than with his family. He was entirely obvious is what he was doing, and this just shows how dumb the mafia really is. And he looks nothing like Johnny Depp, (who played him in the movie).

To end this post here is a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio