Even today, Joe Pistone lives in hiding. He remains the Mafia’s most wanted man. But this film tracks him down and Pistone tells in his own words how he infiltrated the Mafia for six years and became close to some of its most senior figures.
Joe Pistone was an FBI undercover specialist. He adopted the cover of Donnie Brasco, a jewel thief and gradually built up a variety of mob connections. The most important of these was with Sonny Black Napolitano, a capo in the Bonnano crime family.
Sonny eventually made Pistone, as Donnie Brasco, an offer he had to refuse. He wanted him to become a “made man” - a fully-fledged member of the mob. But to do that, he would have to kill someone.
The FBI pulled him out, but by then they had enough evidence to send over 2200 mobsters to jail. Sonny Black, the man who brought him into the Mafia in the first place, refused FBI protection and at first refused to believe that his pal Donnie could be an FBI agent. He was brutally assassinated by the Mob as a punishment.
