Joseph Dominick Pistone (born September 17, 1939) is a former American FBI special agent who operated undercover as Donnie Brasco from September 1976 to July 1981, primarily infiltrating the Bonanno crime family under the guidance of Anthony Mirra and later Dominick Napolitano, and to a lesser degree, the Colombo crime family, both of which are part of the Five Families of the Mafia in New York City. Pistone served as an FBI agent for 17 years, from 1969 until his resignation in 1986. The evidence he gathered resulted in over 200 indictments and more than 100 convictions of Mafia members, with some individuals involved in his infiltration being killed by rival mobsters.

Pistone was a trailblazer in long-term undercover operations. The former director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, who passed away in 1972, was opposed to the idea of FBI agents working undercover due to the risk of corruption among agents. However, Pistone’s efforts ultimately helped persuade the FBI that employing undercover agents, rather than relying solely on informants, was an essential strategy in law enforcement. Pistone recounted his undercover experiences in his 1988 publication, Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia, which served as the foundation for the 1997 film depicting his life.

Early life and career

Pistone was born in 1939 in Erie, Pennsylvania. He has Italian ancestry: his father hailed from Calabria while his mother was from Sicily, and he was raised in Paterson, New Jersey, where he attended Eastside High School. He enrolled at Paterson State College (now William Paterson University), earning a degree in anthropology in 1965.

He spent a year teaching at Paterson School No. 10 and worked for three years at the Office of Naval Intelligence before being sworn into the FBI on July 7, 1969, and assigned to Jacksonville, Florida. In 1974, he was moved to New York to join the truck and hijack unit. Due to his proficiency in operating 18-wheeler trucks and bulldozers, he was eventually assigned to undercover operations.