Joseph D. Pistone
👤 PersonPodcast Appearances
Did you have a family at the time?
That ought to be crazy difficult for them.
So you just kind of just hang around restaurants, bars?
Like what's the first thing you have to do with them?
You always wear sunglasses.
So what was your first undercover work?
Is that to hide your identity still?
What kind of gambling were they doing?
So now I'm in a- Was Frankie questioning you too?
So after that, did you get his respect by saying you'd stab him?
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Start doing stuff with... So all told, how much time are you undercover now?
Now, are you reporting to anybody during this time?
Do you have to go back to the FBI?
So you're totally on your own.
Are you writing this stuff down or do you just keep it all in your head?
You had to be really worried about getting caught with that.
So but was there an issue with you being discovered and then getting found out and worrying about your safety afterwards?
Does he suspect in you or suspect in somebody else when he's tearing your dash apart?
So how many years did you do stuff like that before you started being undercover in the mob?
So you slowly sort of got acclimated with being undercover, you do a bunch of cases, and then how do they approach you?
Because he had a bad heart?
Well, you have a very distinct voice.
Because you introduced him to the cop.
And they don't tell you why.
So they don't suspect you at all?
How do they not suspect you?
How do they not question you?
And whatever happened to Tony?
I don't want to ask where you live, but, you know, what a wild life you've had, sir.
This is like, what year was this?
So you essentially just pop in the ignition.
Because I don't understand.
Because of the one-armed bandit?
So they just used it as an excuse.
Just for the one-armed bandit.
They never find the money.
So you take the cars, load them on a tractor trailer?
And what happened to the guy you paid off?
Oh, he knew they were coming for him.
Hazards of doing business.
So you have to trust this guy though to get you inside, right?
You have to trust this guy to not fuck this up and say, hey, this is a car thief.
Did you see guys get killed?
That's got to be hair raising.
That was the sneakiest no I've ever heard in my life.
And he's already in trouble.
You're going to get whacked.
So would you have had to do it if you found him?
You know, that's... He's going to get whacked either way.
I'm not putting, you know... So it's a situation where your back is against the wall.
So you were going to be a made guy.
How attractive is that life when you're in it?
So when you first started working, it was with the FBI, correct?
But I've talked to guys in that life and they love it.
That's what's crazy about it.
But that is a problem with guys who do undercover work, right?
Did you ever run the risk of running into someone that you knew who knew you as Joe Pistone?
Yeah, did you see the movie?
I did, but I don't remember.
The coke is a real problem with guys who go undercover, right?
Because they have to do it with everybody.
That way you don't have to ever change it up.
That's just simple math.
So somebody remembered you saying that?
So they were trying to use that against you?
Yeah, you just got caught up in it.
So what happened when they opened up the books?
What'd you do over there?
Yeah, I knew a guy who did that.
That was back when they had like the carbons, right?
Do you feel like you had to do that to have his respect?
That would have been out of character.
If you don't, it probably seems off.
But that's got to be just fucking nerve wracking.
Showing by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.
So all the people that had let you in.
That's a guy that's living that life.
How did that make you feel?
He had cancer at the time while he was smoking with the windows rolled up?
What is it like to experience all that and then see it in a movie?
Like what is it like to see a guy like Johnny Depp play you in a movie?
Oh, God, what an experience that was.
That has to be so weird.
He's a sweetheart of a guy, like genuinely.
I've hung out with him a few times at the Comedy Store in LA.
It's odd for a movie star.
You know, I meet movie stars and I always have this wall up because I always feel like, okay, I'm just going to talk to some bullshit person.
Like, I've met a bunch of them, and they're not really there.
But when you meet one and they're really there, it's amazing, you know?
Like, you realize, oh, they're just human beings who are in this very unusual position.
Where they're incredibly famous, and, you know, they're famous in a very weird way.
They're famous for pretending to be other people.
And, you know, you know them so well as, you know...
A fucking pirate or whatever.
Yeah, he's a genuinely good guy.
Before his trial was going on, I had a conversation with him for half an hour on the phone in Hawaii.
I was in Hawaii drinking margaritas in a lounge chair.
And my friend Doug, Doug Stanhope, calls me up.
He says, hey, Johnny wants to talk to you.
And me and Johnny were on the phone for like a fucking half an hour.
But that trial showed you who he really is and who she really is, too.
And it just shows you, you know.
How strange was it to watch the finished product, to watch this version of your life, of your story?
Why'd they add that in there?
So how, after the case is closed, what is life like for you?
Like, how do you, I mean, you had to be worried about your life.
How long was it before you stopped worrying about that?
Did you keep in touch with any of those guys?
Oh, so you have to be able to identify, use a lens.
They tried to turn all of them, huh?
What do you think happened to the culture of the mob where these guys started snitching?
How long is the school for?
But it's also, you can't keep secrets anymore.
Yeah, especially with cell phones, internet, surveillance.
Surveillance is so easy now.
Everything you do is surveilled.
Every phone call you make.
And then your phone's listening to everything you say.
That's so crazy that you got in that deep.
You just made your way in slowly.
When you look back on it now, does it seem real?
Do you wish they had gotten you made?
It's funny that you think back and that's the thing that you wish, you know, it's kind of crazy.
It is kind of crazy when you think about the chokehold that the mob had.
Did that all come about because of Prohibition?
Is that when it all started?
Is that when they really got a stranglehold in this country?
Because that's exactly what's happening right now with the cartels.
It's the same fucking thing.
And it's like we never learn.
It's kind of crazy when you think that.
People don't change that much over time.
Human nature is still the same.
And the same strategies apply.
Well, especially if someone had any kind of social media before they got in the bureau.
I mean, everybody's kind of ratting on themselves.
But there's other ways they catch people now, obviously, with all the surveillance.
Did you make a bunch of notes?
Did you make sure you covered everything?
You have a cameo page where you send people cameos?
How do you spend your time these days?
So you were telling me before the show that all that money gets donated to the spouses of people who were killed in the line of duty.
Well, Joe, thank you very much for being here.
What a crazy life you've had.
Well, tell them I said thank you.
And thank you for being here.
It was my pleasure, too.
They get you a Social Security number and the whole deal?
How do you go and get your face seen?
You just show up by yourself?
Is that suspicious, though?
A guy shows up by himself, not from the neighborhood?
And so how does that lead to you infiltrating the mob?