Текст книги "Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia"

Автор книги: Joseph D. Pistone

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Текущая страница: 23 (всего у книги 28 страниц)

17

THE SITDOWNS

Around the middle of March, informants were telling the FBI of unusual activity on Prince Street in Little Italy. An apparent series of sitdowns was taking place at 20 Prince Street, the social club owned by Bonanno consiglieri Steve Cannone.

“I gotta control my temper,” Lefty says over the phone. “You have no idea what we went through. This went on for fucking eight days with this motherfucker, for you. I mean, heavyweights had to sit down. Saturday was the meeting in New York. I had a four-and-a-half-hour meeting about you again today.”

“For what?”

“Don’t say, ‘For what.’ ”

“How come you never tell me? I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

“Who else is involved but Mirra?”

“Well, what’s this guy want now?”

“I’ll tell you what, you son of a bitch, fucking asshole that you are. You got me aggravated about this Rocky.”

Mirra was always trouble. And now Rocky. The undercover cop’s name was coming up too often. In addition to taking Rocky out on the ABSCAM boat, I had brought him up to the New York area and set him up in the car-leasing business, the cover for his undercover operation. He had gotten involved with Mirra. That there were sitdowns over me, involving Mirra and Rocky, was not good news. “What about Rocky?”

“Rocky admitted that you made two hundred and fifty grand in excess amount of money. I’m not burning my phone up, and you know what I’m talking about. That you took a hundred and twenty-five off him!”

“From where?”

“Anthony Mirra says that you shook Rocky down and youse made it in fucking junk money!” Lefty’s voice was barely controlled. “I’m fed up with this bullshit over here!”

“What are you talking about, junk money? I never cut any junk money with him. Who did Rocky tell that

I cut two hundred and fifty grand?“

“Anthony Mirra and his men—don’t you understand, you fucking jerk-off? I just got off the table.”

Out of the blue, I was being accused of secretly splitting up a $250,000 drug deal with Rocky. Next to being a snitch, the worst thing you do is not split a big score with your bosses. I didn’t know what Rocky was involved in. I didn’t know what, if anything, he was really telling Mirra. I couldn’t risk trying to contact Rocky because I couldn’t trust his phone, and I wasn’t sure I could even trust him—I didn’t know what kind of situation he was in. There was no way I could find out anything right now except from Lefty, and I had to handle this conversation very carefully. I couldn’t afford to say the wrong thing or give a wrong answer that would further jeopardize either me or Rocky. But without knowing the circumstances I couldn’t be sure what were the right things to say. All I knew immediately was that this kind of situation with sitdowns can result in a decision that somebody has to go. I had to react with badguy strength—I couldn’t be pushed around. “Rocky’s lying, Left. I never cut any junk money with him.”

“I know he’s lying.”

“So what are you hollering at me for?”

“You’re fucking laxed!”

“He’s a liar. And Mirra’s a liar.”

“But your word don’t count.”

“Why does his word count?”

“Rocky already said it.”

“Just because he said it first?”

“This son of a bitch passed a remark. You only get a denial. This thing has snowballed. It’s a very, very dangerous thing. Now it’s beyond Sonny. It’s out of Sonny’s hands now, your case. It’s going all the way to the top. I got sent for today. Sonny didn’t tell me what he wanted to talk about. Then when I was there, he says, ‘Lefty, I want you to stay here.’ Why? He says, ‘Sally’s coming down.’ ”

Sally Farrugia, the acting boss.

“All of a sudden Mirra walks in with two guys, give a kiss and all that. Sonny don’t warn me what’s going on. Another big sitdown. They had people from Canada down to represent this mother’s claim over you, to represent this fucking scumbag because they heard big money, you understand? I warned I’m not giving you up. I die with you. If the Old Man was out, we’d have no fucking problem. Sally can’t say nothing. He feels bad, but his hands are tied. He can only listen to people, and they’re all making up stories. I went at Mirra today. I got up from the table, and I went at Mirra at the end of the bar. I called him all the cocksuckers in the world. I grabbed him. He says, ‘I never said you got the money, but Donnie and this guy cut it up.’ I says, ‘Don’t ever mention that fucking word junk money, you dirty cocksucker,’ and that was it. Sonny says, ‘Break it up.’ I went at the fucking captains. His captain—visualize the guy that was in the papers where the old man went bye-bye—he put his hand on me. I says, ‘Get your hand off me.’ He says,

‘You know who you’re talking to?’ I says, ‘Get your fucking hand off me! I don’t even know you.’ The whole joint heard it. ‘I’m no fucking mutt!’ I says.“

Mirra’s captain was Caesar Bonventre, the zip who was one of Galante’s bodyguards when he got hit, and one of those we figured was in on the hit.

“I’m in trouble. Then when I blow my top, Sonny says, ‘You’re supposed to listen.’ ‘I listen to my prick,’ I says. I had a big fight with Sonny. I stuck to my guns. I got witnesses. Consiglieri Stevie was there. Another main guy like Sonny”—Joey Massino, another powerful capo—“told me, ‘Lefty, stick to your guns, I’ll go back and tell that guy in the can.’ ”

“Was Rocky there today?”

“Are you kidding? Why would a scumbag like that be with us? Oh, I’ll win you. But it’ll go to the top.”

“I thought this was settled. You told me two weeks ago.”

“He wanted to be on our backs again. That’s why I got mad at Sonny in front of him. In front of all the bosses I said, ‘What are you, a piece of shit? This thing was settled with everybody, our family, our boss. This fuck does a thing like this again and gets away with it—why don’t you open your mouth?’ Then I went at the captains and got in trouble. I was chased off the table.”

“What’s with this guy?”

“Mirra is a low-life bastard,” Lefty says. “He’s a pimp, a fucking fag. With the bosses they called him a rat stool-pigeon bastard.”

“You believe him or you believe me?”

“How many times you was in Cecil’s?”

Cecil’s was the disco that Mirra had a piece of, where I had hung out with him years before. I didn’t know what this angle was, what answer was the safe one. I didn’t know whether it was better for me to have been in Cecil’s a little or a lot. I had to read between the lines and think quick. I hedged. “I was there like two, three times.”

“He says you was there three, four times at the door.”

“Left, I was at that door once.” He was looking for evidence of whether I had worked for Mirra, which would give Mirra an edge in his claim of me. “I never got a dime. You know what I got? Free drink.”

“While you were hanging in that joint, Cecil‘s, was Anthony Mirra a wiseguy then?”

“It was right around that time. I’m not sure.”

“I said he wasn’t a wiseguy when he got Cecil’s because I wasn’t married then. He’s only straightened out three and a half years. I was six months after him. If Mirra wasn’t a good fellow at the time you was there, his argument is no good. Sonny will check it out. Sonny’s going to the Commission, you know, find out when he was straightened out, then they’re going to revive it. I told him you met Anthony Mirra at my joint. I got you through the little guy”—underboss Nicky Marangello—“because I liked you very much. That’s on record.”

The question was whether Lefty or Mirra had introduced me into the crew. The fact was I had known Mirra first. Lefty was claiming he had introduced me to Mirra. In either event, way back then Lefty had gone to Marangello and put in an official claim on me—something Mirra had never done, as far as I knew.

“Caesar’s on his side,” Lefty goes on. “He says you were with him every night.”

“I never saw Caesar there at Cecil’s. He wouldn’t know me.”

“Donnie, you’re fooling around with a dangerous man. I want this guy’s head because he’s looking for mine. He’s telling his people, ‘I live in Lefty’s building. He lives on the eighth floor, I live on the sixth. If I got no coffee or butter or like that, some morning I’ll stop and knock on Lefty’s door.’ In front of his men he says that. I says, ‘I tell you what, Anthony Mirra, you stop at my door, I’ll shoot you right in the head, because you’re not my friend.’ I want Rocky bad. I would hurt him only because he lied. I says to Mirra, ‘You tell that motherfucker he belongs to me. I catch you in the fucking car with him, I shoot him in the fucking head. If you’re in the fucking way, you die too.’ The joint is bugged, Donnie. But I said what I had to say. I said I’m gonna put two bullets in his eyes, and I specify what caliber it’s gonna be. Nobody in Brooklyn could control me today. You’re not allowed to drink at a meeting. You know what four and a half hours is sitting down with politicians?”

“I know.”

“No, you don’t know. The fucking trouble with you.”

“Well, you never explain to me.”

“I can’t explain to you. What I’m telling you now, you ain’t supposed to know. See, you’re treated like a friend, understand? Now, did you bring Rocky in town?”

This was the most delicate and dangerous subject of all. “Yeah, he came up there, why?”

“Now, Rocky come in through you. How I know Rocky is through you?”

“That’s right. I met him down there. I met him in Lauderdale at the bar down there, I told you that, at Pier 66.”

“The guy belong to you?”

“No.”

“Donnie, we ain’t saying different. But now you came in with him, you gave him the job. Remember what you say now. You put the guy there. Somebody put him in there. The guy that put him there was on the federal boat, the guy is a federal stool pigeon. Something’s wrong with that joint.”

This was Lefty at his most dangerous. He circled around, jumped here and there, but when he was on to something wrong, he wouldn’t let go. Now he was circling around the truth, which was something that could get Rocky or me killed if it wasn’t handled right.

“You put the guy there, Donnie. Now, who owns the joint?”

“I don’t know who owns it now, Left.”

“Donnie, who owned it before? Who’s Rocky working for? You brought the guy down. The guy didn’t know anybody in the fucking town. When I went there for a car, I had to check it out with Donnie. Donnie was the boss. The joint never left the hands. Now, Donnie, where do you take it from there? You can’t answer that question. It’s a serious thing. Where does this go, Donnie?”

“Left, I don’t know.”

“Think about it and don’t go to sleep. Go sit down and have a cup of coffee and call me back.”

I couldn’t talk to Rocky. I couldn’t talk to Sonny because I wasn’t supposed to know any of this was going on. I needed to pump Lefty for information. If we had been face-to-face, at least I could have been gauging his expressions, sensing him better. I couldn’t let any time go by. I called him back in a few minutes.

“Listen,” Lefty says, “I’m asking you a question. The man admitted you made $250,000. Why would he rat you out?”

“That’s because Mirra put the words in his mouth.”

“Could you prove it?”

“How am I gonna prove it? Because he’s probably scared of Mirra, that’s the only reason. I’m sure the guy is okay. But I don’t know why he would say, unless Mirra made him say it, that we cut up two hundred and fifty grand in junk money.”

“He’s a fucking stool-pigeon bastard. I won you and I’m gonna keep you. I says, ‘I go all the way and die with the kid.’ Ain’t nobody having you. I don’t like what Sonny did. He wants to compromise. He wants to give up Rocky for you. Sonny says, ‘We own Donnie and we’re giving up Rocky.’ ‘You give up my prick,’ I says. Then, when I blew my top, he says to hold off. ‘You don’t want him,’ he says. No, I don’t want Rocky, but he can’t have him. Mirra’s a fucking swindling bastard. He’s on the payroll out there, you know. He’s out there every day from eight to three in the afternoon. Just tell me about Rocky and make me feel happy and go to bed with a clear head. You’re not answering me, Donnie. Who put him there, Donnie?”

I hesitated, trying to think three questions ahead, how to slip out of this noose about my involvement with Rocky and the car business. “I just told you, he came up from Florida with me.”

“Donnie, don’t stutter to me. Ain’t the question. You was the boss there. He admitted that. Everybody in the neighborhood knew it. You was the boss.”

“So what’s the big deal?”

“Whose business was it? Why’d you give it up?”

“Were we making any money out there?”

“Wasn’t the question, that there. Who owns the company?”

“Left, I told you, it was a guy in California.”

“A guy opens up a motherfucking Corvette joint with all new cars, you don’t know his name.”

“Left, there were three cars there. They closed that joint. All they’re doing is running swag outa the back. Rocky told me—”

“Oh, come on. Swag to pay that kind of rent? What are you playing, games? Are you a fucking nitwit? The idea is, who put everybody there? Where’d it all stem from? Where’d youse meet? How come Rocky mentioned to Anthony Mirra about junk money and don’t mention the boat, the stool-pigeon boat, the FBI boat? How come Rocky don’t mention the federal boat? Take a guess who got him out of jail?”

“Who?”

“Go ahead, it’s a guess you got coming.”

“I don’t know.”

“Oh, you ain’t gonna believe it. Rocky got him out.”

“Rocky got Mirra out of jail? How?”

“I don’t know, through paperwork. You figure it out. Rocky got him out, and he’s paroled to them people out there. And he’s on the payroll out there. So you figure it out.”

I couldn’t figure it out. It was news to me. “That’s a good one.”

“It ain’t a good one. You got caught in the web. Donnie, you’re my friend. I trust you an awful lot. Many times I had doubts about you. You don’t understand the ins and outs of anything.”

“So what do we do now? We just let this guy bullshit and lie to everybody?”

“Ain’t the question. I didn’t want to scare you from coming in.”

“Hey, Left, I ain’t afraid of anybody.”

“You can’t help me out. I have to handle it without you.”

“I ain’t afraid of Mirra, either.”

Lefty gave a low chuckle. “Let me tell you something. Get off your fucking high horses and call me back later. You’re fucking aggravating me.”

“I’ll listen to you, go ahead.” Now I wanted to keep him on the phone. I didn’t want to risk losing contact, or letting him leave the house. I needed to know as much as possible, as soon as possible, about what was going on in the family and what I was facing.

“Donnie, what the fuck am I coming to Florida for? What am I, an impressionist? At least Jerry Chilli goes out there and has got fifty things going. He gets five grand a day. What have I got with you, Donnie? I got nothing but aggravation.”

Jerry Chilli was a made guy under Alphonse “Sonny Red” Indelicato, a captain in the opposition faction. Chilli was a New Yorker who did a lot of business in Miami.

“The gimmick is, while you’re laying lax, they got Rocky down with three witnesses, heavyweights. They scared him—you know, you put a gun to a guy’s head, right? You’re involved in a lot of heavyweights. I’m going right to the top with it. There’s a lot of feuds going on. It has to go to the guy in Lewisburg, understand?”

The guy in the Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, federal penitentiary was Bonanno boss Rusty Rastelli. “Yeah.”

“Rusty will hear about it for one reason, because I made Joey Massino a witness. I made Mirra take water. I’m in trouble with the zips today because I defied them. And I’m gonna pay for it. Because of my friend Donnie sitting on his ass out in Miami—and don’t say different—about broads and shit like that, fine. Everybody likes to enjoy themselves. You’re young, but you got a lax habit. Big fucking man. You’re a big shit. You’re busy getting the wrinkles out of your stomach. You don’t even wanna work. Bookmaking ditto. You don’t wanna do nothing, Donnie. You wanna be a playboy. This is what you wanted it to come to?”

“Of course not.”

“You broke Tony in to that there. When I tell Tony I’m coming out, my plane ticket’s supposed to be paid like they always was. When Tony got lax and you got lax, you thought Sonny was more important that I am.”

“I never thought—”

“If you can’t admit, just keep your mouth shut. You think I’m easy? How come you walk a chalk line with Sonny Black but you don’t walk it with me? Get off your fucking ass. See, Donnie, I’m gonna say it once and ain’t gonna say it no more. You come at me a couple times. You don’t even realize when you come at me.”

“No, I don’t.”

“You got one more strike with you. Not that I’m gonna hurt you. But I hold everything against. Like,

‘Get your own bag’ or something like that. When I walk in that town and I drop a suitcase, pick it up.“

“Okay. How does Sonny stand tonight?”

“He’s not giving you up, but he’s not on your side. In other words, anything happens, I take the weight. Why ain’t you blowing your top, why ain’t you mad at Rocky?”

“I am.” I was. I should never have brought Rocky in. I bent my rules to do a favor, because I didn’t know Rocky. Now it was haunting me and I wanted to strangle him.

“One guy’s gonna check both of youse out.”

“Hey, Left, you know they got no problem checking me out.”

“I don’t give a fuck. If you did something wrong in life, it’s for me to handle. Mirra cannot handle it. Sonny knows what he’s doing. See what you did by being lax? There’s no stopping here. The boss, the main guy in our family, had to sit down, and he can’t straighten it out. Donnie, you told me you put Rocky there, and these things are gonna come out. You got anything fucking hidden?”

“I got nothing like that.”

“Just promise me one thing. From here on in and to the longest day you live, you swear on yourself that you’ll always abide my rules.”

“I swear on anything, Left.”

“Now. Will you face the guy?”

“That’s right.”

“I don’t know if I can pull it off, because we’re fucking around with legitimate people now. If I can get Rocky down, you’ll go along with the program?”

“That’s right.” I was making a risky move. “Legitimate people” were made guys. I wanted to attend a sitdown, which is restricted to made guys. I didn’t want to face Rocky because I didn’t know how jammed up he might be and what he might say, how much that might endanger us both. But I gambled that Mirra wouldn’t produce Rocky at a sitdown. “Why should I be the fall guy?”

“Tell me now, because you’re in Florida. If you got any fucking faults, go where the fuck you gotta go.”

“I don’t have any, Left.”

“Who owns the company, Donnie? How come you backed away from the situation? Who put the fucking operation together? Donnie, you can’t stutter there. You put him there. I can’t lie to my people. If I gotta die over it, go down like a man. They gonna throw curves at you.”

“Any curves they throw, Left, I’ll be able to hit them. We get at the table and I’ll prove to you that Rocky lied.”

“Anthony Mirra says he knew him five years. I said, ‘No, you’re a fucking liar. We brought him from Miami.’ Now you’re on the table. Now I have to get off. They’re gonna ask you these questions. I’m not gonna be there to defend you. First thing they’re gonna ask: Who brought him into Miami? You did. Who brought him into this town up here? How did the operation start? Let me tell you something, Donnie. We got friends in that town. We can find everything out. That’s what it’ll come to, but I don’t wanna prolong it. Why did Rocky give you up?”

“He’s scared.”

“Donnie. I know you like a book. I know every fucking move you make. I could tell you words from Milwaukee, word for word. See, everybody underestimates me. I know how lazy you are or how original you are. But now you’re up in a different fucking category. You’re into something that’s beyond our reach. This fucking thing is exploding. And don’t forget we’re fooling around with zips. They’ll keep on pecking. Greaseballs are motherfuckers. When a zip kisses, forget about it. They hate the American people. They hate the American wiseguys. I blew my fucking top, they hold it against me. You, they’ll chew you up in a fucking minute. They got us in a barrel over Rocky and you. That’s why Sonny Black wants me to give up Rocky. He feels it’s shaky. He wants peace and he wants a compromise. This is why Sonny don’t want you to come in, because you can’t answer.

“If you get caught on the table, we’re gonna lose. You ain’t got the right answers. You ain’t got the mentality. You got the brain, but you’re gonna get hit with things. Once you stutter, they don’t say nothing. They’ll let you talk. Donnie, you got a headache. You can’t answer these questions. You could tell it to Sonny, but when you get on the table and they throw curves at you, you’re not gonna answer them.”

“I’ll hit the curves.”

“You’re not gonna hit no curves. You see, we got this Rocky on the table, right? Now, when he knows he’s coming to see anybody, he’s gonna bring everything out. So before he brings out about me being on a fucking boat, I have to tell everybody everything. I get sent for and they say it’s a federal boat—what am I gonna say? I can’t answer these questions without jeopardizing you, that you’re a fucking sucker. They got me by the balls. They got you by the balls. You were on the fucking federal boat. But answer one fucking motherfucking question. How did you get this fucking jerk-off from the fucking boat to the fucking car shop?”

“Le-Le-Lefty, I told you—”

“Take your time. There’s something wrong here.”

“You ever think that Mirra’s a rat? I’d say he’s a stool pigeon, he made a deal with somebody.”

“No, no, you can’t say that, because if you call a guy like that a pigeon, you gotta back your words up or you’re dead. He is nothing but a fucking rat. But could you call a wiseguy a rat? You can’t answer that the way I want to. But I could, when I get through. So now I’m getting all the proof. I’m reaching out. Sonny don’t even know what I’m doing. The guy I got, half the FBI can’t hide nothing from him. I’ll get all the bill of particulars. Because somebody’s sticking Rocky up. They’re taking his wallet. That’s going to my friends. You I know about, your numbers on your American Express and everything. Tony in Milwaukee, I got his through Mike Sabella. I hope to God everything comes aboveboard. I’m gonna use my head while he’s partying up all night tonight. They lied on the table today. The man that lies on the table has to die. But that’s beside the point. I’m talking about something serious. I met the guy on the boat. Where’d the boat come from? I have to show them the fucking picture. What are they gonna do? That’s what it’s gonna come to.”

“I still don’t see how you say that’s the federal boat.”

“Donnie, I got pictures of it. What are you, crazy or what? I took pictures all over the boat. I go further. I’ll get everybody’s picture on that fucking boat. You want me to go further than that there? I can get it in a fucking week. I’ll give you the fucking name of the stool pigeon.”

“Well, let’s go after him. Go to the table and call them liars.”

“You can’t call them liars. Donnie, you’re involved with fourteen heavyweights now, going on for two weeks.”

“I go with that guy, I walk, Left. I tell you that now.”

“Ain’t the question you walk. Over here I ain’t got the right answers. I ain’t got the right satisfaction with you.”

“Why don’t we just kill Mirra, that’s all. Get it outa the way.”

“No, no, we don’t do that to friends.”

“That’s what he’s trying to do to us.”

“That’s all right. He’s doing that legally. Now I’ll leave it up to Sonny what he wants to do. I’ll get back to you.”

“All right.”

“It won’t be now. Maybe a week from now.”

When I hung up, I felt isolated. I didn’t know what Mirra was going to do. I didn’t know what Rocky was going to do. I couldn’t go to New York. I had to wait it out.

Lefty called an hour later. His voice was very subdued, resigned.

“I just want you to understand that I feel I’m doing the right thing, so I thought I’d give you a call back. Only wish you could give me the right answers.”

“Left, the only answers I give you are the truth.”

“Like I say, they’ll eat us up on the table. You made some fucking boo-boo, pal. You got me sick over it. The trouble we’re having amongst ourselves. I tell you, Donnie, you don’t make too many mistakes, but when you do, you start a fucking World War III. I gotta let it come to a head for one reason: I want this motherfucker. I want him bad. I want both of them bad. Somebody gotta pay the consequences. I didn’t call you to worry you. I only called you for one fucking reason: to think and help me win this fucking war. Get your fucking bearings together and think. Put your head to the grindstone. I’m writing everything down and racking my brains out. I want to understand what’s going on.”

“I wish I knew.”

“Donnie, once we get that thing straightened out, we open a legitimate business. Jesus Christ ain’t gonna touch you. The motherfucking cocksucker.”

“That’s right. That no-good bastard. Left, what I’d like to do is really make a score and jam it up his ass.”

“I tell you one thing, Donnie, the most hated guy on Prince Street is Mirra. So we’ll just see till Rusty comes home. But whether we can survive these fucking sixteen fucking months, which them bosses say no wars allowed, I don’t know. First guy fucks with a pistol, they’ll break up the whole crew.”

“That right?”

“They’ll break it all up, dissolve it. All right, go to sleep. Don’t worry about it.”