Former Mobster Rates 9 Mafia Scenes In Movies And TV | How Real Is It? | Insider
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00:00What do you got for me?
00:02Tony, I'm sorry!
00:06You know, you would grab a guy by the throat and say,
00:08you know, you better get my money.
00:10Definitely, without a doubt, there's always intimidation involved.
00:13So my name is Anthony Ruggiano Jr.
00:15I was a proposed member of the Gambino crime family.
00:18I'm also the host of Reformed Gangsters,
00:20and I'm also a counselor at a drug treatment center in Florida.
00:24Today we're going to look at mafia movies and TV shows
00:27and judge how real they are.
00:29Any problems, he goes to Pauly.
00:31Trouble with the bill, he can go to Pauly.
00:33Now the guy's got to come up with Pauly's money every week, no matter what.
00:37Most of it is accurate as far as the first scene of busting out that club.
00:41A guy would come to us that owned a club that was having problems
00:43or people weren't paying him, and we would make a deal with him.
00:46So we would tell him, OK, we're going to help you,
00:48you're going to be on record with us,
00:50and we want X amount of dollars a month.
00:52When the club is doing well, we're not going to bust it out
00:54because we're making money with the guy.
00:56So either we're going to take a monthly payment off him
00:58or, on the other hand, we may go partners with him.
01:00Also, Pauly could do anything, especially run up bills on the joint's credit.
01:04And why not? Nobody's going to pay for it anyway.
01:07Once the club stops making money, then we're going to bust it out.
01:11Just like it said in the movie, we're going to order stuff and we're going to sell it.
01:14We would order a liquor on credit and we would sell it,
01:18and then when the bills came in, we didn't pay it
01:20because the place wasn't making any money. It was a bust out.
01:24And then there was Mo Black's brother, Fat Andy.
01:27So in that scene, that's supposed to be my father, Fat Andy,
01:30and my father was actually very good friends with Olin.
01:33My father was a main member of the Gambino family who rose to the rank of captain.
01:37But the person that's playing my father is, we didn't know at the time,
01:41was a retired police officer who later became indicted and was called a mob cop.
01:45He was actually doing hits for the Lucchese crime family.
01:48And my father was not happy that they made a cop play him.
01:52What about my parents?
01:54What about them?
01:55Am I going to see them? Am I going to talk to them?
01:58No.
01:59I became a government witness.
02:00The FBI didn't explain that part to me about,
02:03you can't see this person and you can't see that person.
02:06You see him here in the courtroom today?
02:08Yes.
02:09Can you please point him out to the members of the jury?
02:13I testified at six trials, and they would ask me,
02:15is there any made members of the mafia in the courtroom?
02:19And I would have to point them out, yeah, he's a made member.
02:21And even if there was somebody in the gallery that I knew that was a made member,
02:25I would go, and he's a made member of the mob.
02:27Like, you know, and they were just like, oh, you know.
02:30I would definitely give it a 10.
02:31They had it down pat with how the mob guys lived
02:35and how we survived and what we did.
02:43But I don't know if all that would take place with the gun being hidden behind the,
02:47you know, on top of the turtle bowl.
02:49There was a crew of carpenters that worked exclusively for the mob,
02:53and they would build traps.
02:55They would look around, and they would find something,
02:57and they would build something where you could open it
03:00and put something in it and then close it,
03:02but you couldn't see it with the naked eye.
03:05Like, when the cops came in, they wouldn't be able to see it,
03:08but you would know where it was.
03:14It was a great scene, don't get me wrong.
03:16It was shocking, and it really, you know, made the movie.
03:19You know, that was a great scene,
03:21but would it happen like that in real life?
03:24Not really, no.
03:25First of all, to kill a police captain,
03:28that was pretty much unheard of, even though he was corrupt.
03:31I mean, back then, mostly all the police officers in New York were corrupt.
03:35The guys would go in and commit the murder and then leave.
03:39They wouldn't be sitting at the table having a conversation,
03:42then shoot the guy.
03:47Impossible to trace, so you don't worry about prints, Mike.
03:50I put a special tape on the trigger and a butt.
03:53I never heard of anybody leaving a murder weapon at a scene.
03:56Guns weren't traceable, don't get me wrong,
03:58because they were either stolen or purchased down south
04:01and brought up to New York.
04:02They also put tape on the butt of the gun,
04:04so he wouldn't leave any prints behind.
04:06I mean, I guess if you were going to leave the gun at the murder scene,
04:09you wouldn't want your prints on it.
04:10DNA came, like, later on.
04:13Back then, there was no such thing as DNA.
04:15I'm willing to let things go on the way they were before.
04:21We're all grateful to Don Corleone for calling this meeting.
04:24This is a fictional scene of the five families having a commission meeting,
04:28and the five families were the Genovese family, the Colombo family,
04:32the Bonanno family, the Lucchese family, and the Gambino family.
04:36Those are the five families in New York.
04:38Lucky Luciano started the five families, and he formed the commission,
04:42which you see in that scene.
04:43So that's pretty realistic.
04:45The traffic and drugs will be permitted but controlled,
04:48and Don Corleone will give her protection in the east,
04:51and there will be the peace.
04:55Drug charges carried very long prison sentences.
04:58If you were dealing drugs, you got forever,
05:00and it would cause people to cooperate.
05:02That was the biggest fear,
05:04and they didn't want to poison their neighborhoods.
05:07I would give The Godfather probably like a seven
05:10because a lot of stuff in The Godfather would not happen.
05:13A lot of it, it was pretty much, it was really Hollywood.
05:23So this movie definitely depicts Lefty Guns and his crew,
05:26and Joe Pistone, Danny Brasco, the undercover agent.
05:30My father fed in, he was good friends with them,
05:32and he always told me that Lefty Guns was like a desperado,
05:35and his crew were big hijackers,
05:37but a lot of crews back then were hijackers
05:39because Kennedy Airport was wide open
05:41and they were robbing trucks like mad back then.
05:48So they were robbing everything, but a lot of electronics
05:50and mostly a lot of clothes, believe it or not,
05:52a lot of, like, jeans and, you know,
05:54stuff you could sell in the neighborhood,
05:56stuff that people need.
05:57So, you know, so you were going to get stuff
05:59that you could purchase in the neighborhood,
06:01and when the economy was doing bad,
06:03you sold more stuff because people wanted to buy
06:05cheap stuff then, you know, so that's definitely spot on.
06:16When they taped up the guy, the guy's mouth,
06:19but he still saw their faces,
06:22normally they would wear masks.
06:25If they didn't know the truck driver,
06:26a lot of times the loads were given up by the drivers
06:29and they would just park the truck and just walk away,
06:31and then we would get in the truck and just drive it away,
06:34so there was no reason to use masks
06:36to tape their mouths up.
06:3780% of the time we knew it was coming off the trucks.
06:40In my neighborhood, Ozone Park,
06:41everybody in the neighborhood either worked
06:43at Kennedy Airport or at Aqueduct Racetrack,
06:46so a lot of information was coming out of the airport,
06:51you know, giving up trucks or telling you
06:55there's a truck pulling out right now
06:56that has a load of leathers on it
06:58and giving you the truck number.
07:00I would give that a 9.
07:01You definitely don't want a silencer.
07:03You want to make a lot of noise
07:04to make the witnesses run away
07:06so they ain't going to be looking at you.
07:09Yeah, you know, you definitely want to make noise.
07:11I mean, why would he use a silencer?
07:13I mean, he doesn't want anybody running at him
07:16or chasing him, or he would want people to be scared,
07:19so that made a lot of sense not to use a silencer.
07:21I mean, I don't really know of any mob hits
07:23that I know of where there were silencers involved.
07:26Hey, Tommy, some more wine.
07:30Ah!
07:33They killed Joe Gallo
07:35in a crowded restaurant on Mulberry Street.
07:38Joe Gallo was a main member of the Colombo family,
07:41and he wanted to be the boss,
07:43and when he got out of prison, he kidnapped captains
07:47because he didn't like the fact that the commission
07:50made Joe Colombo the boss.
07:52Colombo got shot at the rally for the Italian American League,
07:56and the rumor is that Joe Gallo had that set up.
07:59The reason why they killed him in a burglary, I would say,
08:02is because he would have been a tough guy to get.
08:05Like, he let his guard down that night because he knew the rule.
08:08He knew that he was with his wife, he was with his daughter,
08:11so he let his guard down that night,
08:13and that was the perfect night for them to kill him.
08:15And the mob rule is you didn't do that in front of kids or wives.
08:19Like, you didn't kill a guy in front of their family.
08:23So that was really realistic.
08:25They actually broke the rules to get to him because he was dangerous.
08:33Robert De Niro's playing Frank Sheeran,
08:36and whether Frank was the actual shooter is debatable.
08:40A lot of people have confessed to the Joe Gallo murder.
08:43I don't know for sure, but all I know is that's exactly how the murder went down.
08:48And as you notice, he didn't leave the gun.
08:51He threw it in the water.
08:53I know guys that threw guns down sewers, you know, down potholes,
08:56broke them up.
08:58I would give this a 10.
09:00That's exactly how it went down outside of him maybe not being the shooter,
09:03but, I mean, that's actually how it actually happened
09:06and when it happened and who was there.
09:08Hands, hands, hands, all of you, hands!
09:11Get your f***ing hands up!
09:13You know they're going to kill you.
09:15The card games got robbed a lot because it was all cash
09:18and they knew the people in the card game weren't going to call the cops on you,
09:22but you were definitely putting your life on the line.
09:24It's either you're going to get away with it or you're going to get killed.
09:27That's the only way that's going to go.
09:29My father used to rob poker games back in the late 40s and early 50s
09:33when he was a kid, and he just got lucky
09:36because the person whose game he robbed
09:39was told either you kill him, he's not going to give you back the money,
09:42so either you kill the kid or you give him a job
09:45and the guy decided to give my father a job
09:48and that was his introduction into the mafia.
09:57My first illegal job in the mob was I worked in a blackjack game.
10:01So the job of the guy that's working there
10:03would take a certain amount of money out of each pot
10:05and you have to pay for it.
10:08And you have to be trustworthy.
10:10We always had traps, so the bulk of the money was in a trap
10:13in case somebody stuck us up or we got raided.
10:17So the money would be in a trap or we would use chips
10:20and then as the person left, we would go to the trap and cash in the chips.
10:25So the money was pretty much always protected.
10:28The money was piling up on the table and you had to get it off the table.
10:31So I would have to take it and I would have to hold it up in the air
10:34and walk with it because if you kept it down, you could rob.
10:39I would give this a 10.
10:41That's what a mob run card games look like in a social club.
10:44They took all the money and they were told,
10:47Dre Lord told them you're going to get killed, which is realistic.
10:57So he said it fell off the back of a truck
10:59and that's a big phrase in the mob
11:01and that reverts back to hijacking trucks.
11:04You would have a nice suit on and you'd say, I got this from Henry.
11:07It would fall off the back of a truck and you'd go, yeah, of course.
11:10So then you would know it was from a hijacked load or it was stolen.
11:14We used to hide drugs in dryers and yeah, definitely hide
11:18in the back of our vending machines.
11:21Listen, rumor has it that somebody that works at this bar
11:24found a certain something that belongs to us.
11:26The track suits were really mob attire, let's put it that way.
11:29So when I was in the Witness Protection Program, I was living in Idaho
11:32and I was in a Starbucks by myself one day
11:35and I was drinking coffee and reading the paper
11:37and there was three women sitting at another table, right?
11:40One of them called me over and said, excuse me, and she waved at me.
11:43So I walked over and I said, yes, and she goes, are you from New York?
11:47So I looked at her going, now what would make you say that?
11:49I haven't even opened up my mouth.
11:51She goes, what would make me say that?
11:53Look how you're dressed. You got a jogging suit on.
11:55Nobody dresses like that in Idaho.
11:57It looks like you walked out of The Sopranos.
11:59Certain somebody that we know thinks they saw that certain someone
12:02pick it up and take it back to that certain bar,
12:04which may or may not be the place that we happen to be, or not be.
12:08I think you're going to have to be a little bit more clear
12:10because I didn't get that last part.
12:12The jogging suits definitely, the hand gestures, not so much the language.
12:17Definitely we had codes and, you know, things, one word that meant something else.
12:22Like when my father would call me from prison, I would tell him,
12:27oh, I had dinner last night with that little guy, and that meant Nicky.
12:31And we talked about he's going to buy me some suits next week,
12:35you know what I mean? Like maybe that meant he was going to give me money.
12:38But what is important is that I get out on those streets
12:40and start doing some gangster s**t.
12:42I mean, there's got to be like a union boss I can put the squeeze on
12:44or a truck I can hijack.
12:46But a lot of stuff is brought in through associates
12:48or people outside of the mob who are the Maid members.
12:52He's an associate, he's not going to tell a Maid guy,
12:55I want to rob a truck, I want to shake down a union boss.
12:58You know, they would just go out and do it.
13:00So I was born into it, but I became an associate at 16.
13:03That's why I never actually had the ceremony, but I was proposed.
13:12Definitely was people like that kid.
13:14We used to call them gophers.
13:16Go for this, go for that, go get my car washed.
13:18They were just guys that hung around
13:20that weren't capable of becoming Maid guys.
13:22I would rate this a 4.
13:24You know, the suits were real, the gopher was real,
13:26the hand slang was real.
13:28They made it comical.
13:30Listen up, pay attention.
13:34We're hitting Paul.
13:36John Gotti was the boss of the Gambino family.
13:38He was very charismatic,
13:40very personable,
13:42and very dangerous.
13:44So this is when John Gotti
13:46put out the hit on Paul Castellano
13:48in front of Sparks Restaurant.
13:50Paul Castellano was the boss of the Gambino family.
13:52John Gotti at the time was a captain.
13:54This was all over the rule
13:56that you couldn't sell drugs
13:58because John Gotti's brother,
14:00Genie, and his partner,
14:02Angelo Quack-Quack, got arrested.
14:04And there was a lot of wiretaps involved,
14:06and Paul wanted to listen
14:08to the wiretaps,
14:10and John and Angelo and Genie
14:12weren't going to let him listen to the wiretaps
14:14because they would have got killed.
14:16He never got approval.
14:18He wasn't allowed to kill bosses.
14:20He broke every rule in the book.
14:22There's going to be a lot of last-minute Christmas shoppers,
14:24but that's perfect for us.
14:30Hard in plain sight.
14:32Nobody's paying attention.
14:34Nobody's paying attention to six guys
14:36that have Russian hats on
14:38and all look the same.
14:40Just a lot of things going on.
14:42Nobody's paying attention.
14:44It's just a lot of action,
14:46so when it happens,
14:48it's just so many things going on
14:50that you just disappear into the movement.
15:00John Gotti actually
15:02watched the murder occur
15:04from up the block with Sammy the Bull
15:06and actually drove by
15:08the murder scene to make sure he was dead.
15:10Sammy had a gun on him,
15:12and he drove by and actually looked at the bodies
15:14and then just kept on going.
15:16My father told me when he
15:18did hits for Albert Anastasia,
15:20sometimes Albert Anastasia,
15:22who was the boss, would be in one of the crash cars.
15:24There's always more than one person.
15:26Even if one person
15:28goes in to do the hit,
15:30there's people outside in crash cars.
15:32Crash cars are your protection,
15:34so there's always going to be people watching the hit.
15:36You're never going to be alone.
15:38I would give this an eight.
15:40This is a very personal
15:42thing to me because I was very, very
15:44close to John Gotti.
15:46I haven't watched this
15:48whole movie because I can't get past the fact
15:50that John Travolta played John Gotti.
15:52What do you got for me?
15:54A tat.
15:56My luck's going to change.
15:58Come on, Reggie. I want something tomorrow.
16:00You understand me? That's pretty accurate.
16:02You would grab a guy by the throat and say,
16:04you better get my f***ing money.
16:06Yeah, definitely, without a doubt.
16:08There's always intimidation involved.
16:10Tony's a mob guy,
16:12and money is
16:14their god. Greed, money is
16:16their god, and that's
16:18what would happen. You said 125
16:20a unit, right? Yeah.
16:22All right. That actually happened
16:24to me personally. This guy, Louis
16:26Maone, he got arrested, and he
16:28decided to cooperate, and I got 10 years.
16:32Be home in time for Christmas with your family
16:34or 25
16:36years in jail. I cooperated
16:38in a totally different manner
16:40than what happened to him.
16:42I got arrested for a murder
16:44that I committed in 1988.
16:46I got arrested
16:48in 2005 for it
16:50as part of a RICO. It was really a very,
16:52very hard decision. I would pick up the phone
16:54and hang it up, pick up the phone and hang it up.
16:56I couldn't do it. I gave the FBI
16:58card to my wife, and I told
17:00her, when you get to work today, call
17:02that number and tell that guy to come to
17:04see me. Every time I picked up the phone, I showed my
17:06father's face, because he was dead against
17:08that. I did 14 years in prison.
17:10I missed my kids growing up, and
17:12I hit a bottom with that lifestyle,
17:14you know, like with the drugs. I hit a bottom
17:16with the drugs, and I got clean.
17:18Did I sit?
17:26So there was a lot of ways
17:28to get rid of bodies. If you just threw a body
17:30in the ocean, the gases
17:32of the body would blow up their lungs
17:34and their bellies, and they would actually
17:36float to the top like a balloon.
17:38They found bodies in Lake Mead that were hidden
17:40in barrels. I would rate this a 10.
17:42That's definitely how it went down.
17:44No, no, no, no. We're not building anything.
17:46How can you say that when construction has
17:48already begun? In order to avoid
17:50certain legal complications,
17:52the trucks are always rolling.
17:54Well, the mob was definitely big time in the
17:56construction business. The mob controlled
17:58construction industry through violence.
18:00First of all,
18:02it started out they controlled the unions.
18:04Without the union, you can't have a job.
18:06So now they had the power
18:08to shut your job down. The five
18:10families had a club, and all the
18:12bosses had a piece of it, and they would
18:14rig the bid. So the mob always
18:16got the job.
18:26Definitely the mob undercut the
18:28material, would, you know,
18:30charge for better material than they had,
18:32order more than they
18:34need. So you had to buy their material.
18:36Either you buy my material, or I'm going to
18:38shut your job down.
18:40Mob is all about making money. They're going to
18:42make money any way they can. And if they
18:44could charge you for,
18:46if you want to order steel, and they could get
18:48cheaper steel, they're going to put in the cheaper
18:50steel. It's all about making
18:52money. Mob guys,
18:54whenever their eyes are open,
18:56they're trying to commit a crime. I may give it
18:58a 10. The mob did run the construction
19:00industry, and the mob did run,
19:02you know, the materials.
19:04They had it all wrapped up. Even though it was
19:06a cartoon, it was realistic.
19:08My favorite Mafia movie is
19:10Goodfellas, and the reason why it's Goodfellas
19:12is, first of all, it's very
19:14realistic, and second of all, I had
19:16a personal relationship with the real
19:18characters in that movie.
19:20The part that Joe Pesci played, Tommy
19:22DeSimone, was a very good friend
19:24of mine. Paul Ivario, who
19:26was a big,
19:28the boss, I knew him all my life.
19:30When I was in the movie theater, when it first
19:32came out, I was in the movie theater with all my friends,
19:34and we watched, and I didn't know this
19:36scene, and the movie starts, and they
19:38do this scene, and when they said,
19:40Fat Andy, all my friends went, that's your father!
19:42And I went, oh yeah, I know. And if you like
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