In a reenactment, Mafia hoods throw Jimmy Hydell in a trunk (actors: Steve Garfanti, Albert Gomez). (National Geographic Channels/ Ro)
Undercover FBI agent Joe Pistone, the real-life Donnie Brasco, talks. (National Geographic Channels)
Salvatore “Sally Ubatz” Polisi (National Geographic Channels/ Da)
Decades before “Boardwalk Empire” and “The Sopranos,” real mobsters ruled the city streets, exerting their power over small businesses and Big Labor, killing whomever they wanted, whenever they wanted — and committing acts of brutality that would make their fictional counterparts cringe.
Their underworld is explored in surprising depth — and breadth — in the National Geographic Channel’s miniseries “Inside the American Mob,” an epic, six-part documentary that details the rise and fall of the Mafia, from its drug-fueled ’70s heyday, through Donnie Brasco and the introduction of the RICO laws, up to the present day. “We wanted all the voices,” says the show’s supervising producer, John Marks. “Not just the guys at the top of the food chain, but at the bottom.”
And that’s what the show delivers. Debuting tonight at 9 p.m., “Inside the American Mob” features dozens of candid interviews with ex-Mafia capos and killers, retired and current law enforcement professionals, historians, politicians and shadowy wiseguys who still can’t show their faces on camera. The subjects were questioned at great length. “Each story we wanted to tell led to other stories, and so we wound up with a lot more material than we thought we’d have,” Marks says. “We started out thinking we were only going to need five hours, but we ended up with six.”
Be warned: Those six hours are not for the faint of heart. The first episode, “Staying Alive in the ’70s,” kicks off with genial ex-Colombo and Gambino family associate Sal Polisi describing one of his very first assignments, in which he was given a Sheffield knife and sent to the home of a man who’d gotten on the wrong side of his bosses. “I tie him to the pool table, and I sit [his girlfriend] down and say, ‘You gotta watch this,’ ” the avuncular Polisi tells the filmmakers, a bright smile on his face. “I took the Sheffield knife and put it under his testicles and sliced them.”
The interview brings new meaning to the phrase “opening up for the cameras.” And Polisi is one of many who obliged Marks and his team, sharing all-too-true tales of often shocking activity.
How did they get the hard cases to cooperate? “Once we made it clear to people that we were going in depth with the interviews, that we weren’t just going to do quick hits, I think that was what appealed to them,” Marks says. “They got the chance, for the first time, to really tell the whole story.”
For Polisi, it was an offer he couldn’t refuse. “I wanted to share the life I lived,” says the 68-year-old wiseguy, who, in a massive understatement, describes that life as “wild and crazy.”
Continues Polisi, “I did it in the hopes that young men and women can understand the Mafia is not as glamorous as people think it may be.”
Mission accomplished. But rest assured, the series provides a whole lot more than scare-’em-straight shock value. Probably the biggest “get” of the interview subjects is FBI undercover agent Joe Pistone, a k a Donnie Brasco, who describes his legendary six-year infiltration of the notorious Bonanno family.
For Marks, talking to the real “Donnie Brasco” — who was portrayed by Johnny Depp in the 1997 movie of the same name — was awe-inspiring. “Joe Pistone as a person is a thousand times more fascinating than the movie,” Marks says. “He is the real deal.”
That said, Pistone wasn’t exactly easy to get hold of. “He’s definitely someone who is off the grid,” laughs Marks, whose team reached out to people with ties to Pistone, including his lawyer, before one of them relented and gave them a phone number. “We weren’t really sure it belonged to Joe Pistone but we called anyway,” Marks says, adding that when the retired agent finally called back, “We cheered.”
They had good reason. Spotlighted in the first two episodes, Pistone stands out for his bravery and single-mindedness, while others, such as ex-Colombo capo Michael Franzese, are memorable for different reasons. One of the mob’s slickest “big earners” back in the ’70s, Franzese was stunned to find out that his beloved father, mob boss Sonny, had put out a hit on him. Arrest, conviction and years in prison came next, followed by a religious reawakening. But, as Marks observes, it’s hard to look at this dapper man in his 60s without thinking about his dark past.
“He engaged in acts of criminality, and I’m sure brutality, and you can feel it in his presence,” Marks says. “Even though he’s now a born-again Christian, he still radiates that life.
“Once you’re in it and have been in it a long time,” he continues, “you carry it with you.” And the same can be said for “Inside the American Mob”: Each of the six episodes has a haunting quality — with the stories, whether chilling or inspiring, lingering long after they’ve been told. And Marks says the same of his experience making the show. “It was life-changing,” he says. “I felt like my eyes were opened to an entirely new vista of American life. I’ll never look at things the same way.”
INSIDE THE AMERICAN MOB
Tonight, 9 p.m., National Geographic