Joseph D. Pistone, Date of Birth, Place of Birth

Joseph D. Pistone

FBI agent

Date of Birth: 17-Sep-1939

Place of Birth: Erie, Pennsylvania, United States

Profession: writer, police officer, special agent

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Virgo

Joseph Dominick "Joe" Pistone (born September 17, 1939), alias Donnie Brasco, is an American former FBI agent who worked undercover for six years infiltrating the Bonanno crime family and to a lesser extent the Colombo crime family, two of the Five Families of the Mafia in New York City.
Pistone was an FBI agent for 17 years, from 1969 until he resigned in 1986.Pistone was a pioneer in deep long-term undercover work.
The FBI's former director, J.
Edgar Hoover, who died in 1972, did not want FBI agents to work undercover because of the danger of agents becoming corrupted; Pistone's work later helped convince the FBI that using undercover agents in lieu of relying exclusively on informants was a crucial tool in law enforcement.